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Sáng thế 9:7

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7 Vậy, các ngươi hãy sanh sản, thêm nhiều, và làm cho đầy dẫy trên mặt đất.

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Arcana Coelestia #1062

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1062. That “Shem” signifies the internal church, “Ham” the church corrupted, and “Japheth” the external church, is also evident from what follows, where their quality is described. As in every church, so in the Ancient there were men who were internal, men who were internal and corrupted, and men who were external. Those who are internal are those who make charity the principal 1 of their faith; those who are internal and corrupted make faith without charity the principal of their faith; and those who are external think little about the internal man, but still perform works of charity and sacredly observe the rites of the church. Besides these three kinds of men there are no others who are to be called men of the spiritual church; and because they were all men of the church, they are said to have “gone forth from the ark.” Those in the Ancient Church who were internal men, that is, who made charity the principal of their faith, were called “Shem”; those who were internal and corrupted, who made faith without charity the principal, were called “Ham”; while those who were external and thought little about the internal man, but still performed works of charity and sacredly observed the rites of the church, were called “Japheth.” The nature of each will be seen from the particulars in what follows.

Footnotes:

1. As distinguished from the instrumental. [Reviser]

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