28
As the appearance of the bow that is in a cloud in a day of rain, so [is] the appearance of the brightness round about.
Ezekiel 1:28
Arcana Coelestia #9407
9407. 'There was so to speak a work of sapphire [stone]' means that it is translucent with inner truths on that level, and that all things in it are translucent from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'a work of sapphire' as the character of the literal sense of the Word when the internal sense is discerned within it, that is, when Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, as it is in heaven, shines through it. For the Word is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord. In origin it is Divine, but as it passes through the heavens it is celestial in the inmost heaven, spiritual in the second or middle heaven, spiritual-natural in the first or lowest heaven, and natural and worldly in the world; this last is its character in the sense of the letter intended for people there. From this it is evident that the sense of the letter, which is the lowest in order, contains a spiritual and a celestial level of meaning, and inmostly the Divine Himself. And since these inner levels are contained in the lowest or literal sense and are seen by those who understand the Word in a spiritual manner, that sense is represented by 'a work of sapphire', which lets rays of heavenly light through, that is, which is translucent.
[2] To give some idea of that translucence, let human speech serve to illustrate it. Such speech has its origin in the end a person has in view which he wishes to make known through speech. This end is his love; for a person has what he loves as his end in view. From that end arises the person's thought, and finally his speech. Anyone who stops to think properly about this can see and discern the truth of it. The fact that the end is the primary component of speech is clear from the general rule that all intelligence has an end within it, and devoid of the end it is not intelligence. And everyone knows that thought is a secondary component arising from the first, for nobody can speak without thinking or think without having an end in view. The fact that spoken words ensue from this, and that these are the final component, which is properly called speech, is also well known. All this being so, when a person pays attention to what another utters he pays attention not to the words the speaker uses but to the meaning conveyed by them which is present in the speaker's thought. And one who is wise pays attention to the end in view that has given rise to the thought expressed in speech, that is, he pays attention to what the speaker's aims are and what it is he loves. These three components are present in human speech, in which the spoken words serve as the outward form.
[3] This comparison enables one to gain some idea regarding the Word in the letter. For those in heaven pay attention to the Word in the letter and perceive things there in exactly the same way as anyone is accustomed to perceive a person's thought as it presents itself in spoken words, or in the inmost heaven as anyone is accustomed to perceive a person's aims or end in view. But the difference is that when someone reads the sense of the letter of the Word this is not heard or understood in heaven, only the internal sense, because in heaven they perceive solely the spiritual and celestial levels of the Word, not the natural level of it. The one sense accordingly passes over into the other, for they correspond to each other and only things which have a correspondence have been used in the writing of the Word. All this shows what to understand when reference is made to the translucent nature of the Word, meant by 'a work of sapphire'.
[4] But a person who is unable to think on a higher level of understanding, that is, on a level altogether above material things, cannot grasp any of this, not even the idea that it is possible for a sense to exist in the Word other than the one perceived in the letter. If that person is told that the letter holds within itself a spiritual sense which has to do with truth, and that this in turn holds within itself a celestial sense which has to do with good, and also that these senses shine through the literal sense, he will be taken aback at first, then dismiss the idea as nonsense, and finally ridicule it. Actual experience has shown me that this is what people are like in the Christian world at the present day, especially the learned, and that those who reason against that truth boast of being wiser than those who uphold it. Yet the learning in earliest times, which were called golden and silver ages, had consisted in speaking and in writing in ways in which no attention was be paid to the literal meaning other than to enable hidden wisdom to shine through it, as becomes perfectly clear from the oldest books, including those by gentile authors, as well as from fragments in their languages. For their knowledge was primarily the knowledge of correspondences and the knowledge of representations, which forms of knowledge at the present day are some of those which have been lost.
[5] The reason why there appeared under the Lord's feet 'so to speak a work of sapphire' and why this means the translucence of the Word in the sense of the letter is that 'stone' in general means truth, and 'precious stone' truth shining through from what is Divine and the Lord's. For the meaning of 'stone' in general as truth, see 643, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798, 6426, 8609, 8940-8942. As for 'precious stone' being truth shining through from what is Divine and the Lord's, this was meant by the twelve precious stones in Aaron's breastplate, which was called the Urim and Thummim, 3862, 6335, 6640.
