The Bible

 

Matthew 12

Study

   

1 At that season Jesus went on the sabbath day through the grainfields; and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck ears and to eat.

2 But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do upon the sabbath.

3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was hungry, and they that were with him;

4 how he entered into the house of God, and ate the showbread, which it was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them that were with him, but only for the priests?

5 Or have ye not read in the law, that on the sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless?

6 But I say unto you, that one greater than the temple is here.

7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

8 For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath.

9 And he departed thence, and went into their synagogue:

10 and behold, a man having a withered hand. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? that they might accuse him.

11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be of you, that shall have one sheep, and if this fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?

12 How much then is a man of more value than a sheep! Wherefore it is lawful to do good on the sabbath day.

13 Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, as the other.

14 But the Pharisees went out, and took counsel against him, how they might destroy him.

15 And Jesus perceiving [it] withdrew from thence: and many followed him; and he healed them all,

16 and charged them that they should not make him known:

17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

18 Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, And he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles.

19 He shall not strive, nor cry aloud; Neither shall any one hear his voice in the streets.

20 A bruised reed shall he not break, And smoking flax shall he not quench, Till he send forth judgment unto victory.

21 And in his name shall the Gentiles hope.

22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a demon, blind and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the dumb man spake and saw.

23 And all the multitudes were amazed, and said, Can this be the son of David?

24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This man doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub the prince of the demons.

25 And knowing their thoughts he said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

26 and if Satan casteth out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?

27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.

28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.

29 Or how can one enter into the house of the strong [man,] and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong [man]? and then he will spoil his house.

30 He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

31 Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.

32 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.

33 Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit.

34 Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

35 The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

36 And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

38 Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from thee.

39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet:

40 for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

41 The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here.

42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

43 But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not.

44 Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.

45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation.

46 While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, seeking to speak to him.

47 And one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking to speak to thee.

48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

49 And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren!

50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #840

Study this Passage

  
/ 1232  
  

840. Verse 17. And that no one be able to buy and 1 to sell if he hath not the mark of the beast, signifies forbidding anyone to learn and teach anything but what has been acknowledged and thence accepted in doctrine. This is evident from the signification of "to buy and to sell," as being to acquire knowledges to oneself and to communicate them to others, thus to learn and to teach (of which presently). "To cause no one to be able" signifies to forbid. It is evident also from the signification of a "mark," as being an attestation and sign of acknowledgment that those who are in these so-called truths and goods of that faith are of the church (See just above, n. 838). From this it is clear that "to cause that no one be able to buy and to sell save he that hath the mark of the beast" signifies forbidding anyone to learn and to teach anything but what has been acknowledged and also accepted in doctrine. "To buy and to sell" signifies to acquire for oneself the knowledges of truth and good from the Word and to communicate them, or what is the same, to learn and teach, because "wealth and riches" signify in the Word the knowledges of truth and good; and "silver and gold," by means of which buying and selling are conducted, signify the truths and goods of heaven and the church; and this is why "buying and selling," and also "doing business and trading," are spoken of in the Word here and there, and why they signify spiritual buying and selling, and doing business and trading.

[2] As in Isaiah:

Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no silver, come ye, buy and eat; come, I say, buy wine and milk without silver and without price (Isaiah 55:1).

Everyone sees that by "buying wine and milk" is not here meant buying such things. And as "to buy" signifies to acquire for oneself such things as contribute to man's spiritual life, evidently the particulars here are to be spiritually understood; thus the "waters" to which everyone that thirsts may come signify truths for those that desire them; "waters," meaning truths from the Word, and "to thirst" meaning to desire them; that these are given freely from the Lord is signified by "he that hath no silver," also by "without silver and without price;" "to eat" signifies to appropriate to oneself; "wine and milk" signify spiritual truth and natural truth therefrom, both from good.

[3] In Matthew:

The prudent virgins said to the foolish, Go ye rather to them that sell, and buy oil for yourselves; but while they went away to them to buy the bridegroom came (Matthew 25:9, 10).

"The prudent virgins" signify those in the church with whom faith is conjoined to charity, and "the foolish" signify those in the church with whom faith is separated from charity; for "lamps" signify the truths of faith, and "oil" signifies the good of love; therefore "to go to them that sell and to buy" signifies to those who teach, and to learn or acquire for oneself. But as such had not acquired for themselves the good of love, and vivified by that means the truths of faith, while they lived in the world, but had acquired them afterwards, and as no one can acquire for himself the good of love after death and retain it, so these foolish virgins, by whom all who separate the good of love or the good of charity from the truths of faith are signified, were not admitted to the marriage feast nor received by the bridegroom. "The marriage feast" signifies heaven, and "the bridegroom" the Lord.

[4] In the Gospels:

Jesus entered into the temple, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of them that sold doves (Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; Luke 19:45).

"Those that sold and bought" here signify those who make gain for themselves out of holy things; the "tables of the money-changers" signifies those who do this from holy truths; and the "seats of them who sold doves" those who do it from holy goods; therefore it is afterwards said that they made the temple "a den of thieves," "thieves" meaning those who pillage the truths and goods of the church, and thus make to themselves gain.

[5] In Luke:

As it came to pass in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded (Luke 17:28).

"To eat and drink" signifies here to live for self and the world, and to appropriate to oneself evils and falsities; "to buy and sell" signifies to acquire these and to communicate them to others; "to plant and build" signifies to confirm oneself in these, and to live in them.

