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レビ記 22:27

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27 「牛、または羊、またはやぎが生れたならば、これを七の間その母親のもとに置かなければならない。八目からはにささげる火祭として受け入れられるであろう。

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Arcana Coelestia # 10109

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10109. 'And they shall eat those things containing what has been expiated' means the making of good their own by those who have been purified from evils and consequent falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with above in 10106; and from the meaning of 'what has been expiated' as that which has been purified from evils and consequent falsities, dealt with in 9506. The words 'purified from evils and consequent falsities' are used because falsities as well as truths exist with those ruled by evil, and also falsities as well as truths exist with those who are governed by good. The falsities present with those ruled by evil are falsities of evil, and the truths present with them are falsified truths, which are dead. But the falsities present with those governed by good are accepted as truths, for those falsities are tempered by the good and put to good and useful purposes, and the truths present with them are the truths of good, which are alive. Regarding both kinds of falsity and truth, see what has been shown in 2243, 2408, 2863, 4736, 4822, 6359, 7272, 7437, 7574, 7577, 8051, 8137, 8138, 8149, 8298, 8311, 8318 (end), 9258, 9298.

[2] Since 'eating the holy things containing what has been expiated' means the making of good their own by those who have been purified from evils and consequent falsities, anyone unclean was strictly forbidden to eat of those things; for uncleanness means defilement by evils and consequent falsities. For the situation is that as long as a person is steeped in evils and consequent falsities good cannot by any means be made his own. This is because evil comes up from hell and good comes down from heaven, and where hell is heaven cannot be, since they are diametrically opposed to each other. Therefore to make a place for heaven - that is, for good from heaven - hell, that is, evil from hell, must be removed. From this it may be seen that good cannot by any means be made a person's own as long as he is ruled by evil. By making good his own the implanting of good in the will should be understood, for good cannot be said to have been made a person's own until it becomes part of his will. A person's will is the actual person, and his understanding also, to the extent that it derives from the will. For what is part of the will forms part of the person's love and consequently his life, since what a person wills he loves and calls good, and also when it is done by him it is felt to be such. The situation is different with those things which are part of the understanding but not at the same time part of the will. It should also be recognized that when a person is said to make good his own, no more should be understood than his ability to receive good from the Lord, an ability he is endowed with through regeneration. Consequently good as it exists with a person is not that person's; rather it is the Lord's with him. And he is maintained in it to the extent that he allows himself to be withheld from evils. The impossibility for good to become a person's own, that is, for it to be transmitted to him, as long as he is ruled by evil was the reason for the prohibition which prevented one who was unclean from eating the flesh and the bread of a sacrifice; for that eating represented making good one's own, as stated above.

[3] Those who were unclean were forbidden on pain of death to eat from holy offerings, as is clear in Moses,

Everyone who is clean shall eat flesh. The soul who eats the flesh of sacrifices while uncleanness is on him shall be cut off from his people. The soul who touches anything unclean - the uncleanness of a human being or an unclean beast or any unclean creeping thing whatever - and eats of the flesh of the eucharistic sacrifice shall be cut off from [his] people. Leviticus 7:19-21.

All those outward kinds of uncleanness represented inward kinds, which are a person's evils; and they are evils present in his will, having been made his own by the life he actually leads.

[4] This matter is described further elsewhere in Moses,

Any man of the seed of Aaron who is a leper or suffers a discharge shall not eat of the holy things until he has been made clean. Whoever has touched anything made unclean by a corpse 1 , [or any] man who has had an emission of semen 2 , or [any] man who has touched any creeping thing by which he is defiled, or [has touched] a person by whom any one is defiled, as to all his uncleanness - the soul who has touched that thing shall be unclean until evening and not eat of the holy things. But when he has washed his flesh with water, and the sun has gone down, he shall be clean; and afterwards he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his bread. No outsider shall eat what is holy; a stranger staying with a priest, or a hired servant, shall not eat what is holy. If the priest buys a soul - a buying with his silver - [that soul] may eat of it, and one who is born in his house; these shall eat of his bread. When a priest's daughter has married a man, an outsider, she shall not eat of the heave offering of holy things. But if the priest's daughter has been made a widow or divorced and has no seed, and has indeed returned to her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's bread. Leviticus 22:1-16.

All these rules, it is plainly evident, serve to mean more internal considerations, that is, they imply the transmission of holy things to those in a receptive state of mind, who then make those things their own. The rule that no outsider could eat the holy things meant, not those who do not acknowledge the Lord within the Church, thus not those with whom none of the Church's truth and good exists. The rule that no stranger or hired servant could eat them meant, neither those with whom natural good exists devoid of the good of faith, nor those who do good for the sake of reward. The rule that those bought with silver and those born in the house could eat them meant, those who have been converted, and those with whom the Church's truth and good exists as the result of faith and love. The rule that a priest's daughter married to a man who was an outsider could not eat them meant that the good which had not been wedded to the Church's truths [but to something other] could not make the holy things of the Church its own. The rule however that a widow or a divorcee who had no seed could eat them meant that good can be made one's own after the removal of things which do not belong to the Church, provided that no notions have been hatched or born out of that union that have become an integral part of one's faith. The fact that such considerations are meant is evident from the internal sense of these specific rules.

