The Bible

 

Ézéchiel 41:18

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18 et orné de chérubins et de palmes. Il y avait une palme entre deux chérubins. Chaque chérubin avait deux visages,

Commentary

 

Two

  

The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Du Ciel et de L'Enfer #198

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198. D'après cela, on peut voir que dans le Ciel, bien qu'il y ait des espaces comme dans le monde, rien n'y est évalué selon les espaces, mais tout est estimé selon les états. Par conséquent les espaces ne peuvent être mesurés comme dans le monde, mais ils sont seulement vus d'après l'état et selon l'état des intérieurs 4 .

Footnotes:

4. dans la Parole, la Longueur signifie le bien ; voir Arcanes Célestes 1613, 9487; la Largeur, le vrai ; voir Arcanes Célestes 1613, 3433, 3434, 4482, 9487, 10179; et la Hauteur, le bien et le vrai quant aux degrés ; voir Arcanes Célestes 9489, 9773, 10181.

  
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Thanks to the New Church clergy and their congregations in Francophone West Africa for providing scanned and corrected typescript of the Le Boys des Guays translation.