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1 Kaj la Eternulo ekparolis al Moseo, dirante:

2 Parolu al la Izraelidoj, kaj diru al ili:Se viro aux virino decidos fari sanktan promeson de konsekrigxo, por konsekri sin al la Eternulo,

3 tiam li devas deteni sin de vino kaj de ebriigajxo, vinagron vinan kaj vinagron de ebriigajxoj li ne devas trinki, kaj nenian trinkajxon el vinberoj li devas trinki, kaj vinberojn fresxajn aux sekigitajn li ne devas mangxi.

4 Dum la tuta tempo de sia konsekriteco li devas mangxi nenion, kio estas farita el vinberoj, de la kernoj gxis la sxelo.

5 Dum la tuta tempo de la promesita konsekriteco razilo ne devas ektusxi lian kapon; gxis la finigxo de la tempo, por kiu li konsekris sin al la Eternulo, li estas sankta; li lasu libere kreski la harojn de sia kapo.

6 Dum la tuta tempo, por kiu li konsekris sin al la Eternulo, li ne aliru al mortinta korpo.

7 Ne cxe sia patro, nek cxe sia patrino, nek cxe sia frato, nek cxe sia fratino li malpurigxu, se ili mortis; cxar konsekro al lia Dio estas sur lia kapo.

8 Dum la tuta tempo de sia konsekriteco li estas sankta al la Eternulo.

9 Kaj se iu mortos apud li subite, neatendite, kaj li malpurigos sian konsekritan kapon, li pritondu sian kapon en la tago de sia purigxo, en la sepa tago li gxin pritondu;

10 kaj en la oka tago li alportu du turtojn aux du kolombidojn al la pastro, al la pordo de la tabernaklo de kunveno.

11 Kaj la pastro faros el unu pekoferon kaj el la dua bruloferon, kaj li pekliberigos lin de tio, kion li pekis per la mortinta korpo, kaj li sanktigos lian kapon en tiu tago.

12 Kaj li konsekros sin al la Eternulo por la tempo de sia konsekriteco, kaj li alportos jaragxan sxafidon kiel kulpoferon; kaj la tempo antauxa perdos sian valoron, cxar lia konsekriteco malpurigxis.

13 Kaj jen estas la legxo pri la konsekrito:kiam finigxos la tempo de lia konsekriteco, oni venigu lin al la pordo de la tabernaklo de kunveno;

14 kaj li alportu kiel oferon al la Eternulo unu jaragxan sxafidon sendifektan kiel bruloferon, kaj unu jaragxan sxafidinon sendifektan kiel pekoferon, kaj unu virsxafon sendifektan kiel pacoferon,

15 kaj korbon da macoj el delikata faruno, kukojn miksitajn kun oleo, kaj flanojn nefermentintajn, sxmiritajn per oleo, kaj ilian farunoferon kaj versxoferon.

16 Kaj la pastro prezentos tion antaux la Eternulon kaj faros lian pekoferon kaj lian bruloferon.

17 Kaj el la virsxafo li faros pacoferon al la Eternulo kune kun la korbo da macoj, kaj la pastro faros lian farunoferon kaj lian versxoferon.

18 Kaj la konsekrito pritondos cxe la pordo de la tabernaklo de kunveno sian konsekritan kapon, kaj li prenos la harojn de sia konsekrita kapo, kaj metos sur la fajron, kiu estas sub la pacofero.

19 Kaj la pastro prenos la kuiritan sxultron de la virsxafo kaj unu nefermentintan kukon el la korbo kaj unu nefermentintan flanon, kaj li metos tion sur la manon de la konsekrito, kiam tiu estos pritondinta sian konsekritan kapon.

20 Kaj la pastro skuos tion kiel skuoferon antaux la Eternulo; sanktigita gxi estu por la pastro, krom la brustajxo de skuado kaj la femuro de levado. Poste la konsekrito povas trinki vinon.

21 Tio estas la legxo pri konsekrito, kiu donis sanktan promeson; lia ofero apartenas al la Eternulo pro lia konsekriteco, krom tio, kion permesos al li lia bonhavo; konforme al sia promeso, kiun li promesis, li faru, laux la legxo pri lia konsekriteco.

