10283. Upon the flesh of man shall it not be poured. That this signifies that which is not communicative to what is man’s own, is evident from the signification of “the flesh of man,” as being that which is his own (of which below); and from the signification of “pouring,” as being to communicate; for the like is signified by “pouring” as by “touching,” but “pouring” is said of liquids, as of oil, wine, and water, and “pouring forth” of things Divine, celestial, and spiritual; while “touching” is said of things dry and bodily (that “to touch” denotes to communicate, see n. 10130). Hence it follows that by the oil of anointing not being poured on the flesh of man is signified that the Divine good of the Lord’s Divine love is not communicative to that which is man’s own, because that which is man’s own is nothing but evil, and the Lord’s Divine good cannot be communicated to what is evil. (That what is man’s own is nothing but evil, see n. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1024, 1047, 5660, 5786, 8480)

[2] Man has that which is his own in both the will and the understanding; the former is evil, and the latter is the falsity thence derived; that is to say, the former is signified by “the flesh of man,” and the latter by the “blood” of this flesh. That this is so is evident from the following passages, in Matthew:

Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in the heavens (Matthew 16:17).

That “flesh” here, and also “blood,” denote that which is man’s own, is very evident.

[3] In John:

As many as received Him, to them gave He power to be the sons of God, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God (John 1:12-13).

By “bloods” are here signified the falsities which come forth from that which is man’s own in his understanding; and by “the will of the flesh” are signified the evils which come forth from that which is his own in his will. (That “bloods” denote falsity from evil, thus what is man’s own in the understanding derived from what is his own in the will, see n. 4735, 9127)

[4] In Isaiah:

I will feed thine oppressors with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with new wine (Isaiah 49:26); where to “feed them with their own flesh, and make them drunken with their own blood,” denotes to fill them with evil and the falsity of evil, thus with that which is their own; for both evil and falsity are from this.

[5] In Jeremiah:

Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17:5).

“To trust in man, and make flesh his arm,” denotes to trust in himself and in what is his own.

[6] In Isaiah:

The people is become like food for the fire; if one shall cut down on the right hand, he shall be hungry; and if he shall eat on the left hand, they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh (Isaiah 9:19-20).

By “food for the fire” is signified the appropriation of evils, or the cupidities of the love of self and the world; by “being hungry and not being satisfied” is signified not to receive the good and truth of faith; by “the flesh of the arm” is signified what is man’s own of both kinds; by “Manasseh,” the evil of the will; by “Ephraim,” the falsity of the understanding; and by “eating,” to make one’s own. (That “fires” denote the evils or cupidities of the love of self and the world, see n. 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324, 7575, 9141; and that “to be hungry and not satisfied” denotes not to receive the good and truth of faith, is because by “hunger and thirst” is signified the desolation of good and truth, n. 5360, 5376, 6110, 7102, 8568; that the “right hand” denotes the good from which is truth, and the “left hand” the truth through which is good, see n. 10061.) Hence “to be hungry if he cut down on the right hand, and not to be satisfied if he ate on the left hand,” signifies that however much they are instructed concerning good and truth, they will nevertheless not receive them.

[7] “Manasseh” denotes the good of the will (see n. 5348, 5351, 5353, 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267); and “Ephraim” denotes the truth of the understanding (n. 3969, 5354, 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267); hence in the opposite sense “Manasseh” denotes the evil of the will, and “Ephraim” the falsity of the understanding, for almost all things in the Word have also an opposite sense. “To eat” denotes to appropriate (n. 3168, 3513, 3596, 4745); hence it is plain what is meant by “eating the flesh of his own arm,” namely, appropriating to themselves evil and falsity from what is their own. It is said “the flesh of the arm” because by the “arm,” as by the “hand,” is signified that which belongs to man, and in which he trusts (see at the places cited in n. 10019).

[8] In Zechariah:

I said, I will not feed you; he that dieth let him die; let those who remain eat everyone the flesh of another (Zech. 11:9).

“Not to feed” denotes not to instruct and reform; “to die” denotes to perish as to spiritual life; “to eat the flesh of another” denotes to appropriate to themselves the evils which are from that which is another’s.

[9] In Ezekiel:

Jerusalem, thou hast committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt thy neighbors, great in flesh (Ezekiel 16:26).

