222. And I will write upon him the name of my God. That this signifies their quality according to Divine truth implanted in the life is evident from the signification of writing upon any one, when it is said to be done by the Lord, as denoting to implant in the life, concerning which we shall speak presently, also from the signification of name, as denoting the quality of their state (concerning which see above n. 148); and from the signification of God, as denoting Divine truth proceeding from the Lord in heaven, and thus the Lord in heaven (see n. 220); for the Lord is above the heavens, for He appears to those who are in heaven as a Sun (as may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell. n. 116-125). The Divine proceeding from the Sun of heaven, which is called Divine truth, and which constitutes heaven in general and in particular, is what in the Word is meant by God; hence it is that the angels are called gods, and that the term for God, in the Hebrew tongue, is Elohim, in the plural. From these considerations it is clear why the Lord here says, "the name of my God;" also above, "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God" (n. 219), and in what follows, "I will write upon him the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God" (n. 223).

The reason why writing upon any one denotes to implant in the life is, that to write is to commit anything to paper from the memory, thought and mind, in order that it may remain; therefore, in the spiritual sense it signifies that which will remain in the life of man, inscribed and implanted in him. Thus the natural sense of this expression is turned into the spiritual sense; for it is natural to write upon paper, or in a book, but it is spiritual to inscribe on the life, which is done when it is implanted in faith and love; for love and faith constitute the spiritual life of man.

[2] Because to write signifies to implant in the life, therefore also it is said of Jehovah, or the Lord, that He writes, and that He has written in a book, by which is meant what is inscribed by the Lord on man's spirit, that is, in his heart and soul, or, what is the same, in his love and faith. As, in David:

"My bone was not hidden from thee, when I was made in secret; upon thy book were all the days written when they were formed, and not one of them is wanting" (Psalms 139:15, 16).

Again:

"Let them be blotted out of the book of lives, and not be written with the just" (69:28).

In Daniel:

"The people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" (12:1).

In Moses:

"Blot me, I pray out of the book which thou hast written. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book" (Exodus 32:32, 33).

In the Apocalypse:

"A book written within and on the back side, sealed with seven seals," which no one was able to open but the Lamb only (5:1).

Again:

"All whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb" shall worship the beast (13:8; 17:8).

And again:

"I saw that the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (20:12, 13, 15).

And again:

And none shall enter into the New Jerusalem except "those that are written in the Lamb's book of life" (21:27).

From these passages it is not to be understood that the persons referred to are written in a book, but that all the things of faith and love are inscribed on man's spirit (as is evident from what is said upon this subject in the work, Heaven and Hell 461-469).

[3] That to write, in the Word, signifies to inscribe and implant in the life, is also evident from other passages where it is mentioned; as in Jeremiah:

"I will put my law in the midst of them, and will write it on their heart" (31:33).

To put the law in the midst of them, denotes Divine truth in them, in the midst, signifies inwardly in man (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 1074, 2940, 2973); and to write it on their heart, is to impress it upon the love, for the heart signifies the love (see Arcana Coelestia 7542, 9050, 10336). In Ezekiel:

"The prophet saw the roll of a book written within and without, and there were written thereon lamentations, mourning and woe" (2:9, 10; 3:1-3).

By the roll of a book written within and without is signified the state of the church at that time, thus the quality of the life of those who belonged to the church; therefore the roll of the book here mentioned has a signification similar to that of the book of life mentioned above; and because their life was destitute of the goods of love and truths of faith, it is said, that "There was written thereon, lamentations, and mourning and woe."

By the law being written upon tables of stone, and with the finger of God (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:13; 9:10),

was signified that it must be impressed on the life (Arcana Coelestia 9416); for by the law, in the strict sense, the ten precepts of the Decalogue are meant, but in a broad sense, the whole Word (see Arcana Coelestia 6752, 7463). By stone is signified truth, and there it signifies Divine truth (see Arcana Coelestia 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 10376). The same is signified by

The words of the law being written upon the twelve stones taken out of Jordan (Deuteronomy 27:2-4, 8; Josh. 4:3, and the following verses).

[4] In Ezekiel:

"Son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it, For Judah, and for the sons of Israel, his companions: and take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel, and his companions. Afterwards join them one to another into one stick, that they may both be one in my hand" 37:16, 17).

