10. Verse 2. Who bare witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, signifies to those who in heart acknowledge Divine truth, and the Divine of the Lord in His Human. This is evident from the signification of "bearing witness," as meaning to acknowledge in heart (of which hereafter), and from the signification of "the Word," or speech of God, as meaning Divine truth (SeeArcana Coelestia 4692, 5075, 9987); and from the signification of "[the testimony of] Jesus Christ," as meaning the acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine in His Human. This is signified by "the testimony of Jesus Christ," because "to testify" signifies to acknowledge in heart, and to acknowledge Jesus Christ in heart is to acknowledge the Divine in His Human; for he that acknowledges the Lord, and does not at the same time acknowledge the Divine in His Human, does not acknowledge the Lord; since His Divine is in His Human, and not out of it; for the Divine is in Its Human as the soul is in the body, consequently to think of the Lord's Human, and not at the same time of His Divine, is like thinking of a man abstractly from his soul or life, which is not thinking of a man.

[2] That the Lord's Divine is in His Human, and that together they are one person, the doctrine received throughout the Christian world teaches; which teaching is as follows: "Although Christ is God and Man, yet they are not two, but one Christ; one, but not by a change of the Divine into the Human, but the Divine took the Human to Itself. Altogether one, not by confusion of the two natures, but by unity of person; for as soul and body make one man, so God and Man are one Christ" (Athanasian Creed). From this it is manifest, moreover, that those who separate the Divine into three persons, when they think of the Lord as a second person, ought to think of both together, the Human and the Divine; for it is said that they are a single person, and that they are one, as soul and body are. Therefore those that think otherwise do not think of the Lord; and those that do not think of the Lord in that way are unable to think of the Divine that is called the Father's, for the Lord saith:

I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one cometh unto the Father but through Me (John 14:6).

Since this acknowledgment is signified by the "testimony of Jesus Christ," it is said that:

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10).

"The spirit of prophecy" is the life and soul of doctrine (that "spirit" in the internal sense of the Word, signifies life or soul, may be seen Arcana Coelestia 5222, 9281, 9818; and that "prophecy" signifies doctrine, n. 2534, 7269); and the acknowledgment of the Lord is the very life or soul of all doctrine in the church. But of this more will be said in what follows.

[3] To "bear witness" is to acknowledge in heart, because spiritual things are treated of; and no one can bear witness respecting spiritual things except from the heart, because from no other source does he perceive that they are so. To bear witness of things that have existence in the world is to bear witness from knowledge, or from memory and thought, because the man has so seen or heard; but it is otherwise with things spiritual, for these fill the whole life and constitute it. The spirit of man, in which his life primarily resides, is nothing else than his will or his love, and his understanding and faith therefrom, and "heart" in the Word signifies the will and love, and understanding and faith therefrom. From this it is evident whence it is that by "bearing witness" in the spiritual sense, is meant to acknowledge in heart. Since by the "heart" is signified the good of love, and this alone is what acknowledges Divine truth, and the Divine of the Lord in His Human, and since that good is signified by "John," it is also said by John that he "bears witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ." So also in another place:

And he that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye may believe (John 19:35);

and in another place:

This is the disciple that beareth witness of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his witness is true (John 21:24).

4692. 'And they hated him all the more for his dreams and for his words' means still greater contempt and aversion on account of that declaration of truth, namely concerning the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'adding' as making still greater; from the meaning of 'hating' as holding in contempt and turning away in aversion, dealt with above in 4681; from the meaning of 'a dream' as a declaration, also dealt with above, in 4682, 4685; and from the meaning of 'words' as truths. The reason 'words' means truths is that every word in heaven is received from the Lord, and therefore 'words' in the internal sense means truths, while 'the Word' in general means all Divine Truth.

[2] The subject in particular is that the Church which has separated faith from charity holds in utter contempt and turns away in utter aversion from the highest truth of all - the truth that the Lord's Human is Divine. All who belonged to the Ancient Church and did not separate charity from faith believed that the God of the whole world was a Divine Man, and that He was the Divine Being (Esse), which also was why they called Him Jehovah. They knew of Him as such from the most ancient people, and also because He had appeared to many of their brethren as Man. They also knew that all the ritual and external practices of their Church represented Him. But those who adhered to faith separated from charity were unable to share that belief of those who did not separate faith from charity because they could not grasp how the Human could ever be Divine, or that Divine love could make it such. For anything they did not grasp with some idea acquired through their bodily senses they considered to be worthless. This is what faith separated from charity is like; for with those people the internal degree of perception is closed because nothing intermediate exists to enable one to flow into the other.

[3] The Jewish Church which came next did in fact believe that Jehovah was Man as well as God, because He had appeared to Moses and the Prophets as a human being, on account of which they called every angel who appeared Jehovah. Yet their idea of Him was no different from ideas the gentiles had of their gods, though they preferred Jehovah God because He could work miracles, 4299. They were unaware of the fact that this Jehovah was the Lord in the Word, 2921, 3035, and that His Divine Human was represented in all their religious observances. They had no other idea of the Messiah or Christ than one who would be a very great prophet, greater than Moses, and a very great king, greater than David, who would lead them into the land of Canaan to the accompaniment of amazing miracles. Of His heavenly kingdom they did not wish to hear anything at all, for the reason that they grasped none but worldly ideas since they were people separated from charity.

[4] The Christian Church, it is true, does in its religious services adore the Lord's Human as one that is Divine. It does so in particular in the Holy Supper, because He has said that the bread there is His body, and the wine His blood. But they do not in their doctrine make His Human Divine, for they make a distinction between His Divine nature and His human nature. Also, they make this distinction because the Church has turned aside from charity to faith, and at length to faith separated from charity. And failing to acknowledge that the Lord's Human is Divine, many go wrong and in their heart deny Him, 4689. Yet the truth of the matter is that the Lord's Divine Human is the Divine Manifestation of the Divine Being, dealt with above in 4687, and that He Himself is the Divine Being; for Divine Being and Divine Manifestation make one, as the Lord also plainly teaches in John,

Jesus said to Philip, Have I been so long a time with you and you do not know Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. John 14:9-11.

The same teaching occurs elsewhere. The Divine Manifestation is the Divine itself proceeding from the Divine Being and in image is Man, since heaven, of which He is its all, represents the Grand Man, as stated above in 4687 and shown at the ends of chapters where the correspondence with heaven of everything in the human being is dealt with. The Lord, it is true, was born as any human being is born, and received an infirm human from His mother; but the Lord cast out this human completely, to the point of His being no longer Mary's son, and made the Human within Himself Divine, which is what is meant by His being glorified. He also showed Peter, James, and John that He was a Divine Man, when He was transfigured.