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Matthew 15

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1 Then the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem come up to Jesus, saying,

2 Why do thy disciples transgress what has been delivered by the ancients? for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.

3 But he answering said to them, Why do *ye* also transgress the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching?

4 For God commanded saying, Honour father and mother; and, He that speaks ill of father or mother, let him die the death.

5 But *ye* say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is a gift, whatsoever [it be] by which [received] from me thou wouldest be profited:

6 and he shall in no wise honour his father or his mother; and ye have made void the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching.

7 Hypocrites! well has Esaias prophesied about you, saying,

8 This people honour me with the lips, but their heart is far away from me;

9 but in vain do they worship me, teaching [as] teachings commandments of men.

10 And having called to [him] the crowd, he said to them, Hear and understand:

11 Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man; but what goes forth out of the mouth, this defiles the man.

12 Then his disciples, coming up, said to him, Dost thou know that the Pharisees, having heard this word, have been offended?

13 But he answering said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.

14 Leave them alone; they are blind leaders of blind: but if blind lead blind, both will fall into a ditch.

15 And Peter answering said to him, Expound to us this parable.

16 But he said, Are *ye* also still without intelligence?

17 Do ye not yet apprehend, that everything that enters into the mouth finds its way into the belly, and is cast forth into the draught?

18 but the things which go forth out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those defile man.

19 For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies;

20 these are the things which defile man; but the eating with unwashen hands does not defile man.

21 And Jesus, going forth from thence, went away into the parts of Tyre and Sidon;

22 and lo, a Canaanitish woman, coming out from those borders, cried [to him] saying, Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.

23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came to [him] and asked him, saying, Dismiss her, for she cries after us.

24 But he answering said, I have not been sent save to the lost sheep of Israel's house.

25 But she came and did him homage, saying, Lord, help me.

26 But he answering said, It is not well to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs.

27 But she said, Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters.

28 Then Jesus answering said to her, O woman, thy faith [is] great. Be it to thee as thou desirest. And her daughter was healed from *that* hour.

29 And Jesus, going away from thence, came towards the sea of Galilee, and he went up into the mountain and sat down there;

30 and great crowds came to him, having with them lame, blind, dumb, crippled, and many others, and they cast them at his feet, and he healed them:

31 so that the crowds wondered, seeing dumb speaking, crippled sound, lame walking, and blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

32 But Jesus, having called his disciples to [him], said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have stayed with me already three days and they have not anything they can eat, and I would not send them away fasting lest they should faint on the way.

33 And his disciples say to him, Whence should we have so many loaves in [the] wilderness as to satisfy so great a crowd?

34 And Jesus says to them, How many loaves have ye? But they said, Seven, and a few small fishes.

35 And he commanded the crowds to lie down on the ground;

36 and having taken the seven loaves and the fishes, having given thanks, he broke [them] and gave [them] to his disciples, and the disciples to the crowd.

37 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was over and above of the fragments seven baskets full;

38 but they that ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

39 And, having dismissed the crowds, he went on board ship and came to the borders of Magadan.

   

De obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #10083

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10083. 'And you shall wave them as a wave offering before Jehovah' means the life from God which comes as a result of this. This is clear from the meaning of 'waving a wave offering' as endowing with life, thus the life [present in something]; and since it says from 'before Jehovah' the life from God is meant. The fact that 'waving a wave offering' means endowing with life, that is, imparting the life from God, is clear from places in the Word where 'waving a wave offering' is spoken of, as in Moses,

When you bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah, so that you may be acceptable; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. Leviticus 23:10-11.

'Harvest' means a state when the truth of faith springing from good exists, thus a state when good is present, 9295; 'a sheaf of the firstfruits' means all collectively constituting that state. 'Being waved by the priest' therefore means being endowed with life to receive a blessing; for every blessing, to be a blessing, must have life from God within it.

[2] In the same author,

Aaron shall wave the Levites before Jehovah as a wave offering 1 from among the children of Israel, that they may be used in the service of Jehovah. You shall stand the Levites before Aaron and before his sons, and you shall wave them as a wave offering to Jehovah. After that the Levites shall go in to serve in the tent of meeting; and you shall purify them, and wave them as a wave offering. And when the Levites had been purified, Aaron waved them before Jehovah as a wave offering, and Aaron expiated them to purify them. Numbers 8:11, 13, 15, 21.

These verses show what 'waving a wave offering' means, namely endowing with life through acknowledgement, which is the first phase of faith, and so the first phase of life from God with a person. Knowledge, it is true, comes before acknowledgement, but knowledge has none of God's life within it until it becomes acknowledgement and then faith. The Levites represented truths serving good, while Aaron represented the good they served; that is why they were 'waved', that is, were endowed with life. This also accounts for its being said that they were to be purified. For truths must have life from God within them if they are to serve good, and that life first flows in through acknowledgement.

