460. Which can neither see nor hear nor walk. This symbolically means, which do not have in them any spiritual or truly rational life.

This is said because idolaters believe that their idols see and hear, for they make them gods. But still this is not what the statement means. Rather it means that falsities in worship do not have in them any spiritual or truly rational life, as to see and hear means, symbolically, to understand and perceive (nos. 7, 25, 87). To walk, moreover, symbolically means to live (no. 167). Thus the three together symbolize a spiritual and truly rational life.

This is the symbolic meaning because idols symbolize falsities in worship, and these have no spiritual or rational life in them.

The statement that idols do not see, hear, or walk would be too obvious to deserve mention here if it did not have in it some symbolic meaning.

Similar statements regarding idols are made elsewhere in the Word, as in the following places:

They do not know or understand; ...their eyes... do not see; their hearts... do not know... Nor do they have any knowledge or intelligence... (Isaiah 44:9, 18-19)

...they do not speak..., they do not walk... (Jeremiah 10:3-10)

They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see. (Psalms 115:5; 135:15-16)

These statements have a similar symbolic meaning, because idols symbolize falsities in worship, and falsities in worship have in them no life that is real.

7. To whatever he saw. This symbolizes their enlightenment in all matters contained in this revelation.

"Whatever he saw" means, in the spiritual sense, not what John saw - they were simply visions - but what those people meant by John see, people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith, as we said above. These see in John's visions secrets concerning the state of the church, not so much when they read them themselves, but when they see them revealed.

"To see," moreover. This means, symbolically, to understand. Consequently we even say in common speech that one sees a matter, or that one sees it to be the truth. For a person has a sight belonging to his spirit as well as a sight belonging to his body. But with his spirit a person sees spiritual matters as they appear in the light of heaven, whereas with his body he sees natural objects as they appear in the light of the world. Spiritual matters are also realities, while natural objects are their forms. The sight of a person's spirit is what we call the intellect.

It is apparent from this what is meant in the spiritual sense by "whatever he saw," and likewise in places after this where it is said that he saw.