655. Where also our Lord was crucified.- That this signifies by means of which He was rejected and condemned, namely, by means of evils, and falsities therefrom springing from infernal love, is evident from this consideration, that evils themselves and their consequent falsities arising from infernal love are what reject and condemn the Lord, and these evils and the falsities therefrom are signified by Sodom and Egypt, therefore it is said concerning the city of Jerusalem that it is called so spiritually, for to be spiritually called signifies evil itself, and the falsity therefrom.

[2] The hells are separated into two kingdoms opposite the two kingdoms in the heavens; the kingdom opposite the celestial kingdom is at the back, and those who are there are called genii, and this kingdom is what is understood in the Word by "devil." But the kingdom opposite the spiritual kingdom is in front, and those who are there are called evil spirits; this kingdom is what is meant in the Word by "Satan." These hells, or these two kingdoms into which the hells are separated, are meant by Sodom and Egypt. Whether it is said evils and falsities therefrom, or those hells, it is the same thing, since from these all evils and falsities ascend.

[3] The Jews of Jerusalem crucifying the Lord signifies that the evils and the falsities therefrom which they loved crucified Him; for all things recorded in the Word concerning the Lord's passion represented the perverted state of the church with that nation. For although they accounted the Word holy, yet they perverted all things therein by their traditions until there was no longer any Divine Good and Truth remaining with them, and, when the Divine Good and Truth that are in the Word no longer remain, then evils and falsities from infernal love succeed in their place, and these are what crucify the Lord. That such things are signified by the Lord's passion, may be seen above (n. 83, 195:21, 627:16, at the end). The Lord is said to be slain because it signifies His being rejected and denied, as may be seen above (n. 328). Concerning the nature and quality of the Jews, see above (n. 122, 433:28, 619), and in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 248).

[4] Since it is here said "where our Lord was crucified," it shall be explained what crucifixion, or suspension upon wood, signified with the Jews. There were two punishments of death with them, crucifixion and stoning; and by crucifixion was signified condemnation and a curse on account of the destruction of good in the church, and by stoning was signified condemnation and a curse on account of the destruction of truth in the church. Crucifixion signified condemnation and a curse on account of the destruction of good in the church, because wood, upon which they were suspended, signified good, and, in the opposite sense, evil, both pertaining to the will. Stoning signified condemnation and a curse on account of the destruction of truth in the church, because stone, with which stoning was effected, signified truth, and, in the opposite sense falsity, both pertaining to the understanding. For all things instituted with the Israelitish and Jewish nation were representative, and thence significative. That wood signifies good, and, in the opposite sense, evil, and that stone signifies truth, and, in the opposite sense, falsity, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia 643, 3720, 8354). But because it has been hitherto unknown whence the punishment of the cross and of stoning came to the Jews and Israelites, and since it is nevertheless important that this should be known, I will also adduce confirmations from the Word to show that these two punishments also were representative.

[5] That suspension upon wood, or crucifixion, was inflicted on account of the destruction of good in the church, and that thus was represented evil from infernal love, from which comes condemnation and a curse is evident from the following passages.

In Moses:

"If there be a stubborn and rebellious son, obeying not the voice of his father and mother, all the men of the city shall stone him with stones that he die. And if there be in a man sin and judgment of death, and he be slain, thou shalt hang him upon wood; his carcase shall not remain all night upon wood, but burying thou shalt bury him the same day; for he that is hanged is the curse of God, and thou shalt not defile thy land." (Deuteronomy 21:18, 20-23.)

Not obeying the voice of father and mother, signifies in the spiritual sense, to live contrary to the precepts and truths of the church; the punishment for it was therefore stoning. The men of the city who shall stone him signify those who are in the doctrine of the church, a city denoting doctrine. If there be in a man sin and judgment of death, thou shalt hang him upon wood, means if one has done evil against the good of the Word and of the church. Because this was a capital crime, he was to be hung upon wood, for wood, in the Word, signifies good, and in the opposite sense evil. His carcase shall not remain all night upon the wood, but thou shalt bury him the same day, signifies lest there be a representative of eternal damnation. Thou shalt not defile thy land, signifies that it would be a scandal to the church.

[6] In Lamentations:

"Our skins are become black as an oven, because of the storms of famine; they ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah; their princes were hanged up by the hand, the faces of the elders are not honoured, the young men they have led away to grind, and the boys stumble under wood" (5:10-13).