22 Kaj la Eternulo ekparolis al Moseo, dirante:

23 Diru al Aaron kaj al liaj filoj jene:Tiamaniere benu la Izraelidojn; diru al ili:

24 La Eternulo vin benu kaj vin gardu;

25 La Eternulo lumu al vi per Sia vizagxo kaj favorkoru vin;

26 La Eternulo turnu Sian vizagxon al vi kaj donu al vi pacon.

27 Tiel ili metu Mian nomon sur la Izraelidojn, kaj Mi ilin benos.

   

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Wine

  

Wine played a key role in the ancient world, where safe, reliable water sources were scarce. It could be stored for long periods of time; if lightly fermented it was rich in sugar content; it was high in mineral content; it tasted good and generally had intoxicating qualities. Thus it was a valuable commodity and treated with reverence.

Wine is, of course, made from grapes. Grapes – sweet, juicy, nutritious and full of energy-rich fructose – represent the Lord's own exquisite desire to be good to us. That's powerful stuff! But grapes have a short shelf life; you might eat a bunch for a burst of energy, but you can't exactly carry them around with you for long-term sustenance. And so it is with desires for good: They tend to come to us in energizing bursts, but fade away fairly quickly. We need something more stable and lasting.

At some point in the distant past people figured out that if you squeeze the juice from the grapes and let it ferment, the result is a liquid that offers that stability: wine. The spiritual meaning works the same way; if we examine our desires for good, try to understand and think about how to apply them, what we will get are concepts about what good really is, how to recognize it and how to make it happen. And just like the wine, these ideas offer stability and portability. For instance, finding a wallet full of cash on the sidewalk might severely test our desire to be honest, but the idea that "you shall not steal" is pretty hard to shake.

Wine, then, on the deepest level represents divine truth flowing from divine goodness – the true principles that arise from the fact that the Lord loves us and desires everything good for us.

Wine comes in many varieties, though, and is used in many ways. Depending on context it can represent truth that arises from a desire for good on much more mundane levels. You want your children to be healthy so you make them brush their teeth even though they complain and it's a pain in the neck; the truth that brushing their teeth is good for them is wine on a very day-to-day level.

In some cases wine can also actually represent good things that arise from true ideas, something of a reverse from its inmost meaning. This happens when we are in transitional stages, setting higher ideas and principles above our less-worthy desires in an effort to reshape our actions. In that case our principles are the things being squeezed, with good habits the result.

There is also, of course, a darker side to wine. There is a good deal of debate about just how much alcohol wine had in Biblical times, and some of it may indeed have been more like concentrated grape juice. But there are also many references to wine and drunkeness, so some of it, at least, was fairly potent.

On a spiritual level, getting drunk on wine represents relying too much on our ideas, taking logic to such an extreme that we forget the good things we were trying to achieve in the first place.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 376 [1-40], 1152; Apocalypse Revealed 316, 635; Arcana Coelestia 1071 [1-5], 1727, 3580 [1-4], 5117 [7], 6377, 10137 [1-10]; The Apocalypse Explained 329 [2-4]; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 219)

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Arcana Coelestia # 4638

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4638. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins means the final period of the old Church and the first of the new. The Church is the Lord's kingdom on earth; 'the ten virgins' are all who belong to the Church, that is to say, both those who are governed by good and truth, and those who are under the influence of evil and falsity. 'Ten' in the internal sense means remnants, also that which is full and complete, and so means all, while 'virgins' means those who belong to the Church, as in other places in the Word.

[2] Who took their lamps means spiritual things which have what is celestial within them, or truths that have good within them, or what amounts to the same, faith that has charity towards the neighbour within it, and charity that has love to the Lord within it. For 'oil' means the good of love, dealt with below; but 'lamps that have no oil in them' means those same things when there is no good within them.

[3] They went out to meet the Bridegroom means their reception.

Five of them however were wise, but five were foolish means that one group of them possessed truths which had good within them, and another group possessed truths which did not have good within them. The former are 'the wise', but the latter 'the foolish'. In the internal sense 'five' means some, in this case therefore a group from within the whole.

