6439. Verse 27 Benjamin is a wolf; he will seize in the morning, he will devour the spoil, and at evening he will divide the plunder. 'Benjamin' means the truth of good present in the spiritual Church, which is 'Joseph'. 'Is a wolf' means an eagerness to rescue and deliver the good. 'He will seize in the morning, he will devour the spoil' means that the deliverance takes place when the Lord is present. 'And at evening he will divide the plunder' means their possession in the Lord's kingdom, while they are still in obscurity.

The idea of a "prophet" is very closely tied to the idea of the Bible itself, since the Bible was largely written by prophets. At a lower level, prophets represent people who teach from the Bible. At a higher level, they represent the Lord as He reveals himself through the Bible. Viewed in a abstract way, prophets represent the holy parts of the Bible themselves, and also represent doctrine drawn from the Bible. The reason we say "largely written by prophets" and "the holy parts of the Bible" is that not all of the books currently included in the Bible have a complete and continuous internal sense. Some -- like Job, Ruth, and Song of Solomon -- are wonderful literary pieces that got included, but which lack the systematic meanings for words and phrases. Others -- the Acts and Epistles, primarily -- are really doctrinal works, the first attempt by others to extract meaning from Jesus' life and words.