4814. 'It happened at that time' means the state belonging to the things that follow. This is clear from the meaning of 'time' as state, dealt with in 2625, 2788, 2837, 3254, 3356, 3404, 3938. The state belonging to the things that follow is indeed the meaning of 'it happened at that time', because what happened next is recorded in the descriptions that follow. What is more, these descriptions carry on from the train of thought contained in the descriptions that go immediately before them. For the subject in the previous chapter is the sons of Jacob and their selling of Joseph. They were persuaded to sell him by Judah, of whom the previous chapter speaks as follows,

Judah said to his brothers, What profit' is there in our killing our brother and our concealing his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. Genesis 37:26-27.

The meaning there is that Divine Truth was alienated by the brothers, especially by Judah, who at that point means in the proximate sense the tribe of Judah, and in general the corrupt within the Church who are opposed to all good whatever, see 4750, 4751. A reference back to this is contained in the words 'at that time'. For now the subject is Judah, his sons by the Canaanite woman, and after these his sons by Tamar his daughter-in-law, all of which in the internal sense describes the tribe of Judah so far as things of the Church established among that tribe were concerned.

[2] As for 'time' meaning state, and 'it happened at that time' consequently meaning the state belonging to the things that follow, this is bound to appear quite strange, for the reason that no one can comprehend how the idea of a time can be turned into that of a state; that is, how when reading 'time' in the Word one has to understand something to do with some state. But it should be realized that angels' thoughts are not formed from anything having a temporal or a spatial origin, because they are in heaven. When they left the world they also left behind all idea of time and space and adopted ideas of state, that is, of the state in which good and truth exist. Therefore when a person reads the Word and from this thinks of a certain time and of the things taking place at that time, the angels present with him do not perceive anything to do with a certain time but instead the aspects of a state, to which those things also correspond.

Nor indeed with his interior thought does the reader conceive of a time, only with his exterior thought, as may be recognized from the state when a person's exterior thought lies dormant, that is, while he is asleep, as well as from many other kinds of experience.

[3] But it should be realized that in general there are two kinds of state - a state involving good and one involving truth. The former is called a state of being (esse), but the latter a state of manifestation (existere), for being is the essential characteristic of good, and the manifestation of this the essential characteristic of truth. Space corresponds to a state of being, time to a state of manifestation. From this it may be seen that when a person reads this statement 'and it happened at that time', the angels present with him cannot perceive these words at all in the way that the reader does. Similarly with every other statement, for whatever has been written in the Word is such that among angels it is converted into a corresponding meaning which cannot at all be seen in the sense of the letter; for that which is worldly belonging to the sense of the letter is converted into that which is spiritual belonging to the internal sense.