315. 'A measure (chaenix) of wheat for a penny (denarius), and three measures of barley for a penny' signifies because the evaluation of good and truth is so very little as to be scarcely anything. These things are signified because by 'a measure' (chaenix), which was the measure and the quantity measured, is signified the quality, as above (n. 313); by 'wheat' and 'barley' is signified good and truth; and by 'a penny' (denarius), which is the smallest coin, an appraisal so little as to be scarcely anything. 'Three measures of barley' are mentioned because 'three' signify all, and are predicated of truths (n. 505). 'Wheat' and 'barley' signify good and truth, here the good and truth of the Church out of the Word, because all the things that are of the field and the vineyard signify such things as are of the Church, on account of 'field' signifying the Church as to good and the truth therefrom, and 'vineyard' signifying the Church as to truth and the good therefrom. Therefore where those are mentioned in the Word, the angels, who perceive all things spiritually, do not understand anything else; as these [words] in Joel:-
The field is laid waste, the land is mourning, for the corn is laid waste the new wine is dried up, the oil is languishing, the husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have uttered lamentations over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. Joel i 10-12.
[2] All these things signify such things as are of the Church. That 'wheat' and 'barley' signify the good and truth of the Church can be seen from these passages:-
John [said] concerning Jesus, that He will gather the wheat into the barn, and burn up the chaff with fire Matt. iii 11, 12.
Jesus said, Let the tares and the wheat grow together, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather first the tares for burning, but gather the wheat into my barn Matt. xiii 24-30.
I have heard from Jehovah God the consummation and decision, he lays up the measured wheat, and the appointed barley, so he instructs for the judgment, his God teaches him Isa. xxviii 21-26.
Jehovah shall lead thee to a land of wheat and barley Deut. viii 7, 8.
The 'land of wheat and barley' here is the land of Canaan, by which the Church is signified.
They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, to the wheat and the new wine Jer. xxxi 12.
Jehovah shall satiate thee with the fat of wheat Deut. xxxii 13, 14; Ps. lxxxi 13, 16 [H.B. 14, 17]; Ps. cxlvii 12-14.
Jehovah said to the prophet Ezekiel:-
That he should make himself a cake of barley, mixed with dung, and eat it Ezek. iv 12, 15;
and to the prophet Hosea:-
That he should take a woman, an adulteress, whom he bought for a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley Hos. iii 1, 2;
which things were done by those prophets that they might represent the falsifications of truth in the Church, for truths are 'barley', and truths falsified and profaned are 'barley mixed with dung'; 'a woman, an adulteress' also signifies falsified truth (n. 134).
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