9127. 'There shall be no bloodguilt for him' means that he is not guilty of the violence done. This is clear from the meaning of 'blood' in the highest sense as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, and in the internal sense springing from this as the truth of good, dealt with in 4735, 6378, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7846, 7850, 7877. Consequently 'shedding blood' means doing violence to God's truth or the truth of good, and also to good itself. For anyone who does violence to truth does it also to good, since truth is wedded so closely to good that one is never without the other. Therefore if violence is done to one it is also done to the other. From all this it is evident that 'there shall be no bloodguilt for him' means not being guilty of the violence done to truth or to good.

[2] A person who has no knowledge of the internal sense of the Word can only think that 'blood' in the Word means blood, and that 'shedding blood' simply means killing someone. But the internal sense does not deal with the life of a person's body, only with that of his soul, that is, with his spiritual life, which will go on living forever. This life is described in the Word, in the sense of the letter, by means of such things as constitute the life of the body, namely flesh and blood. And since a person's spiritual life springs from and is maintained by the good that belongs to charity and the truth that belongs to faith, the good belonging to charity is meant in the internal sense of the Word by 'flesh' and the truth belonging to faith by 'blood'. In an even more internal sense the good belonging to love to the Lord is meant by 'flesh' and the good belonging to love towards the neighbour by 'blood'. In the highest sense however, in which solely the Lord is the subject, 'flesh' is the Lord's Divine Good, thus the Lord Himself in respect of Divine Good, while 'blood' is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. These things are understood in heaven by flesh and blood when a person reads the Word. And the same things are understood when the person attends the Holy Supper, though in this the bread is the flesh and the wine is the blood; for 'the bread' has exactly the same meaning as flesh and 'the wine' exactly the same meaning as blood.

[3] But those who think only on the level of the senses, as most people in the world do at the present day, do not understand any of this. Therefore let them keep to the faith they have, so long as they believe that the Holy Supper and the Word have a holiness within them because they come from God. Maybe they do not know where that holiness lies; even so, let those who are endowed with some inner degree of perception, that is, who can think on a level above the senses, consider whether 'blood' is used to mean blood and 'flesh' to mean flesh in Ezekiel,

Son of man, thus said the Lord Jehovih, Say to every bird of the air, to every wild animal of the field, Assemble and come, gather yourselves from all around to My sacrifice which I am sacrificing for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You will eat the flesh of the mighty, and [drink] the blood of the princes of the earth. And you will drink blood till you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I will sacrifice for you. You will be glutted at My table with horse and chariot, and with the mighty, and with every man of war. Thus will I set My glory among the nations. Ezekiel 39:17-21.

Also in John, in Revelation,

I saw an angel standing in the sun, who called out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds flying in the middle of heaven, Gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and those seated on them, and the flesh of all, free men and slaves, small and great. Revelation 19:17-18.

It is obvious that in these places 'flesh' is not used to mean flesh or 'blood' to mean blood.

The same applies then to the Lord's 'flesh' and 'blood' in John,

The bread which I shall give is My flesh. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you will have no life in you. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. This is the bread which came down from heaven. John 6:50-58.

The Lord's flesh is the Divine Good of His Divine Love, and His blood is Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Good. This may be recognized from the consideration that they are the food which nourishes a person's spiritual life.

[4] This explains why He goes on to say, 'My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink', and also, 'This is the bread which came down from heaven'. And since a person is joined to the Lord through love and faith, He also says, 'He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him'. But as stated above, this matter can be understood only by those who are able to think on a level above the bodily senses, in particular by those who believe in and love the Lord, because the Lord raises them from the life of their bodily senses up to the life of their spirit. That is, He raises them from the light of the world into the light of heaven, the light in which conceptions of things that are material, that is, impressions in the mind that are acquired by the body fade from view.

[5] Anyone therefore who knows that 'blood' means God's truth coming from the Lord can also see that 'shedding blood' in the Word does not mean killing or taking a person's physical life but killing or taking the life of his soul, that is, destroying his spiritual life, which consists of faith in and love to the Lord. When 'blood' is used to refer to blood shed unlawfully it means God's truth destroyed by falsities arising from evil, as is evident in the following places: In Isaiah,

When the Lord will have washed the excrement of the daughters of Zion and washed away the blood ¹ of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgement and by a spirit of purging ... Isaiah 4:4.

In the same prophet,

Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Isaiah 59:3, 7.

In Jeremiah,

Yes, in your skirts the blood of poor innocent souls is found. Jeremiah 2:34.

In the same prophet,

... for the sins of the prophets, the iniquities of the priests who shed in the midst of Jerusalem the blood of the righteous. They went astray blind in the streets, they are defiled with blood. Things which have no power they touch with their garments. Lamentations 4:13-14.

In Ezekiel,

I passed by you and saw you weltering in your blood, ¹ and I said, Live in your blood; ¹ I indeed said to you, Live in your blood. ¹ I washed you with water and washed away your blood ¹ from upon you, and anointed you with oil. Ezekiel 16:6, 9.

In the same prophet,

You, son of man, will you dispute with the city of blood? ¹ Declare to her all her abominations. By your blood which you have shed you have become guilty, and by the idols which you have made you are defiled. Behold, the princes of Israel, each according to his power, ² have been among you and have shed blood. Men of intrigue have been among you, [ready] to shed blood, and among you have eaten on the mountains. Ezekiel 22:2-4, 6, 9.

In Joel,

I will give portents in heaven and on earth, blood and fire, and a column of smoke. The sun will be turned into thick darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day [of Jehovah] comes. Joel 2:30-31.

And in John,

The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the full moon became like blood. Revelation 6:12.

