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发帖数: 1209 | 1 THE JEWS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
Before the Last Judgment the Jews appeared in a valley in the spiritual
world, at the left side of the Christian center; but after it, they were
transferred into the north, and forbidden to hold interaction with
Christians, except with those who wandered outside the cities. In that
quarter, there are two great cities into which the Jews are led after death,
and which before the judgment, were called Jerusalems, but after it by
another name, because after the judgment by "Jerusalem" is meant the church
in which the Lord alone is adored. In these cities, converted Jews are
appointed over them, who admonish them not to speak scoffingly of Christ;
and punish those who still do so. The streets of their cities are filled
with mire up to the ankles, and their houses are full of uncleanness, from
which they smell, so that they cannot be approached.
80.
An angel sometimes appears to them in a middle altitude above them, with a
rod in his hand, and gives them to believe that he is Moses, and exhorts
them to desist from the madness of expecting the Messiah even there, because
Christ, who governs them and all other men, is the Messiah: he says, that
he knows it to be so, and also, that when he was in the world, he knew
something concerning Him. On hearing this, they retire; the chief part of
them forgetting, and only a few retaining it. They who do retain it are sent
to synagogues, which are composed of the converted, and are there
instructed; and if they receive instruction, they have new garments given
them in place of their old tattered ones, and are presented with the Word
neatly written, and with a dwelling in a not unsightly city. But they who do
not receive, are cast down into the hells, beneath their great tract; many
also are cast into forests and into deserts, where they commit robberies
among themselves.
81.
In that world, as in the former, they traffic in various things, especially
in precious stones, which, by unknown ways, they procure for themselves from
heaven, where there are precious stones in abundance. The reason of their
trading in precious stones is, that they read the Word in its original
language, and regard the sense of its letter as holy, and precious stones
correspond to the sense of the letter of the Word. On the subject of this
correspondence, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Sacred
Scripture (n. 42-45). They sell their precious stones to the Gentiles who
encircle them in the northern quarter. They also have the art of producing
imitations, and of inducing the fancy that they are genuine; but they who do
so are heavily fined by their governors.
82.
The Jews are more ignorant than others as to their being in the spiritual
world, believing that they are still in the natural world. The reason is,
that they are wholly external men, and do not think at all of their religion
from the interior. On this account also they speak of the Messiah just as
they did before, as that He will come with David, and will go before them
glittering with diadems, and introduce them into the land of Canaan; and
that in the way, by lifting His rod, He will dry up the rivers which they
will pass over; and that Christians, whom among themselves they call
Gentiles, will then lay hold of the skirts of their garments, and humbly
entreat to be allowed to accompany them, and that they will receive the rich
according to their wealth, and that even the rich are to serve them. For
they are unwilling to know, that "the land of Canaan" in the Word, means the
church, and "Jerusalem," the church as to doctrine; and hence that "Jews"
mean all those who will be of the Lord's church. That such is the meaning of
"Jews" in the Word, may be seen in The Doctrine Concerning the Sacred
Scripture (n. 51). When they are asked, whether they believe that they also
are to enter the land of Canaan, they reply, that they will then descend
into it. When it is said, that this land cannot possibly hold them all, they
reply that it will then be enlarged. When it is said that they do not know
where Bethlehem is nor who is of the stock of David, they say, that it is
known to the Messiah who is to come. When asked, how the Messiah the Son of
Jehovah, can dwell with those who are so evil, they reply that they are not
evil. When it is said that still Moses describes them in his song (Deut. 32)
as the worst of nations, they answer, that Moses at that time was angry,
because he was to die. But when they are told, that Moses wrote it by the
command of Jehovah, they are silent, and go away to consult about the matter
. When it is said, that they took their origin from a Canaanite, and from
the whoredom of Judah with his daughter-in-law (Gen. 38), they are enraged,
and say, that it suffices them to be descended from Abraham. When they are
told that interiorly in the Word there is a spiritual sense, which treats of
Christ alone, they reply, that it is not so, but that interiorly in the
Word there is nothing but gold; besides many such things. | c*******u
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