Ezechiele 23:15
To many Protestant and Evangelical Italians, the Bibles translated by Giovanni Diodati are an important part of their history. Diodati’s first Italian Bible edition was printed in 1607, and his second in 1641. He died in 1649. Throughout the 1800s two editions of Diodati’s text were printed by the British Foreign Bible Society. This is the more recent 1894 edition, translated by Claudiana.
Apocalypse Revealed # 601
601. Telling those dwelling upon the earth to make an image of the beast that was injured by the sword and lived. This symbolically means that the clergy induce people in the church to accept as doctrine that faith is the only means of salvation, because no one can do good of himself without its being merit-seeking, and because no one can fulfill the law and in that way be saved.
Those dwelling upon the earth mean people in the Protestant Reformed Church, as in no. 600 above. The image symbolizes the doctrine of that church, as explained below. And the image of the beast that was injured by the sword and lived symbolizes this tenet of the doctrine, that faith is the only means of salvation, because no one can do good of himself without its being merit-seeking, and because no one can fulfill the law and in that way be saved (see nos. 576, 577ff. above).
[2] Every church appears to the Lord as a person. If it is governed by truths from the Word, it appears as an attractive person. But if it is caught up in truths falsified, it appears as a hideous person. The church appears as it does in keeping with its doctrine and in keeping with its life in accordance with that doctrine. It follows from this that a church's doctrine presents an image of the church.
This can also be seen from the fact that every person embodies his own goodness and truth or his own evil and falsity. It is this and nothing else that makes a person human. Consequently it is doctrine and a life in accordance with it which produces the image of a person in the church - the image of an attractive person if the doctrine and his life in accordance with it conform with the Word's genuine truths, but the image of a hideous person if they accord with the Word's truths falsified.
[3] In the spiritual world, moreover, a person appears as a kind of animal, but it is his affection that so appears at a distance. People impelled by truths and goods from the Lord look like lambs and doves, while those caught up in falsified truths and adulterated goods look like owls and bats. People possessing a faith divorced from charity look like dragons and goats. Those caught up in falsities springing from evil look like basilisks 1 and crocodiles. And those who are of this character and yet have affirmed the teachings of the church look like fiery flying serpents.
It can be seen from this that the church's doctrine and a life in accordance with it are meant by the image of the beast which the people made for those dwelling upon the earth.
[4] But what eventually became of those who worshiped the image of the beast may be seen in Revelation 14:9-11; 19:20, cf. 20:4.
Images have similar symbolic meanings in the spiritual sense in Exodus 20:4-5, Leviticus 26:1, Deuteronomy 4:16-18, Isaiah 2:16, Ezekiel 7:20; 16:17; 23:14-16.
Among the ancients, idols and carved images were symbols of their religious faith. Consequently they symbolize doctrinal falsities and evils (no. 459).
სქოლიოები:
1. Legendary serpents or dragons, whose breath and glance were said to be lethal. Formerly identified in English translations of the Latin Vulgate with the cockatrice, and retained as such in the King James Bible.
Deuteronomy 3
1
Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
2
Yahweh said to me, "Don't fear him; for I have delivered him, and all his people, and his land, into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon."
3
So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we struck him until none was left to him remaining.
4
We took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we didn't take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
5
All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides the unwalled towns a great many.
6
We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones.
7
But all the livestock, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.
8
We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon;
9
([which] Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir;)
10
all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
11
(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; isn't it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, after the cubit of a man.)
12
This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead, and its cities, gave I to the Reubenites and to the Gadites:
13
and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, gave I to the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim.
14
Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.)
16
To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and the border [of it], even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;
17
the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border [of it], from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.
18
I commanded you at that time, saying, "Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it: you shall pass over armed before your brothers the children of Israel, all the men of valor.
19
But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you,
20
until Yahweh gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan: then you shall return every man to his possession, which I have given you."
21
I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, "Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings: so shall Yahweh do to all the kingdoms where you go over.
22
You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you."
23
I begged Yahweh at that time, saying,
24
"Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand: for what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to your works, and according to your mighty acts?
25
Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon."
26
But Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and didn't listen to me; and Yahweh said to me, "Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter.
27
Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes: for you shall not go over this Jordan.
28
But commission Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see."
