Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 187“Tyre,” in the Word, signifies the knowledges of truth and good; a“king,” the truth of the church; the “garden of Eden,” wisdom andintelligence from the Word; “precious stones,” truths pellucid fromgood such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word. As thestones signify these truths, they are called his “covering.” That thesense of the letter covers up the interiors of the Word, may be seenin a preceding chapter.46. The sense of the letter of the Word is signified by the curtainsand veils of the tabernacle. The tabernacle represented heaven andthe church, and therefore the form of it was shown by Jehovahupon Mount Sinai. Consequently all things in the tabernacle—thelampstand, the golden altar for incense, and the table whereon werethe loaves of faces—represented and consequently signified holythings of heaven and the church. The holy of holies wherein wasthe ark of the covenant represented and consequently signifiedwhat is inmost of heaven and the church; and the law itself writtenon the two tables of stone and enclosed in the ark signified theLord as to the Word. Now, as external things derive their essencefrom internal things, and both of these from the inmost, which inthis case was the law, it follows that holy things of the Word wererepresented and signified by all things of the tabernacle. Thereforethe ultimate things of the tabernacle which were the curtains andveils (and thus its coverings and containers), signified the ultimatethings of the Word, which are the truths and goods of the sense ofthe letter. And because these ultimates of the Word were signified,All the curtains and veils were made of fine linen intertwined, ofhyacinthine blue and bright-crimson, and of scarlet double dyed, withcherubim (Exod. 26:1, 31, 36).What the tabernacle and all things in it represented and signifiedgenerally and specifically, has been unfolded in Arcana Coelestia onthis chapter of Exodus. It is there shown that the “curtains” and“veils” represented external things of heaven and the church, andtherefore of the Word; and that “fine linen” signified truth from aspiritual origin; “hyacinthine blue,” truth from a celestial origin;“bright crimson,” celestial good; “scarlet double dyed,” spiritualgood; and “cherubim,” guards of the interior things of the Word.