10406. 'And fashioned it with a chisel' means a product of their own intelligence. This is clear from the meaning of 'fashioning with a chisel', when an idol is the subject, as producing false teachings by the use of one's own intelligence, which happens when the literal sense of the Word is used in support of self-love and love of the world. When these rule a person he does not have any enlightenment from heaven. Instead his own intelligence is what he draws on for all the ideas he acquires; and these he substantiates by means of the literal sense of the Word, which he falsifies by using it in a wrong way and interpreting it in a perverted manner. And after this he favours those ideas because he is the author of them.

[2] Various places throughout the Word contain references to graven images and molded images. People who take the Word entirely literally suppose that no more than idols should be understood by them in those places. Not idols however should be understood but false matters of doctrine upheld by the Church, such as are fashioned by a person himself when guided by some love of his own. Falsities when fashioned in such a way that they may hang together and look like truths are meant by 'a graven image'; and falsities when fused together in support of external kinds of love in such a way that evils look like forms of good are meant by 'a molded image'. And since 'the golden calf' is used to mean both types of falsities it says here that Aaron fashioned it with a chisel, by which the fashioning of falsities to look like truths should be understood; then immediately after it says that he made the gold into a calf of molded [metal], and in verse 24 that he threw it into the fire and the calf came out, by which the fusing together of falsities in support of external kinds of love in order that evils may look like forms of good should be understood. This is also what every matter of doctrine is like that is forged by a person and not by the Lord. Matters of doctrine are forged by the person when that person has his own glory and gain as the end in view; but they are forged by the Lord when the good of the neighbour and the good of the Lord's kingdom are regarded as the end in view.

[3] These kinds of things are meant by 'graven images' and 'molded images' in the following places: In Isaiah,

You will judge unclean the covering of the graven images of your silver, and the clothing of the molded image of your gold. Isaiah 30:22.

'The covering of the graven images of silver' means the appearance presented by falsities, as though they were truths, and 'the clothing of the molded image of gold' means the appearance presented by evils, as though they were forms of good; for 'the covering' and 'the clothing' mean the outward appearances with which they are endued or coated over. 'Silver' means truth, and 'gold' good, and this is why 'the graven images' are said to be 'of silver' and 'the molded image' to be 'of gold'. For the meaning of 'silver' as truth and of 'gold' as good, see 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 9874, 9881.

[4] In the same prophet,

The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. He seeks for himself a skilled ¹ craftsman to make ready a graven image which is immovable. Isaiah 40:19-20.

This describes a fashioning of falsities so that they may hang together and look as though they were truths. 'A graven image' means such falsity, 'the craftsman' means the person who fashions it by the use of self-intelligence, 'a goldsmith overlays it with gold' means when he makes it to look like what is good, 'casts silver chains for it' means by making it all hang together, 'which is immovable' means which cannot therefore be weakened and destroyed.

[5] In the same prophet,

Makers of the graven image, [all are] vanity; and their most desirable things are profitless. Who has fashioned a god, and cast a molded image, that it may not profit him? All his companions will be ashamed, and the workmen themselves. He fashions the iron with tongs, and works it with the coals, and forms it with sharp hammers; so he makes it with his strong arm ² . He fashions wood, stretches out a cord, and marks it off with a ruler. He makes it into its angles, and marks it out with a ring, and makes it into the form of a man (vir), according to the beauty of a human being, to dwell in the house. Isaiah 44:9-14.

This too describes how false teachings are fashioned so that they may hang together and look like truths and forms of good. Every detail here serves to describe how this is brought about by a person using self-intelligence under the guidance of his own wishes, desire, and love. The truth of this may be seen by those who know that all things in the Word have an inner meaning by means of which they must be understood in a spiritual way. Why else should such a description of fashioning a graven image be given? To the end that it may look like truth and good is the meaning when it says that 'he makes it in the form of a man, according to the beauty of a human being'; for in the internal sense 'a man' means truth and 'a human being' the good of that truth.

