219. (iii) THE PRECIOUS STONES IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, IN WHICH THE KING OF TYRE IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN, HAVE A SIMILAR MEANING.

We read in Ezekiel:

King of Tyre, you who set the seal upon your measured space, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, God's garden; every kind of precious stone was your covering, ruby, topaz and diamond, chrysolite, sardonyx and jasper, sapphire, chrysoprase and emerald, and gold, Ezekiel 28:12-13.

Tyre in the Word means the church in respect of its knowledge of good and truth; king means the church's truth, the garden of Eden wisdom and intelligence derived from the Word. Precious stones mean truths with light shining through them from good, of the sort found in the literal sense of the Word. It is because these were the meanings of those stones that they are called his covering. The literal sense is a covering for the interiors of the Word; see above (213).