Die Bibel

 

Genesis 33:19

Lernen

       

19 And he bought the portion of the field where he had spread his tent, of the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred kesitahs.

Aus Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #4373

studieren Sie diesen Abschnitt

  
/ 10837  
  

4373. 'And he urged him. and he took it' means that that affection originating in the good of truth was instilled by means of affection inspired by Divine Good. This becomes clear from the explanations given so far in 4364 onwards. Further evidence of the actual affection for truth, inspired within the good by Divine Good, is displayed by his urging him, see above in 4366. Before anything more can be said about the affection for truth which is the subject in these verses, it should be recognized that although that affection seems to derive from truth and so to exist within truth it does not derive from truth but from good; for truth has no life at all within it apart from that which comes from good. Its seeming to derive from truth is, to use a comparison, like the life which is present within the body. That life does not in fact belong to the body but to the soul, nor yet to the soul but flows in by way of the soul from the Prime source of life, that is, from the Lord, however much it seems to belong to the body It is also like an image in a mirror, which is seen within the mirror but is in fact a reflection of a shape entering from outside.

[2] To people who confine their minds to the historical details it is not indeed apparent that the internal sense of these words and those before them is anything of the kind; for their thought is of Esau, and of Jacob and the gift he sent ahead of him. They are not aware of the fact that 'Esau' represents Divine Good within the natural and 'Jacob' truth which is to be joined there to Divine Good. Nor are they aware that their friendly dialogue here means an affection inspired within truth by good. Yet the angels understand these historical details in no other way when these are read by man, for angels possess no other mental picture of things than a spiritual one. With them the historical sense is converted into that spiritual picture, and in this way angelic thoughts correspond to those of men. It is never-ending correspondences such as these that cause the Word to be holy and Divine, for as it rises up to heaven the literal sense becomes spiritual. It also rises all the way up to the Lord, where it becomes Divine. This is Inspiration.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

Kommentar

 

Servant

  

“Servant” literally means “a person who serves another," and its meaning is similar in reference to its spiritual meanings of the Bible. Our lives in their most outward form -- the physical actions we take and the thoughts and feelings directly connected to them -- are in a way “servants” to our deeper, more hidden, internal thoughts and desires. So in most cases, “servants” in the Bible represent things we're doing and thinking on that outward, external level. Servants can have good masters or evil ones, obviously, and a servant doing good work in service of an evil master is actually making the world a more evil place. So the precise meaning of a given servant in the Bible depends on the nature of the master he or she is serving. Finally, when the Bible is addressing the Lord's own spiritual development, “servant” represents the Lord's most outward aspect: the human body he inherited from Mary, with all its frailties and potential for temptation.