Bibeln

 

Lévitique 21

Studie

   

1 L'Eternel dit aussi à Moïse : Parle aux Sacrificateurs, fils d'Aaron, et leur dis : [Qu'aucun d'eux] ne se souille entre ses peuples pour un mort.

2 Sinon pour son proche parent, qui le touche de près, [savoir] pour sa mère, pour son père, pour son fils, pour sa fille, et pour son frère.

3 Et quant à sa sœur vierge, qui le touche de près, et qui n'aura point eu de mari, il se souillera pour elle.

4 S'il est marié il ne se souillera point [pour sa femme] parmi son peuple, en se rendant impur.

5 Ils n'arracheront point les cheveux de leur tête pour la rendre chauve, et ils ne raseront point les coins de leur barbe, ni ne feront d'incision en leur chair.

6 Ils seront saints à leur Dieu, et ils ne profaneront point le nom de leur Dieu; car ils offrent les sacrifices de l'Eternel faits par feu, qui est la viande de leur Dieu; c'est pourquoi ils seront très-saints.

7 Ils ne prendront point une femme paillarde, ou déshonorée; ils ne prendront point aussi une femme répudiée par son mari; car ils sont saints à leur Dieu.

8 Tu feras donc que chacun d'eux soit saint, parce qu'ils offrent la viande de ton Dieu. Ils te seront donc saints, car je suis saint, moi l'Eternel qui vous sanctifie.

9 Si la fille du Sacrificateur se souille en commettant paillardise, elle souille son père; qu'elle soit [donc] brûlée au feu.

10 Et le souverain Sacrificateur d'entre ses frères, sur la tête duquel l'huile de l'onction aura été répandue, et qui se sera consacré pour vêtir les [saints] vêtements, ne découvrira point sa tête, et ne déchirera point ses vêtements.

11 Il n'ira point vers aucune personne morte; il ne se rendra point impur pour son père, ni pour sa mère;

12 Et il ne sortira point du Sanctuaire, et ne souillera point le Sanctuaire de son Dieu; parce que la couronne, [et] l'huile de l'onction de son Dieu est sur lui. Je [suis] l'Eternel.

13 Il prendra pour femme une vierge.

14 Il ne prendra point une veuve; ni une répudiée, ni une femme déshonorée, [ni] une paillarde; mais il prendra pour femme une vierge d'entre ses peuples.

15 Il ne souillera point sa postérité entre ses peuples; car je suis l'Eternel qui le sanctifie.

16 L'Eternel parla aussi à Moïse, en disant :

17 Parle à Aaron, et lui dis : Si quelqu'un de ta postérité dans ses âges a quelque défaut [en son corps], il ne s'approchera point pour offrir la viande de son Dieu.

18 Car aucun homme en qui il y aura quelque défaut n'en approchera; [savoir] l'homme aveugle, ou boiteux, ou camus, ou qui aura quelque superfluité dans ses membres.

19 Ou l'homme qui aura quelque fracture aux pieds, ou aux mains.

20 Ou qui sera bossu, ou grêle, ou qui aura quelque suffusion en l'œil, ou qui aura une gâle sèche, ou une gâle d'ulcère, ou qui sera rompu.

21 Nul homme donc de la postérité d'Aaron Sacrificateur en qui il y aura quelque défaut, ne s'approchera pour offrir les offrandes faites par feu à l'Eternel; il y a un défaut en lui, il ne s'approchera donc point pour offrir la viande de son Dieu.

22 Il pourra bien manger de la viande de son Dieu, [savoir] des choses très-saintes; et des choses saintes.

23 Mais il n'entrera point vers le voile, ni ne s'approchera point de l'autel, parce qu'il y a en lui une défectuosité, de peur de souiller mes Sanctuaires; car je suis l'Eternel qui les sanctifie.

24 Moïse donc parla ainsi à Aaron et à ses fils, et à tous les enfants d'Israël.

   

Från Swedenborgs verk

 

Apocalypse Revealed #210

Studera detta avsnitt

  
/ 962  
  

210. "'Blind and naked.'" This symbolically means that they lack any understanding of truth or will for good.

The blind in the Word mean people who lack truths, either because of a deficiency of truths in the church and thus their ignorance of them, or because of their failure to understand them. And the naked mean people who are consequently without goods, for all spiritual good is attained through truths.

