Critics of the Bible often refer to this story, pointing to it as a reason to dismiss the Bible as a holy book. Their argument
is pretty straightforward: If Elisha would cause bears to attack children – 42 children! – for insulting his hairless head, how can we regard him as a good person? He is described as a “Man of God,” but what kind of God would want this?
Ironically, the internal meaning offered in Swedenborg has to do with people who mock and criticize the Bible because of its sometimes-strange stories, and with the damage they do to themselves by such attacks.
Let’s look closely at each part of the story.
Swedenborg says Elisha represents the Lord as revealed to us through the Bible. Hair, in general, represents true ideas in their most outward expression. Elisha’s hair, then, represents the most outward expression of the Lord in the Bible, or the actual, literal stories themselves. This means that calling Elisha “bald” is saying that the Lord is not getting through into those actual, literal stories – that the stories are empty, without real meaning.
There has been a great deal of debate about the "children" of the story, with many arguing that the language indicates they they were teenagers or young men rather than small children. Swedenborg's comments tend toward the idea of "youths" or "boys." The only direct comment about their meaning in the story labels them "such as blaspheme the Word because its natural sense is such as it is." This would dovetail with the idea of adolescent males, who generally represent intellectual efforts that are not fully aligned with the desire for what is good. In a negative sense, this would include those who look for reasons and ways to attack and discredit the Bible because of its seeming lack of external logic and reason.
“Bears,” according to Swedenborg, represent the power of the literal, external stories of the Bible. In most cases this is negative – bears represent that power without a connection to the stories’ internal meanings – but in this case it is a powerful protection.
Finally, the number “42” represents blasphemy, or direct attacks against belief.
Put that together, and we can see that this is not a story about Elisha siccing bears on some bratty kids. It is really a story about the dangers of using our intelligence to attack the Bible, and through the Bible the Lord.
Swedenborg says the Bible has tremendous power, even in its most external form. It’s a power we can feel and understand if we approach the Bible with a genuine openness to the Lord, but it’s not a power we can understand through pure logic or pure intelligence. And if we use pure logic and pure intelligence to attack the Bible, we will get “mauled” – our ability to understand truth will be reduced to render us less of a threat to holy things.
Passages from Swedenborg
True Christian Religion 223
- The Nazirites represented the power of the Word in its outermost form. In the book of Judges we read about Samson. He was a Nazirite from his mother's womb. His hair was the source of his strength. A Nazirite and a Naziriteship in fact mean "hair." Samson himself showed that his hair was the source of his strength when he said,
No razor has come upon my head, because I am a Nazirite from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other person. (Judges 16:17)
Without knowing what a "head" means in the Word, we cannot imagine why a Naziriteship that means "hair" would be instituted or why Samson's hair would be the source of his strength. A head means the intelligence that angels and people have from the Lord through divine truth. Hair, then, means an intelligence because of divine truth on the lowest or outermost level. Since this was the meaning of hair, it was a rule for the Nazirites that they were not to shave the hair on their head, because it was the Naziriteship of God on their head (Numbers 6:1-21). There was also a rule that the high priest and his sons were not to shave their heads, or they would die and wrath would come upon the entire house of Israel (Leviticus 10:6). Hair was so holy because of its meaning (which comes from its correspondence) that even the hair of the Son of Humankind (that is, the Lord in his role as the Word) is described. It was as shining white as wool, like snow (Revelation 1:14). The Ancient of Days is described as having similar hair (Daniel 7:9).
Since hair means truth on the outermost levels and therefore means the literal meaning of the Word, we become bald in the spiritual world if we despise the Word. On the other hand, if we value the Word highly and hold it as sacred, we will have good-looking hair in that world.
This correspondence is the reason why forty-two youths were torn apart by two she-bears for calling Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23, 24). Elisha represented the church's teaching from the Word. The she-bears stood for the power of truth on the outermost levels.
The power of divine truth or of the Word exists in its literal meaning because at that level the Word is complete, and people and angels of each of the Lord's kingdoms share in it together.
Apocalypse Revealed 573
A bear symbolizes people who read the Word but fail to understand it, so that they derive from it misconceptions.