What these things signify no one can know unless he knows what was represented by Judah, and what by Joseph. By Judah was represented the celestial kingdom of the Lord, and by Joseph his spiritual kingdom; and by writing for them upon two sticks of wood, was signified the state of the love, and thence of the life of both. Their conjunction into one heaven was signified by joining them one to another into one piece, that they might be one in my hand. The signification of this is similar to that of the Lord's words,

"Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd" (John 10:16).

The reason why the writing was to be upon wood was, because wood signifies good, and it is good which conjoins. (But these things will be clearer from what is shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that the spiritual kingdom before the Lord's coming was not like it was after his coming, n. 6372, 8054: that the spiritual especially were saved by the coming of the Lord into the world, and that they were then conjoined with those who were of His celestial kingdom into one heaven, n. 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834, 3969, 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091, 7828, 7932, 8018, 8159, 8321, 9684. That there are two kingdoms, the celestial and the spiritual, and three heavens, and that they are conjoined into one heaven, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 20-28, and 29-40. That by Judah, in the representative sense, is signified the Lord's celestial kingdom, Arcana Coelestia 3654, 3881, 5583, 5603, 5782, 6363: that by Joseph is signified the Lord's spiritual kingdom, n. 3969, 3971, 4669, 6417: that by Ephraim is signified the Intellectual of the spiritual church, 3969, 5354, 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267, 6296: that by wood is signified the good of love, n. 643, 3720, 8354.)

[5] In Isaiah:

"This one shall say, I am of Jehovah; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall write with his hand unto Jehovah, and surname himself by the name of Israel" (44:5).

These things are said concerning the Lord and His Divine Human. By Jacob and by Israel, where the Lord is treated of, is signified His human; and that it was also Jehovah is meant by one saying, "I am of Jehovah," and by subscribing with his own hand unto Jehovah. (That, in the highest sense, Israel and Jacob denote the Lord, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 4286, 4570, 6424.)

[6] In Jeremiah:

"Jehovah the hope of Israel, all that forsake me shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed" (17:13, 14).

To be written in the earth, is to be condemned on account of the state of the life, because by earth is signified what is condemned (as may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2327, 7418, 8306).

[7] Hence it is evident what is signified by the Lord's writing with his finger on the earth, as recorded in John:

"The Scribes and Pharisees brought unto Jesus a woman taken in adultery; they said, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act." They asked whether, according to the law of Moses, she should be stoned. "Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the earth, and rising said, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the earth." These things being heard they went out one after another, and Jesus was left alone, and the woman to whom he said, "Where are thine accusers; hath no man condemned thee? And he said, Go and sin no more" (John 8:3-11).

By the Lord writing on the earth, is signified the same as above in Jeremiah, where it is said, "They that depart from me shall be written in the earth," namely, that they were equally condemned on account of adulteries; therefore Jesus said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

That the Lord twice wrote on the earth in the temple, signified, in the spiritual sense, their condemnation for adulteries. For the Scribes and Pharisees were those who adulterated the goods and falsified the truths of the Word, consequently of the church; and adulteries in the spiritual sense are adulterations of good and falsifications of truth (as may be seen above, n. 141, 161); therefore also He called that nation an adulterous and sinful generation (Mark 8:38).

1327. 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth' means the state of this Ancient Church, that internal worship started to perish. This is clear from the fact that the phrase used is 'the lip of the whole earth' and not, as previously in verse 7, the lip of those who started to build a city and a tower. 'The face of the whole earth' means the state of the Church since 'the earth' is the Church, as shown already in 662, 1066. The story of the Churches after the Flood is as follows: There were three Churches which receive specific mention in the Word - the first Ancient Church which took its name from Noah, the second Ancient Church which took its name from Eber, and the third Ancient Church which took its name from Jacob, and subsequently from Judah and Israel.