It is just these who are meant by the blind in the following passages:

Then in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and out of darkness... the eyes of the blind shall see. (Isaiah 29:18)

Behold, your God will come... Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened... (Isaiah 35:4-6)

I will... give You... as a light to the gentiles, to open blind eyes... (Isaiah 42:6-7)

I will lead the blind by a way they did not know... I will turn their darkness into light... (Isaiah 42:16)

Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. (Isaiah 43:8)

His watchmen are (all) blind... and do not know understanding. (Isaiah 56:10-11)

He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they do not see with their eyes or understand with the heart... (John 12:40)

Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind. (John 9:39-41)

(Blind guides, stupid and foolish.) (Matthew 23:16-17, 19, 24)

...blind leaders of the blind. (Matthew 15:14, cf. Luke 6:39)

Because of the symbolism of a blind man and blindness, it was forbidden for someone blind to make a sacrifice, or for someone to offer anything blind as a sacrifice (Leviticus 21:18, Deuteronomy 15:21). They were not to put a stumblingblock before the blind (Leviticus 19:14). Cursed would be anyone who caused the blind to go astray (Deuteronomy 27:18).

For the symbolism of the naked and nakedness, see no. 213 below.

  
/ 962  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

Från Swedenborgs verk

 

Apocalypse Revealed #213

Studera detta avsnitt

  
/ 962  
  

213. "'That the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.'" This symbolically means, so as not to profane and adulterate the goodness of heavenly love.

No one can know the symbolic meaning of the shame of nakedness unless he knows that the reproductive organs in both sexes, called also the genitalia, correspond to celestial love.

To be shown that the human body and all its constituents have a correspondence with the heavens, see the book Heaven and Hell, published in London in , nos. 87-102. And to be shown that the reproductive organs correspond to celestial love, see Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), also published in London, nos. 5050-5062.

Now because these organs correspond to celestial love, which is the love found in the third or inmost heaven, and because a person is born of his parents into loves contrary to that love, it is apparent that if he does not acquire for himself the goodness of love and the truth of wisdom from the Lord, which are symbolically meant by gold refined in fire and white garments, he will be seen to be impelled by a contrary love, which in itself is profane.

[2] This latter circumstance is symbolically meant by uncovering nakedness and manifesting the shame of it, in the following places:

Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and his private parts be seen. (Revelation 16:15)

...daughter of Babylon (and of the Chaldeans), sit on the ground... Uncover your hair..., uncover the thigh, pass through the rivers. Let your nakedness be uncovered; yes, let your shame be seen. (Isaiah 47:1-3)

Woe to the bloody city! ...Because of the multitude of (her) harlotries... I will uncover your skirts in front of you, and I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your disgrace. (Nahum 3:1, 4-5)

Contend with your mother... lest I strip her naked... (Hosea 2:2-4)

When I passed by you... I covered your nakedness... Then I washed you... and... I clothed you... But you... played the harlot... not remembering your youth, when you were naked and bare... (Therefore) your nakedness was uncovered... (Ezekiel 16:6ff.)

Jerusalem has sinned gravely; therefore... all... despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. (Lamentations 1:8)

Jerusalem, of which these things were said, means the church; and to play the harlot means, symbolically, to adulterate and falsify the Word (no. 134).

Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink..., making him drunk, that you may look on his nakedness! ...Drink, you too, that your uncircumcised foreskin may be exposed! (Habakkuk 2:15-16)

[3] Someone who knows what nakedness symbolizes can understand what is symbolically meant by the statement that when Noah was drunk from drinking wine he lay uncovered inside his tent, and Ham saw and laughed at his nakedness, but Shem and Japheth covered his nakedness, turning their faces away so as not to see it (Genesis 9:21-23). He can understand also why it was decreed that Aaron and his sons should not go up by steps to the altar, that their nakedness might not be exposed (Exodus 20:26). And so, too, why it was decreed that they should make for them linen trousers to cover their naked flesh, that they should have these on when they came near the altar, and that otherwise they would bear their iniquity and die (Exodus 28:42-43).

Nakedness in these places symbolizes the evils into which a person is born, which, because they are contrary to the goodness of celestial love, are in themselves profane and are removed only by truths and by living in accordance with those truths. Linen also symbolizes truth (no. 671[1-2]).

[4] Nakedness in addition symbolizes innocence, and also ignorance of goodness and truth. Innocence is symbolized by the statement, "they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they had no cause for shame" (Genesis 2:25). Ignorance of goodness and truth is symbolized by the following:

...this... fast that I choose: ...to break bread with the hungry..., and... when you see the naked man, to cover him. (Isaiah 58:6-7)

He gives his bread to the hungry man, and covers the naked one with clothing. (Ezekiel 18:7)

...I was hungry and you gave Me food...; I was naked and you clothed Me. (Matthew 25:35-36)

  
/ 962  
  

Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.