Bible

 

Genesis 34:2

Studie

       

2 and Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, a prince of the land, seeth her, and taketh her, and lieth with her, and humbleth her;

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 4498

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

4498. 'Dinah's brothers' means the truths and goods of that Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'brothers' as truths and goods, or faith and charity, dealt with in 367, 3303, 3803, 3815, 4121, 4191, 4267, and from the representation of 'Dinah' as the affection for truth, and therefore the Church, dealt with in 3963, 3964, 44227.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

Komentář

 

Two

  

The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.