Zion means the celestial church, which is in the good of love to the Lord; was represented by the Jewish nation. The virgins in the cities of Judah signify the affections for truth from the good of love; the perishing of truths from good by falsities from evil is signified by, their princes were hanged up by the hand. The faces of the elders which are not honoured signify the goods of wisdom; the young men who are led away to grind signify truths from good; and grinding signifies to acquire falsities and to confirm them from the Word; the boys who stumble under wood signify goods just springing up and perishing through evils.

[7] Since a baker, just as bread, signifies the good of love, and a butler, just as wine, signifies the truth of doctrine, therefore the baker was hanged on account of his crime against king Pharaoh. (Genesis 40:19-22; 41:13.) This may be seen explained in the Arcana Coelestia 5139-5169). Since Moab means those who adulterate the goods of the church, and Baalpeor signifies the adulteration of good, therefore it came to pass, that all the chiefs of the people were hung up before the sun, because the people committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and bowed themselves down to their gods, and joined themselves to Baalpeor (Numbers 25:1-4). To commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab signifies to adulterate the goods of the church; and to be hung up before the sun signifies condemnation and a curse on account of the destruction of the good of the church.

[8] Because Ai signified knowledges of good and in the opposite sense, confirmations of evil, therefore the king of Ai was hanged on wood, and afterwards thrown down at the entrance of the gate of the city, and the city itself was burned (Joshua 8:26-29). And because the five kings of the Amorites signified evils and falsities therefrom, destroying the goods and truths of the church, therefore those kings were hanged by Joshua, and afterwards cast into the cave of Makkedah (Joshua 10:26, 27). The cave of Makkedah signifies direful falsity from evil.

[9] To be hung upon wood, or crucified, signifies the punishment of evil destroying the good of the church, in Matthew Jesus said,

"I send unto you prophets, wise men, and scribes; some of them ye will kill, crucify, and scourge in the synagogues, and persecute them from city to city" (23:34).

All things which the Lord spoke He spoke from the Divine, but the Divine things from which He spoke fell into the ideas of natural thought and the resulting expressions according to correspondences, like those here and elsewhere in the Evangelists; and as all the words have a spiritual sense, therefore in that sense, prophets, wise men, and scribes, are not meant, but instead of them the truth and good of doctrine and of the Word. For spiritual thought and speech therefrom, like that of the angels, is without the idea of person, therefore by a prophet is signified the truth of doctrine, by wise men the good of doctrine, and by scribes the Word from which is doctrine. It therefore follows, that to kill has reference to the truth of the doctrine of the church, which is meant by a prophet, to crucify has reference to the good of doctrine, which is meant by a wise man, and to scourge has reference to the Word, which is meant by a scribe and that thus "to kill" signifies to extinguish, "to crucify" to destroy, and "to scourge" to pervert. That they will wander from one falsity of doctrine to another is signified by persecuting them from city to city, a city denoting doctrine. This is the spiritual sense of the above words.

[10] In the same,

Jesus said unto the disciples that He must suffer at Jerusalem, and that the Son of Man must be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and that "they shall condemn him, and deliver him up to the nations to be mocked, to be scourged, and to be crucified, and that on the third day he shall rise again" (Matthew 20:18, 19; Mark 10:32-34).

The spiritual sense of these words is, that Divine Truth, in the church where mere falsities of doctrine and evils of life reign, shall be blasphemed, its truth perverted, and its good destroyed. The Son of Man signifies Divine Truth, which is the Word, and Jerusalem signifies the church where mere falsities and evils reign. The chief priests and scribes signify the adulterations of good and falsifications of truth, both of them from infernal love. By condemning and delivering Him to the nations is signified to relegate Divine Truth and Divine Good to hell, and to deliver them to the evils and falsities which are therefrom, the nations signifying the evils which are from hell and which destroy the goods of the church. To be mocked, to be scourged, and to be crucified, signifies to blaspheme, falsify, and pervert the truth, and to adulterate and destroy the good of the church and of the Word (as above). And the third day He shall rise again, signifies the complete glorification of the Lord's Human.

