2973. That was in all the border thereof round about. That this signifies exterior knowledges, is evident from the signification of “borders” and of “round about,” as being things which are exterior (of which above, n. 2936); so that here the “tree that was in the border round about” signifies exterior knowledges. Exterior knowledges are those of the ritual and doctrinal things that are the externals of the church; but interior knowledges are those of the doctrinal things that are the internals of the church. What the externals of the church are, and what the internal, has already been repeatedly stated.

[2] Moreover in various places in the Word mention is made of the “midst” and of that which is “round about;” as when speaking of the land of Canaan, that was called the “midst” where were Zion and Jerusalem, but the country “round about” was where the surrounding nations were. By the “land of Canaan” was represented the kingdom of the Lord; its celestial by “Zion,” and its spiritual by “Jerusalem,” where was the dwelling place of Jehovah or the Lord. The country “round about,” even to the borders, represented the celestial and spiritual things flowing forth in their order and derived therefrom; and in the furthest boundaries the representatives of celestial and spiritual things ceased. These representatives had their origin from those in the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens; there the Lord as a Sun is in the midst; from this is all celestial flame and spiritual light; they who are nearest are in the highest light, but they who are more remote are in less light, and they who are most remote are in the least; and there are the boundaries, and hell begins, which is outside of heaven.

[3] With celestial flame and spiritual light the case is this: The celestial things of innocence and love, and the spiritual things of charity and faith, are in the like ratio as are the heat and light the angels have; for all the heat and light in the heavens are therefrom. It is from this therefore that the “midst” signifies the inmost, and the circumference signifies the outermost, and the things which proceed in order from the inmost to the outermost are in such degrees of innocence, love, and charity as is their distance from the center. And so it is in every heavenly society; they who are in the midst are the best of that kind, and the love and charity of that kind decreases with them according to their remoteness from the center; that is, it decreases with those who are at a distance from the center, in proportion to the distance.

[4] The case is the like with man; his inmost is where the Lord dwells with him, and from this inmost governs the things which are round about. When man suffers the Lord to dispose the things round about to correspondence with the inmost ones, then man is in such a state that he can be received into heaven; and then the inmost, the interior, and the external things act as one; but when man does not suffer the Lord to dispose the things round about to correspondence, then he recedes from heaven in the measure in which he does not suffer it. That the soul of man is in the midst, or in his inmost, and that the body is round about or in the outmosts, is well known; for it is the body that encompasses and invests his soul or his spirit.

[5] With those who are in celestial and spiritual love, good from the Lord flows in through the soul into the body, and thence the body becomes full of light; but with those who are in bodily and worldly love, good from the Lord cannot flow in through the soul into the body, but their interiors are in darkness; whence also the body becomes full of darkness, according to what the Lord teaches in Matthew:

The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be single, the whole body is full of light; but if the eye be evil, the whole body is full of darkness. If therefore the light be darkness, how great is the darkness (Matthew 6:22-23);

by the “eye” is signified the intellectual which belongs to the soul (n. 2701).

[6] But the case is worse still with those whose interiors are darkness, and whose exteriors appear as full of light. These are such as outwardly counterfeit angels of light, but are devils inwardly, and they are called “Babel;” and when with such persons the things that are “round about” are destroyed, they are carried headlong into hell. These things were represented by the city Jericho, in that its walls fell and the city was given to the curse when the priests had gone about it seven times, and had sounded the trumpets (Joshua 6:1-17). They are meant also in Jeremiah:

Set yourselves in array against Babel round about, all ye that bend the bow; sound the trumpet against her round about; she hath given her hand; her foundations are fallen; her walls are thrown down (Jeremiah 50:14-15).

It is now plain what “round about” means. Moreover in the Word mention is sometimes made of that which is “round about” (as Jeremiah 21:14; 46:14, 49:5; Ezekiel 36:3-4, 36:7; 37:21; Amos 3:11; and elsewhere), and by the things “round about” are signified those which are exterior; concerning which, of the Lord’s Divine mercy more elsewhere.

2701. God opened her eyes. That this signifies intelligence, is evident from the signification of “opening” and of “God opening,” and also of “eyes” as being to give intelligence (that “eyes” signify the understanding may be seen above, n. 212, in like manner as “sight” or “seeing,” n. 2150, 2325). It is said that “God opens the eyes” when He opens the interior sight or understanding; which is effected by an influx into man’s rational, or rather into the spiritual of his rational. This is done by the way of the soul, or the internal way, unknown to the man. This influx is his state of enlightenment, in which the truths which he hears or reads are confirmed to him by a kind of perception interiorly within his intellectual. This the man believes to be innate in him, and to proceed from his own intellectual faculty; but in this he is very much mistaken; for it is an influx through heaven from the Lord into what is obscure, fallacious, and seeming with the man, which by means of the good therein causes the things which he believes to be similar to truth. But they only who are spiritual are blessed with enlightenment in the spiritual things of faith. It is this which is signified by “God opening the eyes.”

[2] That the “eye” signifies the understanding is because the sight of the body corresponds to the sight of its spirit, which is the understanding; and because it corresponds, in the Word the understanding is signified by the “eye” in almost every place where it is mentioned, even where it is believed to be otherwise; as where the Lord says in Matthew:

The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness; if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness (Matthew 6:22-23; Luke 11:34).

Here the “eye” is the understanding, the spiritual of which is faith, as also is evident from the explication: “if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.”

So too in the same:

If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee (Matthew 5:29; 18:9).

The “left eye” is the intellectual, but the “right eye” is its affection: that the right eye is to be plucked out means that the affection is to be subdued if it causes stumbling.

[3] In the same:

Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:16);

and in Luke:

Jesus said to the disciples, Blessed are the eyes which see the thing which ye see (Luke 10:23).

Here by the “eyes which see,” intelligence and faith are signified; for their seeing the Lord, and also His miracles and works, did not make them blessed; but comprehending them with the understanding and having faith, which is “seeing with the eyes;” and obeying, which is “hearing with the ears.” That to “see with the eyes” is to understand, and also to have faith, may be seen above (n. 897, 2325) for the understanding is the spiritual of the sight, and faith is the spiritual of the understanding. The sight of the eye is from the light of the world, but the sight of faith is from the light of heaven. Hence it is common to speak of seeing with the understanding, and of seeing by faith. (That to “hear with the ear” is to obey, may be seen above, n. 2542)

[4] Also in Mark:

Jesus said to the disciples, Do ye not yet perceive, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes see ye not? And having ears hear ye not? (Mark 8:17-18); where it is manifest that not to be willing to understand and not to believe, is to “have eyes and not see.”

In Luke:

Jesus said of the city, If thou hadst known the things that belong unto thy peace; but now it is hid from thine eyes (Luke 19:41-42).

And in Mark:

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes (Mark 12:11); where to be “hid from the eyes,” and to be “marvelous in the eyes,” means to be so to the understanding, as is known to everyone from the signification of the eye even in the common use of language.