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Secrets of Heaven #1326

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1326. The symbolism of for this reason he called its name Babel as this type of worship — specifically the type symbolized by Babel — is evident from what has been said so far. It is worship that has self-love deep inside it and consequently everything that is unclean and profane. Self-love is nothing but the conviction that we answer to ourselves alone, and the filth and profanity of human selfhood can be seen from the explanation presented earlier, in §§210, 215.

From philautia 1 — from self-love, that is, or a sense of autonomy — flows every kind of evil, such as hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, adultery, deceit, hypocrisy, and godlessness. So when our worship harbors self-love, or the desire to be our own ruler, it harbors evils like these, but with differences in amount and kind, depending on the amount and kind of influence self-love has. This is where all profanation in worship comes from.

The fact of the matter is that the more self-love or a misplaced sense of independence worms its way into our worship, the more internal worship recedes, or becomes nonexistent. Inward devotion consists in an affection for what is good and an acknowledgment of truth, but the more egoism or self-dependence advances or enters, the more an affection for goodness and the acknowledgment of truth withdraw or leave. Holiness can never coexist with profanation, just as heaven cannot coexist with hell. The one needs to separate from the other; that is what conditions in the Lord's kingdom, and the way it is organized, require. This is the reason why inward worship does not exist in those whose worship is called "Babel." Instead they worship something dead and even cadaverous that lies within. It is evident, then, what outward worship is like when something like this lies at its core.

[2] The fact that this kind of worship is Babel can be seen in the many places where the Word describes Babel [Babylon]. Daniel contains one example in the statue that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saw in a dream. Its head was gold; its chest and arms, silver; its belly and thighs, bronze; its legs, iron; its feet, part iron and part clay. The statue symbolizes the fact that from true worship there finally evolved the kind of worship called Babylon, and that is why a stone cut out of a rock crushed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. (See Daniel 2:31, 32, 33, 44-45.) The statue of gold that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, set up, and that the people worshiped, was also nothing else (Daniel 3). Likewise the fact that the king of Babylon drank wine with his nobles out of the golden vessels from Jerusalem's Temple, that they praised gods made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and stone, and that this resulted in the handwriting on the wall (Daniel 5). Then there was the command by Darius the Mede that he be revered as god (Daniel 6); and there were the beasts that Daniel saw in a dream (Daniel 7), and likewise the beasts and Babylon in John's Book of Revelation. 2

[3] The fact that this kind of worship is symbolized and represented is clear to see not only in Daniel and John but also in the prophets. In Isaiah:

Their faces are faces aflame. The stars of the heavens and their constellations do not shed their light. The sun has been shadowed over in its entrance, and the moon does not radiate its light. Tsiyim lie down there, and their houses are filled with ochim, and daughters of the owl live there, and satyrs leap there, and iyim answer in its palaces, and serpents in its pleasure halls. 3 (Isaiah 13:8, 10, 21-22)

This passage is talking about Babylon and describing the inner content of this kind of worship. It does so through the faces aflame (cravings), the failure of the stars (individual religious truths) to shine, the overshadowing of the sun (sacred love), the failure of the moon (religious truth as a whole) to radiate, and the tsiyim, ochim, daughters of the owl, satyrs, iyim, and serpents (inward aspects of worship) because these properties characterize self-love. So in John (Revelation 17:5), Babylon is also called the mother of obscenities and abominations. And the same author calls it "a dwelling place for serpents, 4 and a prison for every unclean spirit, and a prison for every unclean and loathsome bird" (Revelation 18:2). When such attributes lie at the core, obviously no religious goodness or truth can exist, and the good effects of love and the true ideas of faith retreat as those attributes invade. In Isaiah 21:9 they are also called carved images of the Babylonian gods.

[4] The fact that self-love (arrogant self-dependence) is what pervades self-worship, or actually constitutes self-worship, is plain to see in Isaiah:

Prophesy this parable over the monarch of Babylon: You have said in your heart, "I will scale the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God and sit on the mountain of assembly, on the flanks of the north. 5 I will climb above the loftiest parts of the cloud; I will become like the Highest One." Nevertheless, you will be thrown down to hell. (Isaiah 14:4, 13-14, 15)

In these verses, clearly, Babylon is one who wishes to be worshiped as a god; in other words, it is self-worship.

