6640. 'Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali, Cad and Asher' means the whole process from start to finish, that is to say, of the establishment of the Church, which is the subject in what follows next. For the twelve sons of Jacob, and the tribes named after them too, mean all aspects of goodness and truth, that is, all aspects of love and faith in their entirety, see 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060, 6335. Yet these meanings vary according to the order in which the names are mentioned, 3862, 3926, 3939, 4603 and following paragraphs. The variations are therefore countless and involve every single thing that constitutes the Church and the Lord's kingdom, 6737. But what the specific meaning is when the names occur in the present or any other order nobody knows but the Lord alone. Nor does anyone in heaven know unless the Lord makes it known; in heaven the truths and forms of good that are meant are presented visually by means of lights, together with a perception of what the lights mean.

[2] The twelve tribes represented the Lord's kingdom and everything there, and therefore in order that those lights might also be represented, and thereby all the Church's truths and forms of good, twelve precious stones were set ¹ in gold in their proper order, one stone for each tribe. This was called the breastplate and was attached to Aaron's ephod; and they received answers from it by means of the varying flashes of light, which were accompanied either by audible words or by inner perception. From this too it may be recognized that the twelve tribes of Israel mean all the truths and forms of good, in their entirety, of the Lord's kingdom and the Church, and that the meanings vary, depending on the order in which they are mentioned. Here they are mentioned in a different order from that in which they were born, as is evident from the fact that Issachar and Zebulun are mentioned before Dan and Naphtali, though the latter were born before the former. Benjamin too is mentioned before Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, and yet he was born last; and Gad and Asher are mentioned last of all. Something similar is evident in other places in the Word where the names occur in further variations of order.

脚注:

6637. 'These are the names of the children of Israel' means the essential nature of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of' the name as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2628, 2724, 3006, 3421; from the representation of 'the sons of Israel' as spiritual truths, dealt with in 5414, 5879, 5951; and from the representation of 'Israel' as the good of truth, which is spiritual good, dealt with in 3654, 4598, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. Since Israel' represents the good of truth or spiritual good and 'his sons' represent spiritual truths in the natural, 'the sons of Israel' also represent the Church, for what makes it the Church is spiritual good and the truths that spring from that good. A person without spiritual good, that is, the good of charity, and without spiritual truths, that is, the truths of faith, does not belong to the Church in spite of having been born within the Church. The whole of the Lord's heavenly kingdom possesses the good of love and faith, and unless the Church possesses good like that it cannot be the Church since it is not joined to heaven; for the Church is the Lord's kingdom on earth.

[2] The term 'Church' is not used because it is the place where the Word is and teachings drawn from it, or because it is where the Lord is known and the sacraments are celebrated. Rather it is the Church because it lives in accordance with the Word or with teachings drawn from the Word, and seeks to make those teachings its rule of life. People who do not live like this do not belong to the Church but are outside it; and those who lead wicked lives, thus lives contrary to that teaching, are further away outside the Church than gentiles who know nothing whatever about the Word, the Lord, or the sacraments. For since those people are acquainted with the forms of good that the Church fosters and with the truths it teaches they annihilate the Church within themselves, something gentiles cannot do because they are unacquainted with those things. It should also be realized that everyone who leads a good life, in charity and faith, is a Church, and is a kingdom of the Lord. He is for that reason also called a temple, and a house of God too. Those who are Churches individually, no matter how remote from one another they may be, constitute one Church collectively. This then is the Church meant by the expression 'the children of Israel' here and in what follows.