4462. To give our sister to a man that hath a foreskin. That this signifies unless they made the truth and good of the church to consist in representatives, and would recede from the things which these signify, is evident from the signification of the “foreskin,” as being an external representative-a sign that they were of the church; and therefore it was usual to speak of circumcision and the foreskin when a distinction was to be made between those who were of the church and those who were not. For “circumcision” signifies recession from filthy loves, namely, from the love of self and of the world, and accession to heavenly loves, which are love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor, thus accession to the church. Hence it is that by these words is signified accession to their religiosity, and consequently that like them they should make the truth and good of the church consist in representatives by receding from the internal things which are signified, for otherwise they would not be like them, according to the words that follow: “In this will we consent to you, if ye be as we.” (That circumcision is a sign of purification from filthy loves, see n. 2039, 2632; and that they who are in these loves were called “uncircumcised,” n. 2049, 3412, 3413.)

[2] Scarcely anyone at this day knows what is the specific signification of circumcision, and therefore this must be told. The genitals in both sexes signify the things which belong to the conjunction of good and truth; nor do they merely signify these things, but also actually correspond to them. It has been shown at the end of the chapters that all man’s organs and members have a correspondence with spiritual things in heaven, and consequently so have the organs and members allotted to generation. These correspond to the marriage of good and truth; and from this marriage descends conjugial love (see n. 2618, 2727-2729, 2803, 3132, 4434). As the foreskin covers the genital, in the Most Ancient Church it corresponded to the obscuration of good and truth, but in the Ancient Church to their defilement. For with the man of the Most Ancient Church, who was an internal man, good and truth could be obscured but not defiled; whereas with the man of the Ancient Church, being a comparatively external man, good and truth could be defiled, because it is external things—that is, external loves—which defile. For this reason they who were of the Most Ancient Church knew nothing of circumcision, but only they who were of the Ancient Church.

[3] From this church circumcision spread to many nations; and it was not enjoined upon Abraham and his descendants as anything new, but merely as a discontinued rite that was to be restored; and it became to his posterity a sign that they were of the church. But that nation neither knew nor desired to know what this rite signified, for they made their religiosity consist in mere representatives, which are external matters, and therefore they included all the uncircumcised in one general condemnation, although circumcision was only a sign representative of purification from the love of self and of the world. Those who are purified from this love are the spiritually circumcised, and are said to be “circumcised in heart,” as in Moses:

Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God in all thy heart, and in all thy soul (Deuteronomy 30:6).

In the same:

Ye shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and shall no longer harden your neck (Deuteronomy 10:16).

And in Jeremiah:

Break up your fallow ground, and take away the foreskin of your heart (Jeremiah 4:3-4).

[4] But they who are in the loves of self and of the world are called “the uncircumcised,” in spite of the fact that they had been circumcised; as in Jeremiah:

Behold the days come in which I will visit upon everyone that is circumcised in the foreskin, upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that are cut off at the corner, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart (Jeremiah 9:25-26);

this passage shows that many other nations were circumcised, for it is said, “I will visit upon everyone that is circumcised in the foreskin,” so that as already stated this was not a new rite, or restricted to the descendants of Jacob as a mark of distinction. The Philistines were not circumcised, and therefore it is they who are usually meant by “the uncircumcised” (1 Samuel 14:6; 17:26, 36; 31:4; 2 Samuel 1:20, and in other places).

2803. That the Divine Truth is the “son,” and the Divine Good the “father,” is evident from the signification of a “son,” as being truth (see n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2633); and of a “father,” as being good; and also from the conception and birth of truth, which is from good. Truth cannot be and come forth [existere] from any other source than good, as has been shown many times. That the “son” here is the Divine Truth, and the “father” the Divine Good, is because the union of the Divine Essence with the Human, and of the Human Essence with the Divine, is the Divine marriage of Good with Truth, and of Truth with Good, from which comes the heavenly marriage; for in Jehovah or the Lord there is nothing but what is infinite; and because infinite, it cannot be apprehended by any idea, except that it is the being and the coming forth [esse et existere] of all good and truth, or is Good itself and Truth itself. Good itself is the “Father,” and Truth itself is the “Son.” But because as before said there is a Divine marriage of Good and Truth, and of Truth and Good, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

Jesus saith unto Philip, Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me ? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in me (John 14:10-11).

And again in the same Evangelist:

Jesus said to the Jews, Though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father (John 10:36, 38).

And again:

I pray for them; for all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee (John 17:9-10, 21).

And again:

Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself. Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee (John 13:31-32; 17:1).

[2] From this may be seen the nature of the union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord; namely, that it is mutual and alternate, or reciprocal; which union is that which is called the Divine Marriage, from which descends the heavenly marriage, which is the Lord’s kingdom itself in the heavens—thus spoken of in John:

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).

And again:

I pray for them, that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, I in them and Thou in Me; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:21-23, 26).

That this heavenly marriage is that of good and truth, and of truth and good, may be seen above (n. 2508, 2618, 2728, 2729 and following numbers).

[3] And because the Divine Good cannot be and come forth without the Divine Truth, nor the Divine Truth without the Divine Good, but the one in the other mutually and reciprocally, it is therefore manifest that the Divine Marriage was from eternity; that is, the Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son, as the Lord Himself teaches in John:

And now O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17:5, 24).

But the Divine Human which was born from eternity was also born in time; and what was born in time, and glorified, is the same. Hence it is that the Lord so often said that He was going to the Father who sent Him; that is, that He was returning to the Father. And in John:

In the beginning was the Word (the “Word” is the Divine Truth itself), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-3, 14; see also John 3:13; 6:62).