Arcana Coelestia#8941
8941. 'You shall not build it with hewn ones' means that it must not be a product of self-intelligence. This is clear from the meaning of 'hewn stones' as the kinds of things which are products of self-intelligence, for 'stones' are truths, 8940, and chiselling or shaping them means producing or fashioning truths, or rather notions made to look like truths, out of the self, that is, out of self-intelligence. For the life in anything produced or fashioned by the self or self-intelligence is derived from the person; and such life is not life at all since the human self or proprium is nothing but evil, 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1047, 5660, 5786, 8480, whereas what is not derived from the self but from God does have life within it, since God is the source of all life. The subject here is worship of the Lord that springs from truth, for that kind of worship is meant by 'an altar of stones', 8940. .
[2] Truths that inspire worship of the Lord should be derived from nowhere other than the Word; for in every single part the Word has life from God. When truths are derived from the self they have as their end in view rank and prominence over everyone in the world, and also earthly possessions and wealth above everyone. Consequently they hold within them self-love and love of the world, thus all evils in their entirety, 7488, 8318. But truths derived from the Word have eternal life as their end in view; they hold within them love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, thus all forms of good in their entirety. When truths are produced out of the self or self-intelligence they are the masters over the truths which come from God; for they employ the latter to add strength to themselves. But it ought to be the other way round, that is to say, the truths from God ought to be the masters, and those that are products of self-intelligence to be the servants. Products of the self or self-intelligence are called truths, but they are not really truths; they look like truths solely to outward appearances. For the literal sense of the Word is employed, and reasonings are brought in, to make them look like truths; but inwardly they are falsities. What these things are exactly, and what they are like, see above in 8932.
[3] In the world there are two semblances of religion that exist as a result of self-intelligence. One is that in which self-love and love of the world is everything; in the Word this semblance of religion is called Babel. Inwardly it is profane on account of self-love and love of the world, while outwardly it is holy on account of the Word, which people have employed to add strength to their own ideas. The other semblance of religion is that in which the inferior light of the natural order is everything. Those with this kind of religion acknowledge nothing to be true which they do not apprehend. Some belonging to this seeming religion acknowledge the Word, yet they employ it to add strength to their own ideas; thus they treat it as their servant. Others however do not acknowledge the Word; instead they identify the Divine with the natural order. For the light in which they see, being the inferior light of the natural order, shines only within the natural order and cannot be made brighter by the superior light of heaven, because they cast aside the Word, the source of all enlightenment. Those belonging to both the latter and the former semblances of religion are in hell, because they are devoid of heavenly life, which they cannot receive because they have cast the Word aside. And those of them who have employed the Word to add strength to their own ideas have set no value at all on it in their hearts; yet because it has had power and authority among the common people they have used it to serve them in this way, in order that false notions fashioned by their own intelligence might thereby be validated. From all this one may see what is meant in the spiritual sense by the command that no altar of hewn stones was to be built.
[4] 'Hewn stone' means that which is a product of self-intelligence in the following places as well: In Isaiah,
In order that [all] the people may know, Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, on account of pride and arrogance of heart, saying, The bricks have fallen and we will build from hewn stone. Isaiah 9:9-10.
In Jeremiah,
Even if I cry and shout, He has shut out my prayers. He has fenced round my ways with hewn stone, He has overturned my paths. Lamentations 3:8-9.
In Amos,
Because you tread down the crushed, and seize from him the burden of grain, you will build houses of hewn stone, yet you will not dwell in them. Amos 5:11.
'Hewn stone' here stands for the kinds of things that self-intelligence produces in matters of faith.
[5] Since those things were meant by 'hewn stone', the altar first built in the land of Canaan by the children of Israel after they crossed the Jordan was built of unhewn stones; for crossing over Jordan represented introduction into the Lord's kingdom, which is accomplished by means of the truths of faith. That altar is spoken of as follows in Joshua,
Joshua built an altar to Jehovah God of Israel on Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel, An altar of whole stones over which no one has wielded any iron tool. 1 Joshua 8:30-31; Deuteronomy 27:1-8.
