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17 Sargieties no cilvēkiem: viņi nodos jūs tiesai, jūs šaustīs savās sinagogās.

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Apocalypse Explained #102

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102. And for My name's sake hast toiled, is the acknowledgment of the Lord and of the knowledges of truth that have respect to Him. This is evident from the signification of "the name" of Jehovah, or of the Lord, as being, in the highest sense, His Divine Human (See Arcana Coelestia 2628, 6887), and in a relative sense, all things of love and faith by which the Lord is worshiped, because these are things Divine that proceed from His Divine Human (n. 2724, 3006, 6674, 9310). This is evident also from the signification of "toiling," as being to strive with mind and zeal that these things may be known and acknowledged; for this is signified by "toiling" when it is said of those who apply themselves to the knowledges of truth and good. From this it follows that "for My name's sake hast toiled" signifies the acknowledgment of the Lord, and of the knowledges that have respect to Him. The knowledges that have respect to the Lord are all things that are of love and faith. In many passages of the Word it is said, "for the sake of Jehovah's name," "for the sake of the Lord's name," "for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ," that "the name of God should be sanctified," and the like. Those whose thoughts do not go beyond the sense of the letter suppose that the name alone is meant; but what is meant is not the name, but everything whereby the Lord is worshiped; and all of this has relation to love and faith. Therefore by "the Lord's name" in the Word all things of love and of faith by which He is worshiped are meant; here the acknowledgment of the Lord and of the knowledges of truth that have respect to Him, because this is said to those who are only zealous about knowledges.

[2] That "Jehovah's name" or the "Lord's name" does not mean the name itself, but all things of love and faith, is from the spiritual world. There the names used on the earth are not uttered; but the names of the persons who are spoken of are formed from the idea of all things known about them combined into a single word. In this way names in the spiritual world are expressed; consequently names there, like all the other things, are spiritual The names "Lord" and "Jesus Christ," even, are not uttered there as on the earth, but in place of those names a name is formed from the idea of all things known and believed respecting Him; and this idea is made up of all things of love to Him and faith in Him. This is because these in the complex are the Lord in them; for the Lord is in everyone in the goods of love and of faith that are from Him. As this is so, the quality of everyone there, in respect to love to the Lord and faith in the Lord, is immediately known if he only utters "Lord" or "Jesus Christ" by a spiritual expression or spiritual name; and for the same reason also, those who are not in any love to Him or faith in Him are unable to speak His name, that is, to form any spiritual name of Him. From this it is now clear why by the "name" of Jehovah, of the Lord, or of Jesus Christ, name is not meant in the Word, but everything of love and of faith whereby He is worshiped.

[3] Lest, therefore, the opinion that is entertained by many should prevail, that the mere name Jesus Christ, without love to Him or faith in Him, thus without the knowledges by which love and faith exist, contributes something to salvation, I will introduce some passages from the Word in which the expressions "for His name's sake" and "in His name" are used, from which those who think more deeply may see that name alone is not meant:

Jesus said, Ye shall be hated of all for My name's sake (Matthew 10:22, 24:9, 10).

Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).

As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God; even to them that believe in His name (John 1:12).

When Jesus was in Jerusalem many believed in His name (John 2:23).

He that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God (John 3:17, 18).

These are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name (John 20:31).

Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord (Matthew 21:9; 23:39; Luke 13:35; 19:35).

Everyone that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundred-fold, and eternal life (Matthew 19:29).

(What is here signified by "houses, brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, and fields," which are to be left for the name of the Lord, see Arcana Coelestia 10490.)

Jesus said, Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that I will do (John 14:13, 14);

"to ask in My name" is to ask from love and faith.

Many shall come in My name, saying, I am He; go ye not therefore after them (Luke 21:8; Mark 13:6);

"to come in My name" and "to say that I am He" is to proclaim falsities and to say that they are truths, and thus to lead astray. The like is signified by saying that they are the Christ, when they are not, in Matthew:

Many shall come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and shall lead many astray (Matthew 24:5, 11, 23-27);

for by "Jesus" is meant the Lord in respect to Divine good; and by "Christ" the Lord in respect to Divine truth (Arcana Coelestia 3004-3005, 3009, 5502), and by not being Christ, truth not Divine, but falsity.

