Bible

 

Genesis 38

Studie

   

1 And it cometh to pass, at that time, that Judah goeth down from his brethren, and turneth aside unto a man, an Adullamite, whose name [is] Hirah;

2 and Judah seeth there the daughter of a man, a Canaanite, whose name [is] Shuah, and taketh her, and goeth in unto her.

3 And she conceiveth, and beareth a son, and he calleth his name Er;

4 and she conceiveth again, and beareth a son, and calleth his name Onan;

5 and she addeth again, and beareth a son, and calleth his name Shelah; and he was in Chezib in her bearing him.

6 And Judah taketh a wife for Er, his first-born, and her name [is] Tamar;

7 and Er, Judah's first-born, is evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and Jehovah doth put him to death.

8 And Judah saith to Onan, `Go in unto the wife of thy brother, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother;'

9 and Onan knoweth that the seed is not [reckoned] his; and it hath come to pass, if he hath gone in unto his brother's wife, that he hath destroyed [it] to the earth, so as not to give seed to his brother;

10 and that which he hath done is evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and He putteth him also to death.

11 And Judah saith to Tamar his daughter-in-law, `Abide a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son groweth up;' for he said, `Lest he die -- even he -- like his brethren;' and Tamar goeth and dwelleth at her father's house.

12 And the days are multiplied, and the daughter of Shuah, Judah's wife, dieth; and Judah is comforted, and goeth up unto his sheep-shearers, he and Hirah his friend the Adullamite, to Timnath.

13 And it is declared to Tamar, saying, `Lo, thy husband's father is going up to Timnath to shear his flock;'

14 and she turneth aside the garments of her widowhood from off her, and covereth herself with a vail, and wrappeth herself up, and sitteth in the opening of Enayim, which [is] by the way to Timnath, for she hath seen that Shelah hath grown up, and she hath not been given to him for a wife.

15 And Judah seeth her, and reckoneth her for a harlot, for she hath covered her face,

16 and he turneth aside unto her by the way, and saith, `Come, I pray thee, let me Come in unto thee,' (for he hath not known that she [is] his daughter-in-law); and she saith, `What dost thou give to me, that thou mayest Come in unto me?'

17 and he saith, `I -- I send a kid of the goats from the flock.' And she saith, `Dost thou give a pledge till thou send [it]?'

18 and he saith, `What [is] the pledge that I give to thee?' and she saith, `Thy seal, and thy ribbon, and thy staff which [is] in thy hand;' and he giveth to her, and goeth in unto her, and she conceiveth to him;

19 and she riseth, and goeth, and turneth aside her vail from off her, and putteth on the garments of her widowhood.

20 And Judah sendeth the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the hand of the woman, and he hath not found her.

21 And he asketh the men of her place, saying, `Where [is] the separated one -- she in Enayim, by the way?' and they say, `There hath not been in this [place] a separated one.'

22 And he turneth back unto Judah, and saith, `I have not found her; and the men of the place also have said, There hath not been in this [place] a separated one,'

23 and Judah saith, `Let her take to herself, lest we become despised; lo, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.'

24 And it cometh to pass about three months [after], that it is declared to Judah, saying, `Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath committed fornication; and also, lo, she hath conceived by fornication:' and Judah saith, `Bring her out -- and she is burnt.'

25 She is brought out, and she hath sent unto her husband's father, saying, `To a man whose these [are], I [am] pregnant;' and she saith, `Discern, I pray thee, whose [are] these -- the seal, and the ribbons, and the staff.'

26 And Judah discerneth and saith, `She hath been more righteous than I, because that I did not give her to Shelah my son;' and he hath not added to know her again.

27 And it cometh to pass in the time of her bearing, that lo, twins [are] in her womb;

28 and it cometh to pass in her bearing, that [one] giveth out a hand, and the midwife taketh and bindeth on his hand a scarlet thread, saying, `This hath come out first.'

29 And it cometh to pass as he draweth back his hand, that lo, his brother hath come out, and she saith, `What! thou hast broken forth -- on thee [is] the breach;' and he calleth his name Pharez;

30 and afterwards hath his brother come out, on whose hand [is] the scarlet thread, and he calleth his name Zarah.

   

Komentář

 

Wife

  

The Hebrew of the Old Testament has six different common words which are generally translated as "wife," which largely overlap but have different nuances. Swedenborg uses two different Latin words, which largely overlap but have different nuances. Meanwhile, "wife" is often paired with "man" or "husband," which are also catch-all translations for a basket of Hebrew and Latin terms. So it's hard to pin down one universal meaning for "wife"; context and subject matter have a large effect.

