146. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the hidden manna, signifies that those who conquer in temptations will have the delight of heavenly love from the Lord's Divine Human. This is evident from the signification of "overcoming," as being those who conquer in temptations (for it is these that are treated of in what is written to the angel of this church, see above, n. 130; from the signification of "giving to eat," as being to be appropriated and to be conjoined by love and charity (See Arcana Coelestia 2187, 2343, 3168, 3513, 5643) and as it is said "of the hidden manna," which means the Lord in respect to His Divine Human, the "eating" of this here signifies the delight of heavenly love, for this is appropriated by the Lord's Divine Human to those who receive Him in love and faith; also from the signification of the "hidden manna," as being the Lord in respect to His Divine Human. That this is "manna" is manifest from the Lord's own words in John:

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. The bread of God is He who cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever. The bread that I will give is My flesh (John 6:31-58).

That it is the Lord Himself who is meant by "manna" and by "bread," He plainly teaches, for He says, "I am the bread of life which came down out of heaven." That it is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, He also teaches when He says, "The bread that I will give is My flesh."

[2] The Lord taught the same when He instituted the Holy Supper:

Jesus took bread and blessed it, and gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is My body (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19).

"To eat of this bread" is to be conjoined to the Lord by love, for "to eat" signifies to be appropriated and to be conjoined (as above), and love is spiritual conjunction. The same is signified by "eating in the kingdom of God," in Luke:

Blessed is he that eateth bread in the kingdom of God (Luke 14:15).

Ye shall eat and drink at My table in My kingdom (Luke 22:30).

In Matthew:

Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall recline to eat with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God (Matthew 8:11).

(That by "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," the Lord is meant, see Arcana Coelestia 1893, 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6804, 6847) In John:

Work not for the food which perisheth; but for the food which abideth, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27).

That the "Son of man" is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, see above, n. 63.

[3] It is called "hidden manna," because the delight of heavenly love, which those receive who are conjoined to the Lord through love, is wholly unknown to those that are in a love not heavenly; and this delight no one is able to receive except he that acknowledges the Lord's Divine Human; for from this the delight proceeds. Because this delight was unknown to the children of Israel in the wilderness, they called it "manna," as appears in Moses:

Jehovah said unto Moses, Behold, I will cause bread to rain from heaven itself for you. And in the morning the dew lay round about the camp. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness a small round thing; and when they saw it, they said, This is manna? (what is this)? Moses said unto them, this is the bread which Jehovah giveth you to eat. And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna (Exodus 16:3-36).

In the same:

Jehovah fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by all that is uttered by the mouth of Jehovah doth man live (Deuteronomy 8:3).

This delight, which is meant by "manna," was unknown to the sons of Israel, because they were in corporeal delight more than other nations, and those who are in that delight are altogether incapable of knowing anything of heavenly delight. (That the sons of Israel were such, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 248.) The term "delight" is used, and the delight of love is meant, for every delight of life is of love.

[4] As it is the delight of heavenly love that is signified by "eating of the hidden manna," therefore it is called "the bread of the heavens" in David:

Jehovah commanded the skies from above, and opened the doors of the heavens; and He rained down upon them manna for food, and gave them corn of the heavens (Psalms 78:23, 24).

In another place:

Jehovah satisfied them with the bread of the heavens (Psalms 105:40).

It is called the "bread of the heavens," because it rained down from heaven with the dew, but in the spiritual sense it is called the "bread of the heavens" because it flows down from the Lord through the angelic heaven. In that case no other heaven is meant, and no other bread than that which nourishes the soul of man. That it is in this sense that "bread" is to be understood here is evident from the words of the Lord Himself in John:

That He is the manna, or bread, that came down out of heaven (John 6:31-58).

And in Moses:

That Jehovah fed them with manna, that He might make them to know that man doth not live by bread only, but by all that is uttered by the mouth of Jehovah (Deuteronomy 8:3).

"What is uttered by the mouth of Jehovah" is everything that proceeds from the Lord, and this, in a special sense, is Divine truth united with Divine good (See the work on Heaven and Hell 13, 133, 139, 140, 284-290).

[5] This delight is also described by the correspondences in Moses:

The manna appeared like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like cakes made with honey (Exodus 16:31).

And in another place in the same:

They made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of the juice of oil (Numbers 11:7, 8).

