4893. 'There has been no harlot there' means that it was not something false. This is clear from the meaning of 'a harlot' or a prostitute as something false, as above in 4890. What train of thought runs through the expressions, of which until now only explanations of their individual meanings has been given, may be to a certain extent evident from what has been stated above in 4865, 4868, 4874. They are, what is more, the kind of matters that are unintelligible unless one knows what the joining together of internal truth and the external of the Jewish Church is like - both on the side of the internal truth represented by 'Tamar' and that of the external represented by 'Judah'. Because these are matters about which nothing at all is known, any further explanation of them would enter the unlit parts of the mind, and so where no ideas exist to understand them; for the understanding, which is the power of sight the internal man possesses, has its own lit and unlit parts. The unlit are the parts where things enter that do not conform in any way at all with anything of which the mind already has some conception. Nevertheless each specific meaning in the train of thought so far, together with countless matters which man cannot even begin to comprehend, enter with clarity the lit parts of angels' understandings. From this one may see what angelic intelligence is like and how much greater it is compared with that of men.

4865. 'And supposed that she was a prostitute' means that it supposed them to be nothing else than something false. This is clear from the meaning of 'a prostitute' as that which is false, dealt with in 2466, 2729, 3399, and so as the fact that with its semblance of religion the Jewish nation looked on the internal aspect of the Church as nothing else than something false. The reason 'a prostitute' means that which is false is that a marriage represents the heavenly marriage, which is that of good and truth. The husband represents good and the wife truth, and therefore sons represent truths and daughters forms of good, while a son-in-law and a daughter-in-law, a father-in-law and a mother-in-law, and many others as determined by their degrees of affinity, represent aspects of the heavenly marriage. Therefore, being opposites of these, acts of adultery and prostitution mean evil and falsity, and are in all reality the opposite of them, for people who spend their lives committing adultery or behaving as prostitutes have no concern at all for what is good and true. The reason for this is that genuine conjugial love comes down from the heavenly marriage, that is, from the marriage of good and truth, whereas adultery and prostitution spring from evil and falsity joined together - from hell; see 2727-2759.

[2] The fact that the Jewish nation looked, as also at the present day it looks, on the internal features of the Church as nothing else than falsities is meant by Judah's supposition that Tamar his daughter-in-law was no one else than a prostitute and by his connection with her as with a prostitute. This origin of that nation represents the origin and also the essential nature of their semblance of religion. It is plain to see that this nation looks on the internal aspect of the Church as a harlot, that is, as something false. For example, if anyone tells them it is an internal truth of the Church that the Messiah, who is foretold in the prophetical parts of the Word and whom they await, is the Lord, they completely reject this as something false. If anyone tells them it is an internal truth of the Church that the Messiah's kingdom is not a worldly and temporal but a heavenly and eternal one, they declare this too to be something false. If anyone tells them that the ritual observances of their Church represented the Messiah and His heavenly kingdom they have no idea what this is.

[3] If anyone tells them that the internal aspect of the Church is the good of charity and the truth of faith, both in doctrine and at the same time in life, they regard this as nothing else than a falsity. And so it is with every other truth told them. Indeed at the mere suggestion of an internal aspect of the Church they laugh nonsensically. The reason for this is that they are immersed solely in things of an external nature, and indeed in the lowest of these, which consist in the love of earthly things; for more than all others they are steeped in avarice, which is utterly worldly. Such people cannot possibly look on the interior features of the Church in any other way, since they are further removed than all others from the light of heaven, and so more than all others dwell in thickest darkness.