Commentarius

 

Hogs

  

In Leviticus 11:7 and Matthew 7:6, this signifies filthy loves of those in the hells of adulterers. (Apocalypse Explained 1044[4]) Swine signify people who love only worldly riches. (Apocalypse Revealed 727)

In Isaiah 65:4, this signifies appropriation of infernal evils. (Apocalypse Explained 659[2]) 'Swine' or 'hogs' correspond to the life of greed and its delight.

(Notae: Arcana Coelestia 1742)

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Divine Providence #230

Studere hoc loco

  
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230. The profanation of what is holy is referred to in the second of the Ten Commandments in the words, "You shall not profane the name of your God" [Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11]; and the Lord's prayer is telling us that we must not profane what is holy when it says, "Hallowed be your name" [Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2]. Hardly anyone in all Christendom knows what "the name of God" means. This is because people do not know that people in the spiritual world do not have names the way we do in this physical world. Rather, each individual is named for her or his own love and wisdom. As soon as we enter a community or a gathering of people, we are immediately given a name that expresses our nature. We are named in a spiritual language that is essentially able to give a distinctive name to every individual thing, because every letter in its alphabet means something definite; and when many letters are combined into a single word, as happens with an individual's name, they include the whole state of that object. This is just one of the marvels of the spiritual world.

[2] We can see from this that in the Word, "the name of God" means both God and everything divine that is in him and that emanates from him. Since the Word is a divine emanation, it is a name of God; and since all the divine gifts that we refer to as the spiritual gifts of the church come from the Word, they too are a name of God.

This enables us to see what "You shall not profane the name of your God" means in the second of the Ten Commandments, and what "Hallowed be your name" means in the Lord's Prayer.

"The name of God" and "the name of the Lord" mean much the same in many passages in the Word in both Testaments. See, for example, Matthew 7:22; Matthew 10:22; Matthew 18:5, 20; Matthew 19:29; Matthew 21:9; Matthew 24:9-10; John 1:12; John 2:23; John 3:17-18; John 12:13, 28; John 14:14-15, 16; John 16:23-24, 26-27; John 17:6; and John 20:31, among others, as well as a great many in the Old Testament.

[3] If you know the meaning of this "name," then you can know the meaning of the Lord's words, "Whoever accepts a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. Whoever receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward; and whoever gives one of these little ones something cold to drink in the name of a disciple will not lose the reward" (Matthew 10:21 [Matthew 10:41-42]). If you understand the name of a prophet or a righteous person or a disciple to mean nothing but the prophet or the righteous person or the disciple, then the only meaning you get will be a literal one. You will not know, either, what is meant by the reward of the prophet or the reward of the righteous person or the reward for the cold drink given on behalf of the disciple. Yet the name and the reward of the prophet mean the blessed state of people who enjoy divine gifts of truth, and the name and the reward of the righteous person mean the blessed state of people who enjoy divine gifts of what is good, while the disciple means the state of people who have some of the spiritual gifts of the church, and the cold drink is any element of truth.

[4] We can also tell that the name means the nature of the state of love and wisdom, or of what is good and true, from these words of the Lord: "The one who comes in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The doorkeeper opens to him and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out" (Matthew 10:2, 3 [John 10:2-3]). "Calling sheep by name" is teaching and leading every individual whose deeds are prompted by caring, and doing so in keeping with that individual's state of love and wisdom. "The door" means the Lord, as we can tell from verse 9: "I am the door. Anyone who enters in by me will be saved." This shows that we need to turn to the Lord himself if we are to be saved, and that the one who does turn to him is a shepherd of his sheep. Anyone who does not turn to him is a thief and a robber, as it says in the first verse of the same chapter.

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

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Explained #1044

Studere hoc loco

  
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1044. And pearls, signifies their appearance in externals to be in the cognitions [cognitiones] of good and truth, and yet in internals they are in the knowledge [scientia] of evil and falsity. This is evident from the signification of "pearls," as being the cognitions of good and truth (of which presently); therefore in the contrary sense "pearls" signify the knowledges of evil and falsity, which are the source of their craft and cunning. That the Babylonian nation is such, namely, that they wish to appear to be in sanctity, and thus in every good and truth and in the knowledges of these, and to appear in consequence to be intelligent above all others in the world, although in fact they are in no good or truth nor in any knowledges of these, and thus not in any intelligence or wisdom in spiritual things. That they are not in these, but are instead insane in respect to them, is clearly seen in the spiritual world, where the interiors of every man are laid bare and thus clearly appear. In the case of the monks, and especially the Jesuits, who from their cleverness were considered to be more intelligent than all others in the world, their interiors were found to be so empty and void that they did not know a single truth that leads to heaven. These have been explored, and have been found to be such.

[2] They appear in externals to be in goods, truths, knowledges, intelligence, and wisdom, because they have made subject to their dominion all the holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, and therefore from dominion they speak with the common people, persuading them that they hold the mysteries of heaven, and that their Pope utters his edicts from inspiration, like that of the prophets and apostles; and this they can declare in a haughty manner, because they speak from the authority of dominion over souls, and over heaven and hell; and from a persuasion of their holiness it can be accepted by the common people with no repugnance of heart, since the common people are kept for this very purpose in dense thick darkness respecting spiritual things. And in that thick darkness they inspire spurious goods and foolish truths, which they call Divine and heavenly; and in such thick darkness in which the common people are kept, they are even able to inspire devilish and infernal evils and falsities, and to induce a faith in them as if they were celestial and spiritual goods and truths; for thus and not otherwise can they be adored as deities, and subject countries and possessions to their command and disposal. Such are the things that lie hidden inwardly in them, while outwardly they appear as if "arrayed in purple and scarlet, and inwrought with gold, precious stones, and pearls."

[3] That "pearls" signify the knowledges of good and truth can be seen from the following passages. In Matthew:

The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one precious pearl, going away sold all that he had and bought it (Matthew 13:45-46).

"The kingdom of the heavens" means both heaven and the church; the "merchant" means those who acquire for themselves the goods and truths through which heaven and the church come; "pearls" signify the knowledges of good and truth, for these are the truths of the natural man; "the one precious pearl" means the knowledge respecting the Lord and His Divine; "going away he sold all that he had and bought it" signifies to reject what is one's own [proprium] in order to receive life from the Lord.

[4] In the same:

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest they trample on them with their feet, and turn and rend you (Matthew 7:6).

"Dogs" signify lusts and appetites; "swine" signify filthy loves, such as are those in the hells of adulterers. Because such are in the infernal marriage, which is the marriage of falsity and evil, they utterly reject goods and truths and the knowledges of these, and moreover treat them with scorn and scoffing; therefore it is said, "Cast not your pearls before the swine, lest they trample on them with their feet, and turn and rend you," "to trample with the feet" being to wholly reject as filth, and "to turn and rend" being to treat with scorn and scoffing.

[5] "Pearls" also signify the knowledges of good and truth in the following passages in Revelation:

The merchants of the earth shall weep and wail over Babylon, for no one buyeth their merchandise any more, merchandise of gold and silver, and of precious stone and pearl (Revelation 18:11-12).

Again:

The twelve gates of the wall of the New Jerusalem were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was one pearl (Revelation 21:21).

As "the gates to the New Jerusalem" signify such things of doctrine from the Word as introduce man into the church, and these are the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, so the gates were seen to be "of pearls."

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.