Genesi 34:17
To many Protestant and Evangelical Italians, the Bibles translated by Giovanni Diodati are an important part of their history. Diodati’s first Italian Bible edition was printed in 1607, and his second in 1641. He died in 1649. Throughout the 1800s two editions of Diodati’s text were printed by the British Foreign Bible Society. This is the more recent 1894 edition, translated by Claudiana.
Arcana Coelestia # 4504
4504. Because they had defiled their sister. That this signifies that they had befouled the truth of faith, is evident from the signification of “defiling,” as being to befoul; and from the signification of a “sister,” as being truth (see n. 1495, 2508, 2524, 2556, 3386), here the truth of faith, because by Dinah, who is here the sister, is signified the affection of all things of faith (n. 4427). The reason why Shechem’s defiling of their sister signifies that they befouled the truth of faith, is that the affection of all truth, thus the church itself, is represented by her (n. 3963, 3964); and as she was not given by her brothers to Shechem for a woman, but remained with them defiled, therefore the opposite was afterwards represented by her as by her brothers, namely, the affection of all falsities, thus the church corrupted; so that the words “they had defiled their sister” signify that they had befouled the truth of faith.
