62. Every Form of Murder, Adultery, Theft, or False Witness, Including Every Urge to Commit Them, Is an Evil Which Must Be Refrained from as Being a Sin

People know that the law at Sinai was written on two tablets, and that the first tablet contains laws having to do with God, and the second laws having to do with man.

That the first tablet contains everything having to do with God, and the second everything having to do with man, is not something apparent in the letter. But everything is present in them. That is why the commandments are called the Ten Commandments, which symbolizes all truths in their entirety (see no. 61 just above). But in what way those truths are all present there cannot be explained in a few words. However, it may be comprehended from what we presented in The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 67, to which the reader is referred.

That is why we say, “every form of murder, adultery, theft, and false witness.”

67. Now let this be illustrated by an example showing how spiritual angels draw out their sense and celestial angels their sense from the natural sense in the Word that people have. Take, for instance, five of the Ten Commandments:

The commandment to honor one’s father and mother: People interpret father and mother to mean their father and mother on earth, as well as all those who stand in place of their father and mother, and they interpret the commandment to honor them as meaning to hold them in honor and obey them.

Spiritual angels, on the other hand, interpret their father to mean the Lord, and their mother to mean the church, and that to honor them means to love them.

Celestial angels, however, interpret their father to mean the Lord’s Divine love, and their mother to mean His Divine wisdom, and that to honor them means to do good from Him.

[2] The commandment not to steal: People interpret stealing to mean thieving, defrauding, and under some pretext robbing the neighbor of his goods.

Spiritual angels interpret stealing to mean using falsities and evils to deprive others of the truths of their faith and goods of charity.

And celestial angels interpret stealing to mean the attributing to themselves what is the Lord’s and claiming for themselves His righteousness and merit.

[3] The commandment not to commit adultery: People interpret adultery to mean adultery, licentiousness, obscene behavior, lascivious speech, and filthy thoughts.

Spiritual angels interpret adultery to mean adulteration of the Word’s goods and falsifying its truths.

And celestial angels interpret adultery to mean denying the Lord’s Divinity and profaning the Word.

[4] The commandment not to kill: People interpret killing to mean also hatred and longing to take revenge even to the point of murder.

Spiritual angels interpret killing to mean playing the part of a devil and murdering a person’s soul.

And celestial angels interpret killing to mean hatred of the Lord and everything having to do with the Lord.

[5] The commandment not to bear false witness: People interpret bearing false witness to mean lying and slander.

Spiritual angels interpret bearing false witness to mean saying and persuading that falsity is truth and evil good, and vice versa.

And celestial angels interpret bearing false witness to mean blaspheming the Lord and the Word.

[6] It can be seen from this how the spiritual and celestial senses are extracted and drawn from the Word’s natural sense, in which they reside. Moreover, what is remarkable, angels extract their meanings without knowing what the person is thinking. And yet the thoughts of angels and people are coupled together by correspondences, as end, cause and effect are. In fact ends are also found in the celestial kingdom, causes in the spiritual kingdom, and effects in the kingdom of nature. Such is their essential conjunction through correspondences from creation. This, then, is the reason for people’s affiliation with angels through the Word.