Arcanes Célestes # 1328
1328. Et de la Jéhovah les dispersa sur les faces de toute la terre, signifie que le culte interne devint nul : c'est ce qu'on peut voir en ce que être dispersé signifie être dissipé. Dans le sens le plus près, être dispersée sur les faces de toute la terre, signifie ceux qui voulaient bâtir la ville de Babel ; mais comme ce sont eux qui privent les autres de toute connaissance du vrai, ainsi que je l'ai dit, ces mêmes expressions signifient en même temps la privation du culte interne : en effet, l'un est la conséquence de l'autre ; ici c'est la conséquence, parce que ces expressions sont répétées pour la troisième fois. La preuve que la Première Eglise Ancienne a été privée des connaissances du vrai et du bien, c'est que les nations qui constituèrent cette Eglise Ancienne devinrent pour la plupart idolâtres et eurent cependant un certain culte externe. Ceux qui sont idolâtres hors de l'Eglise ont un sort bien préférable au sort de ceux qui sont idolâtres dans l'Eglise ; ceux-là sont des idolâtres externes, mais ceux-ci sont des idolâtres internes ; que le sort des premiers soit préférable, c'est ce qui est évident par les paroles que le Seigneur dit dans Luc 13:23, 28-29, 30 ; et dans , , . On voit maintenant pourquoi l'état de cette Eglise Ancienne fut changé.
Arcana Coelestia # 8603
8603. 'And Moses, Aaron, and Hur' means levels of Divine Truth that follow one another in order. This is clear from the representation of 'Moses' as Divine Truth that goes forth directly from the Lord, dealt with in 7010; from the representation of 'Aaron' as Divine Truth that goes forth from the Lord in an indirect way, dealt with in 7009; and from the representation of 'Hur' as Divine Truth that goes forth again in an indirect way, but through the latter. Thus there are levels of truth that follow one another in order.
[2] What is meant by levels of truth that follow one another in order must be stated briefly. All things without exception in the entire natural world spring in order from others on a more internal level; they derive from them and follow in order after them. But the interior things do not connect with the exterior by gradually merging into them; rather, they are distinct and separate, and are joined through extensions from themselves like fibres, which act as channels of communication. Some idea of the nature of things which derive from others and therefore follow in order from them may be conveyed by considering fruits such as lemons, apples, and the like. Their most external parts are their surrounding skins, their interiors are the surrounded flesh or pulp, and their yet more interior parts are the seeds; and the seeds have casings around the outside, then on the actual seeds membranes, under which lies an inner pulp containing the initial form, the soul so to speak, from which again spring new trees and fruit.
[3] All these things follow one another in order; but they are distinct and separate, yet at the same time are joined together. The communication of interiors with exteriors is effected in a wondrous fashion through fibre-like passageways. When those interiors and exteriors are first formed they are very closely connected; but in the course of time they are separated. For before the initial form, the inmost part within the seed, can expand into forms like its parents it must be opened in stages following one another in order. When it is opened and starts to grow, the pulpy parts surrounding it adapt themselves, serving first as its 'soil', and after that as its fertilizing sap. After this phase, which is its time in the womb, it is born; at that point it is left to the soil of the earth, in which it is sown as a seed.
[4] All this enables one to form some idea of the nature of things that derive from and follow one another in order. As is the nature of them in the vegetable kingdom, so it is also in the animal kingdom, yet in a far more perfect way. In the animal kingdom there are exterior things, interior, and inmost, which in like manner follow one another in order, are distinct and separate from one another, and yet at the same time are joined together. But they are different in that forms in the animal kingdom have been created to receive life. Consequently just as forms receiving life follow one another in order, so do the resulting kinds of vitality. For the forms or substances receiving life are the subjects 1 , and the things which result from changes and modifications of those forms are the forces, which should be called vitalities because they are life-forces. From all this one may now see what is meant by levels of Divine Truth that follow one another in order. For everything constituting life has connection with truth, and the perfection it possesses with good, or in the contrary sense with falsity, and its imperfection with evil. Their transitions in order from one to the next are also called degrees.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. Subject is used here to mean something which really exists yet depends for its existence on something prior to itself.
8603a 'Went up to the top of the hill' means in the good of charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'the hill' as charity, dealt with in 6435, the good of it being meant by 'the top of the hill'.