Taking their lamps the foolish did not take oil with them means that they did not have within their truths the good of charity, 'oil' in the internal sense being the good of charity and love.

Whereas the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps means that they did have within their truths the good of charity and love - 'vessels' being matters of doctrine concerning faith.

[4] While the Bridegroom was tarrying they were all drowsy and went to sleep means delay, and therefore doubt. In the internal sense, 'being drowsy' means becoming, because of the delay, inattentive to things of the Church, while 'going to sleep' means nurturing doubt, in the case of 'the wise' doubt that goes with an affirmative attitude of mind, but in the case of 'the foolish' doubt that goes with a negative one.

At midnight there was a shout means the period of time which is the final one of the old Church and the first of the new. In the Word when the subject is the state of the Church this period is called 'night'. 'A shout' means a change taking place.

Behold, the Bridegroom is coming; go out to meet Him means judgement, that is to say, a time of being accepted or rejected.

[5] Then all those virgins were roused and they trimmed their lamps means the preparation of all, for those whose truths do not have good within them believe themselves to be no less accepted than those whose truths do have good within them. Indeed they imagine that faith alone saves and are unaware of the fact that no faith can exist where no charity does so.

But the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out means their desire for that good to be communicated from others to their own empty truths, that is, to their own hollow faith. For those who are in the next life communicate to one another every spiritual or celestial thing they possess, though only through good.

[6] But the wise replied, saying, Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you means that no communication of it is possible because the small amount of good they have would be taken away from them. For in the next life, when good is communicated to those whose truths are devoid of good, they take away good so to speak from those who do have it and then keep it to themselves. They do not communicate it to others but defile it, which is why no good is communicated to them. My own experience of these people will be seen at the end of Chapter 37 below.

[7] Go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves means meritorious good. Those who boast of having this kind of good are meant by 'those who sell'. Also, more than all others in the next life, people whose truth has no good within it think that they have earned merit through every deed they have performed which to all outward appearance looked like good, though inwardly it was evil, as the Lord says of them in Matthew, Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Your name, and by Your name cast out demons, and do many mighty works in Your name? But then I will confess to them, I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity! Matthew 7:22-23.

And in Luke,

Once the Householder has risen up and shut the door, then you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He replying will say to you, I do not know where you come from. Then you will begin to say, We ate in your presence and we drank; and You taught in our Streets. But He will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity! Luke 13:25-27.

This describes what those meant here by the foolish virgins are like, and that is why the following words referring to them occur in this parable - they 'came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he replying said, Truly, I say to you, I do not know you'.

[8] While they were going to buy however, the Bridegroom came means their perverse approach.

And those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding feast means that those who were governed by good, and from this by truth, were accepted into heaven. Heaven is likened to a wedding feast by virtue of the heavenly marriage, which is a marriage of good and truth, and the Lord to the Bridegroom because these people are joined to Him, while the Church is therefore called the Bride.

And the door was shut means that no others can enter.

[9] Afterwards the remaining virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us means that they wish to enter on the basis of faith alone without charity, and of works in which the life of the Lord is not present, only selfish life.

But He replying said, Truly, I say to you, I do not know you means rejection. In the internal sense 'not knowing them' means that they lack any charity towards the neighbour, and are not joined through such charity to the Lord. Those who are not so joined to Him are said 'not to be known' by Him.

[10] Watch therefore, for you do not know the day, nor the hour, in which the Son of Man will be coming means an eagerness to live according to the commandments constituting a person's faith, meant by 'watching'. The actual time of acceptance, which is unknown to a person, and his state then, are meant by 'you do not know the day, nor the hour, in which the Son of Man will be coming'. One who is governed by good, that is, whose deeds conform to the commandments, is called 'wise', but one who has a knowledge of the truth, yet does not act in accordance with this, is called 'foolish', as they are elsewhere by the Lord in Matthew,

Everyone who hears My words and does them I will liken to a wise man. But everyone hearing My words and not doing them will be likened to a foolish man. Matthew 7:24, 26.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.