39. And all the tribes of the earth shall wail over him. That this signifies that the falsities of the church will resist, is evident from the signification of wailing, as denoting to lament, to grieve, to be indignant, to be angry, to be averse from, thus also to resist; and from the signification of tribes, as denoting all truths and goods in the aggregate, and, in the opposite sense, all falsities and evils in the aggregate, concerning which we shall speak in what follows; and from the signification of the earth, as being the church (on which see above, n. 29). By all the tribes of the earth, therefore, is signified the whole church, and by their wailing over Him, is signified that truths and goods are no more, because falsities and evils are about to dominate and resist. For what the state of the church will be at its end is treated of in general in this verse, when there will be no longer any faith because no charity; that is, that the Lord will then reveal Himself, and that all will acknowledge Him who are in truths from good, and that those also shall see Him who are in falsities from evil, but that the falsities of the church will resist. (That the Apocalypse does not treat of the successive states of the church, but of its last state, or when it is at its end, may be seen above, n. 5; and that its end is when there is no faith because no charity, may be seen in the small work, The Last Judgment 33-39, and following numbers. When there is no faith because no charity, then falsities from evil reign, which offer opposition to truths from good.)

[2] Tribes are often mentioned in the Word, because the Israelitish people were divided into twelve tribes; and he who is ignorant of the internal sense of the Word supposes, that by tribes are meant the tribes of Israel; nevertheless, by tribes are not meant tribes, nor is Israel meant by Israel; but tribes mean all those who are in truths from good, and Israel means the church of the Lord. He who does not know this, will easily accept the common belief that the children of Israel were chosen before all others on the whole earth, and also that they will be introduced at last into the land of Canaan. Indeed, he will believe that heaven will consist chiefly of them; although, by the names of those tribes in the Word they are not meant, but those who are in truths from good, that is, those who belong to the church; by the twelve tribes, all, and by each one of them, some special truth and good pertaining to those who belong to the church.

[3] These things being understood, it is evident what is meant by these words in the Apocalypse:

"I heard the number of them which were sealed; and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the sons of Israel. Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Asher were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Naphtali were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasseh were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zebulun were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand" (7:4-8).

In this passage those who belonged to the Israelitish nation are not meant, but all those, however many they may be, who are in truths from good; for all these are sealed for heaven. The numbers one hundred and forty-four thousand and twelve thousand, also signify all, and each tribe signifies all those who are in that truth or good which is signified by its name.

(As may be evident from what is shown in Arcana Coelestia in regard to the following: what good and truth are signified by Judah, n. 3881, 6363; what by Reuben, n. 3861, 3866, 4605, 4731, 4734, 4761, 6342-6345; what by Gad, n. 3934, 3935; what by Asher, n. 3938, 3939, 6408; what by Naphtali, n. 3927, 3928 what by Manasseh, n. 3969, 5354, 6222, 6231, 6238, 6267, 6296 what by Simeon, n. 3869-3872, 4197, 4502, 4503, 5482, 5626, 5630; what by Levi, n. 3875, 3877, 4497, 4502, 4503; what by Issachar, n. 3956, 3957; what by Zebulun, n. 3960, 3961, 6383; what by Joseph, n. 3969, 3971, 4669, 6417; and what by Benjamin, n. 3969, 4592, 5411, 5413, 5443, 5639, 5686, 5688, 5689, 6440.

That all numbers in the Word signify things, see n. 482, 487, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175, 9488, 9659, 10217, 10253.

That twelve signifies all, and all things as to truths from good, see n. 577, 2089, 2129, 2130, 3272, 3858, 3913; also, the numbers 72, 144, 12,000, 144,000, because they arise from the number 12 by multiplication, n. 7973.

That numbers multiplied signify the same as the simple numbers from which they are produced by multiplication, see n. 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973.)

[4] He who does not know that numbers signify things, what the numbers twelve, one hundred and forty-four, and twelve thousand signify, and also what tribes and apostles signify, cannot know what is signified by those passages in the Apocalypse, where it is said, that the holy city, New Jerusalem,

"had a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels, and names written which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; and the wall had twelve foundations, in which were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The wall was a hundred and forty and four cubits, and the length and the breadth of the city twelve thousand furlongs" (21:12, 14, 16, 17).

The signification of all these things may be seen explained in the little work, The New Jerusalem and its Doctrine, n. 1; where it is shown, that by Jerusalem is signified the church as to doctrine; by the wall, its truths of defence; by the gates, introductory truths; by the foundations, the knowledges upon which doctrine is founded; by twelve angels, and by twelve tribes, all truths and goods collectively; the same by the twelve apostles; and by the numbers twelve, one hundred and forty-four, and twelve thousand, all things and all persons.