[4] The "name of the Lord," in the New Testament means the like as the "name of Jehovah" in the Old, because the Lord there is Jehovah.

Thus in Isaiah:

And in that day shall ye say, Confess ye to Jehovah, call upon His name (Isaiah 12:4).

In the same:

O Jehovah, we have waited for Thee; to Thy name and to Thy memorial is the desire of our soul. By Thee will we make mention of Thy name (Isaiah 26:8, 13).

In the same:

From the rising of the sun shall My name be called upon (Isaiah 41:25).

In Malachi:

From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My name is great among the nations; and in every place incense is offered unto My name; for My name is great among the nations (Malachi 1:11).

In Isaiah:

Everyone that is called by My name I have created for My glory, I have formed him (Isaiah 43:7).

In Micah:

All peoples walk in the name of their god, and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God (Micah 4:5).

In Moses:

Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that hath taken His name in vain (Deuteronomy 5:11).

In the same:

Jehovah separated the tribe of Levi, that they should minister and bless in the name of Jehovah (Deuteronomy 10:8).

In the same:

They shall worship Jehovah in one place, where He shall place His name (Deuteronomy 12:5, 11, 13, 14, 18, 26; 16:2, 6, 11, 15, 16).

"Where He shall place His name" means where there shall be worship from the good of love and the truths of faith. This was done at Jerusalem; and therefore by "Jerusalem" the church in respect to doctrine and worship is signified (See in the small work on The New Jerusalem and its Doctrine 6).

[5] Since by the "name of Jehovah" or the "name of the Lord" is signified in the spiritual sense all worship from the good of love and the truths of faith, therefore in the highest sense by "name of Jehovah" is meant the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, for the reason that from His Divine Human everything of love and of faith proceeds. That by "name of Jehovah," in the highest sense, the Lord is meant, is evident in John:

Jesus said, Father, glorify Thy name. There came a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified and will glorify again (John 12:28).

In Isaiah:

I will give thee for a covenant to the people, for a light of the nations. I am Jehovah, this is My name, and My glory will I not give to another (Isaiah 42:6, 8);

the coming of the Lord is here treated of.

In Jeremiah:

Behold the days come that I will raise unto David a righteous shoot, and He shall reign as King, and this is His name, by which they shall call Him, Jehovah, our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5, 6).

From this it is clear what is meant in the Lord's prayer by the words:

Hallowed be Thy name (Matthew 6:9);

namely, that the Divine Human of the Lord is to be accounted holy, and to be worshiped.

[6] As this is meant by "the name of the Lord," the meaning of the following passages can be seen.

In John:

The shepherd of the sheep calleth his own sheep by their name (John 10:3).

In Luke:

Rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).

And in Revelation:

Thou hast a few names in Sardis (Revelation 3:4).

He who does not know what "name" signifies in the Word cannot possibly know how these words are to be understood, in Matthew:

He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous one in the name of a righteous one shall receive a righteous one's reward; and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold [water] in the name of a disciple only, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward (Matthew 10:41, 42).

"To receive a prophet in the name of a prophet," "a righteous one in the name of a righteous one," and "to give drink in the name of a disciple," signifies to love truth for the sake of truth, good for the sake of good, and to exercise charity from the faith of truth; for by "prophet" is signified truth, by "righteous one" is signified good, and by "disciple" good from truth; and "to give to drink of cold [water]" is to exercise charity from obedience; "in the name" of these is for the sake of what they are, thus for their sake. Who could ever understand these things unless he knew what "name" signifies?

