487. 'Days means periods of time and states in general. This has been shown in Chapter 1, where the 'days of creation' have no other meaning. In the Word it is very common for a whole period of time to be called 'a day', as it clearly is in the present verse and in verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 31, below; and therefore the states that belong to periods of time in general are meant by 'days' as well. And when 'years' is attached, then periods of years mean the natures of those states, and so the states in particular.

[2] The most ancient people had their own particular numbers which they would use to mean different aspects of the Church - for instance, the numbers three, seven, ten, twelve, and many which they obtained from these and other numbers - and in so doing incorporated states of the Church. These numbers therefore contain arcana that would require considerable effort to unravel. Really a number was an evaluation of the states of the Church. The same feature occurs throughout the Word, especially in the prophetical. And the religious ceremonies of the Jewish Church also entail numbers specifying periods of time as well as quantities; for example, in connection with sacrifices, minchahs, oblations, and other practices, which in every case have special reference to holy things. Consequently eight hundred in this verse, nine hundred and thirty in the next, and the numbers of years mentioned in the verses that follow after that, embody in particular more matters than can possibly be retold; matters, that is to say, which have to do with changes in the state of their Church in relationship to their own general state. Later on, in the Lord's Divine mercy, the meaning of the simple numbers up to twelve will be given, for without knowing these first of all no one can grasp what compound numbers mean.

93. It is here first written to the angel of the church of Ephesus. By the angel of that church are meant all those in the church that are in the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and good, thus in the knowledges (cognitiones) of such things as pertain to heaven and the church, and who nevertheless are not, or not as yet, in a life according to them. By these knowledges are chiefly meant doctrinals; but doctrinals alone, or knowledges alone, of good and truth, do not make man spiritual, but a life according to them; for doctrinals or knowledges (cognitiones) without a life according to them, reside only in the memory, and thence in the thought; and all things which only reside there, reside in his natural man; a man therefore does not become spiritual before those things enter into his life, and they then enter into his life when he wills the things which he thinks, and thence does them. That this is the case, any one may know from this fact alone that, supposing any one to know all the laws of moral and civil life, and not to live according to them, he would yet not be a moral and civil man; he may indeed speak respecting them with more knowledge than others, but nevertheless he is rejected. The same also is the case if any one knows the ten precepts of the Decalogue, so that he can even explain them and preach them intelligently, and yet does not live according to them. Those therefore within the church who have the knowledges (cognitiones) of such things as pertain to the church, that is, who have the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and good from the Word, and are not, or not as yet, in a life according to them, are here first treated of; and they are described by the things written to the angel of the Ephesian church.