590. 13:9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. This symbolically means, let people who wish to be wise pay attention to this.

To have an ear and to hear means, symbolically, to perceive and obey, and also to pay attention (see no. 87 above). It follows that the verse also means people who wish to be wise.

We are told here, "If anyone has an ear, let him hear," in order that people may pay attention to what goes before. Otherwise they are not wise.

59. And was put to death. This symbolically means that the Lord was disregarded and His Divine humanity not acknowledged.

His being put to death does not mean that He was crucified and so died, but that He was disregarded in the Church and His Divine humanity not acknowledged, for thus He became dead to people.

People do indeed acknowledge the Lord's Divinity from eternity, but this is in actuality Jehovah. They do not, however, acknowledge His humanity to be Divine, even though the Divinity and the humanity in Him are like soul and body, and so are not two entities but one, in fact one person, in agreement with the doctrine accepted throughout the Christian world which has its name from Athanasius.

When people divorce the Lord's Divinity from His humanity, therefore, saying that His humanity is not Divine but like the humanity of any other person, He becomes then dead to them.

Regarding this divorce, however, and thus the death of the Lord, more may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord; and also in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence, nos. 262, 263.