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John 16:15-25. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.
Putting off the human from the mother
Arcana Coelestia 6304. And shall bring you back unto the land of your fathers. That this signifies to the state of both Ancient Churches, is evident from the signification of “land,” as being the church (see n. 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4535, 4447, 5577); and from the signification of “fathers,” as being the men of the Ancient and Most Ancient Churches (n. 6075). It is said “to the state of both Ancient Churches,” because the sons of Israel and their descendants, like those who belonged to the Ancient Churches, in every particular represented the Lord’s kingdom, celestial and spiritual. The representative itself was also instituted; with the Jewish nation that of the celestial kingdom, and with the Israelitish that of the spiritual kingdom; but with that generation nothing but a mere representative could be instituted, and not anything of the church or kingdom of the Lord; for they desired to see and acknowledge in the representatives absolutely nothing but what was external, and not anything internal. Nevertheless in order that there might exist a representative, and thereby some communication with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord, they were kept in externals; and it was then provided by the Lord that communication should exist by means of a mere external representative without an internal. This was the state to which the descendants of Jacob could be brought back; nevertheless in their external representatives there lay inwardly hidden Divine things; in the highest sense such as regarded the Lord’s Divine Human; and in the relative sense such as regarded the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, and the church. This state of both Ancient Churches is signified by the words, “God shall bring you back unto the land of your fathers.”
Arcana Coelestia 3405 … the Lord when in the maternal human was in appearances of truth; but as He put off this human, He put off the appearances also, and put on the infinite and eternal Divine Itself.
Doctrine of the Lord. 35. vi. By successive steps the Lord put off the human taken from the mother, and put on a Human from the Divine within Him, which is the Divine Human, and is the Son of God. That in the Lord were the Divine and the human, the Divine from Jehovah the Father, and the human from the virgin Mary, is known. Hence He was God and Man, having a Divine essence and a human nature; a Divine essence from the Father, and a human nature from the mother; and therefore was equal to the Father as to the Divine, and less than the Father as to the human. It is also known that this human nature from the mother was not transmuted into the Divine essence, nor commingled with it, for this is taught in the Doctrine of Faith which is called the Athanasian Creed. For a human nature cannot be transmuted into the Divine essence, nor can it be commingled therewith.
[2] In accordance with the same creed is also our doctrine, that the Divine assumed the Human, that is, united itself to it, as a soul to its body, so that they were not two, but one Person. From this it follows that the Lord put off the human from the mother, which in itself was like that of another man, and thus material, and put on a Human from the Father, which in itself was like His Divine, and thus substantial, so that the Human too became Divine. This is why in the Word of the Prophets the Lord even as to the Human is called Jehovah, and God; and in the Word of the Evangelists, Lord, God, Messiah or Christ, and the Son of God in whom we must believe, and by whom we are to be saved.
The letter of the Text serves the spirit of the Word; the natural needs to serve the spiritual and celestial
Arcana Coelestia 6299… In order for an internal to be an internal of the church, it must needs be in the external of the church, for the external holds the place of the foundation on which the internal stands, and is the receptacle into which the internal flows. Hence it is that the natural, which is external, must needs be regenerated; for unless it is regenerated, the internal has neither foundation nor receptacle; and if it has no foundation nor receptacle, it utterly perishes. This then is what is meant by his own spiritual being in the truth of the intellectual and the good of the will.
6306… [6] That the words “the portion which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow” were spoken by Israel on account of the internal sense, is very manifest, because Jacob did not take that portion from the Amorite with his sword nor with his bow, but bought it of the sons of Hamor, as is plain from the words in Genesis: Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came thither from Paddan-aram; and encamped before the city. And he bought the portion of the field, where he had spread his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred kesitah (Genesis 33:18-19). That this field was the portion which he gave to Joseph, is evident from these words in Joshua: The bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the portion of the field which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitah; and they were for an inheritance to the sons of Joseph (Josh. 24:32). From this it is plain that that portion was bought, and that it was what was given to Joseph
[7] That the city of Shechem was not meant, which was near there, where Simeon and Leviticus slew every male, and which they took with the sword (Genesis 34), may be seen from the fact that Jacob abhorred that deed, and on that account cursed Simeon and Levi, and utterly put away from himself that deed, saying: Let not my soul come into their secret; in their assembly let not my glory be united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their good pleasure they unstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it was vehement; and their wrath, for it was hard: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Genesis 49:5-7). From all this it is now evident that these words, “one portion which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow,” were said by him when he was in the prophetic spirit, for the sake of the internal sense.
Heaven and Hell 365 [3] What is meant by the rich of whom the Lord said: It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Matthew 19:24. Will also be told. By the rich there are meant the rich in both a natural sense and a spiritual sense. In the natural sense the rich are those who have an abundance of riches and set their heart upon them; but in the spiritual sense they are those who have an abundance of cognitions and knowledges, which are spiritual riches, and who desire by means of these to introduce themselves into the things of heaven and the Church from their own intelligence. And because this is contrary to Divine order it is said to be “easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye”, a “camel” signifying the faculty of learning and knowing in a general way, and a “needle’s eye” signifying spiritual truth. 2 That such is the meaning of a “camel” and a “needle’s eye” is not at present known, because the knowledge that teaches what is signified in the spiritual sense by the things said in the literal sense of the Word has not up to this time been disclosed. In the single things of the Word there is a spiritual sense and also a natural sense; for immediate conjunction having ceased, the Word has been written by pure correspondences of natural things with spiritual things in order that there might be conjunction of heaven with the world, that is, a conjunction of angels with men. This makes clear who in particular are meant in the Word by the “rich man”.
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.
