2114. That 'all the men of his house, he that was born in the house and he that was the purchase of silver' means all those at that time inside the Church is clear from meaning of those 'born in the house' as celestial people, and from the meaning of 'those purchased with silver' as spiritual people, dealt with above in 2048, 2051, 2052. The fact that they are people inside the Church has also been stated in those paragraphs, for all who are inside the Church, that is, all who constitute the Church, are either celestial or spiritual. But who exactly are celestial and who spiritual, see above in 2088. This final verse of this chapter sums up all that has been stated above, namely that those who have been purified from self-love and love of the world, those inside the Church and also those outside, are made righteous by the Lord. Both groups of people are called 'men of the house' because 'house' in the internal sense means the Lord's kingdom, 2048.

2051. That 'he must be circumcised' ¹ means that they, namely those inside the Church meant by him 'born in the house' and him 'bought with silver', must completely remove from themselves self-love and love of the world is clear from the representation of 'circumcision' as purification from self-love and love of the world, dealt with above in 2039. Here the requirement for them to be circumcised is repeated in the command 'he must be circumcised ¹ ' which expresses the necessity for them to be purified completely from those loves. And because it means those who are inside the Church no reference is made here to sons who are foreigners, for the latter, as shown above in 2049, mean those outside the Church.

[2] From this repetition of what has been stated in the previous verse concerning those 'born in the house' and those 'bought with silver', anyone may see that there is a Divine arcanum that is not evident from the sense of the letter. The arcanum is that purification from those foul loves is absolutely vital inside the Church, for the reason also that people inside the Church are capable of rendering sacred things unclean, something that those outside the Church, that is, gentiles, cannot do. For this reason those inside the Church stand in greater danger of condemnation. What is more, those inside the Church are capable of formulating and adopting false assumptions that are contrary to truths of faith themselves, whereas those outside the Church cannot do so because they have no knowledge of those truths. Thus those inside the Church are capable of profaning sacred truths, but not those outside. For more on these matters, see Volume One, in 1059, 1327, 1328.

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