2966. Four hundred shekels of silver. That this signifies the price of redemption, was shown above (n. 2959); but what the price of redemption is shall now be told. Redemption is of the Lord alone, and so too is the price of redemption; and this price is also predicated of the reception by man, with whom the price is great according to the reception. The price of redemption is the Lord’s merit and righteousness through the most grievous temptations, whereby He united the Human Essence to the Divine, and the Divine Essence to the Human, and this by His own power; and by this unition saved the human race, and especially those who are of the spiritual church. (That the Lord was made righteousness through the most grievous temptations, may be seen above, n. 1813, 2025-2027; also that He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, and the Divine to the Human, n. 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 1813, 2083; and that He did this from His own power, n. 1616, 1921, 2025, 2026, 2083, 2500, 2523, 2632; and by this unition saved the human race, and especially those who are of the spiritual church, n. 2661, 2716.) These are the things which are signified by the “price of redemption.”

[2] That this price is also predicated of the reception with man, with whom it is great in proportion to his reception, is evident from the fact that it is the Lord’s Divine which makes the church with man; for nothing is called the church that is not the Lord’s own; for it is the good which is of love and charity, and it is the truth which is of faith, which make that which is called the church. That all good is from the Lord, and that all truth is from Him, is well known; good and truth that are from man are not good and truth; and from this it is plain that the price of redemption with a man is great in proportion to his reception.

[3] As with the Jews the Lord’s redemption was so little esteemed as to be scarcely anything, it is said in Zechariah:

I said unto them, If it be good in your eyes, give me my hire, and if not, forbear. And they weighed my hire, thirty pieces of silver. And Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was priced at of them (Zech. 11:12-13).

And in Matthew:

They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was priced, whom they had bought from the sons of Israel, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me (Matthew 27:9-10).

That “thirty” denotes what is so little as to be scarcely anything, may be seen above (n. 2276); thus this passage denotes that the Jews placed no value on the merit and redemption of the Lord. But with those who believe all good and all truth to be from the Lord, the price of redemption is signified by “forty,” and in a higher degree by “four hundred.”

1729. To God Most High. That this signifies the internal man, which is Jehovah, is evident from what has been said already several times concerning the Lord’s internal man, that it is Jehovah Himself, and thus that the Lord is the same as Jehovah the Father; as He Himself says in John:

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Philip saith, Show us the Father. Jesus saith unto him, Am I so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:6, 8-11).

[2] It is the Lord’s Human Essence which is called the “Son of man;” which also, after the combats of the temptations, was united to His Divine Essence, so that it was itself also made Jehovah; wherefore in heaven they know no other Jehovah the Father than the Lord (see above, n. 15). With the Lord all is Jehovah; not only His internal and His interior man, but also the external man, and the very body; and therefore He alone rose into heaven with the body also; as is sufficiently evident in the Gospels, where His resurrection is treated of; as also from the words of the Lord Himself:

Wherefore do thoughts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet (Luke 24:38-40).