9371. THE INTERNAL SENSE.

Verses 1-2. And He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and bow yourselves afar off; and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah; and they shall not come near; and the people shall not come up with him. “And He said unto Moses,” signifies that which concerns the Word in general; “come up unto Jehovah,” signifies conjunction with the Lord; “thou and Aaron,” signifies the Word in the internal sense and the external sense; “Nadab and Abihu,” signifies doctrine from both senses; “and seventy of the elders of Israel,” signifies the chief truths of the church which are of the Word, or of doctrine, and which agree with good; “and bow yourselves afar off,” signifies humiliation and adoration from the heart, and then the influx of the Lord; “and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah,” signifies the conjunction and presence of the Lord through the Word in general; “and they shall not come near,” signifies no separate conjunction and presence; “and the people shall not come up with him,” signifies no conjunction whatever with the external apart from the internal.

202. I have been taught that the people of the Most Ancient church, which existed before the flood, had such heavenly characters that they conversed with angels in heaven. They were able to do this by correspondences. So they reached such a pitch of wisdom that they not only thought naturally about anything they saw on earth, but at the same time also thought spiritually about it, and this established their link with angels in heaven. I was also taught that Enoch, who is mentioned in Genesis 5:21-24, together with his colleagues collected these correspondences by listening to their talk, and transmitted this science to posterity. As a result the science of correspondences was not merely known but held in high esteem in many Asiatic kingdoms, especially in the land of Canaan, Egypt, Assyria, Chaldaea, Syria, Arabia, Tyre, Sidon and Nineveh. From there it was transmitted to Greece, but was there transformed into myths, as is evident in the earliest Greek authors.