The appearance and taste of the manna was such because "coriander seed, white," signifies truth from a heavenly origin; "cake," the good of heavenly love; "honey" its external delight; "oil" that love itself; and its "juice," from which was the taste, its internal delight: and the "rain with dew," in which the manna was, the influx of Divine truth in which that delight is. (That "seed" signifies truth from a heavenly origin, seeArcana Coelestia 3038, 3373, 10248, 10249; that "white" is predicated of that truth, n. 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319; that "cake" signifies the good of heavenly love, n. 7978, 9992, 9993; that "oil" signifies that love itself, n. 886, 3728, 9780, 9954, 10261, 10269; its "juice," therefore, signifies the delight of that love, because the taste is therefrom, and the taste is the delight and pleasantness, see n. 3502, 4791-4805. But more about these matters may be seen in the explanation of chapter 16 of Exodus in The Arcana Coelestia.)

[6] The delight of heavenly love is signified by "eating of the hidden manna," when yet by "the hidden manna" the Lord in respect to the Divine Human is signified, because it is the same whether you say the Lord's Divine Human, or the Divine Love, for the Lord is Divine Love itself, and what proceeds from Him is Divine good united to Divine truth; both are of love, and are also the Lord in heaven; consequently "to eat of Him" is to be conjoined to Him, and this by love from Him. (But these things may be better understood from what is said and shown in the work on Heaven and Hell 13-19, 116-125, 126-140; also in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 210-222, 307)

9263. The expressions the righteous, righteousness, and justifying ¹ occur many times in the Word; but what they mean specifically is not yet known. Their specific meaning is not yet known because up to now no one has known that all the different expressions in the Word are used to mean such things as belong to the internal Church and such as belong to heaven, thus such things as belong to the internal man since the internal aspect of the Church, also heaven, has a place in the internal man. Nor has anyone known that these interior things in the Word are different from its exterior ones, that is, from those in the letter. They are as different as spiritual things are from natural ones or heavenly things from earthly ones, the difference between which is so great that to the natural man there seems to be scarcely any similarity at all, when yet they are in perfect accord with one another. Since none of this has been known no one has been able to know what 'the righteous', 'righteousness', and 'justifying' denote in the Word on its spiritual and heavenly level of meaning. Leaders of the Church suppose that the righteous and the justified are those who have learned the truths of faith from the teachings of the Church and from the Word, and from this knowledge are given the trust or assurance that they are saved through the Lord's righteousness, and that the Lord acquired righteousness by fulfilling all things of the Law, also merit because He endured the Cross, thereby making atonement for and redeeming mankind. By this faith alone, they suppose, is a person justified; and they also suppose that people such as this are the ones whom the Word calls 'the righteous'.

[2] These however are not the ones whom the Word calls 'the righteous' but those who are governed by the good of charity towards the neighbour, received from the Lord. For the Lord alone is righteous, since He alone is Righteousness; and therefore in the measure that a person receives good from the Lord, that is, in the measure that what composes the Lord's essential nature resides with him, he is righteous and has been justified. The Lord became Righteousness through making His Human, by His own power, Divine. This Divine virtue residing with a person who receives it is the Lord's Righteousness with him. And it is the true good of charity towards the neighbour; for the Lord is within the good of love and through this within the truth of faith, the Lord being Divine Love itself.

[3] The good of charity towards the neighbour is exterior good, which is meant by 'the righteous', whereas the good of love to the Lord is interior good, which is meant by 'the innocent', dealt with immediately above in 9262. The fact that the good of love towards the neighbour, received from the Lord, is meant by 'righteous' in the proper sense may be recognized from places in the Word in which the expressions 'the righteous', 'righteousness', and 'being justified' occur, such as in Matthew,

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, When did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? But the King answering will say to them, Truly I say to you, Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. And the righteous will go into eternal life. Matthew 25:37-40, 46.

[4] Here those people are called 'the righteous' who have performed the good deeds of charity towards the neighbour that are recounted in this passage. The fact that those good deeds of charity constitute the Lord's presence with them is explicitly stated in the words, 'Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me', see 4807-4810, 4954-4959, 5063-5071. Those people are also called 'the sheep', for those governed by the good of charity from the Lord are meant by 'sheep', 4169, whereas 'the goats', who are on the left and are damned, means those who adhere to faith separated from charity, 4169 (end), 4769. The same people are meant by 'the righteous' elsewhere in Matthew,

The angels will come out and separate the evil from the midst of the righteous. Matthew 13:49.

And in Luke,

You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Luke 14:14.

