67. As white wool, as snow, signifies in respect to good and truth therein. This is evident from the signification of "white wool" as being good in ultimates (of which presently); and from the signification of "snow," as being truth in ultimates. "Snow" means truth in ultimates by reason of the water of which it is composed, and its whiteness and brightness. (That "water" signifies truth, see below, n. 71; and that "whiteness," and "brightness," signify truth from the transparency of light, see Arcana Coelestia 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319, 8459.)

"White wool," signifies good in ultimates, because wool upon lambs and sheep has a signification like that of hair upon man; and "lambs," and "sheep" signify good, "lambs" celestial good (See Arcana Coelestia 3519, 3994, 10132), and "sheep" spiritual good (n. 4169, 4809). From this it is that the "hairs," by which Divine truth in ultimates is signified, are said to be "white as white wool, and as snow." So also of the Lord, when He was transfigured:

His garments became glistening, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can whiten them (Mark 9:3);

and of the "Ancient of Days" in Daniel:

I beheld till thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit; His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was white wool ¹ (Daniel 7:9).

"Raiment" signifies the Divine in ultimates (See above, n. 64); and "the Ancient of Days," the Lord from eternity.

[2] Because "wool" signifies good in ultimates, good is sometimes described in the Word by "wool," and truth by "linen" and by "snow," as in Hosea:

She said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my waters, my wool and my flax. Therefore will I return and take my corn in the time thereof, and I will pluck away my wool and my flax (Hosea 2:5, 9).

In Ezekiel:

Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool; ye slaughter that which is the best; ye feed not the flock (Ezekiel 34:3).

In David:

Jehovah will send ² out His word upon the earth; He giveth snow like wool (Psalms 147:15-16).

In Isaiah:

Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow; though they be red like purple they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18).

"Snow" is predicated of sins that were as scarlet, and "wool" of sins that were red like purple, because "scarlet" signifies truth from good, and in a contrary sense, falsity from evil (See Arcana Coelestia 4922, 9468); and "red" and "purple" signify good, and in a contrary sense, evil of every kind (See Arcana Coelestia 3300, 9467, 9865).

Notas de rodapé:

634. It is extremely difficult however to state intelligibly what the understanding of truth and the will for good are, properly speaking. The reason is that everything man thinks he ascribes to the understanding because he calls it so, and everything he desires he ascribes to the will because he calls it so. And it is even more difficult to state what they are in an intelligible way because the majority nowadays are also unaware that what belongs to the understanding is distinct and separate from what belongs to the will; for when they think something they say that they will it, and when they will something they say that they think it. Their speaking in this way is thus one reason for the difficulty. And a further reason why it is difficult to grasp the matter is that such people are engrossed solely in bodily interests, that is, their life consists in things of a more external nature.

[2] For these same reasons people are also unaware of the fact that with everybody there exists something interior, something more interior still, and indeed something inmost, and that the bodily and sensory part of a person is the most external. Desires and things of the memory are interior, affections and rational concepts more interior still, while the will for good and the understanding of truth are the inmost. Nothing could possibly be more distinct and separate than these are from one another, yet a bodily-minded man sees no difference at all, and so confuses them all with one another. This is the reason why he believes that when his physical body dies, everything else will die as well, when in reality only at that point does he start to live, and to do so indeed through his own interior things which are arranged in consecutive order. Unless man's interior things were distinct and separate in this way and arranged consecutively, men could not possibly be spirits, angelic spirits, or angels in the next life, all of whom differ in this way from one another according to things that are interior. Consequently the three heavens are very distinct and separate from one another. From all these considerations it now becomes clear to some extent what the understanding of truth and the will for good are, properly speaking, and that they are attributable only to the celestial man, or angels of the third heaven.