10498. That Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin. That this signifies a complete estrangement and turning away, is evident from the signification of “sin,” as being a turning away and estrangement from the Divine (see n. 5229, 5474, 5841, 7589, 9346), here a complete turning away and estrangement, because it is called “a great sin.” Turning away and estrangement from the Divine is complete when there is no longer received anything of truth and good from heaven, for the truth and good from heaven is the Divine with man. That with that nation there was no reception of truth and good from heaven, consequently that there was a complete turning away from the Divine, is described by these words in Isaiah:

Say to this people, Hearing hear ye, but understand not; and seeing see ye, but know not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and blot out their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and their heart should understand, and be converted, that they may be healed (Isaiah 6:9-10; also John 12:37-40);

it is said, “lest they be converted that they may be healed,” by which is signified that if they were to understand the internal things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, they would profane them (according to what was said above, n. 10490).

302. This is the reason why the mysteries of faith were never revealed to the Jews. They were not even plainly told that they were to live after death, nor that the Lord would come into the world to save them. So great were the ignorance and stupidity in which they were kept, and still are kept, that they did not and do not know of the existence of the internal man, or of anything internal, for if they had known of it, or if they now knew of it, so as to acknowledge it, such is their character that they would profane it, and there would be no hope of any salvation for them in the other life. This is what is meant by the Lord in John:

He hath blinded their eyes, and stopped up their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and convert themselves, and I should heal them (John 12:40).

And by the Lord speaking to them in parables without explaining to them their meaning, lest (as He Himself says),

Seeing they should see, and hearing they should hear, and should understand (Matthew 13:13).

For the same reason all the mysteries of faith were hidden from them, and were concealed under the representatives of their church, and for the same reason the prophetic style is of the same character. It is however one thing to know, and another to acknowledge. He who knows and does not acknowledge, is as if he knew not; but it is he who acknowledges and afterwards blasphemes and profanes, that is meant by these words of the Lord.