The spiritual meaning of “grumbling” or “murmuring” in the Bible is, according to Swedenborg, pretty straightforward; it represents complaining — but specifically complaining brought about by temptation, or spiritual challenge. Passages from Swedenborg: Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8351 8351. ‘And the people grumbled against Moses’ means grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation. This […]
Glory
We tend to speak somewhat casually of “truth from the Lord,” but in actual fact Swedenborg tells us that in its true form the Lord’s truth – the immediate expression of infinite love – is of such brightness and blinding power that it actually is light itself, is the light of heaven, is bright beyond […]
Galilee
Galilee was the northernmost province of Biblical Judea, a hilly area relatively remote from the center of Jewish culture in Jerusalem and bordered by foreigners on three sides. As such, it had a higher foreign population and more foreign influence than the rest of the nation; because of this it was considered a bit disreputable […]
Go, Going, Went
In the physical world, the places we inhabit and the distances between them are physical realities, and we have to get our physical bodies through the physical space between to get from one physical place to another physical place. According to Swedenborg, things are a bit different in spiritual reality: There, the “places” we inhabit […]
Gate
Gates in ancient times had a significance that does not hold in the modern world. Cities then were enclosed by walls for protection; gates in the walls let people in and out to do their business, but were also the weak points in the cities’ defenses. Swedenborg says that in the Bible, cities on one […]
Great
Swedenborg says the word “great” is used in the Bible to represent a state with a strong degree of love and affection, of the desire for good; the Bible uses terms like “many” or “multitude” to represent thoughts, ideas, matters of the intellect. This makes sense if you think about it. “Great” generally refers to […]
Generation
To “generate” something is to create it, and that idea underpins the meaning of a “generation” of people – it is a group that was created together, at roughly the same time, from the same parents or group of parents. According to Swedenborg, we can be “generators” on a spiritual level by using what we […]
Goods, Possessions, Riches
According to Swedenborg, the “goods” that people have in the Bible – their possessions – represent spiritual possessions, which are desires to be good and knowledge that helps us actually do it. In the contrary sense they represent the lust for evil and the false ideas that support and justify those lusts. When the Lord […]
Girdle, Apron, Belt
In a sense, the whole point of trying to accept the Lord and align ourselves with his love and leading is so that we can express what is good in life – so we can actually do things in the world that benefit other people. These external acts are the lowest form of goodness, but […]
Give
Like other common verbs, the meaning of “give”in the Bible is affected by context – who is giving what to whom? In general, though, Swedenborg says giving relates to the fact that the Lord provides us all with true teachings for our minds and desires for good in our hearts, and for the fact that […]