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Matthew第1章

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1 The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 The son of Abraham was Isaac; and the son of Isaac was Jacob; and the sons of Jacob were Judah and his brothers;

3 And the sons of Judah were Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and the son of Perez was Hezron; and the son of Hezron was Ram;

4 And the son of Ram was Amminadab; and the son of Amminadab was Nahshon; and the son of Nahshon was Salmon;

5 And the son of Salmon by Rahab was Boaz; and the son of Boaz by Ruth was Obed; and the son of Obed was Jesse;

6 And the son of Jesse was David the king; and the son of David was Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah;

7 And the son of Solomon was Rehoboam; and the son of Rehoboam was Abijah; and the son of Abijah was Asa;

8 And the son of Asa was Jehoshaphat; and the son of Jehoshaphat was Joram; and the son of Joram was Uzziah;

9 And the son of Uzziah was Jotham; and the son of Jotham was Ahaz; and the son of Ahaz was Hezekiah;

10 And the son of Hezekiah was Manasseh; and the son of Manasseh was Amon; and the son of Amon was Josiah;

11 And the sons of Josiah were Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the taking away to Babylon.

12 And after the taking away to Babylon, Jechoniah had a son Shealtiel; and Shealtiel had Zerubbabel;

13 And Zerubbabel had Abiud; and Abiud had Eliakim; and Eliakim had Azor;

14 And Azor had Zadok; and Zadok had Achim; and Achim had Eliud;

15 And Eliud had Eleazar; and Eleazar had Matthan; and Matthan had Jacob;

16 And the son of Jacob was Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, whose name is Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the taking away to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the taking away to Babylon to the coming of Christ, fourteen generations.

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: when his mother Mary was going to be married to Joseph, before they came together the discovery was made that she was with child by the Holy Spirit.

19 And Joseph, her husband, being an upright man, and not desiring to make her a public example, had a mind to put her away privately.

20 But when he was giving thought to these things, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, have no fear of taking Mary as your wife; because that which is in her body is of the Holy Spirit.

21 And she will give birth to a son; and you will give him the name Jesus; for he will give his people salvation from their sins.

22 Now all this took place so that the word of the Lord by the prophet might come true,

23 See, the virgin will be with child, and will give birth to a son, and they will give him the name Immanuel, that is, God with us.

24 And Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had said to him, and took her as his wife;

25 And he had no connection with her till she had given birth to a son; and he gave him the name Jesus.

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Jacob or Israel (the man)

  

Jacob is told twice that his name will now be Israel. The first time is when he wrestles with an angel on his journey to meet Esau, and the angel tells him that his name will be changed. After he is reconciled with Esau, they go their separate ways. Jacob moves to Shechem and then on to Bethel, where he builds an altar to the Lord. The Lord appears to him there, renews the covenant He first made with Abraham and again tells him that his name will be Israel (Genesis 35). The story goes on to tell of Benjamin's birth and Rachel's death in bearing him, and then of Jacob's return to Isaac and Isaac's death and burial. But at that point the main thread of the story leaves Israel and turns to Joseph, and Israel is hardly mentioned until after Joseph has risen to power in Egypt, has revealed himself to his brothers and tells them to bring all of their father's household down to Egypt. There, before Israel dies, he blesses Joseph's sons, plus all his own sons. After his death he is returned to the land of Canaan for burial in Abraham's tomb. In the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob represents truth, and Esau good. Jacob's stay in Padan-Aram, and the wealth he acquired there, represent learning the truths of scripture, just as we learn when we read the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. The change of name from Jacob to Israel represents the realization that what we learn should not simply be knowledge, but should be the rules of our life, to be followed by action. This action is the good that Esau has represented in the story up to that time, but after the reconciliation between Jacob and Esau, Jacob as Israel now represents the truth and the good, together. It is interesting that even after his name change Jacob is rarely called Israel. Sometimes he is called one and sometimes the other, and sometimes he is called both Jacob and Israel in the same verse (Genesis 46:2, 5, & 8 also Psalm 14:7). This is because Jacob represents the external person and Israel the internal person, and even after the internal person comes into being, we spend much of our lives living on the external level.

(参考: Arcana Coelestia 4274, 4292, 4570, 5595, 6225, 6256, Genesis 2:5, 46:8)

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#6256

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6256. 'And the eyes of Israel were weak' means his obscurity of discernment. This is clear from the meaning of 'the eyes' as the sight of the understanding, dealt with in 2701, 4087, 4379, 4403-4421, also meant by 'seeing', as above in 6249; from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good within the natural, dealt with above in 6253; and from the meaning of 'being weak', when used in reference to the eyes, as obscurity, thus obscurity of discernment. The reason Why Israel's discernment had become obscure when he blessed Joseph's sons was that he had reached the final phase of his representation, though a more general reason is that an obscurity of perception exists in the spiritual good which 'Israel' represents; for that good comes from the natural, in which inferior natural light predominates, not superior heavenly light in which spiritual and celestial good from the rational dwells. Such is the nature of the external man, also called the natural man. When the expression 'spiritual good from the natural' is used, people whose good is such are meant. They are those who belong to the Lord's spiritual Church, which also is why 'Israel' represents that Church, 4286; and compared with celestial people, members of that Church, who are spiritual people, live in obscurity, see 2708, 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3246, 4402. And since they live in obscurity they also put the truth of faith in the first place, even as Israel did here, in that he made Ephraim take precedence over Manasseh.

[2] The reason why spiritual people believe that the truth of faith takes precedence is that it is by means of truth that they are led on to good, 2954; and while they are being led to it they have no perception of good because good flows from within into an affection for truth, and so does not enter their discernment until they have been regenerated. This also explains why they call the good deeds of charity the fruits of faith, though little concern is shown for such fruits by those who suppose that faith alone without good works saves a person, even in the final hour when he dies, irrespective of the life he had led before that. This way of thinking is clearly an obscurity of discernment regarding goodness and truth. But be that as it may, those who make faith take precedence over charity on doctrinal grounds and yet lead a charitable life are people who belong to the Lord's spiritual Church and are saved. For in life they make the good of charity take precedence, but in doctrine the truth of faith.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.