825. 19:13 He was clothed with a garment stained with blood, and His name is called "The Word of God." This symbolizes Divine truth in its outmost sense, or the Word in its letter, to which violence has been done.

A garment symbolizes truth that clothes good (nos. 166, 212, 328), and when referring to the Word it symbolizes the Word in its literal sense, for the literal sense is a kind of covering that clothes the Word's spiritual and celestial senses. The blood symbolizes the violence done to the Lord's Divinity and to the Word (nos. 327, 684). It symbolizes this because blood symbolizes the Lord's Divine truth in the Word (nos. 379, 653). Consequently to shed blood means, symbolically, to do violence to the Lord's Divinity and to the Word. The Word of God symbolizes here the Word in its literal sense, for it is to this that violence has been done, but not to the Word in its spiritual sense, because this sense has not been known, and if it had been known, it would have had violence done to it as well. Therefore that sense was not revealed until after the Last Judgment was over and the Lord was about to establish a new church. Nor is it revealed to anyone now unless he possesses Divine truths from the Lord, as may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture 26.

[2] That violence has been done to the Lord's Divinity and to the Word is clearly apparent from the Roman Catholic religion and from the faith-alone religion of the Protestant Reformed. The Roman Catholic religion teaches that the Lord's humanity is not Divine, and so they have transferred everything that is the Lord's to themselves. They also maintain that it is for them alone to interpret the Word, and their interpretation is everywhere contrary to the Word's Divine truth, as we showed in the exposition of the preceding chapter 18. It is apparent, therefore, that violence has been done to the Word by that religion.

It is apparent likewise from the faith-alone religion among the Protestant Reformed. This, too, does not make the Lord's humanity Divine, and it founds its theology on a single saying of Paul falsely interpreted. ¹ Therefore it takes no account of everything the Lord taught regarding love and charity and good works, even though those teachings are so obvious that anyone may see them if only he has the eyes to do so.

[3] Jews treated the Word similarly. Their religion taught that the Word was written only for them, so that only they are meant in it, and that the Messiah to come would exalt them over all others in the whole world. By these notions and many others they falsified and adulterated everything in the Word. This is the meaning of the following declaration in Isaiah:

Who is this who comes from Edom, with spattered garments from Bozrah... Why is your apparel red, and your garments like those of one who treads in the winepress... ...(Because) their victory is spattered upon My garments, and I have befouled my whole garment. (Isaiah 63:1-3)

Garments here, too, symbolize the Word's Divine truths. Edom means red, here the redness of blood. It is apparent, therefore, that His being clothed with a garment stained with blood and His name called "The Word of God," symbolizes Divine truth in the outmost sense, or the Word in its letter, to which violence has been done.

V:

26. 5. The Word’s spiritual meaning is granted after this only to someone who possesses genuine truths from the Lord. The reason is this: because no one can see the spiritual meaning unless he is enabled to do so by the Lord alone, and unless he possesses genuine truths from Him. For the Word’s spiritual meaning deals with the Lord alone and His kingdom, and that sense is the one possessed by His angels in heaven. It is, indeed, His Divine truth there. It is possible for a person to violate that truth if he has a knowledge of correspondences and tries to use it to explore the Word’s spiritual meaning in accord with his own intelligence. Applying some of the correspondences he knows, he may twist its meaning and use it to confirm even falsity, which would be to do injury to Divine truth, and to heaven as well. If someone tries to lay open that sense on his own, therefore, and not from the Lord, heaven is closed, and when heaven is closed, a person either sees nothing, or he becomes spiritually irrational.

[2] There is also another reason. Because the Lord teaches everyone by means of the Word, and teaches him in accordance with the truths the person already possesses and does not infuse new truths directly, therefore if the person is without any Divine truths, or if he possesses only a few truths and is caught up at the same time in falsities, it would be possible for him to use those falsities to falsify the truths — as is also commonly known to be the case with every heretic as regards just the Word’s literal sense.

Consequently, to keep people from entering into the Word’s spiritual meaning, or from twisting the genuine truth found in that sense, the Lord has set protections, meant in the Word by cherubim.

[3] That protections have been set was represented to me in the following way:

I was given to see large purses, looking like sacks, which had stored away in them a great deal of silver. Since they were open, it seemed as if anyone might take some of the silver deposited in them, even to make off with it. However, next to the purses two angels were sitting as guards. The place where the purses rested looked like a manger in a stable. In the next room I saw modest maidens, together with a chaste wife. Near that room were two little children, and I heard it said they were not to be played with in a childish way, but wisely. Afterward a harlot appeared, then a horse lying dead.

4] On seeing these images I was informed that they represented the literal meaning of the Word, which has a spiritual meaning within. The large purses full of silver symbolized concepts of truth there in great abundance. The purses’ being open and yet guarded by angels symbolized that anyone might draw concepts of truth there, but that people should take care not to falsify the spiritual meaning, which contains only truths. The manger in the stable where the purses were sitting symbolized spiritual instruction for the intellect. (A manger has this symbolism, because a horse, which feeds from it, symbolizes the intellect.)

5] The modest maidens I saw in the next room symbolized affections for truth, and the chaste wife the conjunction of truth and good. The little children symbolized the innocence of the wisdom in it (they were angels from the third heaven, all of whom appear like little children). The harlot together with the dead horse symbolized the falsification of the Word by many people today, by which all understanding of the truth has been extinguished. (A harlot symbolizes falsification, and a dead horse no understanding of truth.)