3229. If the Word were the Word in regard solely to its historicals, that is, in regard to its external or literal sense, then all the historicals in it would be holy; and, what is more, many persons there mentioned would be regarded as holy, and the result would be (as has actually happened with many of them) that they would be worshiped as gods because they are treated of in the holiest of writings; for example, those who are called the patriarchs, namely, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and after them the fathers of the tribes, the twelve sons of Jacob, and later David and many others; and yet all these were men, and some of them had but little regard for Divine worship; and I am able to testify that they enjoy nothing beyond the common lot of humanity, and also that in the heavens they are quite unknown. But of the Lord’s Divine mercy more will be said elsewhere concerning them and their state in the other life. From all this it is clearly evident that the external or literal sense is the Word solely from the internal or spiritual sense within it, and from which it is.