The Bible

 

Genesis 17:23

Study

       

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2107

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2107. When he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That this signifies when He utterly expelled the evils of His external man, is evident from the signification of “being circumcised,” as being to be purified from the loves of self and of the world, or what is the same, from evils; for all evils come from these loves (see above, n. 2039, 2041, 2053, 2057); and that the Lord expelled the evils by His own power, and thereby made His Human Essence Divine, has been abundantly shown in Part First, and now just above (n. 2025).

  
/ 10837  
  

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