[3] Much the same is meant by 'a wave offering of gold' in Moses,

They came, the men with the women ... they brought brooches, nose-jewels, rings, girdles 2 , all vessels of gold; and every man who waved a wave offering of gold to Jehovah. Exodus 35:22.

'Waving a wave offering of gold to Jehovah' means endowing with life through the acknowledgement that it was Jehovah's, that is, the Lord's. 'Waving a wave offering' means such things by virtue of what that action corresponds to; for every motion corresponds to a state of thought. In the Word therefore advancing, travelling on, and like movements mean states of life, see 3335, 4882, 5493, 5605, 8103, 8417, 8420, 8557.

[4] In John,

At the pool of Bethesda lay a large multitude of sick people; and an angel went down at a certain time to the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the movement of the water was cured of whatever disease he had. John 5:2-7.

'Stirring up the water' here was in like manner a sign of the endowment of life through acknowledgement and faith, and therefore also a sign of purification by means of truths.

'Movement' means states of life, see 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381, 9440, 9967.

'Water' means the truths of faith, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 8568, 9323.

All purification is accomplished by means of the truths of faith, 2799, 5954 (end), 7044, 7918, 9088.

Healings represented the restoration of spiritual life, 8365, 9031 (end).

[5] Since 'the waving on Aaron's palms' means the endowment of life through acknowledgement of the Lord and the acknowledgement that all things come from Him, something brief must be stated with regard to that acknowledgement and resulting faith. The Lord often said, when sick people were being healed, that they should have faith, and, 'Let it be to you according to your faith', as in Matthew 8:10-13; 9:2, 22, 27-29; 13:57-58; 15:28; 21:21-22, 31-32; Mark 5:34, 36; 10:49, 52; 16:16; Luke 7:9, 48-50; 8:48; 17:19; 18:42-43. The reason why He said it was that the very first thing a person needs to do is to acknowledge that the Lord is the Saviour of the world; for unless he acknowledges this no one can receive any truth or good at all from heaven, or therefore receive faith from there. And since it was the very first and most essential thing, therefore in order that He might be acknowledged when He came into the world the Lord questioned the sick, when He healed them, about their faith; and those who had faith were healed. This faith was that He was the Son of God who was to come into the world, and that He had power to heal and save. Furthermore every healing of sickness by the Lord when He was in the world served to mean a healing of spiritual life, thus served to mean the things that belong to salvation, 8364, 9031(end), 9086.

[6] Since acknowledgement of the Lord is the first thing of all belonging to spiritual life and is the most essential feature of the Church, and since no one, unless he acknowledges Him, can receive any truth of faith or good of love at all from heaven, the Lord also often says that whoever believes in Him has eternal life, and whoever does not believe in Him does not have it, as in John 1:1, 4, 12-13; 3:14-16, 36; 5:39-40; 6:28-30, 33-35, 40, 47-48; 7:37-38; 8:24; 11:25-26; 20:30-31. But at the same time He also teaches that they have faith in Him who live according to His commandments, so that the life which results from doing so goes to compose their faith. These things have been stated to cast light on and corroborate the truth that acknowledging the Lord and acknowledging that all salvation comes from Him constitute the beginning of the life from God with a person. That beginning of it is meant by the offering waved on Aaron's palms.

Notas a pie de página:

1. i.e. the Levites were to be offered to Jehovah as though they were a wave offering

2. i.e. bracelets, necklaces, etc

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

De obras de Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #8364

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8364. 'I will not put on you any sickness that I put on the Egyptians' means that they are to be withheld from the evils present among those who uphold separated faith and lead a life of evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'sickness' as evil, dealt with below; from the representation of 'the Egyptians' as those who uphold separated faith and lead a life of evil, dealt with in 7097, 7317, 7926, 8148; and from the meaning of 'not putting on you' - when used in association with 'sickness', which means evil - as withholding from evil. For Jehovah, that is, the Lord, does not take away evil but withholds a person from it and maintains him in good, 929, 1581, 2256, 2406, 4564, 8206. So it is that 'not putting a sickness on them' means that they are to be withheld from evils.

[2] The reason why 'sickness' means evil is that in the internal sense the kinds of things that attack spiritual life are meant. The sicknesses which attack it are evils, and they are called evil desires and cravings; and the components of spiritual life are faith and charity. That life is sick when falsity exists instead of the truth of faith and evil instead of the good of charity, because they lead to the death of that life, which is called spiritual death and is damnation, just as sicknesses lead to the death of natural life. This is why in the internal sense 'sickness' means evil, and 'the sicknesses of the Egyptians' means the evils which those upholding separated faith and leading a life of evil cast themselves into, and which they used to molest the upright. Those evils have been dealt with in what has gone before, where the plagues in Egypt were the subject.