“Jerusalem” denotes the perverted church; “to commit whoredom with the sons of Egypt great in flesh” denotes to falsify the truths of the church by means of memory-knowledges which are from the natural man alone, thus by means of sensuous memory-knowledges. (That “Jerusalem” denotes the church, see n. 402, 2117, 3654, here the perverted church; that “to commit whoredom” denotes to falsify truths, n. 2466, 2729, 8904; that “sons” denote truths and also falsities, n. 1147, 3373, 4257, 9807; that “Egypt” denotes memory-knowledge in both senses, see the places cited in n. 9340; and that it denotes the natural, n. 9391.) Hence those are called “great in flesh” who from the things of sense reason and draw conclusions about the truths of the church. They who do this, seize on falsities instead of truths, for to reason and draw conclusions from the things of sense is to do so from the fallacies of the bodily senses; wherefore it is sensuous men who are meant by “great in flesh,” because they think from that which is their own in the body.

[10] In Isaiah:

Egypt is a man, and not God; and his horses are flesh, and not spirit (Isaiah 31:3).

Here also “Egypt” denotes memory-knowledge; his “horses” denote the understanding thence derived; this is called “flesh not spirit,” when they draw conclusions from what is their own, and not from the Divine (that “horses” denote the understanding, see n. 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 6534; and that the “horses of Egypt” denote memory-knowledges in conformity with a perverted understanding, n. 6125, 8146, 8148).

[11] That by “flesh” is signified that which is man’s own, or what is the same, the evil of his will, is evident from Moses where the subject treated of is the desire of the Israelitish people to eat flesh, of which it is thus written:

The rabble that was in the midst of the people lusted a lust, and said, Who shall feed us with flesh? Jehovah said, Tomorrow ye shall eat flesh; ye shall not eat it one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but even for a month of days. And there went forth a wind from Jehovah, and carried off the quails from the sea, and let them fall over the camp, as it were two ells upon the faces of the earth. The people rose up all the day and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered and spread them round about the camp. While the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was swallowed, the anger of Jehovah burned against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great plague; whence he called the name of that place, The graves of lust (Numbers 11:4, 18-20, 31 11:31-33).

[12] That “flesh” signified what belonged to that nation, can be seen from the details in this passage; for had it not been so, what evil could there have been in desiring flesh, especially as flesh had previously been promised them (Exodus 16:12)? But as it signified that which was their own, thus the evil of the will, in which that nation was more than other nations, therefore it is said when they desired flesh, that they “lusted a lust;” and therefore they were smitten with a great plague, and the name of the place where they were buried was called “the graves of lusts [concupiscentiarum].” Whether you say evil of the will, or concupiscence, it is the same, for the evil of the will is concupiscence, because man’s own desires nothing but its own, and not anything of the neighbor, or anything of God, except for the sake of itself.

Because that nation was of this character, it is said that “they should eat flesh, not one day, nor two, nor five, nor ten, nor twenty, but even for a month of days,” by which is signified that that nation would be such forever; for “a month of days” means forever, and therefore it is said that “the flesh being yet between the teeth, before it was swallowed, they were smitten with a great plague;” for by “teeth” is signified the bodily (or corporeal) own, which is the lowest of man (n. 4424, 5565-5568, 9062). (That that nation was of such a character, see the places cited in n. 9380; and also in the song of Moses in Deuteronomy, 32:20-28, 32-34.)

[13] In the Word, “spirit” is opposed to “flesh,” because by “spirit” is signified life from the Lord, and by “flesh” life from man, as in John:

It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life (John 6:63).

From this it is evident that “spirit” denotes life from the Lord, which is the life of love and faith to Him from Him; and that “flesh” denotes life from man, thus what is his own; hence it is said, “the flesh profiteth nothing.” In like manner in John:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; but that which is born of the spirit is spirit (John 3:6).

God remembered that they were flesh, a wind [spirit] that goeth away, and cometh not again (Psalms 78:39).

[14] As by “flesh,” when said of man, is signified that which is his own, which is the evil of the love of self and the world, it is plain what is signified by “flesh” when said of the Lord, namely, that which is His own, which is the Divine good of the Divine love. This is signified by the “flesh” of the Lord in John:

The bread that I will give is My flesh. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you; he that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; for My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed (John 6:51, 53-55).

(That by the Lord’s “flesh” is signified the Divine good of His Divine love, and by His “blood” the Divine truth proceeding from this Divine good, thus the like as by the bread and the wine in the Holy Supper, and that these are His own in His Divine Human, see n. 1001, 3813, (3813) 4735, 4976, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7850, 9127, 9393, 10026, 10033, 10152; and that the sacrifices represented the goods which are from the Lord, and that on this account their “flesh” signified goods, see n. 10040, 10079). Moreover, in the Word throughout mention is made of “all flesh,” and by it is meant every man (as Genesis 6:12-13, 17, 19; Isaiah 40:5-6; 49:26 66:16, 23-24; Jeremiah 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezekiel 20:48; 21:4-5).