[2] As regards the first Ancient Church, that called Noah, this was the parent so to speak of those that followed, and as is usually the case with Churches in their earliest phases, it was more untarnished and innocent, as is also clear from verse 1 of this chapter which says that it had one lip, that is, one doctrine. That is to say, everyone regarded charity as the essential. But in the course of time, as usually happens to Churches, that Church also started to decline, chiefly because many people started to divert worship to themselves so as to set themselves above others, as is clear from verse 4 above - 'they said, Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, and its head in heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves'. In the Church such people were inevitably like some fermenting agent, or like firebrands that start a fire. When the danger of profaning what is holy was consequently near at hand, referred to in 571, 582, the state of this Church was, in the Lord's Providence, altered. That is to say, its internal worship perished but its external worship remained, which here is meant by the statement that 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth'. From this it is also clear that the kind of worship called Babel was not prevalent in the first Ancient Church but in those that followed when people started to be worshipped in place of gods, especially after they had died. This was the origin of so many pagan deities.

[3] The reason internal worship was allowed to perish and external remain was to prevent what is holy being profaned. The profanation of what is holy carries eternal condemnation with it. Nobody is able to profane what is holy unless he possesses cognitions of faith and also acknowledges them. Anyone who does not possess them cannot acknowledge them, still less profane them. It is internal things which may be profaned, for it is in internal things, not external, that holiness resides. The situation is similar with someone who does evil but does not have evil in mind. The evil he does cannot be attributed to him any more than to someone who does not deliberately intend evil, or to anyone devoid of rationality. Thus anyone who does not believe in the existence of a life after death, but who nevertheless has external worship, cannot profane the things that belong to eternal life because he does not believe that they exist. The situation is different with those who do know and acknowledge them.

[4] This too is why a person is allowed rather to live engrossed in lusts and pleasures, and so to isolate himself from internal things, than to enter into a knowledge and acknowledgement of internal things and so profane them. The Jews of today therefore are allowed to immerse themselves in avarice so that in this way they may be removed from an acknowledgement of internal things, for they are the kind of people who, if they acknowledged them, would inevitably profane them. Nothing does more to isolate a person from internal things than avarice, for this is the lowest of all earthly desires. The same applies to many inside the Church, and to gentiles outside, though gentiles, least of all people, are able to profane anything. This then is the reason for the statement here that 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth', and the reason why these words mean that the state of the Church was altered, that is to say, its worship became external, having no internal worship within it.

[5] The same situation was represented and meant by the Babylonish captivity into which the Israelites, and later on the Jews, were carried away. This is spoken of in Jeremiah as follows,

And there will be a nation and a kingdom that will not serve the king of Babel, and who will not put its neck in the yoke of the king of Babel. With the sword and famine and pestilence I will visit this people, until I have consumed it by his hand. Jeremiah 27:8 and following verses.

'Serving the king of Babel and putting its neck in his yoke' is being utterly deprived of the knowledge and acknowledgement of the good and the truth of faith, and so of internal worship.

[6] The point is clearer still in the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah to all the people in this city, your brethren who did not go out with you into captivity, thus said Jehovah Zebaoth, Behold, I am sending on them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs. Jeremiah 29:16-17.

'Remaining in the city and not going out to the king of Babel' represented and meant people who possessed the cognitions of internal things, that is, of the truths of faith, and who profaned them - people on whom, it is said, He was sending 'the sword, famine, and pestilence', which are forms of punishment for profanation, and whom He was making 'like rotten figs'.

[7] That 'Babel' means people who deprive others of all knowledge and acknowledgement of truth was also represented and meant by the following words in the same prophet,

I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babel, and he will carry them off to Babel, and will smite them with the sword. And I will give over all the wealth of this city, and all its labour, and all its precious things; and I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them and seize them. Jeremiah 20:4-5.

Here 'all its wealth, all its lab our, all its precious things, all the treasures of the kings of Judah' means in the internal sense cognitions of faith.

[8] In the same prophet,

With the families of the north I will bring the king of Babel against this land and against its inhabitants, and against all those nations round about, and I will utterly destroy them and make them into a ruin, a hissing, and everlasting wastes. And this whole land will be a waste. Jeremiah 25:9, 11.

Here 'Babel' is used to describe the vastation of the interior things of faith, that is, of internal worship. Indeed, as shown already, anyone whose worship is worship of self possesses no truth of faith. He destroys and lays waste, and leads off into captivity, everything that is true. This is why Babel is also called 'a destroying mountain' in Jeremiah 51:25.

For more concerning Babel, see what has been stated already in 1182.