[5] This shows what the meaning is of the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father, ² Matthew 13:43, namely people governed by the good of love, received from the Lord. For the Lord is the Sun in the next life; and the good of love flows from the Lord as the Sun there, see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321 (end), 4696, 5097, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173, 7270, 8487, 8812. This is why the Lord is called the Sun of Righteousness in Malachi 4:2. In Daniel,

Those who have intelligence will shine like the brightness of the expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3.

'Those who have intelligence' are people with whom the truth and good of faith are present, 'those who turn [many] to righteousness' are people who lead others by means of the truth and good of faith to the good of charity. 'Shining like the stars' means having an intelligent understanding of truth and a wise discernment of good, as a result of which they possess eternal happiness; for 'the stars' are cognitions or knowledge of truth and good, which lead on to intelligence and wisdom, 2495, 2849, 4697.

[6] 'A righteous person' is described in David as follows,

Jehovah upholds the righteous. The righteous shows mercy and gives. The righteous shows mercy all the day and lends. The righteous will possess the land and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous utters ³ wisdom and his tongue speaks judgement. The law of his God is in his heart. Psalms 37:16-34.

These are good deeds of charity, which are those of 'the righteous'. The fact that these good deeds of charity are inspired by the Lord, so much so that they are the Lord's with a person, is well known to the Church. 'A righteous person' is also described in Ezekiel 18:5-9, 21; 33:15ff.

[7] All this shows what it is that 'the righteous' and 'righteousness' mean in the following places: In Matthew,

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6.

In the same gospel,

He who welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in a righteous person's name will receive a righteous person's reward. Matthew 10:41.

In the same gospel,

Many prophets and righteous people desired to see what you see, but did not see it. Matthew 13:17.

In the same gospel,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous. On you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel ... Matthew 23:29, 35.

'The prophets' stands for those who teach the truths and forms of the good of faith, and in the abstract sense for doctrinal teachings that compose faith, 2534, 7269; and 'the righteous' stands for those who lead a charitable life, and in the abstract sense for the good of charity. Abel, who is called 'righteous', represented the good of charity, see 342, 374.

[8] In Isaiah,

The righteous has perished, and no man takes it to heart; and holy men are taken away, ⁴ and no one understands. For because of evil the righteous is taken away. ⁵ Isaiah 57:1.

In the same prophet,

Your people will all be righteous; they will possess the land forever. Isaiah 60:21.

In the same prophet,

Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain with righteousness; let the earth open, in order that [its inhabitants] may bring forth the fruit of salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I Jehovah am speaking righteousness, declaring ways that are right. ⁶ Isaiah 45:8, 19.

'Righteousness' stands for what comes out of the good of love, 'ways that are right' for what comes out of the truths of faith. In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, Keep judgement and do righteousness, for My salvation is near [to come], and My righteousness to be revealed. Isaiah 56:1.

'Judgement' means the truth that belongs to faith, and 'righteousness' the good that belongs to charity, which is why it says 'do righteousness'. The fact that 'righteousness' is the good of charity received from the Lord is what the words 'My righteousness is near to be revealed' are used to mean.

[9] Many times also, in other places, the words 'judgement and righteousness' are used, 'judgement' meaning truth and 'righteousness' meaning good, as in Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, Do judgement and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Woe to him who builds his house in unrighteousness, and his upper rooms not in judgement! Did not your father eat and drink, and do judgement and righteousness? Then it was well with him. Jeremiah 22:3, 13, 15.

'Judgement' stands for those things that are matters of truth, and 'righteousness' for those that are aspects of good. In Ezekiel,

If the wicked person turns away from his sin and does judgement and righteousness, all his sins which he has committed will not be remembered; he has done judgement and righteousness, he will surely live. When the wicked turns away from his wickedness and does judgement and righteousness he will live because of these. Ezekiel 33:14, 16, 19.

Other places similar to these include Isaiah 9:7; 16:5; 26:7, 9; 33:5, 15; 56:1; 58:2; Jeremiah 9:24; 23:5; 33:15; Hosea 2:19-20; Amos 5:24; 6:12; Psalms 36:5-6; 119:164, 172. The words 'judgement and righteousness' are used because wherever truth is dealt with in the Word, so too is good, on account of the heavenly marriage in every detail of the Word, which is the marriage of goodness and truth, spoken of in 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 4138 (end), 5138, 5502, 6343, 7945, 8339. Since righteousness is associated with good and judgement is associated with truth, other places again use the words righteousness and truth, such as Zechariah 8:8; Psalms 15:2; 36:5-6; 85:11-12.

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