Apocalypse Revealed #213
213. "'That the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.'" This symbolically means, so as not to profane and adulterate the goodness of heavenly love.
No one can know the symbolic meaning of the shame of nakedness unless he knows that the reproductive organs in both sexes, called also the genitalia, correspond to celestial love.
To be shown that the human body and all its constituents have a correspondence with the heavens, see the book Heaven and Hell, published in London in , nos. 87-102. And to be shown that the reproductive organs correspond to celestial love, see Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), also published in London, nos. 5050-5062.
Now because these organs correspond to celestial love, which is the love found in the third or inmost heaven, and because a person is born of his parents into loves contrary to that love, it is apparent that if he does not acquire for himself the goodness of love and the truth of wisdom from the Lord, which are symbolically meant by gold refined in fire and white garments, he will be seen to be impelled by a contrary love, which in itself is profane.
[2] This latter circumstance is symbolically meant by uncovering nakedness and manifesting the shame of it, in the following places:
Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and his private parts be seen. (Revelation 16:15)
...daughter of Babylon (and of the Chaldeans), sit on the ground... Uncover your hair..., uncover the thigh, pass through the rivers. Let your nakedness be uncovered; yes, let your shame be seen. (Isaiah 47:1-3)
Woe to the bloody city! ...Because of the multitude of (her) harlotries... I will uncover your skirts in front of you, and I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your disgrace. (Nahum 3:1, 4-5)
Contend with your mother... lest I strip her naked... (Hosea 2:2-4)
When I passed by you... I covered your nakedness... Then I washed you... and... I clothed you... But you... played the harlot... not remembering your youth, when you were naked and bare... (Therefore) your nakedness was uncovered... (Ezekiel 16:6ff.)
Jerusalem has sinned gravely; therefore... all... despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. (Lamentations 1:8)
Jerusalem, of which these things were said, means the church; and to play the harlot means, symbolically, to adulterate and falsify the Word (no. 134).
Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink..., making him drunk, that you may look on his nakedness! ...Drink, you too, that your uncircumcised foreskin may be exposed! (Habakkuk 2:15-16)
[3] Someone who knows what nakedness symbolizes can understand what is symbolically meant by the statement that when Noah was drunk from drinking wine he lay uncovered inside his tent, and Ham saw and laughed at his nakedness, but Shem and Japheth covered his nakedness, turning their faces away so as not to see it (Genesis 9:21-23). He can understand also why it was decreed that Aaron and his sons should not go up by steps to the altar, that their nakedness might not be exposed (Exodus 20:26). And so, too, why it was decreed that they should make for them linen trousers to cover their naked flesh, that they should have these on when they came near the altar, and that otherwise they would bear their iniquity and die (Exodus 28:42-43).
Nakedness in these places symbolizes the evils into which a person is born, which, because they are contrary to the goodness of celestial love, are in themselves profane and are removed only by truths and by living in accordance with those truths. Linen also symbolizes truth (no. 671[1-2]).
[4] Nakedness in addition symbolizes innocence, and also ignorance of goodness and truth. Innocence is symbolized by the statement, "they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they had no cause for shame" (Genesis 2:25). Ignorance of goodness and truth is symbolized by the following:
...this... fast that I choose: ...to break bread with the hungry..., and... when you see the naked man, to cover him. (Isaiah 58:6-7)
He gives his bread to the hungry man, and covers the naked one with clothing. (Ezekiel 18:7)
...I was hungry and you gave Me food...; I was naked and you clothed Me. (Matthew 25:35-36)
約伯記 34
1
以利戶又說:
3
因為耳朵試驗話語,好像上膛嘗食物。
6
我雖有理,還算為說謊言的;我雖無過,受的傷還不能醫治。
8
他與作孽的結伴,和惡人同行。
10
所以,你們明理的人要聽我的話。神斷不致行惡;全能者斷不致作孽。
12
神必不作惡;全能者也不偏離公平。
15
凡有血氣的就必一同死亡;世人必仍歸塵土。
17
難道恨惡公平的可以掌權麼?那有公義的、有大能的,豈可定他有罪麼?
19
他待王子不徇情面,也不看重富足的過於貧窮的,因為都是他手所造。
20
在轉眼之間,半夜之中,他們就死亡。百姓被震動而去世;有權力的被奪去非借人手。
24
他用難測之法打破有能力的人,設立別人代替他們。
25
他原知道他們的行為,使他們在夜間傾倒滅亡。
26
他在眾人眼前擊打他們,如同擊打惡人一樣。
27
因為他們偏行不跟從他,也不留心他的道,
29
他使人安靜,誰能擾亂(或譯:定罪)呢?他掩面,誰能見他呢?無論待一國或一人都是如此─
30
使不虔敬的人不得作王,免得有人牢籠百姓。
31
有誰對神說:我受了責罰,不再犯罪;
32
我所看不明的,求你指教我;我若作了孽,必不再作?
33
他施行報應,豈要隨你的心願、叫你推辭不受麼?選定的是你,不是我。你所知道的只管說罷!
36
願約伯被試驗到底,因他回答像惡人一樣。