[6] In Jeremiah,

Every person has been made stupid by knowledge; every metal-caster has been filled with shame by his graven image, for his molded image is a lie; and there is no spirit in those things. Jeremiah 10:14; 51:17.

Here 'graven image' means that which is the product of self-intelligence, and 'molded image' that which accords with the person's love. This meaning is plainly evident, for it says that a person has been made stupid by knowledge, and every metal-caster has been filled with shame by his graven image, and that his molded image is a lie, 'knowledge' here being self-intelligence, and 'a lie' the falsity of evil; and since those objects have nothing of God within them it says that there is no spirit in those things.

[7] In the same prophet,

O sword against its horses and against its chariots, against its treasures, in order that they may be looted! A drought on its waters, in order that they may dry up! For it is the land of graven images. Jeremiah 50:37-38.

'The land of graven images' means a Church in which falsities reign. This too is perfectly clear from the details of these verses when understood in the spiritual sense. Without that sense what would a sword against horses, against chariots, against treasures, and a drought on waters be but words or sounds that have no spirit within them? But from those details when understood in the internal sense it is evident that these verses describe the destruction of the Church's truths and so the subsequent reign of falsities there, meant by 'the land of graven images'. For 'sword' means falsity engaged in conflict with and destroying truths, 'horses' an enlightened power of understanding, 'chariots' matters of doctrine, 'treasures' cognitions or knowledge of truth and good, 'waters on which there is a drought' the non-existence of truths any longer, and 'the land' the Church.

'Sword' means truth engaged in conflict against falsity, and in the contrary sense falsity engaged in conflict against truths and destroying them, see 2799, 6353, 7102, 8294.

'Horses' means an enlightened power of understanding, 2760-2762, 3217, 6534.

'Chariots' means matters of doctrine, 5321, 8146, 8148, 8215.

'Treasures' means cognitions of truth and good, 10227.

'Waters' means truths, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8137, 8138, 8568, 9323, 10238.

'The land' means the Church, see in the places referred to in 9325.

From all this it is evident what 'a drought on the waters, that they may dry up' and what 'the land of graven images' mean.

[8] In Habakkuk,

What profit is a graven image since its image-maker has graven it, and a molded image and a teacher of lies, since the image-maker trusts in the thing he himself has made? Habakkuk 2:18.

From these words too it is evident that 'a graven image' and 'a molded image' are not used to mean a graven image and a molded image but falsity that is being made up and the evil to which the falsity lends support; for it speaks of 'the image-maker' and 'a teacher of lies'.

[9] 'Graven image' and 'molded image' have similar meanings in the following places: In Isaiah,

Babel has fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he has broken ³ to the earth. Isaiah 21:9.

In the same prophet,

They will be greatly ashamed, those trusting in a graven image, saying to a molded image, You are our gods. Isaiah 42:17.

In the same prophet,

I told you, and caused you to hear, lest you should say, My idol has done this; my graven image and my molded image has commanded these things. Isaiah 48:5.

In Hosea,

They have called themselves, and gone from their presence ⁴ . They sacrificed to the baals, and burned incense to graven images. Hosea 11:2.

In Micah,

All the graven images of Samaria will be pounded to pieces, and all her pay as a prostitute will be burned with fire; and all her idols I will make a waste. Micah 1:7.

[10] Since falsities and evils upheld by religious teaching, which are meant by 'graven images and molded images', are forged by a person's self-intelligence under the guidance of his love, the Word also calls them 'the work of human hands', 'the work of the hands of a craftsman', and 'the work of the hands of a workman', as in the following places: In Hosea,

Now they sin more and more, they make for themselves a molded image from their silver, idols by their own intelligence, completely the work of craftsmen. Hosea 13:2.

In Moses,

Cursed is the man who makes a graven or a molded image, an abomination to Jehovah, the work of the hands of the craftsman. Deuteronomy 27:15.

