Week 3    Day 6

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The Spiritual Sense of Matthew 19

Apocalypse Explained 710:25. [quotes Matt. 19:3-12, as in the Day 1 reading]

That this contains interior arcana can be seen from the Lord’s saying that “all do not receive these words, but they to whom it is given.” The interior arcanum contained in these words spoken by the Lord is but little apprehended by men, but it is apprehended by all angels in heaven, because they perceive these words of the Lord spiritually, and the arcana contained in them are spiritual....

Apocalypse Explained 710:27

“Moses for the hardness of their heart suffered them to put away a wife for every cause,” because the Israelites and Jews were natural and not spiritual, and those who are merely natural are also hard in heart, since they are not in any conjugial love but in lascivious love, such as is the love of adultery.

That “whoever shall put away a wife except for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery,” is because fornication signifies falsity, and with a woman the affection of evil and falsity, thus an affection that does not at all agree with the understanding of truth and good. And... by such discord, conjugial love, which is of truth and good (and from it is heaven and the church with man), is entirely destroyed. For when the interior conjunction, which is of the minds and dispositions, is no more, marriage is dissolved.

“Whoever marries her that is sent away commits adultery,” because one put away on account of fornication means the affection of evil and falsity, as above, and this must not be joined with any understanding of truth and good, for thereby the understanding is perverted, and becomes an understanding of falsity and evil, and the conjunction of falsity and evil is spiritual adultery, as the conjunction of truth and good is spiritual marriage.

Apocalypse Explained 710:28

The Lord afterwards spoke of eunuchs because the disciples said, “If the case of the man is so with the wife, it is not expedient to contract matrimony;” also because with the Jewish nation, which was a nation hard in heart because they were in falsities from evil, marriages were not marriages, but understood in the spiritual sense were adulteries, and therefore that nation was called by the Lord “an adulterous generation.” This was why the Lord spoke of eunuchs.

“Eunuchs” mean those who have no desire to enter into a marriage, that is, to be conjoined, with the affection of evil, because the understanding of truth and good would thus be perverted and dissipated. Thus “eunuchs” mean both the married and the unmarried in whom the understanding of truth and good is conjoined with the affection of truth and good. Such are called “eunuchs” because they have no lasciviousness, such as those have who, from the hardness of heart in which the Jews were, take several wives, and divorce them for every cause.

Apocalypse Explained 710:29

It is to be known, in the first place, that the marriage of the understanding of truth and good with the affection of truth and good has in general a threefold origin, and thus is in a threefold degree. In the highest degree is the marriage of those who are called heavenly [or celestial], in a lower degree the marriage between those who are spiritual, and in the lowest degree between those who are natural. For there are three degrees of man’s interiors, and thence there are three heavens. Those in the highest heaven are called heavenly, those in the lower are called spiritual, and those in the lowest, natural.

The marriage of the understanding of truth and good with the affection of truth and good with those who are heavenly is meant by “the eunuchs who are born eunuchs from the mother’s womb,” because these, when they are becoming regenerate, receive truths immediately in the life through love of truths, consequently they know truths from truths themselves. The regeneration of these by the Lord through love to Him is signified by “being made eunuchs in the womb,” thus without the lasciviousness of adultery.

Apocalypse Explained 710:30

The marriage of the understanding of truth and good with the affection of truth and good of those who are spiritual is meant by “the eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men,” for such do not become regenerate “in the womb,” that is, through love, but through truths first received in the memory, and afterwards intellectually in the thought, and so finally in the life through a certain spiritual affection. These are said to be “made eunuchs by men” because they are reformed through the understanding from the memory, and “man” signifies that understanding, as also above, where “man and wife” are mentioned.

But the marriage of truth and good with the affection of truth and good with those who are natural is meant by “eunuchs who make themselves eunuchs,” for those who are natural acquire for themselves a natural lumen by means of cognitions and knowledges, and through the good of life according to these knowledges they acquire affection and thence conscience. And as these know no otherwise than that they themselves do this—for the natural man does not enjoy the intelligence of the spiritual man, nor does he enjoy the perception of the celestial man—so these are meant by those who “make themselves eunuchs.” But this is said from the appearance, and from the obscure faith with them. This, therefore, is the meaning of “becoming eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God.” And as there are but few who apprehend these things, the Lord says, “He that is able to receive let him receive.”

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