[5] Moreover, he who knows that such things are signified by the twelve tribes may see the mystery involved in the names of the twelve tribes being engraved upon the precious stones of the Urim and Thummim, and also the signification of the breast-plate (Exodus 28:21; 39:10-15). (This arcanum may be seen unfolded in Arcana Coelestia 3858, 6335, 6640, 9863, 9865, 9873, 9874, 9905.) He may also see what is the signification of the twelve apostles sitting upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28), namely, that the Lord alone will judge every one by truths from good (n. 2129, 6397); also what things are meant by the predictions of Israel the father, concerning his sons (Gen. 49); and also the meaning of many other passages in the Word where the tribes are mentioned (as in Isaiah 19:13; 49:6; 63:17; Jeremiah 10:16; Ezekiel 48:1, and following verses; Psalm 122:3-5; Deuteronomy 32:8; Numbers 24:2; Apoc. 5:9; 7:4-9; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6; and elsewhere).

[6] And again, the meaning of the Lord's words about the consummation of the age and His coming, may be seen:

"After the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and much glory" (Matthew 14:29, 30).

(These words may be seen explained in detail in the work, Heaven and Hell 1; and in the following passages in Arcana Coelestia, where it is shown that the twelve tribes of Israel represented, and thence signified, all truths and goods collectively, thus all things of faith and love, n. 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335; that similar things are signified by the twelve apostles, n. 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397; and that they have various significations according to the order in which they are named, n. 3862, 3926, 3939, 4603, 6337, 6640, 10335.)

10738. Before these things had been said they had supposed that our group as well had consisted of those who wished to confuse them with the idea of three regarding God. Consequently, having heard these things, they said that emissaries from God - whom they would now call the Lord - had also come and taught them about Him, but that they refused entrance to the visitors who disturb them, especially those with ideas of three persons in the Godhead. For they know that God is one and therefore that the Godhead is a oneness, not the unanimity of three, unless those who so insist are prepared to think of God as an angel may be thought of. That is, within an angel there is an inmost, invisible level of life, on which he thinks and is wise; an outward level of life visible in a human form, on which he sees and acts; and an emanation of life from himself, which is a sphere of love and faith surrounding him. For what the love and faith of each spirit or angel are like is recognized at a distance from the sphere of life emanating from him. In the Lord's case, they said, the emanation of life from Him consists in the Divine itself which fills and constitutes the heavens, because the Essential Being (Esse) within the life of love and faith is from Him.

[2] Having heard all this I was led to say that such an idea of three and at the same time of one is in keeping with the angelic idea of the Lord, and that it arises out of the Lord's very own teachings about Himself. For He teaches that the Father and He are one; that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father; that whoever sees Him sees the Father, and whoever believes in Him believes in the Father and knows Him; also that the Paraclete, whom He calls the Spirit of truth as well as the Holy Spirit, goes forth from Him and speaks not of His own accord but of the Lord's, so that by Him is meant the Divine going forth.

[3] And I went on to say that an idea of three and at the same time of one was in keeping with the Essential Being and the Coming-into-being (Esse et Existere) of the Lord's life when He was in the world. The Essential Being of His life was the Divine itself, since He was conceived from Jehovah and the essential being of anyone's life is what he is conceived from; the Coming-into-being of life, springing from that Essential Being, is the Human in [bodily] form. The essential being of anyone's life which the person has from his father is called the soul, and the coming-into-being of life from that essential being is called the body, the soul and the body constituting one complete human being.

[4] The relationship between them both is similar to the relationship between what lies in an endeavour and what lies in an action resulting from it. For the action is the endeavour put into effect, so that the two are one. The endeavour as it exists in a person is called the will, and the endeavour put into effect is called the action. The body is the instrument by which the will that employs it performs an action, and in the performance of it the instrument and the employer of it come together as one. So it is with soul and body.

[5] An idea of soul and body such as this is what angels in heaven have, and from that idea they know that the Lord made His Human Divine by the power of the Divine within Him, which was His soul derived from the Father. The faith accepted everywhere in the Christian world is no different from this, for that faith teaches,

As the body and soul are one man (homo), so also God and man (homo) in the Lord is one Christ. ¹

Since the unity or oneness in the Lord was such, He rose again not just as to His soul but also, unlike anyone else, as to His body which He had glorified in the world. This too He taught the disciples, when He said,

Handle Me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me have. [Luke 24:39.]

[6] This explains why the Church acknowledges the whole presence of His Humanity within the sacrament of the Holy Supper, which acknowledgement would not be possible unless His Human also were Divine.

These matters were well understood by those spirits, for such matters fall within angelic spirits' range of understanding. They also said that to the Lord alone belongs power in the heavens and that the heavens are His. In response to this I was led to say that the Church knows that too from the mouth of the Lord Himself, who said before He went up to heaven,

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. [Matthew 28:18.]

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