378. "And have washed their robes." This symbolically means, who have cleansed their religious beliefs of the evils accompanying falsity.

Washing in the Word symbolizes a cleansing oneself of evils and falsities, and robes symbolize general truths (no. 328). General truths are concepts of goodness and truth drawn from the literal sense of the Word, in accordance with which these people have lived, so that they are religious beliefs. And because every matter of religion has relation to goodness and truth, therefore robes are mentioned twice - "have washed their robes" and "have made their robes white."

Robes or religious beliefs are cleansed only in the case of people who fight against evils and so reject falsities, who thus undergo temptations or trials, which are symbolically meant by "the great tribulation" (no. 377).

That to be washed means, symbolically, to be cleansed of evils and falsities, and so to be reformed and regenerated, can be seen from the following passages:

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and rinsed away the blood of Jerusalem... by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of purification... (Isaiah 4:4)

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from My eyes. Cease to do evil... (Isaiah 1:16)

Wash your heart of its wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. (Jeremiah 4:14)

Wash me clean of my iniquity..., and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalms 51:2, 7)

...if you wash yourself with soda, and use much soap, your iniquity will still retain its spots. (Jeremiah 2:22)

If I wash myself with melted snow, and cleanse my hands with soap..., yet... my own clothes will abhor me. (Job 9:30-31)

Who... has washed his clothing in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes. (Genesis 49:11)

This is said of the celestial church, from which come people prompted by love toward the Lord, and in the highest sense it is said of the Lord Himself. Wine and the blood of grapes are spiritual and celestial Divine truth.

I washed you with water, and rinsed off your blood from upon you... (Ezekiel 16:9)

This is said of Jerusalem. Water is truth, and blood is an adulteration of truth.

[2] It can be seen from this what washing in the Israelite Church represented and thus symbolized. As, for example, that Aaron was to wash himself before he put on the vestments of his ministry (Leviticus 16:4, 24), and before he approached the altar to minister (Exodus 30:18-21; 40:30-31).

[3] It can be seen from this that among the children of Israel washing represented a spiritual washing, which is a cleansing from evils and falsities, and thus reformation and regeneration.

It is apparent also from the aforesaid what baptism by John in the Jordan symbolized (Matthew 3, Mark 1:4-13), and what the symbolic meaning of the following words by John regarding the Lord is, that He baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16, John 1:33), and regarding himself, that he baptized with water (John 1:26). The meaning is that the Lord washes or purifies a person by Divine truth and Divine goodness, and that John by his baptism represented this. For the Holy Spirit is Divine truth, the fire is Divine goodness, and the water is representative of these. For water symbolizes the truth in the Word, which becomes goodness by one's living in accordance with it (no. 50).

231. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. (4:3) This symbolizes an appearance of the Lord's Divine wisdom and love in outmost expressions.

In the Word a stone symbolizes truth in outmost expressions, and a precious stone symbolizes truth made translucent by the presence of good (no. 915).

Two colors are fundamental to all the rest in the spiritual world: the color white and the color red. The color white takes its origin from the light of the sun in heaven, thus from spiritual light, which is bright white; and the color red takes its origin from the fire of the sun there, thus from celestial light, which is flaming.

Because spiritual angels are governed by truths of wisdom from the Lord, they live in that bright white light, and are therefore attired in white; and because celestial angels are governed by goods of love from the Lord, they live in that flaming light, and are therefore attired in red. These two colors are consequently found in precious stones in heaven, where they exist in great abundance.

It is owing to this that in the Word precious stones symbolize qualities connected with either the truth of wisdom or the goodness of love; and because jasper is bright white, it symbolizes qualities connected with the truth of wisdom, while because sardius is red, it symbolizes qualities connected with the goodness of love.

These stones symbolize an appearance of Divine wisdom and Divine love in outmost expressions because all precious stones in heaven draw their origin from the outmost constituents of the Word, and they owe their translucence to the spiritual meaning of the outmost expressions in it. The reality of this may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 44, 45. The outmost expressions of the Word are the truths and goods in its literal sense.

Someone in our world can hardly believe that this is the origin of precious stones in heaven, because he does not know that everything found in the spiritual world is a correspondent form, and that everything found in the natural world takes its spiritual origin from those forms. From conversation with angels I have been given to know that this is the origin of precious stones in heaven, and also to see that it is the origin with my own eyes. It is the Lord alone, however, who causes their formation.

In contrast, dark colors take their origin from hell, of which there are also two. One is the opposite of white, the kind of darkness that exists with people who have falsified the truths of the Word. The other is the opposite of red, the kind of darkness that exists with those who have adulterated the goods of the Word. The first kind of darkness is satanic, the latter diabolical.

Regarding what jasper and sardius symbolize, more may be seen in the exposition of chapter 21, verses 11, 18-20.