In David,

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. Psalms 115:4; 135:15.

In Jeremiah,

They burned incense to other gods, and bowed down to the works of their own hands. Jeremiah 1:16.

In the same prophet,

The children of Israel provoked Me to anger through the work of their hands. Jeremiah 32:30; 44:8.

And in the same prophet,

One cuts out wood from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman using an axe. They decorate it with silver and gold; they make it firm with pegs and hammers. Jeremiah 10:3-4.

[11] 'The work of the hands' means that which is a product of the human proprium or self, thus that which is a product of a person's own understanding and a product of his own will; and those things are a product of the self - of both that understanding and that will - that exist as a result of self-love. And this is the origin of all falsities in the Church. Because all falsities are the product of the human self, and 'the work of the hands' means that which originates there, it was forbidden to move an iron tool, axe, or chisel over the stones ⁵ from which an altar and also the temple were built, as is evident in Moses,

If you make for Me an altar of stones, you shall not build it with hewn ones; for if you move your chisel over it you will profane it. Exodus 20:25.

Also in another place,

If you build an altar of stones to Jehovah you shall not move an iron tool over them. Deuteronomy 27:5.

And in the first Book of Kings,

The house was built of whole stone, as it had been brought [there]; for not a hammer or axe, [nor] any tool of iron, was heard in the house while it was being built. 1 Kings 6:7.

These places have been introduced to enable people to know what they should understand by Aaron's fashioning the gold with a chisel and making a calf of molded [metal] out of it.

Fußnoten:

3701. 'And behold, the angels of God going up and coming down on it' means an infinite and eternal communication and the consequent joining together - a going up, so to speak, from what is lowest, and after that, when order has been inverted, a coming down to it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the angels' as some aspect of the Lord's Divine meant by the expression 'angels' when used in the Word, dealt with in 1925, 2319, 2821, 3039. The aspect meant here is Divine Truth. This is clear from the fact that they are called 'the angels of God', for the name God is used when truth is the subject in the internal sense, but Jehovah when good is the subject, see 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822. This is why although the name Jehovah is used directly after this in the phrase 'Jehovah standing above it', they are nevertheless referred to here as 'the angels of God', since the subject is truth from which good springs, represented by 'Jacob' here, as stated many times above. As regards the expression 'going up and coming down on the stairway' meaning in the highest sense infinite and eternal communication and the consequent joining together, this is clear without further explanation. But one cannot speak of a communication between, and the consequent joining together of the Lord's Divine itself and His Divine Human unless at the same time one calls these attributes infinite and eternal, for in the Lord everything is infinite and eternal - infinite so far as Being (Esse) is concerned and eternal so far as Manifestation (Existere) is concerned. From what has been stated up to now it is evident that 'a stairway set up on the earth, and its top reaching to heaven, and behold, the angels of God going up and coming down on it' means in a nutshell a going up so to speak from what is lowest, and after that, when order is inverted, a coming down to it.

[2] The nature of this going up and coming down becomes clear from what has been stated and shown above in 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3607, 3610, 3665, 3690. But because this order - which comes into effect when a person is being regenerated and which is described in the internal sense here and in what follows - is completely unknown in the Church, let the nature of it be illustrated further: It is well known that a person is born into the same disposition as his parents, grandparents, and great grandparents, going back for centuries, and so into hereditary evil gradually accumulated by all those before him, so much so that there is nothing but evil in what he does when he acts from himself. As a consequence both his understanding and his will have been totally spoiled and of himself he does not will anything good at all and therefore does not understand anything true at all. That which he calls good, indeed believes to be good, is in fact evil, and that which he calls the truth, indeed believes to be the truth, is in fact falsity. Take, for example, loving himself more than others, wanting things to be better for himself than for others, desiring what belongs to someone else, and considering only himself and not others unless he himself will benefit. Because he desires these things of himself he indeed calls them good and also true. And what is more, if anyone harms or tries to harm these things which by him are called good and true, he hates him and is also filled with thoughts of revenge. He desires and also seeks that person's ruin, and takes delight in this insofar as he actually strengthens such intentions in himself, that is, as frequently as he actually puts them into effect.

