205. The content of each single verse has to do with a particular state or else change of state within the Church. The initial verses describe how they still perceived that such a course of action was forbidden even though they had an inclination towards it. The two present verses describe how they began to doubt whether it was forbidden them, since they would in that way see whether the things they had heard from the people of earliest times were true, and in that way their eyes would be opened. These two verses finally describe how, since self-love began to reign with them, they were able to be their own guides and so be like the Lord. It is characteristic of self-love that people do not wish to be led from the Lord but from themselves. And when this is so people rely in matters of belief on sensory evidence and factual knowledge.

10363. 'Must certainly die' means being separated from heaven, and spiritual death. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' - when the subject is the sabbath, by which the Lord and the acknowledgement of Him are meant - as not being joined to heaven, dealt with in 9928, 10244, and so being separated from it. And separation from heaven is spiritual death.