2. Maar dat het geheel zowel als het bijzondere, ja het meest bijzondere, tot de kleinste jota toe, geestelijke en hemelse dingen betekent en omhult, weet tot dusver de Christelijke wereld in de verste verte niet, om welke reden zij dan ook voor het Oude Testament weinig aandacht heeft Niettemin kan het hieruit alleen al blijken, dat het Woord – daar het van de Heer is en van de Heer komt - nooit zou kunnen bestaan, tenzij het innerlijk die dingen bevatte, welke van de hemel, de kerk en van het geloof zijn. Anders kon het niet het Woord van de Heer genoemd worden, evenmin zou gezegd kunnen worden, dat daarin enig leven is; want vanwaar zou het leven anders kunnen komen, dan uit de dingen die van het leven zijn, dat wil zeggen, daarvandaan dat het geheel zowel als elke bijzonderheid betrekking heeft op de Heer, Die het leven Zelf is. Iets dat innerlijk niet op Hem ziet, leeft dus niet, ja zelfs, een woord in het Woord, dat niet Hem onthult, of op haar wijze op Hem betrekking heeft, is niet goddelijk.

260. The internal or spiritual sense of the Word contains innumerable arcana.

The Word in its internal sense contains innumerable things, which exceed human comprehension (n. 3085-3086). It also contains inexplicable things (n. 1965). Which are represented only to angels, and understood by them (n. 167). The internal sense of the Word contains arcana of heaven, which relate to the Lord and His kingdom in the heavens and on earth (n. 1-4, 937). Those arcana do not appear in the sense of the letter (n. 937, 1502, 2161). Many things in the prophets appear to be disconnected, when yet in their internal sense they cohere in a regular and beautiful series (n. 7153, 9022). Not a single word, nor even a single iota can be omitted in the sense of the letter of the Word, without an interruption in the internal sense, and therefore, by the Divine Providence of the Lord, the Word has been preserved so entire as to every word and every point (n. 7933). Innumerable things are contained in every particular of the Word (n. 6617, 6620, 8920); and in every expression (n. 1689). There are innumerable things contained in the Lord's prayer, and in every part thereof (n. 6619). And in the precepts of the Decalogue; in the external sense of which, notwithstanding, some things are such as are known to every nation without revelation (n. 8867, 8900).

In the Word, and particularly in the prophetical parts of it, two expressions are used that seem to signify the same thing, but one expression has relation to good, and the other to truth; thus one relates to what is spiritual, the other to what is celestial (n. 683, 707, 2516, 8339). Goods and truths are conjoined in a wonderful manner in the Word, and that conjunction is apparent only to him who knows the internal sense (n. 10554). And thus there is a Divine marriage and a heavenly marriage in the Word, and in every part thereof (n. 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 5138, 7022). The Divine marriage is the marriage of Divine good and Divine truth, thus it is the Lord, in whom alone that marriage exists (n. 3004-3005, 3009, 5138, 5194[1-2], 5502, 6343, 7945, 8339, 9263, 9314). "Jesus" signifies the Divine good, and "Christ" the Divine truth; and both the Divine marriage in heaven, which is the marriage of the Divine good and the Divine truth (n. 3004-3005, 3009). This marriage is in every part of the Word, in its internal sense; thus the Lord, as to the Divine good and the Divine truth, is in every part of the Word (n. 5502). The marriage of good and truth from the Lord in heaven and the church, is called the heavenly marriage (n. 2508, 2618, 2803, 3004, 3211, 3952, 6179). Therefore in this respect the Word is a kind of heaven (n. 2173, 10126). Heaven is compared in the Word to a marriage, on account of the marriage of good and truth therein (n. 2758, 3132, 4434[1-10], 4835).

The internal sense is the very doctrine of the church (n. 9025, 9430, 10400). They who understand the Word according to the internal sense, know the essential true doctrine of the church, inasmuch as the internal sense contains it (n. 9025 , 9430, 10400). The internal of the Word is also the internal of the church, and likewise the internal of worship (n. 10460). The Word is the doctrine of love to the Lord, and of charity towards the neighbor (n. 3419-3420).

The Word in the letter is as a cloud, and in the internal sense it is glory, see the Preface to the 18th chapter of Genesis (n. 5922 , 6343), where the words, "The Lord shall come in the clouds of heaven with glory," are explained. "A cloud" in the Word signifies the Word in the sense of the letter, and "glory" signifies the Word in the internal sense, see the Preface to the 18th chapter of Genesis (n. 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 8106, 8781, 9430, 10551, 10574). Those things which are in the sense of the letter, respectively to those which are in the internal sense, are like rude projections round a polished optical cylinder, by which nevertheless is exhibited in the cylinder a beautiful image of a man (n. 1871). In the other life, they who only allow and acknowledge the sense of the letter of the Word, are represented by a deformed old woman; but they who allow and acknowledge the internal sense, together with the literal sense, are represented by a virgin beautifully clothed (n. 1774). The Word in its whole complex is an image of heaven, since the Word is the Divine truth, and the Divine truth makes heaven; and as heaven relates to one man, therefore the Word is in that respect as an image of man (n. 1871). Heaven in one complex relates to one man, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 59-67). And the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord makes heaven (n. 126-140, 200-212). The Word is beautifully and agreeably exhibited before the angels (n. 1767-1768). The sense of the letter is as the body, and the internal sense, as the soul of that body (n. 8943). Thence the life of the Word is from its internal sense (n. 1405, 4857). The Word is pure in the internal sense, and does not appear so in the literal sense (n. 2362, 2395). The things which are in the sense of the letter of the Word are holy from the internal (n. 10126, 10728).

