7049. Then she said, A bridegroom of bloods as to circumcisions. That this signifies that although the internal was full of violence and hostility against truth and good, still circumcision was to be received as a sign representative of purification from filthy loves, is evident from the signification of a “bridegroom of blood,” as being what is full of all violence and hostility against truth and good (of which above, n. 7047); and from the signification of “circumcision,” as being a sign representative of purification from filthy loves (see n. 2039, 2632, 3412, 3413, 4462, 4486, 4493). This is said by Zipporah, because it was now permitted that nation to represent the church, which is signified by “ceasing from killing him” (n. 7048). Circumcision was made a sign representative of purification, because by “cutting off the foreskin” was signified the removal of filthy loves, and thereby the laying bare of the internal (n. 7045); and therefore when the internal is not at all attended to, as was the case with that nation, which was in externals without an internal, there then remains the signification of circumcision or the cutting off of the foreskin, namely, the removal of filthy loves, thus purification, for which reason it could serve as a representative sign.

3412. And all the wells that his father’s servants digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them up. That this signifies that they who were in the memory-knowledge of knowledges were not willing to know interior truths which are from the Divine, and thus obliterated them, is evident from the signification of “wells,” as being truths (n. 2702, 3096), here, interior truths which are from the Divine, inasmuch as the wells by which truths are signified are said to have been digged by his father’s servants in the days of Abraham his father, for by Abraham is represented the Lord’s Divine Itself (n. 2011, 2833, 2836, 3251, 3305); from the signification of “stopping up,” as being not to be willing to know, and thus to obliterate; and from the representation of the Philistines, as being those who are solely in the memory-knowledges of knowledges (n. 1197, 1198).

[2] Appearances of truth of a lower degree are now treated of, in which they may be who are in the memory-knowledge of knowledges, and who are here meant by the “Philistines.” With interior truths which are from the Divine, and which are obliterated by those who are called “Philistines,” the case is this: In the Ancient Church and afterwards, those were called “Philistines” who applied themselves little to life, but much to doctrine, and who in process of time even rejected the things which are of life, and acknowledged as the essential of the church the things which are of faith, which they separated from life; consequently who made light of the doctrinal things of charity, which in the Ancient Church were the sum and substance of doctrine, and thus obliterated them, and instead thereof vaunted much the doctrinal things of faith, and made the whole of religion to consist in these; and inasmuch as thereby they departed from the life which is of charity-that is, from the charity which is of life-they preeminently were called the “uncircumcised;” for by the “uncircumcised” were signified all who were not in charity, however much they might be in doctrinal things (n. 2049).

[3] Those who thus departed from charity removed themselves also from wisdom and intelligence; for no one can be wise and intelligent in regard to truth unless he is in good, that is, in charity, because all truth is from good, and looks to good; so that they who are without good cannot understand truth, and are not even willing to know it. In the other life, when such persons are far from heaven, there sometimes appears with them a snowy light; but this light is like that of winter, which being devoid of heat produces no fruit; and therefore when such persons draw near to heaven their light is turned into mere darkness, and their minds are plunged into the like, that is, into stupor. From all this it can now be seen what is meant by the statement that those who are in the mere memory-knowledge of knowledges were not willing to know interior truths which are from the Divine, and thus obliterated them.