The Bible

 

Ézéchiel 41:19

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19 une face d'homme tournée d'un côté vers la palme, et une face de lion tournée de l'autre côté vers l'autre palme; il en était ainsi tout autour de la maison.

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

 

Heaven and Hell #13

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13. THE DIVINE OF THE LORD IN HEAVEN IS LOVE TO HIM AND CHARITY TOWARDS THE NEIGHBOR

The Divine going forth from the Lord is called in heaven Divine Truth, for a reason which will be shown in what follows. This Divine Truth inflows into heaven from the Lord from His Divine Love. The Divine Love and the Divine Truth therefrom are related to each other as are the fire of the sun and the light therefrom in the world, love being as the fire of the sun and the truth therefrom as light from the sun. Moreover, from correspondence fire signifies love, and light, truth going forth from love. 1 From this, the nature of Divine Truth going forth from Divine Love can be confirmed. In its essence, it is Divine Good conjoined to Divine Truth, and because it is conjoined, it gives life to all things of heaven, just as the heat of the sun conjoined to light in the world makes all things of the earth fruitful, as happens in spring and summer. It is otherwise when heat is not conjoined to light, thus when the light is cold. Then all things are torpid and lifeless. This Divine Good which is compared to heat is the good of love with the angels, whereas the Divine Truth which is compared to light is that through which and from which comes the good of love.

Footnotes:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] In the Word "fire" signifies love, in a two-fold sense (Arcana Coelestia 934, 4906, 5215). "Holy and heavenly fire" signifies Divine Love, and every affection which is of that love (Arcana Coelestia 934, 6314, 6832). "Light" from fire signifies truth going forth from the good of love, for light in heaven is Divine Truth (Arcana Coelestia 3395, 3485, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413, 4415, 9548, 9684).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.