In general, though, marriage in the Bible represents the union we all seek between our hearts and our minds. If we know what is right and pursue it faithfully, the Lord will ultimately help us love doing what is good, and the two aspects of ourselves will be unified. On a higher level, marriage represents the union we can have with the Lord, both individually and collectively as a church. As an intrinsic part of the marriage, the wife plays a key role in that meaning. But that meaning is different depending on what is being described.

If the marriage is describing a person who is spiritual in nature – "spiritual" being the second degree of heavenly life, in which people are led by intellect and knowledge with the desire for good following – the wife represents the desire for good, the affections that drive the person. If the marriage is describing someone who is celestial in nature – "celestial" being the highest degree of heavenly life, in which people are led from love, with the intellect and ideas following – the wife represents the true ideas held by the person or church. If the marriage is describing the union between the Lord and the church, the wife represents the church.

In a way, these are symbolic meanings that actually have little to do with gender. When "wife" describes a church, obviously that church can include both male and female people. When "wife" describes an aspect of a person, that person can obviously be either male or female.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 915, 1468, 1904 [1-2], 3246 [3-4], 3398, 4823 [2])

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 1904

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

1904. That 'Sarai, Abram's wife, took' means the affection for truth, which in the genuine sense is 'Sarai the wife', is clear from the meaning of 'Sarai' as truth allied to good, and from the meaning of 'wife' as affection, dealt with already in 915, 1468. There are two affections, distinct and separate - the affection for good and the affection for truth. While a person is being regenerated the affection for truth takes the lead, for it is an affection for truth for the sake of good that moves him; but once he has been regenerated the affection for good takes the lead, and it is now an affection for truth originating in good that moves him. The affection for good belongs to the will, the affection for truth to the understanding. The most ancient people established a marriage so to speak between these two affections. They used to refer to good (or the love of good) and truth (or the love of truth) as Man, calling the former 'the husband' and the latter 'the wife'. The comparison of good and truth to a marriage has its origins in the heavenly marriage.

[2] Regarded in themselves good and truth do not possess any life, but they derive their life from love or affection. They are merely the instruments that serve life. Consequently as is the love producing the affection for good and truth, so is the life; for the whole of life constitutes the whole of love or affection. This is why 'Sarai his wife' in the genuine sense means the affection for truth. And because the Intellectual desired the Rational as its offspring, and because what she says is an expression of that desire or affection, this verse contains the explicit wording, 'Sarai, Abram's wife, gave to Abram her husband' which would be an unnecessary repetition - for in themselves these words would be quite superfluous - if such matters were not embodied within the internal sense.

[3] Intellectual truth is distinct and separate from rational truth, and rational truth from factual truth, just as what is internal, what is intermediate, and what is external are. Intellectual truth is internal, rational truth is intermediate, while factual truth is external. These are quite distinct and separate because one is interior to another. With everyone intellectual truth, which is internal, or that present within the inmost part of him, is not his own but is the Lord's with him. From this the Lord flows into the rational, where truth first appears as if it were the person's own, and through the rational into his faculty of knowing. From these considerations it is clear that nobody can possibly think as of himself from intellectual truth, but from rational truth and factual truth because these do appear as if they were his.

[4] Only the Lord, when He lived in the world, thought from intellectual truth, for that truth was His own Divine truth joined to good, or the Divine spiritual joined to the Divine celestial. In this respect the Lord was different from all others. Man in no way possesses the ability to think from the Divine existing within himself as his essential self, nor can that ability possibly exist within man, only within Him who was conceived from Jehovah. Because He thought from intellectual truth, that is, from the love or affection for intellectual truth, from that truth also He desired the Rational. This is why it is stated here that 'Sarai, Abram's wife', by whom is meant the affection for intellectual truth, 'took Hagar the Egyptian and gave her to Abram her husband as his wife (mulier)'.

[5] No other arcana concealed here can be brought out and explained intelligibly because the human being dwells in very great obscurity regarding his own internals. Indeed he has no conception of these, for he identifies the rational and the intellectual degrees of the mind with the factual degree, not knowing that these degrees are distinct and separate, so distinct in fact that the intellectual is able to exist without the rational, as also can the rational, while subordinate to the intellectual, exist without the factual. This must inevitably seem absurd to those wholly immersed in factual knowledge, but it is nevertheless the truth. It is not possible however for anyone to have truth present in the factual degree of his mind, that is to say, to have an affection for it and a belief in it, if truth is not present in the rational, into which and through which the Lord flows in from the intellectual degree. These arcana do not lie open to man's view except in the next life.

  
/ 10837  
  

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