5747. 'Is not this what my lord drinks from?' means that present with them there was interior truth received from the celestial. This is clear from the meaning of the cup, implied by 'what my lord drinks from', as interior truth, dealt with in 5736; and from the representation of Joseph, to whom 'my lord' refers here, as the celestial of the spiritual, dealt with in 5307, 5331, 5332, but here as the celestial, because reference is being made to interior truth and interior truth is spiritual yet comes forth from the celestial. The reception of it is meant by the cup's having been planted at Joseph's command in the mouth of Benjamin's pouch.

[2] The men are accused of having supposedly taken the cup. The reason why they were accused of having taken it, when in fact the cup had been planted there, is evident from the inner meaning, which is this: Truth imparted by the Lord is not accepted initially as a gift; for prior to regeneration a person supposes that he himself acquires the truth he knows, and as long as he makes this supposition he is guilty of spiritual theft. Claiming good and truth as his own and attributing them to his own righteousness and merit is taking away from the Lord what is His, see 2609, 4174, 5135. In order that this theft might be represented Joseph acted in the way he did; even so, the men were accused of theft so that a joining together might be effected. Before he has been regenerated a person's belief about how he acquires truth cannot be any different. He may, it is true, say with his lips, because of what he has been taught, that the truth of faith and the good of charity come entirely from the Lord; nevertheless he does not believe it until faith has become implanted in good. Only then does he begin to acknowledge it in his heart.

[3] Professing something because one has been taught it is altogether different from professing it because one believes it. Many people - even those who are not governed by good - can profess something because they have been taught it; for to them the teaching they receive is no more than factual knowledge. But only those who are governed by spiritual good, that is, by charity towards the neighbour, can profess something because they believe it. Further evidence that the men were accused of theft so that a joining together might be effected lies in the fact that by that means Joseph brought them back to himself and kept them thinking for some time about that deed, after which he revealed who he was, that is, he joined himself to them.

5332. 'And gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera the priest of On, for a wife' means the essential nature of the marriage of truth to good, and of good to truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'giving for a wife' as a marriage. The reason the marriage of good to truth, and of truth to good, is meant is that nothing else is understood in a spiritual sense by 'marriages', and therefore nothing else is understood by 'marriages' in the Word. 'The daughter of the priest of On' means the truth of good, since 'a daughter' is the affection for truth and 'a priest' is good; but 'Joseph' is the good of truth that has the Divine within it, which is the same as the celestial of the spiritual. From this it is evident that the marriage of truth to good, and of good to truth, is meant. What is actually meant is the essential nature of this marriage; but this cannot receive any further explanation because the essential nature of what was the Lord's when He was in the world is beyond all understanding, beyond even that of angels. Just a vague idea of it can be formed from the kinds of things that exist in heaven - from the Grand Man and from the celestial of the spiritual existing there as a result of the influx of the Lord's Divine. But that idea is like the darkest shade compared with the light itself; for it is a very general idea indeed, thus scarcely anything compared with the reality it describes.