[7] To love and to do truth for the sake of truth, and good for the sake of good, is to have affection for truth and good for their sake, and not for the sake of one's own reputation, honor, or gain. Such affection of truth and good is a truly spiritual affection; but the affection of truth and good for the sake of one's own reputation, honor, or gain, is a merely natural affection. And as those who love truth and good for the sake of truth and good, or because they are truth and good, are in the spiritual affection of truth and good, therefore it is said that they shall receive "a prophet's reward" and "a righteous one's reward;" which means that they are in the spiritual affection of truth and good, and this affection has reward in itself, because it has heaven in itself. (That the happiness of heaven is in the affection of loving and doing truth and good, without regard to reward as an end, thus for the sake of truth and good, see Arcana Coelestia 6388, 6478, 9174, 9984. That "prophet" signifies one who teaches truth, thus also, in the abstract, truth that is taught, see n. 2534, 7269. That a "righteous one" signifies the good of love to the Lord, n. 2235, 9857. That "disciple" signifies good from truth, which is the good of charity, n. 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397. That "to give drink" is to instruct in the goods and truths of faith, and thus to exercise charity, n. Arcana Coelestia 3069, 3772, 4017, 4018, 8562, 9412; and that "name" signifies the quality of a thing, n. 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 3237; hence "the name of Jehovah," or "the name of the Lord," signifies every quality by which He is worshiped, n. Arcana Coelestia 2724[1-3], 3006, 6674, 9310).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia #2165

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2165. That 'I will take a piece of bread' means something heavenly or celestial to go with [that something natural] is clear from the meaning of 'bread' as that which is celestial, dealt with already in 276, 680, 681, 1798. The reason 'bread' here means that which is celestial is that bread means all food in general, and so in the internal sense all heavenly or celestial food. What celestial food is has been stated in Volume One, in 56-58, 680, 681, 1480, 1695. That 'bread' means all food in general becomes clear from the following places in the Word: One reads of Joseph telling the man in charge of his house to bring the men, that is, his brothers, into the house, and then to slaughter what needed to be slaughtered and made ready. And after that, when these things had been made ready and the men were to eat them, he said, Set on bread, Genesis 43:16, 31, by which he meant that the table was to be made ready by them. Thus 'bread' stood for all the food that made up the entire meal. Regarding Jethro one reads that Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God, Exodus 18:12. Here also 'bread' stands for all the food that made up the entire meal. And regarding Manoah, in the Book of Judges,

Manoah said to the angel of Jehovah, Let us now detain you, and let us make ready a kid before you. And the angel of Jehovah said to Manoah, If you detain me I will not eat your bread. Judges 13:15-16.

Here 'bread' stands for the kid. When Jonathan ate from the honeycomb the people told him that Saul had commanded the people with an oath, saying,

Cursed be the man who eats bread this day. 1 Samuel 14:27-28.

Here 'bread' stands for all food. Elsewhere, regarding Saul,

When Saul sat down to eat bread he said to Jonathan, Why has not the son of Jesse come either yesterday or today, to bread? 1 Samuel 20:24, 27.

This stands for coming to the table, where there was food of every kind. Regarding David who said to Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son,

You will eat bread at my table always. 2 Samuel 9:7, 10.

Similarly regarding Evil-Merodach who said that Jehoiachin the king of Judah was to eat bread with him always, all the days of his life, 2 Kings 25:29. Regarding Solomon the following is said,

Solomon's bread for each day was thirty cors 1 of fine flour, sixty cors of meal, ten fatted oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep, besides harts and wild she-goats and roebucks and fatted fowl. 1 Kings 4:22-23.

Here 'bread' plainly stands for all the provisions that are mentioned.

