According to Swedenborg, a person's name in the Bible represents his or her entire spiritual nature, their whole state of love (good or evil) and thought (from heavenly wisdom to infernal insanity). This is why the name of the Lord is so important; it represents and embodies His perfect love and perfect wisdom, which is everything that we should worship and follow. It's easy to see that names are important in the Bible. Jehovah changed Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah, changed Jacob to Israel and included in the Ten Commandments the order that believers "shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." In the New Testament, Zacharias was told to name John the Baptist "John," and both Joseph (Matthew 1:21) and Mary (Luke 1:31) were told to name Jesus "Jesus." Jesus himself renamed Simon as Peter, and included the phrase "hallowed be thy name" in the Lord's prayer.

(Izinkomba: Luke 1)

4871. 'And he said, I will send a kid of the she-goats from the flock' means a pledge assuring a joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'a kid of the she-goats' as innocence present in the external or natural man, dealt with in 3519; and being innocence it is a pledge of conjugial love or a pledge assuring a joining together, for genuine conjugial love consists in innocence, see 2736. From this arose the custom received from the ancients that when they went in once again to their wives men would send ahead of them 'a kid of the she-goats', as is also evident from what is recorded concerning Samson in the Book of Judges,

It happened after a while, ¹ in the days of the wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid of the she-goats; for he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. Judges 15:1.

Much the same situation is described here in Genesis; but as the promised kid of the she-goats was not going to be accepted by her, Tamar asked for a pledge. The expression 'pledge assuring a joining together' is used, not a conjugial pledge, because on Judah's side the joining together was as it is with a prostitute.

Imibhalo yaphansi: