Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3837the Lord fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes, andthat he commanded them to sit down by hundreds and by fifties;and after they had eaten they took up twelve baskets of fragments(Matt. 14:15–21; Mark 6:38 seq.; Luke 9:12–17; John 6:5–13).[7] As these passages are historic it can hardly be believed that thenumbers in them are significant as the number “five thousand” ofthe men, and also the number “five” of the loaves, and “two” of thefishes, as also the number “one hundred,” and the number “fifty,”of the companies that sat down, and lastly “twelve” which was thenumber of the baskets containing the fragments; when yet there is asecret in each number. For every detail happened of providence, inorder that Divine things might be represented.[8] In the following passages also, “five” signifies in both thegenuine and the opposite sense such things in the spiritual world asit corresponds to. In Isaiah:There shall be left therein gleanings as in the shaking of an olivetree, two or three berries in the head of the bough, four or five in thebranches of a fruitful tree (Isa. 17:6).In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt that speakwith the lips of Canaan, and swear to Jehovah Zebaoth (Isa. 19:18).One thousand shall flee before the rebuke of one, before therebuke of five shall ye flee; till ye be left as a mast upon the head of amountain, and as an ensign on a hill (Isa, 30:17).In Revelation:The fifth angel sounded, then I saw a star from heaven fallen intothe earth; and there was given to him the key of the pit of the abyss. Tothe locusts that came out thence it was said that they should not kill themen who had not the seal of God on their foreheads, but that theyshould be tormented five months (Rev. 9:1, 3–5, 10).Here is intelligence, if anyone has wisdom: The seven heads areseven mountains, where the woman sitteth upon them; and they are