[3] When such a person enters the next life his desires remain the same. The actual disposition which he has acquired in the world by the life he led remains, and that delight is perceived plainly by others. Consequently he is unable to be in any heavenly community where everyone wants things to be better for others than for himself; but he is in some community of hell whose delight is similar to his own. It is that disposition of his which needs to be rooted out while he is living in the world, something that cannot possibly be achieved except through regeneration from the Lord, that is, through receiving quite another will and therefore quite another understanding - by becoming a new person so far as both those powers of mind are concerned. But for this to come about he must first of all be born like a young child again, learn what evil and falsity are, and learn what good and truth are, for without knowledge or awareness of these he is unable to have any good conferred on him. Indeed of himself he does not acknowledge anything else as good except that which is evil, nor anything else as truth except that which is false.

[4] To make a person new, cognitions are instilled into him such as are not completely contrary to those he has already - for example, the idea that all love starts in himself; the idea that one should consider oneself first and others only after that; the idea that those people who are outwardly poor and wretched should be helped irrespective of what they are like inwardly; and that similarly widows and orphans should be helped solely because they are called such; and at length the idea that enemies in general should be helped irrespective of who they may be; and also the idea that by acting in these ways one is able to merit heaven. These and other ideas like them are the cognitions proper to the early childhood of his new life. They are such that because they derive to some extent from his previous life, or the disposition belonging to his previous life, they also derive to some extent from his new life into which he is being led in this way. They are consequently such as allow into themselves things that contribute towards the formation of a new will and of a new understanding. They are the lowest forms of good and truth, and it is with these that people who are being regenerated start out. And because these lowest forms of good and truth allow more interior truths into themselves, that is, truths closer to Divine truths, falsities which a person had previously believed to be truths are also rooted out.

[5] People who are being regenerated however do not learn such things simply as matters of knowledge but as matters of life, for they practice those truths. But their practice of them has its beginnings in the new will which the Lord is instilling, though they are totally unaware of it. And to the extent they welcome that new will they also welcome those cognitions, put them into practice, and believe them. But to the extent they do not welcome that new will they are indeed able to learn such truths but not to put them into effect since they consider them purely as matters of knowledge and not of life.

[6] That state is the state of early and later childhood as regards the new life which is to replace the previous life, but the state of the early and later youth of that life is a state when no attention is paid to any person's outward presentation of himself but to what he is like with regard to good - first of all with regard to it in public affairs, then in private affairs, and at length in spiritual, at which point he starts to possess and to love good first and foremost, and from good the person. And when after that he is more perfect still his concern is to aid those who are governed by good, his help depending on the kind of good present with those whom he helps. At length he takes delight in helping them. And because he takes delight in good he also takes pleasure in ideas that support it. Those supporting ideas he acknowledges as truths, which also constitute the truths of his new understanding which flow from the forms of good which belong to his new will.

[7] To the same extent as he takes delight in that good and takes pleasure in those truths he also feels an aversion to the evils of his previous life and a displeasure in its falsities. This is why things belonging to the previous will are now separated from those belonging to the new will, and those belonging to the previous understanding from those belonging to the new understanding. The determining factor in this separation is not the affection for knowing them, but the affection for doing them. As a consequence he now sees that the truths belonging to his early childhood in relation one to another have existed inversely and that those same truths have been reorganized little by little into another order, that is to say, their interrelationship has been changed so that those which initially occupied the first place now occupy the last. In this way he sees that by means of those truths which belonged to his early and later childhood the angels of God so to speak went up by means of a stairway from earth to heaven, whereas now by means of the truths belonging to his adult life the angels of God so to speak come down by means of the stairway from heaven to earth.