In the second book of Kings we read that Elisha was mocked by some boys and called a baldhead, and that forty-two boys were therefore torn apart by two female bears from the woods (2 Kings 2:23, 24). This occurred because Elisha represented the Lord in respect to the Word (no. 298), because baldness symbolized the Word without its literal sense, thus having no reality (no. 47), because the number forty-two symbolized blasphemy (no. 583), and because female bears symbolized the literal sense of the Word read indeed, but not understood.
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[11] That a "bear" signifies power from the natural sense of the Word, both with the well-disposed and with the evil, can be seen from the following passages. In the second book of Kings:
When Elisha went up to Bethel, as he was going up in the way there came forth boys out of the city and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up thou baldhead, go up thou baldhead. And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of Jehovah; and there came forth two she-bears out of the forest, and tare in pieces forty-two boys (2:23, 24).
Why the boys were cursed by Elisha and in consequence were torn by two bears because they called him "baldhead," cannot be known except by knowing what "Elisha" represented, and what a "baldhead" signifies, and what "bears" signify.
This evidently was not done by Elisha from unrestrained anger and without just cause, for he could not have been so cruel merely because the little boys said, "Go up thou baldhead." This was indeed, an insult to the prophet, but not a sufficient reason for their being therefore torn to pieces by bears.
But this was done because Elisha represented the Lord in respect to the Word, thus the Word that is from the Lord. "Baldhead" signified the Word deprived of the natural sense, which is the sense of its letter; and "bears out of the forest" signified power from the natural sense or sense of the letter of the Word, as has been said above; and these "boys" signified such as blaspheme the Word because its natural sense is such as it is; and "forty-two" signifies blasphemy.
From this it is clear that this represented and thence signified the punishment for blaspheming the Word. For all the power and sanctity of the Word are gathered up and have their seat in the sense of its letter; for without this sense the Word could not exist, since without it the Word would be like a house without a foundation, which would be shaken by the wind, and thus be overthrown and fall to pieces. The Word would also be like a man without a skin, which surrounds and holds the enclosed viscera in their position and order.
And as this is the signification of "baldness," and "Elisha" represented the Word, the boys were torn in pieces by bears which signifies the power from the natural sense of the Word, which is the sense of the letter, both with the well-disposed and with the evil. From this it is clear that the historical things of the Word, as well as its prophecies, contain a spiritual sense.
Apocalypse Revealed 47
[2] That the Word in this sense is signified by "the hairs of the Son of man," or of the Lord, seems a paradox, but yet it is true; this may appear from the passages in the Word quoted in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 35-49) where it is also shown, that the Nazarites in the Israelitish church represented the Lord as to the Word in ultimates, which is the sense of its letter. For "Nazarite," in the Hebrew language is hair, or lock of hair; hence Samson, who was a Nazarite from the womb, had power in his hairs. That in like manner the Divine truth is in its power, in the sense of the letter of the Word, may be seen in the above-mentioned Doctrine concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 37-49). Therefore, also, the high priest and his sons were severely prohibited from shaving the head.
For this reason, forty-two boys were torn in pieces by two bears, because they called Elisha, "bald." Elisha, like Elijah, represented the Lord as to the Word; "bald" signifies the Word without its ultimate, which, as was observed, is the sense of the letter, and "bears" signify that sense of the Word separated from its internal sense.
They who separate them, appear also in the spiritual world, at a distance, like bears, whence it is evident why it was so done with the boys. Therefore also to induce baldness was the greatest disgrace, and a mark of extreme mourning.
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6] The boys who called Elisha "bald head" were torn in pieces by bears, because Elisha and Elijah represented the Word; and the Word without the sense of the letter, which is like a head without hair, is without any power, and thus is no longer the Word. "Bears" signify those that have strength from the ultimates of truth. The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the power to open heaven, whereby communication and conjunction are effected, and also the power to fight against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. A man who is in genuine truths from the sense of the letter of the Word can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical crew and their devices in which they place their power, which are innumerable, and this in a moment, merely by a look and by an effort of the will. In brief, in the spiritual world nothing can resist genuine truths confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word.