9671. 'From violet and purple and twice-dyed scarlet and fine twined linen' means the forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together there. This is clear from the meaning of 'violet' as the celestial love of truth, dealt with in 9466; from the meaning of 'purple' as the celestial love of good, dealt with in 9467; from the meaning of 'twice-dyed scarlet' as spiritual good, dealt with in 4922, 9468; and from the meaning of 'fine twined linen' as truth from a celestial origin, dealt with in 9469. From all this it is evident that those four mean forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together within the uniting intermediary. The implications of this are that those in heaven who belong to the uniting intermediary represented by the veil have forms of the good of love and forms of the good of faith joined together within themselves. Through the forms of the good of love they are joined to celestial angels who are in the inmost heaven, and through the forms of the good of faith to the spiritual ones who are in the middle heaven. For the good of love to the Lord is called celestial good, and the good of faith in Him is called spiritual good.

[2] Those in heaven who belong to the uniting intermediary are called celestial-spiritual and spiritual-celestial, the former being represented in the Word by Joseph, the latter by Benjamin. For the meaning of Joseph in the representative sense as the celestial-spiritual, see 4286, 4592, 4963, 5249, 5307, 5331, 5332, 5417, 5869, 5877, 6224, 6526, and Benjamin as the spiritual-celestial, 3969, 4592. Joseph is accordingly the internal uniting intermediary and Benjamin the external uniting intermediary, 4585, 4592, 4594, 5411, 5413, 5443, 5639, 5686, 5688, 5689, 5822. What the celestial-spiritual and the spiritual-celestial are, see 1577, 1824, 2184, 4585, 4592, 4594.

[3] The difference between those in the heavens who are celestial and those who are spiritual may also be recognized from their opposites in the hells. Those in the hells who are the opposites of celestial angels are called genii, while those in them who are the contraries of spiritual angels are called spirits. The genii, the opposites of celestial angels, are at the back, whereas the spirits, the opposites of spiritual ones, are at the front; and those between genii and spirits are at the sides. Being the opposites of celestial angels the genii are steeped in evil more internal than that present with spirits. Regarding spirits and genii, see what has been said about them from experience in 5977, 8593, 8622, 8625. The hell of genii has been set completely apart from the hell of spirits, so completely that those in one cannot pass over into the other. For there are intermediate spirits there who link the two together; and these spirits are the opposites of the intermediate angels in the heavens.

4585. 'They travelled on from Bethel, and there was still a stretch of land to go to Ephrath' means the spiritual of the celestial at this point. This is clear from the meaning of 'travelling on from Bethel' as a continuation of the progress of the Divine from the Divine Natural - 'travelling on' meaning a continuation, see 4554, and here in the highest sense a continuation of the progress made by the Divine, while 'Bethel' means the Divine Natural, 4559, 4560; from the meaning of 'a stretch of land to go' as that which exists in between, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'Ephrath' as the spiritual of the celestial within the initial state, dealt with below where Bethlehem is the subject. ¹ 'Bethlehem' means the spiritual of the celestial within the new state, and this is why the phrase 'Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem' is used in verse 19 below.

[2] In these verses progress made by the Lord's Divine towards aspects more interior is the subject, for when the Lord made His Human Divine His progress involved a similar order to that employed by Him when He makes man new through regeneration. That is to say, it was a progression from external things to more interior ones, and so from truth as this exists in the ultimate degree of order to good which is more interior and is called spiritual good, and from this to celestial good. But ideas about these things do not come within the mental grasp of anyone unless he knows what the external man is and what the internal man is, and that the former is distinct and separate from the latter, though the two seem to be one and the same while a person lives in the body. Nor do those ideas come within his grasp unless he knows that the natural constitutes the external man, and the rational the internal man, and above all unless he knows what the spiritual is, and what the celestial is.

[3] These matters, it is true, have been explained several times already. Even so, those who have not previously had any idea concerning them - for the reason that they have not had any desire to know the things which belong to eternal life - are incapable of having any such idea. These people say, 'What is the internal man? How can it be anything different from the external man?' They also say, 'What is the natural, or the rational? Are these not one and the same thing?' Then they ask, 'What is the spiritual and the celestial? Isn't this some new distinction? We've heard about the spiritual, but not that the celestial is something different'. But the fact of the matter is that these are people who have not previously acquired any idea of these matters. They have failed to do so either because the cares of the world and of the body occupy their whole thought and take away all desire to know anything else, or because they suppose that no one needs to know anything beyond what the common people are taught and that there is nothing to be gained if their thought goes any further. For these say, 'The world we see, but the next life we do not see. Maybe it exists, maybe it doesn't'. People like these push those ideas away from themselves, for at heart they reject them the moment they see them.

[4] All the same, because such ideas are contained in the internal sense of the Word, though they cannot be explained without suitable terms to depict them, and as no terms more suitable exist than 'natural' to express exterior things and 'rational' to express interior, or 'spiritual' to express matters of truth and 'celestial' matters of good, the use of words like these is unavoidable. For without the right words nothing can be described. Therefore so that some idea may be formed by those who have a desire to know what the spiritual of the celestial is, which 'Benjamin' represents and which 'Bethlehem' means, a brief reference to it must be made here. The subject so far in the highest sense has been the glorification of the Lord's Natural, and in the relative sense the regeneration of man's natural. It was shown above, in 4286, that 'Jacob' represented the external man of one who belongs to the Church, and 'Israel' his internal man, thus that 'Jacob' represented the exterior aspect of the natural and 'Israel' the interior aspect; for the spiritual man develops out of the natural, but the celestial man out of the rational. It was also shown that the Lord's glorification advanced, even as the regeneration of man advances, from external things to more interior ones, and that for the sake of such a representation Jacob received the name Israel.

[5] But now the subject is further progress towards aspects more interior still, that is, towards the rational, for as stated immediately above, the rational constitutes the internal man. The part which exists between the internal of the natural and the external of the rational is what the term 'the spiritual of the celestial' - meant by 'Ephrath' and 'Bethlehem', and represented by 'Benjamin' - is used to denote. This intermediate part is derived to some extent from the internal of the natural, meant by 'Israel', and to some extent from the external of the rational, meant by 'Joseph'; for that intermediate part must be derived to some extent from each one, or else it cannot serve as an intermediary. So that anyone who is already spiritual can be made celestial he must of necessity make progress by means of this intermediate part. Without it no advance to higher things is possible.

[6] The nature of the progress made therefore by means of this intermediate part is described here in the internal sense by the statements that Jacob went to Ephrath, and that Rachel gave birth to Benjamin there. From this it is evident that 'they travelled on from Bethel, and there was still a stretch of land to go to Ephrath' means a continuation of the progress of the Lord's Divine from the Divine Natural to the spiritual of the celestial, meant by 'Ephrath' and 'Bethlehem', and represented by 'Benjamin'. The spiritual of the celestial is the intermediate part about which something is said above; it is spiritual insofar as it is derived from the spiritual man, which regarded in itself is the interior natural man, and it is [celestial] insofar as it is derived from the celestial man, which regarded in itself is the rational man. 'Joseph' is the exterior rational man, and therefore he is spoken of as the celestial of the spiritual derived from the rational.

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