2
Belshazzar hath said -- while tasting the wine -- to bring in the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple that [is] in Jerusalem, that drink with them may the king, and his great men, his wives, and his concubines.
5223. 'And he sent and called all the magi of Egypt, and its wise men means in consulting factual knowledge, interior as well as exterior. This is clear from the meaning of 'the magi' in the good sense as interior factual knowledge, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'wise men' as exterior factual knowledge, also dealt with below. The reason 'the magi and wise men of Egypt' means factual knowledge is that Egypt had been one of the kingdoms where the representative Ancient Church existed, 1278, 2385. But in Egypt the facts known to that Church were the particular objects of care and attention, being knowledge about correspondences, representatives, and meaningful signs. For that knowledge was used to explain what had been written in the books of the Church, and to explain the things that were done in their sacred worship, 4749, 4964, 4966. This was how it came about that 'Egypt' meant factual knowledge in general, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, as did 'Pharaoh' its king too. The leading people among them who were well-versed in and imparted that knowledge were called magi and wise men. The magi were those well-versed in mystical knowledge, the wise men those well-versed in non-mystical, so that the facts known to the magi were interior ones, while those known to the wise men were exterior. This explains why such factual knowledge is meant in the Word by those two kinds of men. But after they began to misuse the Church's interior factual knowledge and to turn it into magic, Egypt', and likewise 'the magi of Egypt and its wise men', began to mean factual knowledge that led to perversions.
[2] The magi in those times had a knowledge of the kinds of things that belong to the spiritual world, and in their teaching about these they employed the correspondences and the representatives known to the Church. For this reason many of those magi also communicated with spirits and learned the arts of illusion which they used to perform miracles that involved magic. But those who were called the wise men had no interest in anything like this. Instead they provided the answers to hard questions and taught about the causes lying behind natural things. It was primarily in arts such as these that the wisdom of those times consisted, and the ability to practise them was called wisdom. This becomes clear from what is recorded about Solomon in the first Book of Kings,
Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east, and all the wisdom of the Egyptians, so much so that he was wiser than all people - than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. In addition he spoke about trees, from the cedars which are in Lebanon even to the hyssop which comes out of the wall. He also spoke about beasts, and about birds, and about creeping things, and about fish. Therefore they came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth who had heard about his wisdom. 1 Kings 4:30-34.
Also there is what is recorded about the queen of Sheba in the same book,
She came to test him with hard questions; and Solomon gave her an explanation for every matter she mentioned. 1 There was not a matter 2 hidden from the king for which he could not give her an explanation. 1 Kings 10:1 and following verses.
[3] From this one may see what was described in those times as wisdom and who exactly those people were who were called wise men, not only in Egypt but also elsewhere - in Syria, Arabia, and Babel. But in the internal sense 'the wisdom of Egypt' means nothing else than knowledge about natural things, while 'that of the magi' means knowledge about spiritual realities, so that exterior factual knowledge is meant by 'the wise men', and interior factual knowledge by 'the magi', 'Egypt' meaning knowledge in general, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 4749, 4964, 4966.
Egypt and its wise men had no other meaning in Isaiah,
The princes of Zoan are foolish, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh has become brutish. How does one say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old? Where are your wise men now? Isaiah 19:11-12.
[4] The fact that the term 'magi' was applied to those who had a knowledge of spiritual realities, and who also for that reason received revelations, is clear from the magi who came from the east to Jerusalem, asking where the King of the Jews was to be born and saying that they had seen His star in the east and had come to worship Him, Matthew 2:1-2. The same is also clear from Daniel, who is called the chief of the magi in Daniel 4:9. And in another place,
The queen said to King Belshazzar, There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. And in the days of your father, light and intelligence and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. Therefore King Nebuchadnezzar your father set him up as chief of the magi, diviners, Chaldeans, and determiners. Daniel 5:11.
And in yet another place,
Among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; for when they were to stand before the king, every matter of wisdom [and] understanding which the king asked of them exceeded ten times [that of] all the magi, the diviners who were in his kingdom. Daniel 1:19-20.
[5] It is well known that in the contrary sense 'magi' 3 is used to mean those who pervert spiritual realities and thereby practise magic, like those mentioned in Exodus 7:9-12; 8:7, 19; 9:11. For magic is nothing else than a perversion, being the perverted use of those kinds of things that constitute true order in the spiritual world, a perverted use that gives rise to magic. But at the present day such magic is called natural, for the reason that no recognition exists any longer of anything above or beyond the natural order. People refuse to accept the existence of anything spiritual unless one means by this an interior dimension of what is natural.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. literally, all her words
2. literally, word
3. The same Latin noun magus describes a wise man or philosopher in a good sense, but a magician in a bad sense.
1
And the fifth messenger did sound, and I saw a star out of the heaven having fallen to the earth, and there was given to it the key of the pit of the abyss,
2
and he did open the pit of the abyss, and there came up a smoke out of the pit as smoke of a great furnace, and darkened was the sun and the air, from the smoke of the pit.
3
And out of the smoke came forth locusts to the earth, and there was given to them authority, as scorpions of the earth have authority,
4
and it was said to them that they may not injure the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but -- the men only who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads,
5
and it was given to them that they may not kill them, but that they may be tormented five months, and their torment [is] as the torment of a scorpion, when it may strike a man;
6
and in those days shall men seek the death, and they shall not find it, and they shall desire to die, and the death shall flee from them.
7
And the likenesses of the locusts [are] like to horses made ready to battle, and upon their heads as crowns like gold, and their faces as faces of men,
8
and they had hair as hair of women, and their teeth were as [those] of lions,
9
and they had breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings [is] as the noise of chariots of many horses running to battle;
10
and they have tails like to scorpions, and stings were in their tails; and their authority [is] to injure men five months;
11
and they have over them a king -- the messenger of the abyss -- a name [is] to him in Hebrew, Abaddon, and in the Greek he hath a name, Apollyon.
12
The first wo did go forth, lo, there come yet two woes after these things.
13
And the sixth messenger did sound, and I heard a voice out of the four horns of the altar of gold that is before God,
14
saying to the sixth messenger who had the trumpet, `Loose the four messengers who are bound at the great river Euphrates;'
15
and loosed were the four messengers, who have been made ready for the hour, and day, and month, and year, that they may kill the third of men;
16
and the number of the forces of the horsemen [is] two myriads of myriads, and I heard the number of them.
17
And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those sitting upon them, having breastplates of fire, and jacinth, and brimstone; and the heads of the horses [are] as heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceedeth fire, and smoke, and brimstone;
18
by these three were the third of men killed, from the fire, and from the smoke, and from the brimstone, that is proceeding out of their mouth,
19
for their authorities are in their mouth, and in their tails, for their tails [are] like serpents, having heads, and with them they do injure;
20
and the rest of men, who were not killed in these plagues, neither did reform from the works of their hands, that they may not bow before the demons, and idols, those of gold, and those of silver, and those of brass, and those of stone, and those of wood, that are neither able to see, nor to hear, nor to walk,
21
yea they did not reform from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their whoredoms, nor from their thefts.
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