1082. And shall eat her flesh, signifies rejection of its evils, which are adulterated goods, and then the manifestation that they were without any good. This is evident from the signification of "flesh," as being the good of the Word and of the church, and in the contrary sense the evil thereof. Here "flesh" means evils, which are adulterated goods. Also from the signification of "to eat," as being to consume, but here to reject wholly, because this is said of the Reformed, who have rejected the works or goods of Babylon, which consist especially in gifts to the idols of their saints, to their sepulchers, also to monasteries, and to the monks themselves, given as offerings for various expiations. It follows that the same words mean also the manifestation that they were without any good, for when spurious and meritorious goods are rejected, which are signified by the "flesh that they should eat," it is then manifest that they are without any good.

[2] "Flesh" has various significations in the Word. It signifies what is man's own [proprium], thus either his good or evil, and from this it signifies the whole man. But in the highest sense it signifies the Lord's Divine Human, and particularly the Divine good of the Divine love that proceeds from Him. That "flesh" signifies the Divine Human as to the good of love is evident in John:

Jesus said, I am the living bread, which cometh down out of heaven; if anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, strove one with another, saying, How can this one give His flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood ye shall not have life in yourselves. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven (John 6:51-58).

It is clearly evident that "flesh" here means the own [proprium] of the Lord's Divine Human, which is the Divine good of the Divine love, and is that which is called in the Holy Supper the body. (That the "body" there, that is, the "flesh," is the Divine good, and the "blood" is the Divine truth, may be seen above, n. 329.) And as "bread and wine" have the same signification as "flesh and blood," "bread" meaning the Divine good, and "wine" the Divine truth, therefore these were commanded in place of flesh and blood.

[3] Divine good from the Lord was signified also by the flesh of the sacrifices that Aaron, his sons, and those who sacrificed, and others who were clean, might eat:

And that this was holy (may be seen in Exodus 12:7-9, 29:31-34; Leviticus 7:15-21; 8:31; Deuteronomy 12:27; 16:4);

Consequently if an unclean person ate of that flesh he would be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:21).

That those sacrifices were called bread (Leviticus 22:6-7).

That that flesh was called the flesh of holiness (Jeremiah 11:15; Haggai 2:12),

And the flesh of the offering, which was to be upon the table in the Lord's kingdom (Ezekiel 40:43).

The Lord's Divine Human is also called "flesh" in John:

The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father (John 1:14).

[4] That "flesh" signified also the good with man can be seen from the following passages. In Ezekiel:

I will give them one heart, and I will give a new spirit in the midst of you, and I will take away the heart of stone out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26).

"Heart of flesh" means the will and love of good. In David:

O God, Thou art my God, in the morning I seek Thee; my soul thirsteth for Thee; my flesh longeth for Thee in a land of drought and weariness without waters (Psalms 63:1).

In the same:

My soul longeth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God (Psalms 84:2).

The "flesh" that longeth for Jehovah, and that crieth out unto the living God, signifies man as to good of the will, for the "flesh" of man corresponds to the good or evil of his will, and the "blood" to the truth or falsity of his understanding; here "flesh" means the good of the will, because it longeth for Jehovah and crieth out unto God.

[5] In Job:

I have known my Redeemer, He liveth, and at the last He shall rise upon the dust; and afterwards these things shall be encompassed by my skin, and from my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25-27).

To see God from one's flesh signifies from one's own voluntary made new by the Lord, and thus good. In Ezekiel:

Upon the bones seen in the midst of the valley, I will put sinews, and I will cause flesh to come up upon them, and I will cover them with skin, and I will give spirit unto them that they may live (Ezekiel 37:6, 8).

Here, too, "flesh" signifies what is one's own [proprium] of the will made new by the Lord, and thus good. What "bones" and the rest signify here may be seen above (n. 418, 419, 665). In Revelation:

Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders of thousands, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, small and great (Revelation 19:17-18; Ezekiel 39:17-19).

That "flesh" here does not mean flesh but goods of every kind, is clearly evident.

[6] But on the other hand, that "flesh" signifies man's own voluntary, which regarded in itself is evil, is evident from the following passages. In Isaiah:

They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm (Isaiah 9:20).

In the same:

I will feed thine oppressors with their own flesh (Isaiah 49:26).

In Jeremiah:

I will feed you with the flesh of their sons and with the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every man the flesh of his companion (Jeremiah 19:9).

In Zechariah:

The rest shall eat everyone the flesh of another (Zechariah 11:9).

In Moses:

I will chastise you sevenfold for your sins, and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters (Leviticus 26:28-29).

[7] In Jeremiah:

Cursed is the man who trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17:5).

Here "flesh" signifies what is man's own [proprium] which in itself is evil; to appropriate this to oneself is signified by eating and feeding upon it. Again, "flesh" signifies what is man's own [proprium] in Matthew:

Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee (Matthew 16:17).

In John:

As many as received, to them gave He power to become sons of God, who were born, not from bloods nor from the will of the flesh, but from God (John 1:12-13).

In Ezekiel:

Jerusalem committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt her neighbors, great in flesh (Ezekiel 16:26).