[5] In the same author:

Go down and sit in the dirt, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the earth. There is no throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. You trusted in your wickedness; you said, "There is no one to see me." Your wisdom and your knowledge turned you away. You said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one else like me." (Isaiah 47:1, 10)

In Jeremiah:

Here now, I am against you, ruinous mountain, ruining the whole earth; and I will stretch my hand out over you and roll you down from the rocks and make you a mountain aflame. If Babylon climbs into the heavens, and if it fortifies its lofty stronghold, destroyers will come to it from me. (Jeremiah 51:25, 53)

This too shows that Babylon is self-worship.

[6] Jeremiah describes the fact that they have no light of truth — none of the truth that faith espouses — but pure darkness:

The word that Jehovah has spoken against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans: "A nation from the north will come up over them. It will make their land a desolation, and nothing will live in it; from human to animal they will move off, they will leave." (Jeremiah 50:1, 3)

The north stands for darkness, or lack of truth. No human and no animal stands for a lack of goodness.

For more on Babylon, see below at verse 28, where it speaks of Chaldea [§1368].

Footnotes:

1. Philautia is an ancient Greek word denoting self-love. It was used in Latin from early times through the Neo-Latin period; see, for example, Cicero Letters to Atticus 13:13:1 and Erasmus Praise of Folly §9, where the personified Philautia is one of the attendants of Folly. [SS]

2. For an example of a beast in the Book of Revelation, see Revelation 13; for treatment of Babylon, see Revelation 18. [LHC]

3. Like "tsiyim" (see note 2 in §306 above), "ochim," and "iyim" are transliterations of plural Hebrew words: אֹחִים ('ōḥîm) and אִיִּים ('îyyîm). They reflect similar transliterations of Hebrew in Swedenborg's Latin first edition here. Again as in the case of "tsiyim," the exact identity of these types of creatures is obscure. Biblical scholars and translators have generally presented them as wild, predatory animals, but Swedenborg clearly takes them to be birds (True Christianity 661:12; Marriage Love 430). [JSR]

4. The Latin word for "serpents" here is draconum; its Greek equivalent would be δράκοντων (drácontōn). But the Greek word that actually appears in Revelation 18:2 is δαιμόνων (daimónōn), meaning "demons," and the Latin equivalent would be daemonum. Elliott (Swedenborg [1749-1756] 1983-1999) makes and annotates the correction in his translation. [LHC]

5. On "the flanks of the north," see note 4 in §1151. [Editors]

  
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Many thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation and its New Century Edition team.

The Bible

 

Revelation 18

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1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, Alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

16 And saying, Alas, Alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, Alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

   

The Bible

 

Daniel 3

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1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

2 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the satraps, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

3 Then the satraps, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

4 Then the herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, peoples, nations, and languages,

5 that whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up;

6 and whoever doesn't fall down and worship shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

7 Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

8 Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and brought accusation against the Jews.

9 They answered Nebuchadnezzar the king, O king, live for ever.

10 You, O king, have made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image;

11 and whoever doesn't fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not respected you. They don't serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.

13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in [his] rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king.

14 Nebuchadnezzar answered them, Is it on purpose, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don't serve my god, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

15 Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, [well]: but if you don't worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

17 If it be [so], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.

19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his appearance was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: [therefore] he spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.

20 He commanded certain mighty men who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, [and] to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

21 Then these men were bound in their pants, their tunics, and their mantles, and their [other] garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

22 Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

23 These three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste: he spoke and said to his counselors, Didn't we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered the king, True, O king.

25 He answered, Look, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are unharmed; and the aspect of the fourth is like a son of the gods.

26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace: he spoke and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth out of the midst of the fire.

27 The satraps, the deputies, and the governors, and the king's counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, that the fire had no power on their bodies, nor was the hair of their head singed, neither were their pants changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them.

28 Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel, and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

29 Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything evil against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other god who is able to deliver after this sort.

30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.