[11] From these things it is evident what is signified in the spiritual sense by the crucifixion of the Lord, also what is signified by the various mockings on that occasion, as that they set a crown of thorns upon His head; that they smote Him with a reed, and that they spat in His face, besides other things related in the Evangelists, signifying that the Jewish nation thus impiously treated the Divine Truth and Good itself, which the Lord was. For the Lord suffered the impious state of that church to be represented in Himself; this also was signified by His bearing their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11). For it was a common thing for a prophet to take upon himself the representation of the impious states of the church. Thus the prophet Isaiah was commanded to go naked and barefoot three years, in order to represent the church as destitute of good and truth (Isaiah 20:3, 4). The prophet Ezekiel bound in cords laid siege against a tile, on which Jerusalem was portrayed, and ate a cake of barley made with the dung of an ox, to represent that the truth and good of the church were thus besieged by falsities and polluted by evils (Ezekiel 4:1-13). The prophet Hosea was commanded to take to himself a harlot for a woman, and children of whoredoms, in order to represent what was then the quality of the church (Hosea 1:1-11); besides other things of a similar nature. That this was bearing the iniquities of the house of Israel or the church is openly declared in Ezekiel (chap. 4:5, 6). From these things it is evident that everything recorded concerning the Lord's passion was representative of the state of the church with the Jewish nation at that time.

[12] Thus much concerning the punishment of suspension upon wood, or crucifixion. It does not belong to this place to confirm from the Word that the other punishment of death, which was stoning, signified condemnation and a curse on account of the destruction of the truth of the church, still it is evident from the passages in the Word where stoning is mentioned, as in Exodus 21:28-33; Leviticus 24:10-17, 23; Numbers 15:32-37; Deuteronomy 13:10; 17:5-7; 22:20, 21, 24; Ezekiel 16:39-41; 23:45-47; Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34; 20:6; John 8:7; 10:31, 32; and elsewhere.

618. And it shall make thy belly bitter.- That this signifies that it was interiorly undelightful, because exteriorly adulterated, is evident from the signification of being bitter, or of bitterness, as denoting undelightfulness from adulterated truth, of which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of the belly, as denoting that which is interior. The reason why the belly denotes that which is interior, is, that after these words it is said, that "in the mouth it shall be sweet as honey," and by the mouth is meant that which is exterior, for what is received into the mouth, is masticated and passes into the belly, and thus goes from the exterior to the interior, for it enters into the viscera of man. But concerning the signification of belly, we shall speak presently. The reason why bitter or bitterness signifies that which is undelightful from adulterated truth, and that therefore to make bitter signifies to render undelightful, is, that what is sweet becomes bitter, and thus undelightful, by admixture with anything offensive, thence comes the bitterness of wormwood, gall, and myrrh. Now because "sweet" signifies what is delightful from the good of truth, and the truth of good, therefore "bitter" signifies what is undelightful from adulterated truth. What is undelightful is not perceived and felt by any man in the natural world as bitter, but by spirits and angels in the spiritual world, for all adulterated good of truth, when turned with them into taste, is sensitively perceived as bitter. For spirits and angels have taste equally as men, but the taste of spirits and angels flows from a spiritual origin, whereas that of men is from a natural origin. The bitter taste with spirits is from the adulterated truth of good, but, with men, from the mixture of the sweet with the offensive. The sensation of bitterness with John was also from a spiritual origin, for he was then in the spirit, otherwise he could not have eaten the little book. By adulterated truth is signified the truth of good applied to evil and mingled with its falsity, which is the case when the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, are applied to filthy loves, and thus mingled with evils. This is the undelightfulness here signified by the bitterness of the belly.

[2] The signification of what is interior in the Word, that is, of the interior things of the Word, shall be briefly explained. The interior things of the Word are those contained in its internal or spiritual sense; these are genuine truths; to these correspond the exterior truths of the Word, which are those in the external or natural sense, called the sense of the letter and literal sense. When the exterior things of the Word, or the truths of the Word in the sense of the letter or literal sense, are falsified and adulterated, then the interior truths of the Word are falsified and adulterated. When therefore man applies the Word in the sense of the letter to the evils of his earthly loves, then it becomes undelightful to the angels, who are in the internal or spiritual sense, and this undelightfulness is like the undelightfulness of what is bitter. It is evident from these things, that by the little book shall be bitter, and shall make thy belly bitter, is signified, that the Word was interiorly undelightful; but the undelightfulness of which we have just treated is spiritual undelightfulness. But spiritual-natural undelightfulness, which is also here signified by bitterness, arises from the fact that the truth of doctrine, which is collected interiorly from the sense of the letter of the Word, and is called its literal sense, is undelightful to those who are in the falsities of evil. For the subject here treated of is the understanding of the Word by the men of the church at its end, when they are, for the most part, in falsities from evil; and then the falsities of evil, confirmed from the sense of the letter of the Word, are delightful to them, but truths confirmed from the literal sense of the Word are undelightful. This also is the signification of the little book being in the mouth sweet as honey, but making the belly bitter.

