{"id":12184,"date":"2016-09-03T12:16:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T16:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordstudy.newchurch.org\/?page_id=12184"},"modified":"2016-09-03T12:16:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-03T16:16:43","slug":"gods-plural","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/bible-keywords\/gods-plural\/","title":{"rendered":"Gods (Plural)"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Swedenborg<\/a>, the Lord is<\/a> called \u201cJehovah\u201d in the Bible<\/a> when the text is referring to his essence, which is love itself<\/a>. \u00a0\u201cGod\u201d is used when the text is referring to the expression of that love \u2013 which Swedenborg\u00a0calls “divine truth<\/a>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

References to other gods, both positive and negative, reflect that meaning. In positive cases \u2013 such as when angels<\/a> and people are called gods, or when the Lord is referred to as the God of gods \u2013 those gods represent true ideas<\/a> that come to us from the Lord. In negative cases \u2013 such as when the people of Israel<\/a> repeatedly adopt the gods of their neighbors \u2013 those gods represent false and twisted thinking<\/a> that attacks what is good<\/a> and true<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Passages from Swedeborg<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arcana Coelestia 8301<\/b><\/p>\n

[2] The fact that truths springing from good emanate from the Lord may be recognized from the consideration that the Lord is Good itself because He is Love itself. Truth emanates from that Love just as light does from the flames of the sun. This truth is also like the light in springtime and summer, which holds warmth within itself and causes all things on the planet to come alive so to speak. But truth that does not flow from good is like the light in wintertime when all things on the planet die off. The reason why ‘gods’ are the truths of good is that ‘gods’ is used in the good sense to mean angels, who are called ‘gods’ because they are substances or forms receiving truth that has good from the Lord within it.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>[3] Angels, and therefore the truths of good which emanate from the Lord, are also meant by ‘gods’ in the following places: In David,<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0God places himself in the assembly of God in the midst of thegods\u00a0will He judge. I said, You are\u00a0gods\u00a0and sons of the Most High, all of you. Ps. 82:1, 6.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0Truths emanating from the Lord are what ‘gods’ is used to mean here. This is clear from the fact that the singular, ‘in the assembly of God’, is used first, and ‘in the midst of the\u00a0gods’ afterwards. For ‘God’ is used in the Word where truth is referred to, see 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921, 4287, 4402, 7010; and in the highest sense ‘God’ is the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, 7268. In the same author,<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0I will confess You with my whole heart; before the\u00a0gods\u00a0I will make melody to You. Ps. 138:1.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0In the same author,<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0There is none like You among the\u00a0gods\u00a0O Lord. Ps. 86:8.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0In the same author,<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0A great God is Jehovah, and a great King above all\u00a0gods. Ps. 95:3.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0In the same author,<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0You, O Jehovah, are [high] above all the earth; You are exceedingly exalted above all\u00a0gods. Ps. 97:9.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0In the same author,<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0I know that Jehovah is great, and our Lord is above all\u00a0gods. Ps. 135:5.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0So it is too that Jehovah is called Lord of lords and God of\u00a0gods\u00a0in Deut. 10:17; Josh. 22:22; Ps. 136:2.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0[4] The reason why it is said so many times that Jehovah is above all\u00a0gods\u00a0and is God of\u00a0gods\u00a0is that at that time a large number ofgods\u00a0were worshipped. Nations were distinguished from one another according to the\u00a0gods\u00a0they worshipped, each nation believing that its god was the highest of all. As a result of this the idea of a large number of\u00a0gods\u00a0was rooted in everyone’s mind, though there was disagreement over which one of them was the greatest, as becomes quite clear from many places in the historical narratives of the Word. That idea was rooted in the minds of the Jews more than others, and this explains why it says so many times in the Word that Jehovah was greater than all\u00a0gods\u00a0and that He was King and God of\u00a0gods. The fact that this idea of a large number of\u00a0gods\u00a0was rooted in the minds of the Jews more than other nations becomes quite clear from their frequent apostasy, when they turned to the worship of other\u00a0gods, many instances of which are recorded in the historical books of the Word, such as Judg. 2:10, 13, 17, 19; 3:5-7; 8:27, 33; 10:6, 10, 13; 18:14, 17, 18, 20, 24, 31; I Sam. 7:3, 4; 8:8; I Kings 14:23, 24; 16:31-33; 18:20ff; 21:26; 22:53; 2 Kings 16:1, 10ff; 17:7, 15-17; 21:3-7, 21; 23:4, 5, 7, 8, 10-13; and elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8932<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. ‘You shall not make [to be] with Me\u00a0gods\u00a0of silver and\u00a0godsof gold’ means that they are to avoid completely things which to outward appearances look like truths and forms of good but inwardly are falsities and evils. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making\u00a0gods’ as worshipping, since someone who makes\u00a0gods\u00a0for himself does so in order to worship them; from the meaning of ‘silver’ as truth, and therefore in the contrary sense as falsity, and from the meaning of ‘gold’ as good, and therefore in the contrary sense as evil, both dealt with in 113, 1551, 1552, 2954, 5658, 6914, 6917, 7999. The reason why these are things which to outward appearances look like truths and forms of good, but inwardly are falsities and evils, is that the words ‘making them with Me’, that is, with Jehovah God, are used. Actual Divine Truth and Goodness reside on an inner level; they reside on an outer level as well, but then they are embodied in types or representative images. For the outward things composing a type or image stand for and represent inner realities. Outward things are falsities and evils when, separated from inner realities, they are held to be holy and are worshipped; and yet they still look like truths and forms of good because they represent those realities. These things are meant by ‘making [to be] with Jehovah God\u00a0gods\u00a0of silver and\u00a0gods\u00a0of gold’.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>[2] This commandment follows immediately after the Ten Commandments because the Israelite and Jewish people were the sort that held outward things separated from inward realities to be holy and worshipped them as being altogether Divine, 3479, 3769, 4281, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4433, 4680, 4825, 4832, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4903, 6304, 6832, 8814, 8819. To gain more definite knowledge of what those things are which look to outward appearances like truths and forms of good but inwardly are falsities and evils, and what those things are like, take as examples all the ritual practices of the Jewish Church, such as sacrifices, burning incense, washings, and many other practices. Outwardly they were truths and forms of good, not in themselves but because they were types or images that stood for and represented inward truths and forms of good, which are aspects of love to the Lord and faith in Him. When the outward objects belonging to such practices were held to be holy, and especially when they were worshipped, as they were by the Jews and Israelites when they became idolaters and used them in the worship of strange\u00a0gods, they no longer had any connection with the truths and forms of good which they stood for and represented, because inwardly they were falsities and evils.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>[3] The situation was the same with all other things that were types or representative images of heavenly and Divine realities among that people. For as soon as outward things which represented inner realities were used in the worship of other\u00a0godsthey became idols worshipped by them or ‘gods\u00a0of silver and gold which they made [to be] with Jehovah God’. For then those things looked to outward appearances like truths and forms of good, but inwardly they were falsities and evils.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>[4] In general ‘gods\u00a0of silver and gold’ are all the falsities and derivative evils in worship which are made to look like truth and good through wrong usages and misinterpretations of the Word, and at the same time through reasonings that are the product of self-intelligence. Such things are meant by ‘gods\u00a0of silver and gold’ in the following places: In Isaiah,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0On that day a person will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they made for themselves to bow down to, to the moles and bats, to go into the clefts* of the rocks and into the fissures of the crags. Isa. 2:20, 21.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0‘Moles and bats’ stands for those who are in darkness, that is, are steeped in falsities and derivative evils.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>[5] In the same prophet,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0On that day a man will cast aside his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you – a sin. Isa. 31:7.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0‘Which your hands have made’ stands for things which are the product of self-intelligence. In the same prophet,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. Isa. 40:19.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0‘Graven images’ are things which are products of the proprium or self, 8869. ‘Overlaying with gold’ stands for making things look to outward appearances like forms of good, ‘casting silver chains’ stands for making them seem to hang together as if linked to one another with truths, good being meant by ‘gold’ and truth by ‘silver’, see the paragraphs referred to above.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>[6] Similarly in Jeremiah,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0The customs** of the nations are vanity. Since indeed one cuts out wood from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, he decorates it with silver and gold; they make it firm with pegs and hammers, so that it is not unsteady. Jer. 10:3, 4.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0In Hosea,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0The Ephraimites sin more and more, and make for themselves a molten image from silver, idols by their own intelligence, completely the work of craftsmen. Hosea 13:2.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0‘Ephraim’ stands for the Church’s understanding, 5354, 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267; ‘a molten image made from silver’ stands for falsity that looks like truth, which is why it says ‘by their own intelligence’; and ‘completely the work of craftsmen’ stands for the fact that it is all brought about through reasonings which are a product of the proprium or self.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>[7] In Habakkuk,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, Awake! or to a dumb stone, Wake up, this will teach! Behold, this is bound in gold and silver, but there is no spirit in the midst of it. Hab. 2:19.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0‘A piece of wood’ stands for evil, ‘a stone’ for falsity. ‘Bound in gold and silver’ stands for applications used to give the appearance of what is good and true. In Daniel,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0Belshazzar said, when he had properly tasted the wine, that they were to bring the vessels of gold and silver which his father Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the temple that [had been] in Jerusalem, in order that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. And they would drink wine, and praise the\u00a0gods\u00a0of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Dan. 5:2-4, 23.