Arcana Coelestia #2913
2913. 'And spoke to the sons of Heth, saying' means those with whom a new spiritual Church was to exist. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'Heth' and of Hittite. Many were the nations inhabiting the land of Canaan who are mentioned one by one in various places in the Word, among them the Hittites, see Genesis 15:20; Exodus 3:8, 17; 13:5; 23:23; Deuteronomy 7:1; 20:17; Joshua 3:10; 11:1, 3; 12:8; 24:11; 1 Kings 9:20; and elsewhere. Most of them belonged to the Ancient Church which was spread through many lands, including the land of Canaan, see 1238, 2385. All who belonged to that Church acknowledged charity as the chief thing, and everything they taught was about charity or life. People who cultivated teachings about faith were called Canaanites and were separate from the rest of the inhabitants in the land of Canaan, Numbers 13:29 - see 1062, 1063, 1076.
[2] The Hittites belonged among those in the land of Canaan who were more acceptable. This is also made clear by the fact that Abraham, and subsequently Isaac and Jacob, dwelt among them and had a burial-place there, and also by the fact that they treated Abraham with greatest respect, as is quite clear from what is recorded about them in this chapter, especially verses 5-6, 10-11, 14-15. Since they were an upright nation they therefore represent and mean the spiritual Church, or the truth of the Church. But it happened that like all the others who belonged to the Ancient Church the Hittites fell away in the course of time from charity or good that goes with faith; and this explains why later on they mean the falsity of the Church, as in Ezekiel 16:3, 45, and elsewhere. Yet the Hittites did belong among those who were more honourable, as may be seen from the fact that David had Hittites with him, such as Ahimelech, 1 Samuel 26:6, and Uriah, who was a Hittite, 2 Samuel 11:3, 6, 17, 21 - by whose wife Bathsheba David begot Solomon, 2 Samuel 12:24. 'Heth' means exterior cognitions that have regard to life and which constitute the external truths of the spiritual Church, 1 see 1203.
[3] The subject in the present verse is a new Church which the Lord establishes when the previous one breathes its last, and in the verses which follow the subject is the reception of faith among those people. The subject is not some particular Church among the sons of Heth but in general the re-establishment by the Lord of a spiritual Church after its predecessor fades away and approaches its end. The sons of Heth are simply those who represent and carry a spiritual meaning. Please see what has been stated already about Churches in the following places:
In course of time a Church goes into decline and decay, 494, 501, 1327, 2422.
It departs from charity, and brings forth evils and falsities, 1834, 1835.
At that point the Church is said to be vastated and made desolate, 407-411, 2243.
The Church is established among gentiles; the reason why, 1366.
Within a Church undergoing vastation something of the Church is always preserved as a nucleus, 468, 637, 931, 2422.
If the Church did not exist in the world the human race would perish, ibid.
The Church is like the heart and lungs in that vast body, of which every member of the human race is a part, 637, 931, 2054, 2853.
The nature of the spiritual Church, 765, 2669.
Charity constitutes the Church, not faith separated from charity, 809, 916.
If all possessed charity the Church would be one even though they differ in matters of doctrine and in forms of worship, 1285, 1316, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 2385.
All people on earth who belong to the Lord's Church, though they are scattered throughout the entire world, still so to speak make a single whole, as is the case in heaven, 2853.
Every Church is internal and external, and both together constitute a single Church, 409, 1083, 1098, 1100, 1242.
The external Church is valueless if there is no internal Church, 1795.
The Church is compared to the rise and the setting of the sun, to the seasons of the year, and also to the periods of the day, 1837.
The Last Judgement is the final period of the Church, 900, 931, 1850, 2117, 2118.
Fußnoten:
1. Or, reading what Swedenborg has in his rough draft the truths of the external spiritual Church
Joshua 12
1
Now these are the kings of the land, whom the children of Israel struck, and possessed their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah eastward:
2
Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the middle of the valley, and half Gilead, even to the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon;
3
and the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, eastward, and to the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt sea, eastward, the way to Beth Jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah:
4
and the border of Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,
5
and ruled in Mount Hermon, and in Salecah, and in all Bashan, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.
6
Moses the servant of Yahweh and the children of Israel struck them. Moses the servant of Yahweh gave it for a possession to the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
7
These are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel struck beyond the Jordan westward, from Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon even to Mount Halak, that goes up to Seir. Joshua gave it to the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions;
8
in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the Arabah, and in the slopes, and in the wilderness, and in the South; the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
9
the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;
10
the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;
11
the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;
12
the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;
13
the king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;
14
the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;
15
the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;
16
the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one;
17
the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;
18
the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lassharon, one;
19
the king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one;
20
the king of Shimron Meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one;
21
the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;
22
the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one;
23
the king of Dor in the height of Dor, one; the king of Goiim in Gilgal, one;