[3] That bitter signifies adulterated truth of good, is evident also from the Word where bitter is mentioned, as in the following places.

Thus in Isaiah:

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink" (5:20, 22).

That good and truth adulterated are here signified by bitter, is evident, for it is said, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness," by which are signified the adulteration of good, and the falsification of truth. For good is adulterated when good is called evil and evil good, and truth is falsified when darkness is put for light and light for darkness, darkness denoting falsities, and light denoting truths. It is therefore evident from these things that similar things are signified by putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, also by its being said, "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink;" by them that are mighty to drink wine are signified those who adulterate the truth of the Word, and by men of strength to mingle strong drink, are signified those who falsify it, wine and strong drink denoting the truths of the Word, and mighty men, and men of strength, those who excel in ingenuity and skill in adulterating them.

[4] Again, in the same prophet:

"The new wine (mustum) mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh. They shall not drink wine (vinum) with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it" (24:7, 9).

Here, by the new wine, which shall mourn, and by the vine which shall languish, is signified the truth of the Word and of the church, which is destroyed, new wine denoting the truth of the Word, and the vine, the truth of the doctrine of the church. By, all the merry-hearted do sigh, and by, they shall not drink wine with a song, is signified, that internal blessedness of mind and happiness of heart will perish, because the truth of spiritual good is destroyed. Strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it, signifies that the truth of good will be undelightful by its falsification and adulteration.

[5] It is said in Moses, that the waters of Marah, which they could not drink because of their bitterness, were healed by wood cast into them (Exodus 15:23, 25). The waters of Marah which they could not drink because of their bitterness, represented truths adulterated; for waters signify truths, and bitterness signifies adulteration. The healing of the waters by the wood which was cast into them, represented the good of love and of life shaking off falsity and opening truth, and thus restoring it. For all truth is adulterated from evil of life and of love, therefore it is opened and restored by the good of love and of life, because all truth is of good, and the good of love is like fire, from which truth appears in the light.

[6] The same thing was signified by the pottage into which the sons of the prophets cast bitter gourds, or grapes of the field, which Elisha healed by casting in fine flour (2 Kings 4:38-41). By the pottage into which they cast bitter gourds, is signified the Word falsified; and by the fine flour which was cast in, by which it was healed, is signified truth from good; for truth which is from good dissipates the falsities which produce falsification.

[7] Since the sons of Jacob perverted all the truths of the Word, and by application to themselves and to their earthly loves, falsified and adulterated them, it is therefore said of them in the song of Moses, that their vine was as the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah, and their grapes, grapes of gall, and clusters of bitternesses (Deuteronomy 32:32).

By a vine is signified the church as to truth, consequently also the truth of the church; and by grapes are signified goods thence, which are the goods of charity, and by clusters, the goods of faith; hence it is evident that by clusters of bitternesses are signified adulterated goods of faith.

[8] Again, it is said that waters of the curse were to be given to a woman accused by her husband of adultery; if she were guilty, those waters would become bitternesses in her, and her belly would swell and her thigh fall away (Num. 5:12-29).

The marriage of a man (vir) and wife signifies the marriage of truth and good, for love truly conjugial descends from that spiritual marriage. Adultery therefore signifies the conjunction of falsity and evil, and this was the reason why, if she were guilty, the water became bitternesses, which signifies the adulteration of good. And because the belly signified conjugial love, like the womb, and also the thigh, therefore the belly swelled and the thigh fell away, which, in the spiritual sense, signifies that the conjugial [principle] perished, or spiritual and natural conjugial love itself, the womb or belly signifying that spiritual conjugial love, and the thigh the natural conjugial love. From these things it is evident that bitter and bitterness, in general, signify the falsification and adulteration of truth and good, and that the various species thereof are signified by gall, wormwood, myrrh, wild grapes, bitter gourds, and many other things.