[3] Evils are again meant by 'sicknesses' elsewhere in the Word, as in Moses,

If you keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgements which I am commanding you today, Jehovah will take away all sickness from you, and will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on [all] who hate you. Deuteronomy 7:11, 15.

In the same author,

If you will not obey the voice of Jehovah your God, taking care to do all His commandments and His statutes, Jehovah will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, 1 until you are destroyed, because of the wickedness of your deeds by which you have forsaken Me. Jehovah will make the pestilence cling to you, until He has consumed you from upon the land. Jehovah will strike you with consumption, and hot fever, and burning fever, and raging fever, and drought, and blight, and mildew, which will pursue you until you perish. Jehovah will strike you with the sores of Egypt, and with hemorrhoids, and the scab, and the itch, so that you cannot be healed. Jehovah will strike you with madness, and blindness, and stupefaction. 2 You will be made mad by what your eyes will see 3 . Jehovah will strike you with evil sores on the knees and on the thighs, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. He will throw back onto you every disease of Egypt, also every sickness and every plague that is not written in the book of this Law. Jehovah will give you a trembling heart, failing 4 of eyes, and distress of soul. Deuteronomy 28:15, 20-22, 27-28, 34-35, 60-61, 65.

All the sicknesses mentioned here mean spiritual sicknesses, which are evils destructive of the life of a will desiring what is good and falsities destructive of the life of an understanding seeing what is true, in short things destructive of spiritual life composed of faith and charity. Natural sicknesses also correspond to such things, for every sickness present among the human race has its origin in spiritual ones, because each exists as a result of sin, 5712, 5726. Each sickness furthermore corresponds to its own evil. The explanation for this is that everything composing a person's life originates in the spiritual world. If therefore his spiritual life is sick, evil spreads from it into his natural life and becomes a sickness there. See what has been stated from experience in 5711-5727 about the correspondence of sicknesses with evils.

[4] The same things are meant by 'sicknesses' elsewhere, as in Moses,

You shall worship Jehovah your God, in order that He may bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness out of your midst. Exodus 23:25.

In the same author,

If you despise My statutes, and if your soul abhors My judgements, so that you do not do all My commandments, while you make void My covenant, I will appoint terror over you, along with consumption, and burning fever, which will consume the eyes and torment the soul. Leviticus 26:15-16.

'Consumption' stands for the decrease of truth and the increase of falsity, 'burning fever' for the desire for evil. Further still, in Isaiah,

Why will you also defect? 5 The whole head [departs] into sickness, and the whole heart is diseased. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and scars, and recent blows. They are not pressed out, nor bound up, nor softened with oil. Isaiah 1:5-6.

Here nobody can fail to see that 'sickness', 'wounds', 'scars', and 'blows' are used to mean sins. Similarly in Ezekiel,

Woe to the shepherds of Israel! The weak sheep you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, and the broken you have not bound up. Ezekiel 34:2, 4.

In David,

My iniquities have gone over my head. My wounds have become putrid, they have rotted away because of my foolishness. For my intestines are full of burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. Psalms 38:4-7.

[5] Since the disorders and evils of spiritual life are meant by 'sicknesses', the various kinds of disorders and evils of that life are meant by the various kinds of sicknesses. 'Pestilence' means the vastation or laying waste of goodness and truth, see 7102, 7505; and 'leprosy' means the profanation of truth, 6963. In general 'sicknesses' means sins, as may also be seen in Isaiah,

... a man of sorrows, and acquainted with sickness, on account of which as it were men hid their faces from Him. He was despised, so that we did not esteem Him. Nevertheless He has borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows, and through His wounds healing has been given to us. Isaiah 53:3-5.

This refers to the Lord.

[6] Since sicknesses represented the unrighteous ways and the evils of spiritual life the sicknesses which the Lord healed have as their meaning deliverance from the different kinds of evil and falsity that were molesting the Church and human race and that would have brought spiritual death. Divine miracles are distinguishable from other miracles by the fact that they involve and have regard to states of the Church and the heavenly kingdom; and this is why the Lord's miracles were primarily healing of sicknesses. These miracles are meant by the Lord's words addressed to the disciples sent by John,

Tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead rise again and the poor hear the gospel. Matthew 11:4-5.

This is why it says so many times that the Lord healed every sickness and every disease among the people, Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 14:14, 35-36; Luke 4:40; 5:15; 6:17; 7:21; Mark 1:32-34; 3:10.

Notas a pie de página:

1. literally, in every sending of your hand which you shall do

2. literally, astonishment of heart

3. literally, by the sight of your eyes

4. literally, consumption

5. literally, Why will you add to a going back?

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