300. As regards the first arcanum, that 'Jehovah God' is used to mean the Lord and at the same time heaven, it should be recognized that in the Word, always for some hidden reason, the Lord is sometimes called simply Jehovah, sometimes Jehovah God, sometimes Jehovah and God interchangeably, sometimes the Lord Jehovah, sometimes the God of Israel, and sometimes simply God. In Genesis 1, for example, where again an utterance is made in the plural, 'Let Us make man in Our image', God is the only name used. Not until the next chapter, where the celestial man is the subject, is He called Jehovah God-Jehovah, because He alone has Being and is Living, and so from His essence; God, because of His ability to accomplish all things, and so from His power, as is clear in the Word where the two names are used separately, Isaiah 49:4-5; 55:7; Psalms 18:2, 28, 30-31; Psalms 38:15. Consequently any angel or spirit who spoke to a person, or who people thought had the ability to accomplish something, they called God, as is clear in David,

God stands in the assembly of God, in the midst of the Gods will He judge. Psalms 82:1.

And elsewhere in David,

Who in the sky will be compared to Jehovah? Who will be likened to Jehovah among the sons of gods? Psalms 89:6.

And elsewhere in the same,

Confess the God of Gods; confess the Lord of lords. Psalms 136:2-3

It is from power that even men are called 'gods', as in Psalms 82:6; John 10:34-35. And Moses is spoken of as 'a god to Pharaoh', Exodus 7:1. And this also is why [in Hebrew] the word for God, Elohim, is plural. But because angels have no power whatsoever from themselves, as they themselves also confess, but from the Lord only, and as there is but one God, Jehovah God is therefore used in the Word to mean the Lord alone. Yet when anything is accomplished through the ministry of angels He is spoken of in the plural, as in Genesis 1. In the present chapter too, since a celestial man, as man, did not bear comparison with the Lord, but with angels, it is therefore said that 'the man has become as one of Us in knowing good and evil', that is, become someone wise and having intelligence.

5702. 'Since that is an abomination to the Egyptians' means that they are in a contrary position. This is clear from the representation of 'the Egyptians' as those with whom order has been inverted, 5700; and from the representation of 'the Hebrews', to eat with whom was an abomination to the Egyptians, as those with whom genuine order exists, 5701. Thus the two are set in contrary positions, and this gives rise to strong dislike and at length to what is an abomination. Regarding this abomination, it should be recognized that people with whom an inverted state of order, that is, evil and consequent falsity, exists, thereby come at length to acquire a strong dislike for the goodness and truth of the Church the moment they hear it referred to. This is even more true when they hear reference made to the interior aspects of that goodness and truth; they find these so abominable that so to speak they feel nauseated and wish to vomit. This is what I have been told and shown to be so when I have wondered why the Christian world does not accept the interior teachings of the Word. Spirits from the Christian world have appeared on the scene and have been compelled to hear about the interior teachings of the Word; they were then so nauseated by these that they said they felt within themselves the great need to vomit. I have also been told that this is what the Christian world is like virtually everywhere at the present day. The reason it is like this is that it has no affection for truth for its own sake, still less any affection for good motivated by good. Anything they think or say that is based on the Word or their religious teachings is due to habit followed since early childhood and to religious custom, and so is something external devoid of anything internal.

[2] The fact that all aspects of the Hebrew Church, the one established at a later time among the descendants of Jacob, were an abomination to the Egyptians is evident not only from their refusal even to eat with them but also from the fact that sacrifices, in which the Hebrew Church made its main worship consist, were an abomination to them, as is evident in Moses,

Pharaoh said, Go away, sacrifice within the land. But Moses said, It is incorrect to do so, for we shall be sacrificing to Jehovah our God what is an abomination to the Egyptians; behold, if we sacrifice what is an abomination to the Egyptians in their eyes, will they not stone us? Exodus 8:25-26.

Also, feeding cattle and being a shepherd was an abomination to them, as is evident again in Moses,

Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. Genesis 46:34.

Thus every aspect of that Church was an abomination to the Egyptians. The reason was that initially even the Egyptians had been among those who constituted the representative Ancient Church, 1238, 2385. But after that they rejected the God of the Ancient Church, who was Jehovah or the Lord, and served idols, in particular calves. Also the actual representatives and meaningful signs of the celestial and spiritual realities of the Ancient Church, which they came to know while part of that Church, were turned by them into magical practices. This being so, order with them became inverted, as a consequence of which everything constituting the Church was an abomination.