[6] Something similar occurs in Ezekiel,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering - ruby, topaz, diamond, tarshish, shoham, and jasper, sapphire, chrysoprase, emerald, and gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and your pipes was within you; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were perfect in your ways on the day you were created. Ezekiel 28:12-13, 15.
This refers to Tyre, by which the Church in respect of interior cognitions or knowledge of truth and good is meant, 1201. Its intelligence and wisdom as these had been in its infancy or earliest period are described by those precious stones. 'The day you were created' means the first state when they were regenerated, for 'creation' in the Word means the regeneration or new creation of a person, 16, 88.
[7] Similar things are meant by 'the precious stones' in John,
The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. Revelation 21:19-20.
This refers to the holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven, by which a new Church among gentile nations is meant, after the present-day Church in our European world has been laid waste. 'The precious stones that are its foundations' are God's truths shining through on the lowest level of order.
[8] God's truth shining through on the lowest level of order, which is the Word in the letter, is meant by 'sapphire' in particular, as in Isaiah,
O afflicted one and storm-tossed, and receiving no comfort! Behold, I am arranging your stones with antimony, and will lay your foundations in sapphires. Isaiah 54:11.
This too refers to the Church which will take the place of the former one, meant in verse 1 of that chapter by 'her that is desolate who is going to have more sons than the previously married one'. 'Arranging stones' stands for the Church's truths, 'foundations in sapphires' for truths shining through on lowest levels.
[9] 'Sapphire' is used with a similar meaning in Jeremiah,
Her Nazirites were brighter than snow, they were whiter than milk. Their bones 1 were ruddier than pearls, 2 polished like sapphire. 3 Lamentations 4:7.
'Nazirites' in the representative sense meant the Lord in respect of the Divine Natural, 3301, 6437, and therefore also Divine Truth emanating from Him as it exists on its lowest levels, that is, the Word in the sense of the letter. For 'the hair', which is implied by 'Nazirites' here, and is said to be 'brighter than snow and whiter than milk', means truth on its lowest levels, 3301, 5247, 5570, 'brightness' and 'whiteness' having reference to truth, 3301, 5319. 'Bones that were ruddy' means factual knowledge of truth, or truth on its lowest level, which acts as servant to all other levels, 6592, 8005, 'ruddiness' having reference to the good of love present in truths, 3300. From all this it is evident that 'sapphire' means truth on the lowest levels which is translucent with inner truths.
[10] In Ezekiel,
Above the expanse that was above the heads of the cherubs, in appearance like a sapphire stone, there was the likeness of a throne, and above the likeness of a throne there was the appearance of a man (homo) sitting upon it. Ezekiel 1:26; 10:1.
'The cherubs' are the Lord's protection and providence, guarding against access to Him except through good, 9277 (end). 'A throne over which there was the appearance of a man' is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, 5313, 6397, 9039. From this it is evident that 'a sapphire stone' means truth translucent with inner truths; that is to say, 'a stone' means truth, and 'sapphire' translucence.
[11] The reason why all things of the Word are translucent with the Lord is that Divine Truth emanating from the Lord is the one and only source of everything there. For what is primary is the one and only vital element present in the things which follow and are derived from it, because they have their being in it and come into being from it; and the Divine Truth is the Lord. Here also lies the reason why the subject in the highest sense of the Word is the Lord alone, His love, providence, kingdom in heaven and on earth, and especially the glorification of His Human.
[12] The fact that the Divine Truth is the Lord Himself is evident from the consideration that whatever emanates from someone is the someone himself. What emanates for instance from a person when he speaks or acts originates in his will and understanding; and will and understanding constitute a person's life, thus the person himself. For the human being is not a human being by virtue of the shape of face and body but by virtue of an understanding that sees what is true and a will that intends what is good. From this it becomes clear that what emanates from the Lord is the Lord; and the fact that this is Divine Truth has been shown often in what has gone before.
