聖書

 

創世記 45:28

勉強

       

28 そしてイスラエルは言った、「満足だ。わがヨセフがまだ生きている。わたしは死ぬ前に行って彼を見よう」。

スウェーデンボルグの著作から

 

Arcana Coelestia#5944

この節の研究

  
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5944. 'And now carry out this command' means an act of will. This is clear without explanation.

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

解説

 

Ten

  

In most places in the Word, "ten" represents "all," or in some cases "many" or "much." The Ten Commandments represent all the guidance we get from the Lord in life; the ten horns on the beast of Revelation represent all power of falsity; the ten virgins with lamps in Matthew 25 represent all people of the church.

Yet in other places, ten, or especially a "tenth," signifies representing remnants, or tiny scraps of goodness preserved for the future. These can be the remnants of a church -- a few good people that can be built up into a new church. Or they can be tiny subconscious memories of love and joy which the Lord stores in each of us in early childhood, feelings He can use later to draw us toward a life of goodness and affection.

These two meanings seem nearly opposite, but they're actually not. Love is whole and indivisible, so that the tiniest feeling buried inside someone contains all the elements of the love it can become. In a similar way, a remnant of a church that has preserved that church's knowledge has everything it needs to grow into a new church. In a sense, then, those remnants are indeed "all," they're just a version of "all" that is still in a state of potential.