45. This was how people who lived in most ancient times envisaged matters of the understanding and those of the will. Among the Prophets therefore, and consistently throughout the Old Testament Word, like matters are represented by various kinds of living creatures. There are two kinds of beasts - evil ones, because they are harmful, and good ones, because they are gentle. Evil [and harmful] things in man were meant by such beasts as bears, wolves, and dogs, while good and gentle things were meant by beasts such as calves, sheep, and lambs. As the subject here is those persons who are to be regenerated, 'the beasts' are good and gentle ones, which mean affections. Things of a baser nature that derive from the body are called 'wild animals of the earth'. These are desires and pleasures.

270. (Verse 4) And round about the throne were four-and-twenty thrones, and upon the thrones I saw four-and-twenty elders sitting. That this signifies all truths from good in the higher heavens, arranged by the Lord before judgment is evident from the signification of the throne on which one sat, as being the Lord as to the Last Judgment (concerning which see above, n. 267; and that throne signifies judgment, see n. 253); and from the signification of four-and-twenty thrones round about it, and four-and-twenty elders upon them, as being all the truths of heaven in the aggregate, arranged before judgment. Twenty-four signify all, and thrones signify judgment, and the elders those who are in truths from good, and, in the abstract, truths from good. The reason why the higher heavens are here meant is that all those who are there are in truths from the good of love, and that in what presently follows the lower heavens are treated of. The reason why twenty-four signify all is that that number signifies the same as the number twelve, and twelve signifies all, and is said of truths (see Arcana Coelestia 577, 2089, 2129, 2130, 3272, 3858, 3913). That the number twenty-four signifies the same as the number twelve is because it is its double, and the double signifies the same as the number from which it arises by multiplication (as may be seen, n. 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973).

[2] The same is signified by thrones upon which the twelve apostles were to sit, of which it is said in Matthew:

"Ye who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (19:28; Luke 22:30);

where by the twelve apostles are signified all truths in the aggregate. Similarly in the following words in the Apocalypse:

"I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them" (20:4).

Judgment being given to those that sat upon the thrones signifies that judgment belongs to the Lord alone; for by elders in the Word are signified all those who are in truths from good, and abstractly, truth from good from which is judgment.

He who believes that by elders and apostles in the Word are meant elders and apostles is much deceived; for, in the spiritual sense of the Word, persons are not perceived, but things abstractly from persons; for what is spiritual has nothing in common with persons. The case is otherwise in the sense of the letter of the Word, which is natural; in this sense persons are not only mentioned, but also the idea of a person is implied in many expressions, in order that the Word in its ultimates may be natural, and thus form a basis for the spiritual sense. The same is the case with the signification of elders as with that of infants, children, young men, old men, virgins, women, and many things of the same kind. All are thought of, in the natural sense, as persons; but, in the spiritual sense, by infants innocence is meant; by children, charity; by young men, intelligence; by old men, wisdom; by virgins are meant the affections of truth and good, and by women, the goods of the church; and so in other cases. The same may be said of the natural and spiritual sense of the term neighbour. In the natural sense, by neighbour is meant every man; but in the spiritual sense are meant good itself, truth, sincerity and justice, which are in the person. Every one who thinks in himself may know that this is the neighbour in the spiritual sense; for who loves any one from anything else but the good that is in him? for good and truth constitute the man, and cause him to be loved, and not the countenance and the body. But to return to the signification of elders. That elders signify truths from good is evident from those passages in the Word where they are mentioned.

[3] As in Isaiah:

"Then the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, and Jehovah Zebaoth shall reign in the mount of Zion and in Jerusalem; and before his elders shall be glory" (24:23).

By the moon and the sun are meant their idolatrous worship, the falsity of their faith, and the evil of their love; by mount Zion and by Jerusalem are meant heaven and the church; by the elders are meant truth from good; therefore it is also said, that before them shall be glory; for by glory is signified the Divine truth in heaven, as may be seen above (n. 33).

[4] In Lamentations:

"My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. I have cried to my lovers, they have deceived me; and mine elders have expired in the city" (1:18, 19).

The subject here treated of is the vastation of the church, over which there is lamentation, which vastation takes place when there is no longer any spiritual affection of truth, and consequently no intelligence in such things as pertain to the church, and hence when there is no truth. By the virgins which are gone into captivity is meant the spiritual affection of truth; by the young men intelligence; captivity denotes removal from those principles; by the elders who expired are meant the truths of the church.

[5] In Ezekiel:

"Slay to destruction the old man and the young man, and the virgin, and the infant and the women; begin from my sanctuary. Therefore they began from the men, the elders who were before the house" (9:6).

The subject here treated of is also the vastation of the church; and by an old man and a young man are meant wisdom and intelligence; by virgin is meant the affection of truth and good; by infant innocence; by women goods of the church. To slay to destruction signifies devastation; the sanctuary at which they should begin signifies the church as to the good of love and the truth of faith, which are the men, the elders who were before the house.

[6] In Lamentations:

"The faces of the old men were not honoured. The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their singing" (5:12, 14).