[2] Since then 'bread' means every kind of food in general it consequently means in the internal sense all those things that are called heavenly or celestial foods. This becomes even clearer still from the burnt offerings and sacrifices that were made of lambs, sheep, 2 she-goats, kids, he-goats, young bulls, and oxen, which are referred to by the single expression bread offered by fire to Jehovah, as is quite clear from the following places in Moses where the various sacrifices are dealt with and which, it says, the priest was to burn on the altar as the bread offered by fire to Jehovah for an odour of rest, Leviticus 3:11, 16. All those sacrifices and burnt offerings were called such. In the same book,

The sons of Aaron shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God, for it is the fire-offerings to Jehovah, the bread of their God, that they offer. You shall sanctify him, for it is the bread of your God that he offers. No man of Aaron's seed who has a blemish in himself shall approach to offer the bread of his God. Leviticus 21:6, 8, 17, 21.

Here also sacrifices and burnt offerings are referred to as 'bread', as they are also in Leviticus 22:25. Elsewhere in the same author,

Command the children of Israel, and say to them, My gift, My bread, for fire-offerings of an odour of rest, you shall take care to offer to Me at their appointed times. Numbers 28:2.

Here also 'bread' stands for all the sacrifices that are mentioned in that chapter. In Malachi,

Offering polluted bread on My altar. Malachi 1:7.

This also has regard to sacrifices. The consecrated parts of the sacrifices which they ate were called 'bread' as well, as is clear from these words in Moses,

The person who has touched anything unclean shall not eat any of the consecrated offerings, but he shall surely bathe his flesh in water, and when the sun has set he will be clean. And afterwards he shall eat of the consecrated offerings, because it is his bread. Leviticus 22:6-7.

[3] Burnt offerings and sacrifices in the Jewish Church represented nothing else than the heavenly things of the Lord's kingdom in heaven, and of the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church. They also represented the things of the Lord's kingdom or Church as it exists with every individual; and in general they represented all those things that are composed of love and charity, for those things are celestial or of heaven. In addition each type of sacrifice represented some specific thing. In those times all of the sacrifices were called 'bread', and therefore when the sacrifices were abolished and other things serving for external worship took their place, the use of bread and wine was commanded.

[4] From all this it is now clear what is meant by that 'bread', namely that it means all those things which were represented in the sacrifices, and thus in the internal sense means the Lord Himself. And because 'bread' there means the Lord Himself it means love itself towards the whole human race and what belongs to love. It also means man's reciprocal love to the Lord and towards the neighbour. Thus the bread now commanded means all celestial things, and wine accordingly all spiritual things, as the Lord also explicitly teaches in John,

They said, Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to Him, Lord, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the Bread of life he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:31-35.

And in the same chapter,

Truly I say to you, He who believes in Me has eternal life. I am the Bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living Bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this Bread he will live for ever. John 6:47-51.

[5] Now because this 'Bread' is the Lord it exists within the celestial things of love which are the Lord's, for the Lord is the celestial itself, because He is love itself, that is, mercy itself. This being so, 'bread' also means everything celestial, that is, all the love and charity existing with a person, for these are derived from the Lord. People who are devoid of love and charity therefore do not have the Lord within them, and so are not endowed with the forms of good and of happiness which are meant in the internal sense by 'bread'. This external symbol [of love and charity] was commanded because the worship of the majority of the human race is external, and therefore without some external symbol scarcely anything holy would exist among them. Consequently when they lead lives of love to the Lord and of charity towards the neighbour, that which is internal exists with them even though they do not know that such love and charity constitute the inner core of worship. Thus in their external worship they are confirmed in the kinds of good which are meant by 'the bread'.

[6] In the Prophets as well 'bread' means the celestial things of love, as in Isaiah 3:1, 7; 30:23; 33:15-16; 55:2; 58:7-8; Lamentations 5:9; Ezekiel 4:16-17; 5:16; 14:13; Amos 4:6; 8:11; Psalms 105:16. Those things are in a similar way meant by 'the loaves of the Presence' on the table, referred to in Leviticus 24:5-9; Exodus 25:30; 40:23; Numbers 4:7; 1 Kings 7:48.

Bilješke:

1. A cor, or a homer, was a Hebrew measure of about 6 bushels or 220 litres.

2. The Latin has a word meaning oxen (boves), but comparison with other places where Swedenborg gives the same list of animals suggests that he intended sheep (oves).

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