In Isaiah:

Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit (Isaiah 31:3).

In John:

It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing (John 6:63).

In the same:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is begotten of the spirit is spirit (John 3:6).

In David:

God remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and returneth not (Psalms 78:39).

The evil of man's will, which is what is his own [proprium] from birth is what is signified in these passages by "flesh"; also by:

The flesh that the sons of Israel lusted after in the desert, and on account of which they were smitten with a great plague, and from which the place was called graves of lust (Numbers 11:4-34).

Moreover, in the Word the expression "all flesh" is frequently used as meaning every man (as in Genesis 6:12, 13, 17, 19; Isaiah 40:5, 6; 49:26; 66:16, 23, 24; Jeremiah 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezekiel 20:48, 21:4, 5; and elsewhere).

(Continuation respecting the Word)

[8] The spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the natural, in order that the end may become a cause, and the cause become an effect, and thus the end through the cause may present itself in the effect as visible and sensible. This trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, is given from creation in every heaven. The end is the good of love, the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use. That which produces is love, and the product therefrom is of love from good by means of truth. The final products, which are in our world, are various, as numerous as the objects are in its three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral. All products are correspondences.

[9] As this trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists in each heaven, there must be in each heaven products that are correspondences, and which in form and aspect are like the objects in the three kingdoms of our earth; from which it is clear that each heaven is like our earth in external appearance, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. Now in order that the Word may be full, that is, may consist of effects in which are a cause and an end, or may consist of uses, in which truth is the cause and good is the end and love is that which produces, it must needs consist of correspondences; and from this it follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. What this difference is shall be told elsewhere.

4966. 'The chief of the attendants' means which facts come first and foremost in explanations. This is clear from the meaning of 'the chief of the attendants' as the facts which come first and foremost in explanations, dealt with in 4790. Ones which come first and foremost in explanations are those which are pre-eminently suitable for explaining the Word, and so for coming to understand teachings drawn from the Word about love to God and charity towards the neighbour. It should be recognized that the factual knowledge of the people of old was entirely different from that existing at the present day. As stated above, the factual knowledge of the people of old had to do with the correspondences of things in the natural world with realities in the spiritual world. Knowledge which at the present day is called philosophical knowledge, such as Aristotelian systems and their like, did not exist among them. This is also evident from the books written by ancient authors, most of which consisted of descriptions of such things as were signs of, represented, and corresponded to more internal realities, as may be seen from the following evidence, and ignoring all else.

[2] They envisaged Helicon on a mountain and took it to mean heaven, and Parnassus on a hill below that, and took it to mean factual knowledge. They spoke of a flying horse, called Pegasus by them, which broke open a fountain there with its hoof; they called branches of knowledge virgins; and so on. For with the help of correspondences and representatives they knew that 'a mountain' meant heaven, 'a hill' the heaven beneath this, which is heaven as it exists among men, a horse' the power of understanding, 'its wings with which it flew' spiritual things, 'its hoof' that which was natural, 'a fountain' intelligence, while three virgins called 'the Graces' meant affections for good, and virgins who were named 'the Heliconians and 'the Parnassians' meant affections for truth. To the sun they likewise allotted horses, whose food they called ambrosia and whose drink they called nectar; for they knew that 'the sun' meant heavenly love, 'horses' powers of the understanding which sprang from that love, while 'food' meant celestial things and 'drink' spiritual ones.

[3] The Ancients are also the originators of customs that are still followed when kings are crowned. The king has to sit on a silver throne, wear a purple robe, and be anointed with oil. He has to wear a crown on his head, while holding in his hands a sceptre, a sword, and keys. He has to ride in regal splendour on a white horse shed with horseshoes made of silver; and he has to be waited on at table by the chief nobles of the kingdom. And many other customs are followed besides these. The Ancients knew that 'a king' represented Divine Truth that is rooted in Divine Good, and from this they knew what was meant by a silver throne, a purple robe, anointing oil, crown, sceptre, sword, keys, white horse, horseshoes made of silver, and what was meant by being waited on at table by the chief nobles. Who at the present day knows the meaning of any of these customs, or where the information exists to show him their meaning? People refer to them as symbols, but they know nothing at all about correspondence or representation. All this evidence shows what the factual knowledge possessed by the Ancients was like, and that this knowledge gave them a discernment of spiritual and heavenly realities, which at the present day are scarcely known to exist.

[4] The factual knowledge that has replaced that of the Ancients, and which strictly speaking is called philosophical knowledge, tends to draw the mind away from knowing such things because such knowledge can also be employed to substantiate false ideas. Furthermore, even when used to substantiate true ones it introduces darkness into the mind, because for the most part mere terms are used to substantiate them, which few people can understand and which the few who do understand them argue about. From this it may be seen how far the human race has departed from the learning of the Ancients, which led to wisdom. Gentiles received their factual knowledge from the Ancient Church, whose external worship consisted in representatives and meaningful signs and whose internal worship consisted in the realities represented and meant by these. This was the kind of factual knowledge that is meant in the genuine sense by 'Egypt'.