4735. Shed no blood. That this signifies that they should not do violence to what is holy is evident from the signification of “blood” as being what is holy-of which in what follows; hence “to shed blood” is to do violence to what is holy. All the holy in heaven proceeds from the Lord’s Divine Human, and therefore all the holy in the church; wherefore that violence might not be done to it, the Holy Supper was instituted by the Lord, in which it is expressly said that the bread is His flesh, and the wine His blood, thus that it is his Divine Human from which the holy then comes. With the ancients, flesh and blood signified the human own, because the human consists of flesh and blood; thus the Lord said to Simon, “Blessed art thou, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in the heavens” (Matthew 16:17). The flesh and the blood, therefore, signified by the bread and the wine in the Holy Supper, denote the Lord’s Human Own. The Lord’s Own Itself, which He acquired to Himself by His own power, is Divine. His Own from conception was what He had from Jehovah His Father, and was Jehovah Himself. Hence the Own which He acquired to Himself in the Human was Divine. This Divine Own in the Human is what is called His flesh and blood; “flesh” is His Divine good (n. 3813), and “blood” is the Divine truth of Divine good.

[2] The Lord’s Human, after it was glorified or made Divine, cannot be thought of as human, but as the Divine love in human form; and this so much the more than the angels, who, when they appear (as seen by me), appear as forms of love and charity under the human shape, and this from the Lord; for the Lord from Divine love made His Human Divine; just as man through heavenly love becomes an angel after death, so that he appears, as just said, as a form of love and charity under the human shape. It is plain from this that by the Lord’s Divine Human, in the celestial sense is signified the Divine love itself, which is love toward the whole human race, in that it wills to save them and to make them blessed and happy to eternity, and to make its Divine their own so far as they can receive it. This love and the reciprocal love of man to the Lord, and also love toward the neighbor, are what are signified and represented in the Holy Supper-the Divine celestial love by the flesh or bread, and the Divine spiritual love by the blood or wine.

[3] From these things it is now evident what is meant in John by eating the Lord’s flesh and drinking His blood:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me, and I in him. This is the bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51-58).

As “flesh and blood” signify as before said the Divine celestial and the Divine spiritual which are from the Lord’s Divine Human, or what is the same, the Divine good and the Divine truth of his love, by “eating and drinking” is signified making them one’s own; and this is effected by a life of love and charity, which is also a life of faith. (That “eating” is making good one’s own, and “drinking” making truth one’s own, may be seen above, n. 2187, 3069, 3168, 3513, 3596, 3734, 3832, 4017, 4018.)

[4] As “blood” in the celestial sense signifies the Divine spiritual or the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human, it therefore signifies the holy proceeding; for the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human is the holy itself.

[5] Holiness is nothing else, nor from any other source. That “blood” signifies this holy is evident from many passages in the Word, of which we may adduce the following:

Son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovih, Say to every bird of the heaven, to every wild beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come; gather yourselves from every side upon My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, [of bullocks,] all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of My sacrifice which I will sacrifice for you. And ye shall be sated at My table with horse and chariot, with the strong, and with every man of war. And I will set My glory among the nations (Ezekiel 39:17-21).

The subject here treated of is the calling together of all to the Lord’s kingdom, and specifically the setting up again of the church among the Gentiles; and by their “eating flesh and drinking blood” is signified making Divine good and Divine truth their own, thus the holy which proceeds from the Lord’s Divine Human. Who cannot see that by “flesh” is not meant flesh, nor by “blood” blood, where it is said that they should eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, and that they should be sated with horse and chariot, with the strong, and with every man of war?

[6] So likewise in Revelation:

I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, Come and gather yourselves unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of the strong, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great (Revelation 19:17-18);

who would ever understand these words unless he knew what is signified in the internal sense by “flesh,” and what by “kings,” “captains,” “the strong” “horses,” “those that sit thereon,” and “free and bond?”

[7] Further in Zechariah:

He shall speak peace to the nations; and His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, through the blood of Thy covenant I will send forth thy bound out of the pit (Zech. 9:10-11); where the Lord is spoken of; the “blood of Thy covenant” is the Divine truth proceeding from his Divine Human, and is the holy itself which, after He was glorified, went forth from Him. This holy is also what is called the Holy Spirit, as is evident in John:

Jesus said, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. Whosoever believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:37-39).

That the holy proceeding from the Lord is the “spirit,” may be seen in John 6:63.

[8] Moreover, that “blood” is the holy proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human, in David:

Bring back their soul from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in His eyes (Psalms 72:14);

“precious blood” denotes the holy which they would receive.

In Revelation:

These are they who come out of great affliction, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14).

And again:

They overcame the dragon by the blood of the lamb, and by the Word of their testimony; and they loved not their soul even unto death (Revelation 12:11).