In the same book,

The second angel sounded, and so to speak a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third part of the sea became blood. Revelation 8:8.

In the same book,

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of one dead, from which every living soul died in the sea. The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and into the fountains of water, and blood was made. Revelation 16:3-4.

[6] In these places 'blood' is not used to mean the life-blood of the human body when it has been shed, but the blood of spiritual life, which is God's truth, when violence has been done to it by falsity arising from evil. 'Blood' has a similar meaning in Matthew,

On you will come the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel even to the blood of Zechariah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Matthew 23:35.

These words mean that from earliest times down to the present the Jews had been doing violence to the truths of the Word, to such an extent that they were unwilling to accept any inner, heavenly truth at all. Therefore they did not accept the Lord either. The shedding of His blood by them was a sign of their total rejection of God's truth; for the Lord was Divine Truth itself, which is the Word made flesh, John 1:1, 14. Their total rejection of God's truth that came from the Lord and was the Lord is meant by the following in Matthew,

Pilate washed his hands before the people, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person; you yourselves see [to it]. And answering, all the people said, His blood be on us and on our children. Matthew 27:24-25.

This accounts for the following incident described in John,

One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. He who has seen has testified, and the testimony is true; and he knows that he is saying things that are true, so that you may believe. John 19:34-35.

The reason why water also came out is that 'water' means God's truth in its outward form, the kind of truth that the letter consists of. For the meaning of 'water' as truth, see 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8568.

[7] All this also shows what is meant by being made pure by the Lord's blood, namely accepting the truth of faith from Him, 7918, 9088. Thus it also shows what is meant by the following in John, in Revelation,

They conquered the dragon by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their ³ testimony. Revelation 12:11.

'The blood of the Lamb' is Divine Truth that comes from the Lord, as also is 'the word of their testimony'. 'The blood of the lamb' is innocent blood, for 'a lamb' means innocence, 3519, 3994, 7840. God's truth emanating from the Lord in heaven has innocence at the centre of it; for none other than those possessing innocence have any feeling for it, 2526, 2780, 3111, 3183, 3495, 3994, 4797, 6013, 6107, 6765, 7836 (end), 7840, 7877, 7902.

Fotnoter:

6071. 'And placed them before Pharaoh' means an introduction into factual knowledge. This is clear from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as factual knowledge in general, dealt with in 5799, 6015. An introduction is meant by 'placing before him', for the intention behind his presentation of them was so that he might introduce them, that is, the truths of the Church, since these are meant by 'the sons of Jacob'. Regarding the need for the truths known to the Church to be introduced into the Church's factual knowledge, see 6004, 6023, 6052; but as this is a subject that is not known about at the present day, let some more light be shed on it.

[2] The facts known to the Church are at the present day the things stated in the literal sense of the Word. Unless truths from the internal sense are introduced into those facts the mind can be misled into all kinds of heresy; but once truths have been introduced into them the mind cannot be misled into heresies. For example the person who has learned from the literal sense of the Word statements that God can be angry, punish, lead into temptations, cast into hell, and do evil can be misled into false ideas about God. He may be led to think that Goodness itself, which is what God is, can be the source even of evil, thus the opposite of what He is, when in fact good comes from good, and evil from evil. But this fact [which he knows from the literal sense] takes on a different appearance if interior truths are introduced into it, such as the truth that evil in a person is what creates anger in him, leads into temptations, punishes, casts into hell, and constantly brings forth further evils. There is also the truth that the situation with these woes is like the laws that countries have; the laws come from the monarch, but the miseries that come with punishment are not attributable to the monarch but to those who commit evils.

[3] Then there is the truth that the hells are the source of all evil and are allowed to be the source of it because on man's account it cannot be otherwise. For he is sunk in evil and his life arises out of it, and therefore unless he is left in evil he cannot be in freedom, or thus be reformed. Even so, nothing but good comes from God, for to the extent a person allows, God turns that evil towards what is good.

[4] There is too the truth that the very general outlines of belief must come first, after which they must be filled out with individual truths. This is so with the general piece of knowledge that all things which happen come without exception from God, including the miseries that punishment brings. In what way those miseries come from Him has to be learned subsequently, as also do the nature and source of what happens by permission.

[5] There is likewise the truth that all worship of God inevitably has its beginning in holy fear, which holds within it the belief that God rewards good people and punishes the bad. Simple people and young children must believe this because they have no understanding as yet of permission; and their belief is in keeping with the Lord's words,

Rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna. Matthew 10:28.

So although to begin with it is out of fear that they do not dare to do evil, love accompanied by good is gradually introduced, and then they start to know and perceive that nothing but good comes from God, and that evil comes from themselves; then at length that all evil comes from hell.

[6] Furthermore those in heaven perceive that nothing but good comes from God; but those in hell say that everything evil comes from God because He permits it and does not take it away. But in reply to this those of them who are in the world of spirits are told that if evil were taken away from them they would not possess any life; and neither would anyone in the world who is engrossed in evil. They are also told that the evil within them punishes itself in accordance with the law, and that the miseries that punishment brings eventually causes them to refrain from the doing of evils, also that the punishment of evil persons is the protection of the good.

[7] Added to all this is the consideration that people engrossed in evil, also those whose worship is external devoid of anything internal, as that of the Jews was, must live altogether in fear of God and in a belief that He is the one who punishes; for their fear of God can lead them to do what is good, but love never can. When these and many other truths are introduced into that known fact [drawn from the literal sense of the Word] it takes on a completely different appearance. It becomes like a transparent vase containing truths which shine through and make the vase look like nothing else than a single and general body of truth.