[6] The temple in Jerusalem likewise was built of whole, not hewn, stones. This is referred to in the first Book of Kings as follows,
As regards the house itself, when it was being built it was built of whole stone, as it had been brought [there]; for not a hammer or axe, [nor] any tool of iron, was heard in the house while it was being built. 1 Kings 6:7.
For by 'the temple of the Lord' was represented the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. The Lord Himself teaches that He was represented by the temple, in John 2:19, 21-22; and the reason why He was represented in respect of Divine Truth was that Divine Truth was taught there. This also was why it was built of stones; for 'stones' meant Divine Truth, 8940. And it also explains why the Lord was called 'the Stone of Israel', 6426.
[7] From all this one may now see what was meant by the stone of the altar, and also what was meant by the stone of the temple, as well as what was meant by the requirement that they were to be whole stones, and not hewn, namely this: Religion should be composed of truths derived from the Lord, thus from the Word, and not from self-intelligence. Products of self-intelligence are also described in the following way in Isaiah,
The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. He seeks a skilled 2 craftsman to make ready a graven image. Isaiah 40:19-20.
'A graven image' stands for some religious fabrication that is a product of the proprium or self, put forward to be venerated as what is Divine, 8869. 'The craftsman' stands for those who from self produce and fashion things. Their attempt to make these things look like truths is described by '[a goldsmith! overlays it with gold, and casts chains made of silver' and 'he seeks a skilled craftsman'.
[8] In the same prophet,
Makers of the graven image, all are vanity. All his companions will be ashamed; and the workmen themselves ... He fashions the iron with tongs, and works it with the coals, and forms it with sharp hammers; so he makes it with his strong arm. 3 He fashions pieces of wood, stretches out a cord, and marks it off with a ruler. He makes it into its angles, and marks it out with a ring, so that he may make it in the form of a man (vir), according to the beauty of a human being, to dwell in the house. Isaiah 44:9, 11-13.
This too describes a religious fabrication that is a product of self-intelligence. Something similar occurs in Jeremiah,
The customs 4 of the nations are vanity. Since indeed one cuts out wood from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman using an axe, he decorates it with silver and gold; and they make it firm 5 with pegs and hammers. Jeremiah 10:3-4.
And also in Hosea,
Nonetheless they now sin more and more, and make for themselves a molten image from silver, idols by their own intelligence, completely the work of craftsmen. Hosea 13:2
A religious fabrication, produced out of self-intelligence and not derived from the Word, is meant in the internal sense by 'idols' and 'strange gods', by 'molten images' and 'graven images'. Products of the self are nothing else; for in themselves they are dead, even though venerated as living.
脚注:
1. literally, upon which he has not moved iron
2. literally, intelligent
3. lit the arm of his strength
4. lit statutes
5. The Latin means he makes firm but the Hebrew means they make firm, which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.
John第1章
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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The same was in the beginning with God.
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All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
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In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
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The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn't overcome it.
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There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.
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The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.
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He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.
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The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
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He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn't recognize him.
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He came to his own, and those who were his own didn't receive him.
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But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God's children, to those who believe in his name:
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who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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John testified about him. He cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.'"
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From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
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For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
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No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
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This is John's testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"
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He declared, and didn't deny, but he declared, "I am not the Christ."
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They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No."
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They said therefore to him, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
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He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said."
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The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees.
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They asked him, "Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?"
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John answered them, "I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don't know.
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He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to loosen."
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These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
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The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
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This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.'
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I didn't know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water: that he would be revealed to Israel."
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John testified, saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him.
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I didn't recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, 'On whomever you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'
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I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God."
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Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples,
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and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"
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The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
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Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), "where are you staying?"
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He said to them, "Come, and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.
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One of the two who heard John, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
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He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah!" (which is, being interpreted, Christ).
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He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas" (which is by interpretation, Peter).
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On the next day, he was determined to go out into Galilee, and he found Philip. Jesus said to him, "Follow me."
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Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
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Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
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Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "come and see."
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Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"
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Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."
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Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!"
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Jesus answered him, "Because I told you, 'I saw you underneath the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these!"
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He said to him, "Most certainly, I tell you, hereafter you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