[13] But anyone unacquainted with the arcana of heaven may suppose that the nature of Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord is no different from that of spoken words emanating from a human being. It is not spoken words however; rather It is the Divine filling the heavens, like light and heat from the sun filling the world. This may be illustrated by means of the spheres which emanate from the angels in heaven, dealt with in 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1520, 1695, 2401, 4464, 5179, 6206 (end), 6598-6613, 7454, 8063, 8630, 8794, 8797. In these places it has been shown and may be seen that they are spheres of the truth of faith and the good of love received from the Lord. But the Divine sphere which emanates from the Lord and is called Divine Truth spreads everywhere; as has been stated, it fills the whole of heaven and composes all of the life there. It appears before the eyes there as light, which enlightens not only angels' sight but also their minds. That same light is in addition what composes a person's understanding in the world. This is the meaning in John,
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He was the true light which enlightens every person coming into the world. And the world was made by Him. John 1:4, 9-10.
These words refer to Divine Truth, which in this chapter is called 'the Word'; and Divine Truth or 'the Word' - it says - is the Lord Himself.
[14] That light, which is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, was described by the ancients as radiating rings of golden hue around the head and body of God represented as a human being. For the ancients had no thought of God except of Him in human form.
[15] When a person is governed by good, and because of good is guided by truths, this person is raised to that Divine light, and - according to the amount and essential nature of the good - to interior light. This provides him with a general enlightenment in which the Lord enables him to see countless truths and to perceive them from good. At this time that person is led by the Lord to discern and absorb those which are suitable to him. He is led to do so as regards the most specific things, in keeping with order, so far as it contributes to his eternal life. The words 'as regards the most specific things' are used because the Lord's providence reigns universally, and it does so because it is present in the most specific things. For specific things are at the same called what is universal, 1919 (end), 6159, 6338, 6482, 6483, 8864, 8865.
फुटनोट:
1. i.e. bodies
2. In other places where Swedenborg quotes this verse he has rubies or gem stones.
3. literally, sapphire their polishing
Ezekiel 40
1
In the twenty and fifth year of our removal, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in this self-same day hath a hand of Jehovah been upon me, and He bringeth me in thither;
2
in visions of God He hath brought me in unto the land of Israel, and causeth me to rest on a very high mountain, and upon it [is] as the frame of a city on the south.
3
And He bringeth me in thither, and lo, a man, his appearance as the appearance of brass, and a thread of flax in his hand, and a measuring-reed, and he is standing at the gate,
4
and the man speaketh unto me: `Son of man, see with thine eyes, And with thine ears hear, And set thy heart to all that I am shewing thee, For, in order to shew [it] thee, Thou hast been brought in hither, Declare all that thou art seeing to the house of Israel.'
5
And lo, a wall on the outside of the house all round about, and in the hand of the man a measuring-reed, six cubits by a cubit and a handbreadth, and he measureth the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.
6
And he cometh in unto the gate whose front [is] eastward, and he goeth up by its steps, and he measureth the threshold of the gate one reed broad, even the one threshold one reed broad,
7
and the little chamber one reed long and one reed broad, and between the little chambers five cubits, and the threshold of the gate, from the side of the porch of the gate from within, one reed.
8
And he measureth the porch of the gate from within one reed,
9
and he measureth the porch of the gate eight cubits, and its posts two cubits, and the porch of the gates from within,
10
and the little chambers of the gate eastward, three on this side, and three on that side; one measure [is] to them three, and one measure [is] to the posts, on this side and on that side.
11
And he measureth the breadth of the opening of the gate ten cubits, the length of the gate thirteen cubits;
12
and a border before the little chambers, one cubit, and one cubit [is] the border on this side, and the little chamber [is] six cubits on this side, and six cubits on that side.
13
And he measureth the gate from the roof of the [one] little chamber to the roof of another; the breadth twenty and five cubits, opening over-against opening.
14
And he maketh the posts of sixty cubits, even unto the post of the court, the gate all round about;
15
and by the front of the gate of the entrance, by the front of the porch of the inner gate, fifty cubits;
16
and narrow windows [are] unto the little chambers, and unto their posts at the inside of the gate all round about -- and so to the arches -- and windows all round about [are] at the inside, and at the post [are] palm-trees.