[9] The church at this day does not know otherwise than that the “blood of the lamb” here signifies the Lord’s passion, because it is believed that they are saved solely by the Lord having suffered, and that it was for this that He was sent into the world; but let this view of it be for the simple, who cannot comprehend interior arcana. The Lord’s passion was the last of His temptation, by which He fully glorified His Human (Luke 24:26; John 12:23, 27-28; 13:31-32; 17:1, 4-5); but the “blood of the lamb” is the same as the Divine truth, or the holy proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human; thus the same as the “blood of the covenant” spoken of just above, and of which it is also written in Moses:

[10] Moses took the book of the covenant, and read in the ears of the people; and they said, All that Jehovah hath spoken will we do, and hear. Then Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which Jehovah hath made with you upon all these words (Exodus 24:7-8).

The “book of the covenant” was the Divine truth which they then had, which was confirmed by the blood testifying that it was from His Divine Human.

[11] In the rituals of the Jewish Church blood had no other signification than the holy proceeding from the Lord’s Divine Human, wherefore when they were sanctified, it was done by blood-as when Aaron and his sons were sanctified, blood was sprinkled upon the horns of the altar, the remainder at the bottom of the altar, also upon the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, and upon his garments (Exodus 29:12, 16, 20; Leviticus 8:15, 19, 23, 30). And when Aaron entered within the veil to the mercy-seat, blood was also to be sprinkled with the finger upon the mercy-seat eastward seven times (Leviticus 16:12-15). So also in the rest of the sanctifications, and also in the expiations and cleansings (in regard to which see the following passages, Exodus 12:7, 13, 22; 30:10; Leviticus 1:5, 11, 15; 3:2, 8, 13; 4:6-7, 17-18, 25, 30, 34; 5:9; 6:27-28; 14:14-19, 25-30; 16:12-15, 18-19; Deuteronomy 12:27).

[12] As by “blood” in the genuine sense is signified the holy, so in the opposite sense by “blood” and “bloods” are signified those things which offer violence to it, because by shedding innocent blood is signified doing violence to what is holy. For this reason wicked things of life and profane things of worship were called “blood.” That “blood” and “bloods” have such a signification, is evident from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

When the Lord shall have washed the excrement of the daughters of Zion, and shall have washed away the bloods of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of expurgation (Isaiah 4:4).

The waters of Dimon are full of blood (Isaiah 15:9).

Again:

Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity (Isaiah 59:3, 7).

In Jeremiah:

Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor (Jeremiah 2:34).

[13] Again:

It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of Jerusalem. They have wandered blind in the streets, they are polluted with blood; those which they cannot [pollute] they touch with their garments (Lam. 4:13-14).

In Ezekiel:

I have passed by thee, and saw thee trodden down in thy bloods, and I said unto thee, Live in thy bloods, and I said unto thee, Live in thy bloods. I washed thee with waters, and washed away thy bloods from upon thee, and I anointed thee with oil (Ezekiel 16:6, 9).

Again:

Thou son of man, Wilt thou debate with a city of bloods? Make known to her all her abominations. Thou art become guilty through thy blood that thou hast shed, and art defiled through thine idols which thou hast made. Behold the princes of Israel, everyone according to his arm, have been in thee and have shed blood; men of slander have been in thee to shed blood; and in thee they have eaten at the mountains (Ezekiel 22:2-4, 6, 9).

In Moses:

If anyone shall sacrifice elsewhere than upon the altar at the tent, it shall be blood; and as if he had shed blood (Leviticus 17:1-9).

[14] Falsified and profaned truth is signified by the following passages concerning blood.

In Joel:

I will set wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day come (Joel 2:30-31).

In Revelation:

The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood (Revelation 6:12).

Again

The second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood (Revelation 8:8).

Again:

The second angel poured out his vial into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial into the rivers, and into the fountains of waters, and there became blood (Revelation 16:3-4).

[15] Similar is what is said in Exodus (7:15-22), about the rivers, ponds, and pools of water in Egypt being turned into blood; for by “Egypt” is signified the memory-knowledge which from itself enters into heavenly mysteries, and hence perverts, denies, and profanes Divine truths (n. 1164, 1165, 1186). All the miracles in Egypt, being Divine, involved such things. The “rivers which were turned into blood” are the truths of intelligence and wisdom (n. 108, 109, 3051); “waters” have a similar signification (n. 680, 2702, 3058), and also “fountains” (n. 2702, 3096, 3424); “seas” are truths in the complex which are a matter of memory-knowledge (n. 28); the “moon” of which it is also said that it should be “turned into blood,” is Divine truth (n. 1529-1531, 2495, 4060). It is evident from this, that by the moon, the sea, fountains, waters, and rivers, being turned into blood, is signified truth falsified and profaned.