[5] But hereditary evils do not prevent anyone from making good his own. This consideration too is described in Moses,

No man of the seed of Aaron in whom there is a blemish shall approach to offer the bread of God - no man who is blind, lame, mutilated, or [has a limb] too long; none who has a broken foot or hand, is a hunchback, is bruised, has a defect in his eye, has scabs, has warts, or has a crushed testicle. He shall not approach to offer the bread of his God; but he shall eat the bread of God from among the most holy and the holy things. Leviticus 21:17-23.

These defects, as has been stated, serve to mean hereditary evils, some specific evil being meant by each particular defect. The reason why these men should not offer bread or approach the altar as priests was that if they did so the people would catch sight of those imperfections or ills, and in what was caught sight of some representation would take shape, none of which would happen if those defects remained hidden. For although a priest, Levite, or the people were unclean inwardly, they were nevertheless called clean and also thought to be sanctified, provided that outwardly they were washed and looked clean.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, anything unclean on account of the soul

2. literally, a man from whom the lying together of semen (i.e. semen from sexual intercourse) has gone out

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia # 2724

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2724. 'And there he called on the name of [Jehovah,] the God of Eternity' means worship from it. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling on the name of God' as worship, dealt with in 440. Those who belonged to the Ancient Church did not understand merely name by the word 'name' but the entire nature, see 144, 145, 340, 768, 1754, 1896, 2009. Thus by 'the name of God' they understood everything in one embrace by which God was worshipped, consequently everything of love and faith. But once the internal aspect of worship perished and only the external was left people began to understand nothing else by 'the name of God' than the name. Indeed they went so far as to worship the name itself, being quite indifferent to what the love and the faith were in which their worship was grounded. As a result of this nations began to identify themselves by the names of their gods, the Jews and Israelites setting themselves above the rest because they worshipped Jehovah. They made the utterance and the calling upon the name itself the essential feature of worship; but in fact worship of the name alone is not worship at all, for that practice may exist even among the worst of people who in worshipping the name alone become greater profaners.

[2] Now because 'the name of God' means the entirety of worship, that is, the love and faith in their entirety from which He is worshipped, it is therefore clear what is meant by hallowed be Your name - in the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:9, and what by the following words spoken by the Lord,

You will be hated by everyone for My name's sake. Matthew 10:22.

If two of you agree in My name on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:19-20.

He who leaves houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields, for My name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will be allotted the inheritance of eternal life. Matthew 19:29.

Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Matthew 21:9.

Jesus said, You will not see Me from now on until you say, Blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord. Matthew 23:39.

You will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. Then many will stumble and betray one another, and hate one another, and all for My name's sake. 1 Matthew 24:9-10.

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, John 1:12.

He who does not believe is judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:17-18.

Jesus said, Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it. John 14:14-15; 15:16; 16:23-24, 26-27.

Jesus said, I have manifested Your name to men. John 17:6.

Holy Father, keep them in Your name whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are one. John 17:11-12.

I made known to them Your name, and I will make known that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26.

That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:31.

There are in addition very many places in the Old Testament in which the name of Jehovah and of God is not used to mean the name but love and faith in their entirety in which worship is grounded.

[3] But those who worship the name alone, without love and faith, are spoken of in Matthew as follows,

Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy through Your name, and cast out demons through Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name? But I will confess to them, I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. Matthew 7:22-23.

As has been stated, once the member of the Church from being internal became external, and began to make worship consist in a name alone, people no longer acknowledged one God but many. For it was a custom among the ancients to add something after the name of Jehovah and by doing that to call to mind some benefit or attribute of His, as in the present verse, 'He called on the name of [Jehovah,] the God of Eternity'. Another example occurs in the next chapter,

Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh (that is, Jehovah will see). Genesis 22:14.

And the following, among others, are further examples,

Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi (that is, Jehovah is my banner). Exodus 17:15.

Gideon built an altar to Jehovah and called it [the altar] of Jehovah Shalom (that is, of peace). Judges 6:24.

It was from this custom that those who made worship consist in a name alone came to acknowledge so many gods, and also that among the gentiles, especially those in Greece and Rome, so many gods came to be acknowledged and worshipped, whereas the Ancient Church from which those attributive names derived always worshipped but one God who was revered under so many names, for the reason that by 'name' they understood the essential nature.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. These six words which Swedenborg apparently copied from the Schmidius Latin version do not occur in the original Greek.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.