In the historical parts of the Word there is also an internal sense, but within them (n. 4989). Thus the historical as well as the prophetic parts of the Word contain arcana of heaven (n. 755, 1659, 1709, 2310, 2333). The angels do not perceive those historical things, but spiritually (n. 6884). The reason why the interior arcana which are in the historicals, are less evident to man than those that are in the propheticals (n. 2176, 6597).

The quality of the internal sense of the Word further shown (n. 1756, 1984, 2004, 2663, 3035, 7089, 10604, 10614). And illustrated by comparisons (n. 1873).

3952. 'And he lay with her that night' means the actual joining together. This too becomes clear without explanation. The reason why the explanation of the expressions immediately preceding this has for the most part been limited to giving simply the meanings which they have in the internal sense is that they are the kind of things which cannot be understood unless they are presented separately one after another. For the subject is the joining of truth to good and of good to truth, and this joining together of them is the conjugial relationship meant in the spiritual sense; that is, when with man or in the Church the two are so joined together the heavenly marriage is effected. The arcana of this heavenly marriage have been described in the verses above, where they are shown to be the following: As has been stated, the heavenly marriage is a marriage of good to truth and of truth to good. It is not however a marriage between good and truth which both belong to one and the same degree, but between good and truth which belong one to a lower degree, the other to a higher. That is, it is not a marriage between the good of the external man and the truth of the same, but between the good of the external man and the truth of the internal man; or what amounts to the same, it is not a marriage between the good of the natural man and the truth of the same, but between the good of the natural man and the truth of the spiritual man. It is when good and truth of different degrees are joined together that the marriage comes into effect.

[2] The same applies in the internal or spiritual man. The heavenly marriage is not a marriage between the good and the truth present there but between the good of the spiritual man and the truth of the celestial man, for compared with the spiritual man the celestial man belongs to a higher degree. Nor again is the heavenly marriage between the good and the truth present there, but between the good of the celestial man and the Divine truth which proceeds from the Lord. From this it is in addition evident that the Divine marriage itself within the Lord is not a marriage between the Divine good and the Divine truth present in His Divine Human but between the Good of the Divine Human and the Divine itself, that is, between the Son and the Father, for the Good of the Lord's Divine Human is that which in the Word is called 'the Son of God' and the Divine itself that which is called 'the Father'.

[3] These are the arcana contained in the internal sense present within the things said about the dudaim. Anyone may see that there is some arcanum hidden within them. For the following details - those about Reuben's finding dudaim in the field and Rachel's desiring them, and, so that she might acquire them, about her agreeing to their husband's lying with Leah, and about Leah's going out to meet Jacob when he came from the field in the evening and her saying that she had hired him for the dudaim - would not have been important enough for them to be mentioned in any historical description in the Word unless something Divine had lain hidden within them. Exactly what that something Divine is nobody can know unless he knows what is meant by the sons of Jacob and by the tribes named after them, and also unless he knows the flow of ideas belonging to the subject dealt with in the internal sense, and on top of this unless he knows what the heavenly marriage is. For that marriage is the subject; that is to say, the joining of the good of the external man to the affection for the truth of the internal man is the subject. But to enable this arcanum to be seen more clearly, let a further illustration be given.

[4] The truths of the external man are the facts and the matters of doctrine which he acquires first through parents and also teachers, after that through books, and at length by his own endeavours. The good of the external man is the pleasure and delight which he finds in those facts and matters of doctrine. Facts which are essentially truths, and delights which are essentially good, are joined together, but these do not constitute the heavenly marriage with him, for even with people who are governed by self-love and love of the world and who are consequently under the influence of evil and falsity, facts, and indeed matters of doctrine, are joined to delights; but they are the delights that go with self-love and love of the world, to which truths are able to be joined. All the same, such people are outside the heavenly marriage. But the heavenly marriage exists in a person when pleasure or delight, which essentially is the good of the external or natural man, stems from spiritual love. That is, the heavenly marriage exists with him when that good stems from love towards the neighbour, towards his country or the general public, towards the Church, towards the Lord's kingdom; and it exists even more fully when it stems from celestial love, which is love to the Lord. For when that spiritual or celestial love passes from the internal or spiritual man into the delight of the external or natural man and fashions that delight, it is then joined to the facts and the matters of doctrine of the external or natural. But such a marriage cannot exist with the evil, only with the good, that is to say, with those who have those things as the end in view. But see what has been said already in 3286, 3288, 3314, 3321, about the influx of the internal or spiritual man into the external or natural man.

[5] Once acquainted with these arcana one may now come to see the overall meaning of the individual expressions, the explanations of which in preceding paragraphs was limited simply to giving their individual meanings in the internal sense, those expressions and their meanings being these: 'Reuben', who means the truth of faith, which is the first stage of regeneration, 'found dudaim'; 'he brought them to Leah his mother' who means the affection for external truth; 'Rachel' who means the affection for interior truth 'desired them', and they were also 'given to her'; Leah therefore 'lay with Jacob her husband' who means the good of truth within the natural man. Likewise the expressions in what comes after this: Sons were born to Jacob by Leah, 'Issachar and Zebulun', by whom things to do with conjugial love and so with the heavenly marriage are meant and represented; and after this, 'Joseph' was born, by whom the Lord's spiritual kingdom - the marriage itself, which is the subject here - is meant and represented.