4448. 'Shechem my son' means the truth derived from that good. This is clear from the representation of 'Shechem' as interior truth, dealt with in 4430, and so truth derived from the good meant by Hamor, 4447. Actually all the truth of the Church is derived from its good; such truth never arises from any other source. This truth which Shechem represents is called interior truth, being in essence nothing other than the good of charity. Indeed the Most Ancient Church, being celestial, was governed by the good of love to the Lord and as a consequence they had a perception of all truth; for the members of that Church were almost as angels. They also had communication with angels, that being the source of their perception. They never therefore reasoned about any truth of faith, but simply said 'Yes, that is the truth' because they had a perception of it from heaven. They did not even wish to make mention of faith, but of charity instead, see 202, 337, 2715, 2718, 3246. For this reason it is the good of charity that is meant at this point by interior truth. As regards the remnants of that Church existing with Hamor the Hivite and his son Shechem, see immediately above in 4447.

[2] With the Ancient Church, which was spiritual, it was different. This Church was not governed like the Most Ancient Church by love to the Lord but by charity towards the neighbour. Nor was it able to arrive at charity except through the truth of faith, of which, unlike the Most Ancient people, they did not have any perception and therefore began to make investigations into whether the truth was the truth. Regarding the difference between celestial people who had perception and spiritual ones who do not, see 2088, 2669, 2708, 2715, 3235, 3240, 3246, 3887.

1676. 'As far as El-paran which is over into the wilderness' means the range of their extension. This becomes clear from the fact that the Horites were smitten and made to flee as far as that place. The wilderness of Paran is mentioned in Genesis 21:21; Numbers 10:12; 12:16; 13:3, 26; Deuteronomy 1:1. What 'El-paran which is in the wilderness' means here cannot be easily explained beyond this, that the Lord's first victory over the hells meant by those nations did not as yet extend any further. But how far it did extend is meant by 'El-paran which is over into the wilderness'.

[2] Anyone who has not been given to know heavenly arcana may imagine that there was no necessity for the Lord's Coming into the world to fight with the hells, and by means of the temptations He suffered to war successfully against them and overcome them, since Divine Omnipotence could at any point have subdued them and confined them to their own particular hells. That it was nevertheless necessary stands as an unchanging truth. To disclose merely the most general aspects of those arcana however would take up a whole work, and would also provide opportunities for reasonings about Divine mysteries which, though disclosed, people's minds would not grasp. Nor would the majority wish to grasp them.

[3] It is enough therefore if people know and, since it is so, believe it to be an eternal truth that unless the Lord had come into the world and by means of the temptations which He suffered had overcome and conquered the hells, the human race would have perished, and that if He had not done so none who have lived on this planet even from the time of the Most Ancient Church could have been saved.