4768. 'They took Joseph's tunic' means appearances. This is clear from the meaning of 'tunic', in this case a tunic of various colours, as appearances of truth, dealt with in 4677, 4741, 4742. The subject in what follows next is the removal of blame for the crime they had committed, and in the internal sense the corroboration of falsity opposed to the Divine Truths that are dealt with just above in 4766, a corroboration which was effected by means of appearances presented by means of reasonings from the sense of the letter of the Word. Corroborations of falsity involving the use of interpretations made from the sense of the letter of the Word are in every case appearances, by which the simple are normally led astray, falsity being presented as truth, and truth as falsity .These are the matters that constitute the subject in the internal sense of what follows next.

2117. THE LAST JUDGEMENT

Few nowadays know what the Last Judgement is. They imagine that it is going to be accompanied by the destruction of the world; and this leads to conjectures that this earth, together with everything else in the visible world, is going to be destroyed by fire. They also conjecture that then for the first time the dead will rise again and appear for judgement, and the evil are to be cast into hell and the good to rise up to heaven. These conjectures are based on the prophetical parts of the Word where references are made to a new heaven and a new earth, and also to a New Jerusalem. Such people do not realize that the prophetical parts of the Word have a meaning altogether different in the internal sense from what appears in the sense of the letter, and that 'heaven' is not used to mean heaven, nor 'the earth' to mean the earth, but the Lord's Church in general, and as it exists with each individual in particular.