The old men signify the wisdom which is of good; the elders, the truths which are from good; the young men, intelligence. That the God of Israel was seen having "under His feet as it were the work of sapphire," by Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders, and not by the rest (Exodus 24:9-12), signified that the Lord is seen only by those who are in good, and in truth from good (as may be seen in the explanation of the passage in Arcana Coelestia 9403-9411). These are the things which the seventy elders of Israel represented, and which are signified by the four-and-twenty elders sitting upon as many thrones. The same things also are signified by the twelve apostles, concerning whom it is said that they should sit upon thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (That the twelve apostles signify all truths from good, may be seen in Arcana Coelestia 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397; that the same are signified by the twelve tribes of Israel, n. 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335, and also by the elders of Israel, n. 6524, 6525, 6890, 7912, 8578, 8585, 9376, 9404.)

3913. 'She said, Behold, my maidservant Bilhah' means the affirming means, which has its place between natural truth and interior truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a maidservant', and also of 'a servant-girl' as the affection for the cognitions which belong to the exterior man, dealt with in 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, and in this particular case since that affection is the means by which interior truths become joined to natural or external truths, 'a maidservant' therefore describes the affirming means that has its place between these; and from the representation of 'Bilhah' as the nature of that means. The two servant-girls which Rachel and Leah gave to Jacob as wives for producing offspring represented and meant in the internal sense nothing else than something which is of service, in this case something serving as the means by which those two things are joined together, namely interior truth with external truth, for 'Rachel' represents interior truth, 'Leah' external, 3793, 3819. Indeed by means of the twelve sons of Jacob twelve general or principal requisites are described here by which a person is introduced into spiritual and celestial things while he is being regenerated or becoming the Church.

[2] Actually when a person is being regenerated or becoming the Church, that is, when from being a dead man he is becoming a living one, or from being a bodily-minded man is becoming a heavenly-minded one, he is led by the Lord through many states. These general states are specified by those twelve sons, and later by the twelve tribes, so that the twelve tribes mean all aspects of faith and love - see what has been shown in 3858. For any general whole includes every particular and individual detail, and each detail exists in relation to the general whole. When a person is being regenerated the internal man is to be joined to the external man, and therefore the goods and truths which belong to the internal man are to be joined to those which belong to the external man, for it is truths and goods that make a person a human being. These cannot be joined together without means. These means consist in such things as take something from one side and something from the other, and act in such a way that insofar as a person moves closer to one the other plays a subordinate role. These means are meant by the servant-girls - Rachel's servant-girls being the means available from the internal man, Leah's the means available from the external man.

[3] The necessity for means by which the joining together is effected may be recognized from the consideration that of himself the natural man does not agree at all with the spiritual but disagrees so much as to be utterly opposed to the spiritual. For the natural man regards and loves self and the world, whereas the spiritual man does not, except insofar as to do so leads to the rendering of services in the spiritual world, and so he regards service to it and loves this service because of the use that is served and the end in view. The natural man seems to himself to have life when he is promoted to high positions and so to pre-eminence over others, but the spiritual man seems to himself to have life in self-abasement and in being the least. Not that he despises high positions, provided they are means by which he is enabled to serve the neighbour, society as a whole, and the Church. Neither does the spiritual man view the important positions to which he is promoted in any selfish way but on account of the services rendered which are his ends in view. Bliss for the natural man consists in his being wealthier than others and in his possessing worldly riches, whereas bliss for the spiritual man consists in his having cognitions of truth and good which are the riches he possesses, and even more so in the practice of good in accordance with truths. Not however that he despises riches, because these enable him to render a service in the world.

[4] These few considerations show that on account of their different ends in view the state of the natural man and the state of the spiritual are the reverse of each other, but that the two can be joined one to the other. That conjunction is effected when things which belong to the external man become subordinate and are subservient to the ends which the internal man has in view. In order that a person may become spiritual therefore it is necessary for the things belonging to the external man to be brought into a position of subservience, and so for ends that have self and the world in view to be cast aside and those that have the neighbour and the Lord's kingdom to be adopted. The former cannot possibly be cast aside or the latter adopted, and so the two cannot be joined, except through means. It is these means that are meant by the servant-girls, and specifically by the four sons born to the servant-girls.

[5] The first means is one that affirms, or is affirmative towards, internal truth; that is to say, it affirms that it really is internal truth. Once this affirmative attitude is present, a person is in the first stage of regeneration, good from within being at work and leading to that spirit of affirmation. That good cannot pass into a negative attitude, nor even into one of doubt, until this becomes affirmative. After this, that good manifests itself in affection; that is to say, it causes the person to feel an affection for, and delight in, truth - first through his coming to know this truth, then through his acting in accordance with it. Take for example the truth that the Lord is the human race's salvation. If the person does not develop an affirmative attitude towards this truth, none of the things which he has learned about the Lord from the Word or in the Church and which are included among the facts in his natural memory can be joined to his internal man, that is, to the truths that are able to be truths of faith there. Nor can affection accordingly enter in, not even into the general aspects of this truth which contribute to the person's salvation. But once he develops an affirmative attitude countless things are added and are filled with the good that is flowing in. For good is flowing in constantly from the Lord, but where no affirmative attitude exists it is not accepted. An affirmative attitude is therefore the first means and so to speak first dwelling-place of the good flowing in from the Lord. And the same is so with all other truths called the truths of faith.