Spiritual Meaning of
Spiritual Meaning of |
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That length in the Word signifies good, and breadth truth, may seem a paradox, but still it is so. It originates in the fact that each and all things in the Word signify such things as belong to heaven and the church, thus as bear relation to the good of love, and to the truth of faith. Nothing of space - such as implies length and breadth - can be predicated of these; but instead of space the state of being, which is the state of good, and from this the state of manifestation, which is the state of truth. Moreover in heaven spaces are appearances arising from these states (AR 4882, 9440). From all this it can be seen that real things are signified by the measures and dimensions in Ezekiel 40-47, where the new temple and the new earth are treated of; consequently here also, where the ark, the Habitation, and the court, the tables therein, and the altars, are treated of; and in like manner in the description of the temple of Jerusalem; and again in that of the holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, in that it was four-square, its length as great as its breadth (Rev. 21:16; Zech. 2:1, 2); for by Jerusalem is signified the New Church; and by its measurement as to length, the quality of its good; and as to breadth, the quality of its truth.
[3] That by breadth is signified truth, is very manifest in the following passages:--
In straitness I called upon Jah; He answereth me in breadth (Ps. 118:5).
Thou hast made my feet to stand in breadth (Ps. 31:8).
The stretching out of the wings of Asshur shall be the fullness of the breadth of the land (Isa. 8:8).
I raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, that walketh in the breadths of the land (Hab. 1:6);
to walk in the breadths of the land, when said of the Chaldeans, denotes to destroy the truths of faith.
AC 9487
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| Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). | Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002. | www.BibleMeanings.info |