17
And he bringeth me in unto the outer court, and lo, chambers and a pavement made for the court all round about -- thirty chambers on the pavement --
18
and the pavement unto the side of the gates over-against the length of the gates [is] the lower pavement;
19
and he measureth the breadth from before the lower gate, to the front of the inner court, on the outside, a hundred cubits, eastward and northward.
20
As to the gate of the outer court whose front [is] northward, he hath measured its length and its breadth;
21
and its little chambers, three on this side, and three on that side, and its posts and its arches have been according to the measure of the first gate, fifty cubits its length, and the breadth five and twenty by the cubit;
22
and its windows, and its arches, and its palm-trees [are] according to the measure of the gate whose face [is] eastward, and by seven steps they go up on it, and its arches [are] before them.
23
And the gate of the inner court [is] over-against the gate at the north and at the east; and he measureth from gate unto gate, a hundred cubits.
24
And he causeth me to go southward, and lo, a gate southward, and he hath measured its posts and its arches according to these measures;
25
and windows [are] to it and to its arches all round about, like these windows, fifty cubits the length, and the breadth five and twenty cubits;
26
and seven steps [are] its ascent, and its arches [are] before them, and palm-trees [are] to it, one on this side, and one on that side, at its posts;
27
and the gate of the inner court [is] southward, and he measureth from gate unto gate southward, a hundred cubits.
28
And he bringeth me in unto the inner court by the south gate, and he measureth the south gate according to these measures;
29
and its little chambers, and its posts, and its arches [are] according to these measures, and windows [are] to it and to its arches all round about; fifty cubits the length, and the breadth twenty and five cubits.
30
As to the arches all round about, the length [is] five and twenty cubits, and the breadth five cubits;
31
and its arches [are] unto the outer court, and palm-trees [are] unto its posts, and eight steps [are] its ascent.
32
And he bringeth me in unto the inner court eastward, and he measureth the gate according to these measures;
33
and its little chambers, and its posts, and its arches [are] according to these measures: and windows [are] to it and to its arches all round about, the length fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits;
34
and its arches [are] toward the outer court, and palm-trees [are] toward its posts, on this side and on that side, and eight steps [are] its ascent.
35
And he bringeth me in unto the north gate, and hath measured according to these measures;
36
its little chambers, its posts, and its arches; and windows [are] to it all round about: the length fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits;
37
and its posts [are] to the outer court, and palm-trees [are] unto its posts, on this side and on that side, and eight steps [are] its ascent.
38
And the chamber and its opening [is] by the posts of the gates, there they purge the burnt-offering.
39
And in the porch of the gate [are] two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to slaughter on them the burnt-offering, and the sin-offering, and the guilt-offering;
40
and at the side without, at the going up to the opening of the north gate, [are] two tables; and at the other side that [is] at the porch of the gate, [are] two tables;
41
four tables [are] on this side, and four tables on that side, at the side of the gate, eight tables on which they slaughter.
42
And the four tables for burnt-offering [are] of hewn stone: the length one cubit and a half, and the breadth one cubit and a half, and the height one cubit: on them they place the instruments with which they slaughter the burnt-offering and the sacrifice.
43
And the boundaries [are] one handbreadth, prepared within all round about: and on the tables [is] the flesh of the offering.
44
And on the outside of the inner gate [are] chambers of the singers, in the inner court, that [are] at the side of the north gate, and their fronts [are] southward, one at the side of the east gate [hath] the front northward.
45
And he speaketh unto me: `This chamber, whose front [is] southward, [is] for priests keeping charge of the house;
46
and the chamber, whose front [is] northward, [is] for priests keeping charge of the altar: they [are] sons of Zadok, who are drawing near of the sons of Levi unto Jehovah, to serve Him.'
47
And he measureth the court: the length a hundred cubits, and the breadth a hundred cubits, square, and the altar [is] before the house.
48
And he bringeth me in unto the porch of the house, and he measureth the post of the porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side, and the breadth of the gate, three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side;
49
the length of the porch twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits; and by the steps whereby they go up unto it: and pillars [are] at the posts, one on this side, and one on that side.
