7456. 'Will they not stone us?' means that they would thereby demolish the truths of faith that related to worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'stoning' as demolishing and wiping out falsities, but in the contrary sense, when done by the evil, as demolishing and wiping out the truths of faith. If the vile, foul, and hellish things referred to above in 7454 were to enter in among people whose worship is holy its holiness would be destroyed. The reason for this is that when a person's worship is holy he is withheld from such things, and people who are governed by good in faith and life are raised above the level of the senses on which such things reside. But when such objects do enter in the foul things present on the sensory level are stirred up - that is, the things which a person is withheld from when his worship is holy, as has been stated, and which people governed by good are raised above - and the holiness of the worship is destroyed. Experience too demonstrates this plainly, for if, when a person offers worship to God, some foul object appears and is not removed, worship ceases and is destroyed. This is what is meant when it is said that if those steeped in falsities arising from evils were nearby they would demolish the truths of faith that relate to worship.

[2] As for the meaning of 'stoning', it should be recognized that the Jews and Israelites, among whom a representative of the Church had been established, had two kinds of capital punishment, one being stoning, the other hanging on wood. Stoning was used if anyone sought to destroy the truths relating to worship which were commanded, while hanging was used if anyone sought to destroy goodness of life. The reason why those who sought to destroy truths relating to worship were stoned was that a stone was a sign of truth and in the contrary sense of falsity, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426. And the reason why those who sought to destroy goodness of life were hanged on wood was that wood was a sign of good and in the contrary sense of the evil belonging to evil desires, 643, 2784, 2812, 3720.

[3] The fact that punishment by stoning would be used if anyone should destroy truths relating to worship is evident from the following places: In Ezekiel,

Finally they will cause an assembly to come up upon you, and they will stone you with stones and cut you up with their swords. Ezekiel 16:40.

This refers to the perverse Jerusalem and the destruction of the truth of faith by means of falsities. This is why it says that 'they will stone with stones' and also 'cut up with swords', for 'a sword' means truth engaged in conflict with falsity and destroying it, and in the contrary sense falsity engaged in conflict with truth and destroying it, 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102.

[4] A similar statement occurs elsewhere in the same prophet,

Cause an assembly to come up against them, in order that the assembly may stone them with stones and tear them apart with their swords. Ezekiel 23:46-47.

This refers to Jerusalem and Samaria, by which the Church is meant. Jerusalem means the celestial-spiritual Church, Samaria the spiritual Church, and this chapter describes how forms of the good and truth of faith were destroyed in them.

[5] In Moses,

If an ox strikes a man or woman with its horn so that the person dies, the ox shall surely be stoned. Exodus 21:28.

'Striking a man or woman with the horn' means falsity engaged in conflict with truth and goodness and destroying them. For 'the horn' is falsity engaged in conflict, and also the power of falsity, 2832, while 'man and woman' in the Word means truth and goodness; and this makes plain what the internal sense of that command is and why it was that the ox had to be stoned.

[6] In the same author,

Anyone blaspheming the name of Jehovah shall surely be killed; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. Leviticus 24:16.

'Blaspheming the name of Jehovah' means using malevolent falsities to do violence to truths and forms of good that relate to worship. 'The name of Jehovah' means everything in one embrace that is used to worship Jehovah, see 2724, 3006, thus every aspect of faith and charity, 6674. This also explains why the Israelite woman s son who blasphemed the name of Jehovah was led outside the camp and stoned, Leviticus 24:11, 14, 23. Furthermore it had been commanded that those who served other gods should be stoned, Deuteronomy 17:3, 5, and also those who enticed anyone to serve other gods, Deuteronomy 13:6-10. 'Serving other gods' means profane worship by means of which true worship is destroyed.

[7] If no evidence of virginity were found with a young woman when she married she was to be stoned because she had played the fool in Israel by committing whoredom in her father's house, Deuteronomy 22:20-21. The reason for this was that 'whoredom' meant the falsification of truth, thus the destruction of it, 2466, 4865. If a man lay in the city with a young woman, a virgin, who was betrothed to a man, both were to be stoned, Deuteronomy 22:23-24, and for the same reason, namely whoredom; for spiritual whoredom is the falsification of truth. In Luke 20:5-6, [one reads about the chief priests, scribes, and elders] coming to the conclusion among themselves that if they said John's baptism was from heaven [the Lord] would say, 'Why did you not believe him?' But if they said 'From men', all the people would stone them. Here also 'stoning' is spoken of because of opposition to the truth.

The reason why the Jews sought to stone Jesus because He said, Before Abraham was, I am, John 8:58-59, was that that nation believed this to be false. In a similar way they sought to stone Jesus because He said He and His Father were one, John 10:30-33; for they thought, as these verses also state, that this was blasphemy.

From all this one may now see what stoning was and why it was commanded, and also that punishment by stoning, administered since ancient times as its use in Egypt proves, was derived from the representatives of the Ancient Church.

3373. 'And to your seed' means truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as truth, dealt with in 29, 255, 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3310, and so truth from the Lord's Divine, which is 'your seed'. Those who understand the Word solely according to the sense of the letter can know no more than this, that 'seed' means descendants - here Isaac's descendants through Esau and Jacob, primarily through Jacob since the Word existed among that nation and so many of its historical descriptions have to do with them. But in the internal sense 'seed' is not used to mean any descendants from Isaac but all who are the Lord's 'sons', and so who are 'the sons of His kingdom', or what amounts to the same, those in whom good and truth which come from the Lord are present. And as these constitute 'the seed' it follows that good and truth themselves from the Lord are 'the seed', for these are what make people His 'sons'. This is also the reason why truths themselves which come from the Lord are called 'the sons of the kingdom' in Matthew,

He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the seed are the sons of the kingdom. Matthew 13:37-38.

And for this reason also 'sons' generally means truths, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623.

[2] Anyone who thinks rather more deeply or inwardly may recognize that the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, mentioned so many times, and spoken of so many times as those who were to be blessed, and more so than all nations and peoples in all the world, cannot in the Divine Word mean the descendants of those three. For among all nations they least of all were moved by the good that flows from love to the Lord and from charity towards the neighbour. Nor indeed did any truth of faith exist with them. Who the Lord is, what His kingdom is, and so what heaven is and what the life after death, they did not know at all. They did not know these things because for one thing they did not wish to know and for another because if they had come to know about them they would have denied them completely in their hearts and so would have profaned interior goods and truths, as they did exterior by becoming on so many occasions open idolaters. This is the reason why any interior truths are rarely visible in the literal sense of the Old Testament Word. Because the nature of those people was such, the Lord therefore said about them, quoting Isaiah,

He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and are converted and I heal them. John 12:40.

What He said about them when they declared they were 'the seed of Abraham',

They said, We are the seed of Abraham. Our father is Abraham. Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's sons, you would do the works of Abraham. You are from your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do. John 8:33, 39, 44.

Here also 'Abraham' is used to mean the Lord, as in every other instance in the Word. The Lord explicitly states that they were not His seed or sons but came from the devil. From this it is quite evident that 'the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' in both the historical part and the prophetical part of the Word is in no way used to mean such descendants, for the Word is Divine in every detail Instead it means all who constitute 'the Lord's seed', that is, those with whom the good and truth of faith in Him are present. The fact that heavenly seed, that is, all good and truth, comes from the Lord alone, see 1438, 1614, 2016, 2803, 2882, 2883, 2891, 2892, 2904, 3195.