'A shekel' signifies the price or estimation of good and truth, and 'half a shekel' signifies the determination of the quantity thereof.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 3104)

1130. Who hath committed whoredom and lived luxuriously with her, signifies who have been in falsities and in the evils of falsities from delight respecting that authority. This is evident from the signification of "to commit whoredom," as being to falsify truths (See n. 141, 161, 805, 983); thus also to love falsities, for he who is in the love of evil is also in the love of falsity, since by falsity evil is confirmed. Also from the signification of "living luxuriously," as being to have delight from dominion or from that authority, thus to love evils. "To commit whoredom" is predicated of falsities, and "to live luxuriously" of evils, and both of delight in these.

[2] As "committing whoredom" signifies the falsifying of truths, and "living luxuriously" signifies loving evils and thus also falsities, it shall now be told whence it is that the Babylonish nation has falsified the Word and weakened its Divine holiness. It has been known in the whole Christian world that the Word is Divine, and consequently that all things contained in the Word are Divine truths. Now as the Babylonians have claimed for themselves and have actually assumed dominion over all things of the church and also over heaven, and as they thus let themselves into all evils that spring up from the love of self, it was necessary for them to confirm those evils by means of the Word, and this could be done only by falsifying it, for the Word can in no wise confirm evil; consequently when a man confirms evil by means of the Word he falsifies its truths. This was done by the Babylonians; but as they still saw truths in the Word that they could not falsify, as for instance, all that is said in it about Babylon, so by their craft they weakened the Divine holiness of the Word, and forbade the reading of it by the people; and their leaders and presbyters, who are called monks, also refrained from reading it, saying that the decrees of the Pope were just as holy as the contents of the Word, and that all things of the church must be adapted to its state, and consequently must be changed as its state requires, and that such adaptation and changes must be made from the inspiration of the Pope. All this makes clear how it is that the truths of the Word have been falsified and rejected by them, and in place of these such things as pander to their love of ruling and wholly favor it, and which are in themselves falsities, have been accepted, and have been endorsed by their Pope. From all this the particular signification of "the whoredoms of its kings" with Babylon the harlot can be seen.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith and respecting the Lord)

[3] As God is uncreate He is also eternal; for the life itself which is God is life in itself, not from itself, nor from nothing; thus it is without origin; and what is without origin is from eternity and is eternal. But an idea of anything without origin is impossible to the natural man; so, too, is the idea of God from eternity; but it is possible to the spiritual man. The thought of the natural man cannot be separated and abstracted from the idea of time; this idea clings to him from nature, in which he is. Nor can his thought be separated and abstracted from the idea of origin, since origin means to him a beginning in time. The appearance in the sun's progression has impressed this idea on the natural man. But the thought of the spiritual man is abstracted from the idea of time, because it is raised above nature, and in place of that idea there is the idea of state of life, and in place of duration of time is an idea of the state of thought from affection, which constitutes life. For in the angelic heaven the sun does not rise or set or make years and days, as the sun in the world does; and for this reason the angels of heaven, because they are in spiritual ideas, think apart from time; consequently their idea of God from eternity does not take anything from origin, that is, from a beginning, but from state that it is eternal, and that everything therefore that is God and that proceeds from God is eternal, in other words, is Divine in itself. That this is so has been granted to perceive by an elevation above the natural idea into a spiritual idea. From all this it is now clear that God, who is uncreate, is also eternal, also that it is impossible to think that nature is from eternity, or that it is from itself in time; but it is possible to think that God is from eternity, and that nature with time is from God.