6583. 'And Joseph saw Ephraim's sons of the third generation' means the establishment of the Church so far as its understanding and the derivatives from this were concerned. This is clear from the representation of 'Ephraim' as the area of understanding in the Church, dealt with in 3969, 5354, 6222, 6274, 6238, 6267; and from the meaning of 'sons of the third generation' as derivatives, for being the descendants of their parent, 'sons and 'sons of sons' mean the thing represented by that parent. The establishment of the Church from the internal, that is, from the Lord through the internal, is meant by 'Joseph saw'. What the Church's understanding is which 'Ephraim' represents, see 6222.

3252. 'A hundred and seventy-five years' means the things constituting that state. This becomes clear from the fact that every number used in the Word means some real thing, see 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, and so with this particular number which consequently means the things which constitute the state that is the subject here. As long as the mind confines itself to the historical sense it seems as though numbers, such as these ¹ which give Abraham's age, do not hold any interior meaning within them. The fact that they do nevertheless hold such meaning within them is evident from all that has been shown already concerning numbers, and becomes clear from the consideration that no number as to its numerical value contains anything holy, and yet the smallest detail of all in the Word is holy.

脚注: