38. And they who pierced him. That this signifies that they also will see Him who are in falsities from evil, is evident from the signification of piercing, or of they who pierce, as being those who altogether deny the Lord, for such kill and pierce Him in themselves. These also are meant by the soldier who pierced His side (John 19:34-37). By a soldier, and soldiers, are meant those who belong to the church, and who would fight for the Lord. But those of the Jewish Church, in particular, are there meant, and, in general, all who belong to the church who are in falsities from evil. And because these were signified by the soldiers, therefore they divided the Lord's garments, and cast lots upon His vesture; which means, that the Jewish Church dispersed the Divine truths of the literal sense of the Word, but that they could not do so with the interior truths, or the truths of the internal sense. (For garments signify truths in ultimates, see Arcana Coelestia 2576, 5248, 6918, 9158, 9212; to divide signifies to dissipate and disperse, see n. 4424, 6360, 6361, 9093; and the vesture interior truths, n. 9049, 9212, 9216, 9826.)

5689. 'And he said, God be gracious to you, my son' means that the Divine was also present with the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediary, because it goes forth from the celestial of the spiritual, which is truth from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'God be gracious - when this is said by the celestial of the spiritual, which is 'Joseph', to the spiritual of the celestial, which is 'Benjamin', and when the latter is also addressed by the former as 'son' - as the Divine presence also with the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediary, because this goes forth from the celestial of the spiritual, which is truth from the Divine. For 'Benjamin' is the spiritual of the celestial, see 3969, 4592; he is the intermediary too, 5411, 5413, 5443, 5639.

[2] Since, as stated above, the Lord's inner man was the celestial of the spiritual, and this was truth from the Divine or the clothing next to the Divine Himself within the Lord, and since the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediary, went forth from that, it follows that the Divine was also present with this intermediary. What goes forth from something acquires its essential being from that from which it goes forth; but it is clothed with coverings such as serve to enable communication to take place and thereby enable a useful purpose to be realized in a lower sphere. The coverings that clothe it are derived in part from such things as exist in that lower sphere, to the end that the internal from which it goes forth can operate in the lower sphere through the kinds of things present there.

[3] What provides its essential being is so to speak its father, since that essential being is its soul; and what provides its clothing is its mother, for that clothing is the body belonging to this soul. This is why, as stated above, the intermediary must be derived from both if it is to be an intermediary - from the internal as its father and from the external as its mother.