79. And He laid His right hand upon me, signifies life from Him. This is evident from the signification of "right hand," as being, in reference to the Lord, life from Him (See above, n. 72). It signifies life from Him, because it immediately follows the words, "I fell at His feet as dead;" and moreover, "to touch with the hand" signifies to communicate and transfer to another what pertains to oneself, and also to receive from another. To communicate and transfer to another what pertains to oneself, in reference to the Lord, as here, is to communicate and transfer life such as those have who are in a state of illumination and who see and hear such things as are in heaven. This also took place with John, for he was in such illumination when he saw and heard the things that are described in Revelation "To touch with the hand" is to communicate and transfer to another, because the whole power of man is transferred from the body into the hands; consequently what the mind wills that the body should do, that the arms and hands do (from this it is that by "arms" and "hands" in the Word is signified power, see Arcana Coelestia 878, 3091, 4931-4937, 6947, 7673, 10019).

But this power is natural power, and communication thereby is an exertion of the bodily forces; but spiritual power is to will the good of another, and to will to convey to another as far as possible what is with oneself. This power is what "hand" in the spiritual sense signifies, and its communication and transference are signified by "touching with the hand."

From this it can be seen what is signified by this, that the Lord, who is here called the "Son of man," laid His right hand upon John, when John lay as dead, namely, that He communicated and transferred to him life from Himself (See above). "To touch," and "to touch with the hand," has a similar signification in many passages in the Word, as in the following. In Daniel:

The Lord, who there appeared to him as a man clothed in linen, whose appearance was as the appearance of lightning, and His eyes as torches of fire, and His feet as the brightness of polished brass, touched him; and restored him to his standing; and lifted him upon his knees; and touched his lips, and opened his mouth; and still again touched him, and strengthened him (Daniel 10:4-21).

In Jeremiah:

Jehovah put forth His hand, and touched my mouth, and said, I put My words into thy mouth (Jeremiah 1:9).

And in Matthew:

Jesus stretching forth His hand to the leper, touched him, saying, I will; be thou made clean. And straightway his leprosy was cleansed (Matthew 8:3).

In the same:

Jesus saw Peter's wife's mother sick of a fever, and he touched her hand, and the fever left her (Matthew 8:14-15).

In the same:

Jesus touched the eyes of the two blind men, and their eyes were opened (Matthew 9:29-30).

In the same:

When Peter was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed the disciples, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him. And when the disciples heard these things they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. Then came Jesus and touched them, and said, Arise, be not afraid (Matthew 17:5-8).

In Luke:

Jesus came and touched the bier of the dead, and said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. Then he that was dead sat up, and began to speak (Luke 7:14-15).

In the same:

Jesus touched the ear of the deaf one, ¹ and healed him (Luke 22:51).

In Mark:

And they brought [to Jesus] little children, that He should touch them; and He took them in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them (Mark 10:13, 16).

In the same:

They brought unto Jesus those that were ill, that they might touch if it were but the border of His garment; and as many as touched were made whole (Mark 6:56; Matthew 14:35, 36).

In Luke:

A woman suffering from an issue of blood touched the border of His garment; and immediately the issue of her blood stanched. Jesus said, Who is it that touched Me? Some one did touch Me; I knew that power went forth from Me (Luke 8:43-46).

Because "touching" and "laying on of hands" signify communicating and transferring to another what pertains to oneself, therefore it has been customary in the churches from ancient times to lay hands upon the head of those who are inaugurated and blessed:

This Moses also was commanded to do to Joshua (Numbers 27:18-23; Deuteronomy 34:9).

As all things among the sons of Israel were representative and significative of spiritual things, so also was touch; wherefore those who touched what was holy were sanctified, and those who touched what was unclean were polluted; for "touch" signified communication and transference to another, and reception from another, as can be seen from the following passages in Moses:

Whosoever shall touch the tent of meeting; the ark of the Testimony; the table, and all the vessels thereof; the lampstand and the vessels thereof; the altar of incense; the altar of burnt-offering, and all the vessels thereof, and the laver and the base thereof, shall be holy (Exodus 30:26-29).

Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy (Exodus 29:37).

Everything that toucheth the remainder of the meal-offering, and the remainder of the flesh from the sacrifice, shall be holy (Leviticus 6:18, 27).

Whosoever toucheth the dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And whosoever in the open field toucheth one that is slain with a sword, or the bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. He that toucheth the waters of separation shall be unclean until even. And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall become unclean, and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even (Numbers 19:11, 13, 16, 21-22).

He that toucheth unclean beasts and unclean reptiles shall be unclean. Everything upon which they shall fall shall be unclean, whether it be a vessel of wood, raiment, water, an earthen vessel, food, drink, an oven, (but not a fountain, pit, or receptacle of water) shall be unclean (Leviticus 11:31-36, besides other places, as Leviticus 5:2, 3; 7:21; 11:37, 38; 15 to the end; Leviticus 17:4; 22:4; Numbers 16:26; Isaiah 52:11; Lamentations 4:14, 15; Hosea 4:2, 3; Haggai 2:12, 13, 14).

Poznámky pod čarou:

6057. Before anything can be said about the influx and operation of the soul into the body, a proper knowledge is required of the truth that the internal man has been created so as to conform to an image of heaven, and the external man to an image of the world, so much so that the internal man is the smallest form heaven can take, and the external man is the smallest the world can take and is thus the microcosm. The fact that the external man is an image of the world can be seen from his external or physical senses. The ear has been made to conform to the whole nature of the modification of air, and the lungs to the whole nature of air-pressure. So too with the surface-areas of the body, which are held in shape by the pressure of air all around them. The eye has been made to conform to the whole nature of the ether and light; the tongue to the perception of particles dissolved and suspended in fluids, and at the same time along with the lungs, trachea, larynx, glottis, jaws, and lips to conform to the power of using air in varying ways to produce articulated sounds or words, and musical sounds too. The nostrils have been made to conform to the perception of particles suspended in the atmosphere, and touch, a sense which is distributed over the whole of the body, to the perception of changes in the condition of the air, that is to say, whether it is cold or hot, as well as the perception of the nature of fluids and the weights of objects. (The internal organs, which the air surrounding the body cannot enter, are held together and kept in shape by a purer kind of air, called ether.) This is not to mention all the deeply hidden aspects of the natural world that have been inscribed on and apply themselves to the body, such as all the secrets of mechanics, physics, chemistry, and optics. All this goes to prove that the entire natural order was drawn on so that the external side of the human being might be created in conformity with it, which was why the ancients named the human being the microcosm.

[2] Now just as the external man has been created so as to conform to an image of everything in the world, so the internal man has been created so as to conform to an image of everything in heaven, that is, an image of the celestial and spiritual qualities that come from the Lord, from which heaven is formed and in which it consists. The celestial qualities there are all the aspects of love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and the spiritual qualities are all the aspects of faith. They are intrinsically so great and of such a nature that no tongue can possibly declare even a millionth of them. The truth that the internal man has been made so as to conform to an image of all those qualities is plain to see in the angels. When they appear before a person's internal sight, as they have appeared before mine, their presence alone stirs feelings to the depths of his being. For love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour pour out of them and into the onlooker; and what is radiated by that love and charity, namely rays of faith, shines out of them and stirs one's affections. This has served to show, as well as other proofs, that because the internal man has been created to be an angel, the internal man is the smallest form heaven can take.

[3] From all this it now becomes clear that within the human being the spiritual world has been joined to the natural world. As a result, in the case of the human being, the spiritual world flows into the natural world in so vital a way that a person can discern it if he merely stops to pay attention to it. This also shows what the interaction of the soul with the body is, that strictly speaking it is a communication of the spiritual realities of heaven with the natural things of the world, a communication which is effected by one flowing into the other, yet depends on the way the two have been joined together. This communication effected through an inflowing which depends on the way the two have been joined together is unknown at the present day, for the reason that every single thing is attributed to natural forces and there is no knowledge of what is spiritual, which at the present day is so remote that when people give it any thought it seems to be non-existent.