4462. To give our sister to a man that hath a foreskin. That this signifies unless they made the truth and good of the church to consist in representatives, and would recede from the things which these signify, is evident from the signification of the “foreskin,” as being an external representative-a sign that they were of the church; and therefore it was usual to speak of circumcision and the foreskin when a distinction was to be made between those who were of the church and those who were not. For “circumcision” signifies recession from filthy loves, namely, from the love of self and of the world, and accession to heavenly loves, which are love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor, thus accession to the church. Hence it is that by these words is signified accession to their religiosity, and consequently that like them they should make the truth and good of the church consist in representatives by receding from the internal things which are signified, for otherwise they would not be like them, according to the words that follow: “In this will we consent to you, if ye be as we.” (That circumcision is a sign of purification from filthy loves, see n. 2039, 2632; and that they who are in these loves were called “uncircumcised,” n. 2049, 3412, 3413.)

[2] Scarcely anyone at this day knows what is the specific signification of circumcision, and therefore this must be told. The genitals in both sexes signify the things which belong to the conjunction of good and truth; nor do they merely signify these things, but also actually correspond to them. It has been shown at the end of the chapters that all man’s organs and members have a correspondence with spiritual things in heaven, and consequently so have the organs and members allotted to generation. These correspond to the marriage of good and truth; and from this marriage descends conjugial love (see n. 2618, 2727-2729, 2803, 3132, 4434). As the foreskin covers the genital, in the Most Ancient Church it corresponded to the obscuration of good and truth, but in the Ancient Church to their defilement. For with the man of the Most Ancient Church, who was an internal man, good and truth could be obscured but not defiled; whereas with the man of the Ancient Church, being a comparatively external man, good and truth could be defiled, because it is external things—that is, external loves—which defile. For this reason they who were of the Most Ancient Church knew nothing of circumcision, but only they who were of the Ancient Church.

[3] From this church circumcision spread to many nations; and it was not enjoined upon Abraham and his descendants as anything new, but merely as a discontinued rite that was to be restored; and it became to his posterity a sign that they were of the church. But that nation neither knew nor desired to know what this rite signified, for they made their religiosity consist in mere representatives, which are external matters, and therefore they included all the uncircumcised in one general condemnation, although circumcision was only a sign representative of purification from the love of self and of the world. Those who are purified from this love are the spiritually circumcised, and are said to be “circumcised in heart,” as in Moses:

Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God in all thy heart, and in all thy soul (Deuteronomy 30:6).

In the same:

Ye shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and shall no longer harden your neck (Deuteronomy 10:16).

And in Jeremiah:

Break up your fallow ground, and take away the foreskin of your heart (Jeremiah 4:3-4).

[4] But they who are in the loves of self and of the world are called “the uncircumcised,” in spite of the fact that they had been circumcised; as in Jeremiah:

Behold the days come in which I will visit upon everyone that is circumcised in the foreskin, upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that are cut off at the corner, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart (Jeremiah 9:25-26);

this passage shows that many other nations were circumcised, for it is said, “I will visit upon everyone that is circumcised in the foreskin,” so that as already stated this was not a new rite, or restricted to the descendants of Jacob as a mark of distinction. The Philistines were not circumcised, and therefore it is they who are usually meant by “the uncircumcised” (1 Samuel 14:6; 17:26, 36; 31:4; 2 Samuel 1:20, and in other places).

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.