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0‘The vessels of gold and silver from the temple of Jerusalem’ represented the forms of good and the truths which belonged to the Church and to the Lord’s kingdom; ‘drinking wine from them’ meant desecrating them by means of evils and falsities, which are ‘the\u00a0gods\u00a0of gold and silver’.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>[8] In David,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands They have a mouth, but they do not speak; they have eyes but do not see. Ps. 115:4, 5; 135:15, 16.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0‘Silver and gold, which are idols’ stands for falsities and evils; ‘the work of human hands’ stands for the fact that they are the product of self-intelligence. In Moses,<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0You shall burn the graven images of the\u00a0gods\u00a0of the nations with fire; you shall not covet the silver and the gold that are on them, so that you take them to yourself; for it is an abomination to Jehovah your God. Therefore you shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you become*** an accursed thing like it; you shall utterly abhor it. Deut. 7:25, 26.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>\u00a0‘Silver and gold on graven images’ stands for falsities and evils which are worshipped as truths and forms of good because they have been made to look like these.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>* Reading scissuras (clefts) for fissuras (fissures)<\/span>
    \n<\/span>** lit. statutes<\/span>
    \n<\/span>*** Reading fias (you become) for fiat (it becomes)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7873<\/b><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. ‘And on all the\u00a0gods\u00a0of Egypt I will make judgements’ means their falsities which are to be damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gods’ as falsities, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘making judgements’ as being damned, for to judge or to make judgements is to point either to life or to death; a judgement that points to life means salvation, one that points to death means damnation. The term ‘gods’ is used many times in the Word. When angels are called such, truths are meant, see 4295, 4402, 7268, and therefore in the contrary sense ‘the\u00a0gods\u00a0of the nations’ means falsities, 4402, 4544. The reason why truths are referred to as ‘gods’ is that truth emanates from God Himself and is in itself of God. Consequently those who receive that truth are called ‘gods’. Not that they are\u00a0gods; rather, the truth with them is of God. This explains why in the original language God is referred to by the plural noun Elohim. God Himself is Divine Goodness, but what emanates from Him is Divine Truth which fills the whole of heaven. So then, because ‘god’ means truth, falsity is meant by that word in the contrary sense.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4560<\/b><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. ‘For there the\u00a0gods\u00a0were revealed to him’ means holy truths. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the\u00a0gods’ as holy truths, dealt with in 4402; and the alliance of these to the good represented by ‘Jacob’ is meant by the revelation of the\u00a0gods\u00a0to him there. Jacob’s calling the place El Bethel, when yet previously he called it Bethel, Gen. 28:19, and again calls it this in verse 15 below; also, the addition of the phrase here, ‘for there the\u00a0gods\u00a0(plural) were revealed to him’ but in verse 15 below of the phrase, ‘where God (singular) spoke to him’, is an arcanum. And that arcanum, it is evident, cannot be known except from the internal sense. There are even more arcana lying concealed within these details, but it is not possible for them to be disclosed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10652<\/b><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. ‘And their daughters go whoring after their\u00a0gods, and they cause your sons to go whoring after their\u00a0gods’ means profanation thereby of goodness and truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘whoring’ as being linked together unlawfully, dealt with above in 10648; from the meaning of ‘their daughters’, or the daughters of the inhabitants of the land, as affections for evil; from the meaning of ‘their\u00a0gods’ as the falsities belonging to the affections for evil which have been linked to truths (for by ‘their\u00a0gods’ the\u00a0gods\u00a0of the daughters of the inhabitants of the land linked in marriage to the sons of the Israelite nation should be understood, dealt with immediately above in 10651), and this linking is the profanation of good; and from the meaning of ‘causing your sons to go whoring after their\u00a0gods’ as a linking of truth to falsities, which is the profanation of truth.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

           <\/p>\n

          Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n.\u00a04544<\/b><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. ‘Remove the gods of the foreigner which are in the midst of you’ means that falsities were to be cast aside. This is clear from the meaning of ‘removing’ as casting aside, and from the meaning of ‘the gods of the foreigner’ as falsities; for in the Word ‘gods’ means truths and in the contrary sense falsities, 4402. Those people were called ‘foreigners’ who were outside the Church and therefore those who were subject to falsities and evils, 2049, 2115; and this explains why ‘the gods of the foreigner’ means falsities.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

             <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            According to Swedenborg, the Lord is called \u201cJehovah\u201d in the Bible when the text is referring to his essence, which is love itself. \u00a0\u201cGod\u201d is used when the text is referring to the expression of that love \u2013 which Swedenborg\u00a0calls “divine truth.” References to other gods, both positive and negative, reflect that meaning. In positive […]<\/p>\n

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