[6] In the same:

Jesus said, Now he who hath a purse let him take it, and likewise a wallet; but he that hath no sword let him sell his garments and buy one (Luke 22:36).

What is meant by these words is evident from what follows there, namely, that "this which was written must be fulfilled in the Lord" (verse 37), thus that He was to suffer the cross; and since this must needs distract the minds of those who were then living, as well as the minds of the disciples, and lead them into doubts respecting the Lord and His kingdom, and thus into temptations, and these doubts could be dispelled only by means of truths, therefore the Lord says, "he that hath a purse and a wallet let him take them," that is, he that possesses truths from the Word, in which it is foretold that Christ must suffer such things, let him take heed not to lose them; for the purse and the wallet have a similar signification as the coins and money in them, namely, the knowledges of truth and good from the Word. "But he that hath no sword let him sell his garments and buy one," signifies let those who have no truths reject what is their own, and acquire the truths with which they may fight against falsities, "sword" signifying the combat of truth against falsity, and the destruction of falsity.

[7] As "Tyre" signifies the church in respect to the knowledges of truth and good, and thence also the knowledges of truth and good which belong to the church, and which are serviceable for its doctrine, so where "Tyre" is treated of in the Word, her "tradings" are also treated of, which signify the acquisition and also the communication to others of these knowledges, as in Ezekiel:

All the ships were for the trading of thy traffic; Tarshish was thy trader in silver, iron, tin, and lead; they traded for thy merchandise. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, these were thy merchants; they traded for the merchandise with the soul of man and with vessels of brass. The sons of Dedan were thy merchants, many islands were the merchants of thy hand. Syria was thy trader with chrysoprasus. But thy riches and thy tradings, thy merchandise, and they who trade thy traffic, shall fall into the heart of the seas in the day of thy fall (Ezekiel 27:1, to the end).

In Isaiah:

Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is devastated, whose merchants are princes, her traders the honored of the earth (Isaiah 23:1, 8).

Everyone can see that tradings and merchandise here do not mean tradings and merchandise; for what has the Word, which in itself is Divine and heavenly, and teaches man about God, heaven and the church, eternal life, and the like, in common with such things? Therefore who cannot see that all the particulars here signify spiritual things which pertain to heaven and the church, not only the names of the lands here mentioned with which trading was carried on, but also their special kinds of merchandise? But it would take too much space to explain here what the particulars in the spiritual sense signify; it is enough to know that "tradings" here signify the acquisition and communication of the knowledges of truth and good; and that "merchandise or wares" signify these knowledges; which are multifarious.

[8] That this is the signification is evident also from these words in Ezekiel:

In thy wisdom and in thine intelligence thou hast made to thyself wealth; and hast made gold and silver in thy treasures; by the abundance of thy wisdom in thy trading thou hast multiplied to thyself wealth (Ezekiel 28:4, 5).

This treats of the prince of Tyre, by whom the knowledges of truth from the Word, through which come intelligence and wisdom, are meant; and as these same knowledges are signified by "wealth," and the acquisition of them by "trading," it is said, "by the multiplication 2 of thy wisdom in thy trading thou hast multiplied to thyself wealth."

[9] From all this it can now be seen why:

The Lord compared the kingdom of the heavens to a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it (Matthew 13:45, 46).

"Pearls" signify knowledges, and also truths themselves; and "the one of great price" signifies the acknowledgment of the Lord; and "to sell all that he had" signifies to set aside all things that are of one's own love, and "to buy it" signifies to procure for oneself that Divine truth.

[10] The like is meant by:

The treasure hidden in a field, which a man having found hid, and for joy he went and sold all things whatsoever that he had and bought the field (Matthew 13:44).

The "treasure" signifies the Divine truth that is in the Word; and the "field" signifies the church and its doctrine; and "to sell all things whatsoever that he had and buy the field" signifies here as above, to set aside what is one's own and to acquire for oneself the Divine truth that is in the Lord's church.

[11] As "trading" signifies the acquisition and possession of truths, the Lord spake by a parable:

Of a man going on a journey, who gave to his servants talents, that they might trade with them and make gain (Matthew 25:14-30);

and of another:

Who gave to his servants ten pounds, that they might trade with them (Luke 19:12-26).

"To trade," "tradings," and "traders," have the same signification elsewhere in the Word; also the contrary sense, in which they signify the reception and appropriation of falsities (as in Isaiah 48:15; Ezekiel 16:3; Nahum 3:14; Revelation 18:3, 11-24). So the church in which such things exist is called:

A land of trading (Ezekiel 16:29; 21:30, 31; 29:14).

Moreover, "to sell" and "to be sold" signify to alienate truths and to be alienated from them, and to accept falsities in their place, and to be captivated by them (Isaiah 50:1; 52:3; Ezekiel 30:12; Joel 3:6, 7; Nahum 3:4; Zechariah 13:5; Psalms 44:11-13; Deuteronomy 32:30). From this can be seen what is properly signified by "being redeemed and redemption," where the Lord is treated of; as in Isaiah:

Ye have sold yourselves for nought; therefore ye shall be redeemed without silver (Isaiah 52:3);

and in many passages elsewhere.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin has "et," but in the text of the chapter we read "aut."

2. The photolithograph reads "multiplicationem," but just above "multitudinem."

  
/ 1232  
  

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

The Bible

 

Ezekiel 16:3

Study

       

3 and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem: Your birth and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite.