Dalle opere di Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #9386

Studia questo passo

  
/ 10837  
  

9386. 'And Moses wrote all Jehovah's words' means imprinting them at the same time on the life. This is clear from the meaning of 'writing' as imprinting them on the life, dealt with below; from the representation of 'Moses' as the Lord in respect of the Word, as above in 9372, 9382; and from the meaning of 'all Jehovah's words' as truths from the Word, also dealt with above, in 9383. From this it is evident that 'Moses wrote all Jehovah's words' means God's truths imprinted by the Lord on the life. Truths are said to have been imprinted on the life when they become matters of will and consequently of action. As long as they remain fixed solely in the memory, and as long as they are regarded on solely an intellectual level, they have not been imprinted on the life. But as soon as they are accepted with the will they are made part of the life, because willing and consequent action are the real essence of the life of a person. Till then those truths have not become the person's own.

[2] The reason why 'writing' means imprinting on the life is that written accounts of things exist for the sake of remembrance by every future generation. It is similar with the things that have been imprinted on a person's life. A person has two books so to speak in which all his thoughts and deeds have been written down. These books are his two memories, the exterior one and the interior one. The things written down in his interior memory are those which remain to all eternity and can never be blotted out. They are primarily those things which have been made part of the will, that is, of love since things that are loved are part of the will. This memory is what someone's 'book of life' is used to mean, see 2474.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

Dalle opere di Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #9319

Studia questo passo

  
/ 10837  
  

9319. 'Nor do according to their works' means that evils of life must not be pursued. This is clear from the meaning of 'works' as evils of life. The fact that 'not doing according to them' means not following or pursuing them is self-evident.

  
/ 10837  
  

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

Dalle opere di Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #3686

Studia questo passo

  
/ 10837  
  

3686. 'And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac his father' means the Lord's foresight and provision that the affections for that truth - the affections to which natural good had been joined until then - would not be suitable for such conjunction. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' here as foresight and provision, dealt with in 2837, 2839; from the representation of 'Esau' as the Lord as regards the Divine Good of the Natural, dealt with already; from the meaning of 'the daughters of Canaan', in this case the daughters of Heth, as affections for truth from a non-genuine source, dealt with in 3470, 3620-3622; and from the meaning of '[evil] in the eyes of Isaac his father' as not being suitable for such conjunction, that is to say, through the good of the natural, represented by 'Esau', with the good of the rational, represented by 'Isaac'. From this it is evident that all these words mean the Lord's foresight and provision that the affections for that truth, being from a non-genuine source, would not be suitable for conjunction. The truth of all this may be seen from the explanation given at 26:34-35, where the subject is the daughters of Heth whom Esau had taken as wives, and at 27:46, where the subject is the plea to Jacob not to marry one of the daughters of Canaan. The reason why 'the daughters of Canaan' here means affections for truth from a non-genuine source, whereas above 'the daughters of Canaan' meant affections for falsity and evil, 3662, 3683, is that the Hittites in the land of Canaan belonged to the Church as it existed among gentiles. They were not so much under the influence of falsity and evil as other nations there, such as the Canaanites, Amorites, and Perizzites. This also was why the Hittites represented the Lord's spiritual Church among the gentiles, 2913, 2986.

[2] The Most Ancient Church which was celestial and existed before the Flood was situated in the land of Canaan, see 567. The Ancient Church which existed after the Flood was also situated there, as well as in many other countries, 1238, 2385. This was how it came about that all the gentile nations there, and also all the territories there, and all the rivers there, served as representatives. For the most ancient people, who were celestial, perceived through all the objects they beheld the kind of things that belong to the Lord's kingdom, 920, 1409, 2896, 2897, 2995, and so beheld the same through the territories and the rivers there.

[3] After their times those representatives survived in the Ancient Church, including the representatives related to the places there. Furthermore the Word that existed in the Ancient Church, dealt with in 2897-2899, contained place-names which were for the same reason representative; and the Word existing after their times, which is called Moses and the Prophets, also contains them. This was why Abraham was commanded to go there, and the promise was made to him that his descendants would possess that land. That promise was not made because they were any better than all the other nations, for they were the worst of them all, 1167, 3373. But it was made so that through them the representative Church might be established, in which no attention was paid to representative persons and places themselves but to the actual things which these represented, 3670, and thus also so that the names existing in the Most Ancient and the Ancient Churches might be preserved.

  
/ 10837  
  

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