450. Amongst these twelve tribes, from each of which twelve thousand are said to be sealed, the tribe of Dan is not mentioned, but in its stead the tribe of Manasseh. The reason of this is, that the tribe of Dan represented and signified such as are now treated of in this chapter of whom John thus speaks:
"After this I saw, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, out of every nation, and [of all] tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands" (verse 9).
For these are they who were not in the very (ipsis) truths of heaven and of the church, but in the good of life according to the doctrinals of their religion, which, for the most part, were not genuine truths, but falsities, and yet were accepted by the Lord as truths, because they were in the good of life, in consequence of which the falsities of their religion were not tinctured with evil, but inclined to good. The reason why they were taken instead of the tribe of Dan, is, that the tribe of Dan was the last of the tribes, and therefore in the kingdom of the Lord, signifies the ultimates, in which those are who are in the good of life and of faith according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths. Concerning the tribe of Dan, see the Arcana Coelestia (n. 1710, 3920, 3923, 6396, 10335).
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