501. Verse 8. And their bodies shall be upon the street of the great city, signifies that the two essentials of the New Church are totally rejected by those who are interiorly in the falsities of doctrine concerning justification by faith alone. By "the bodies of the two witnesses" are signified the two essentials of the New Church, which are the acknowledgment of the Lord as the only God of heaven and earth, and that conjunction with Him is by a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue (n. 490, etc.). By "the street of the great city," is signified the falsity of the doctrine concerning justification by faith alone; by "a street" is signified falsity, as will be seen presently; and by "a city" is signified doctrine (n. 194). It is called "a great city," because it is the doctrine which reigns in the whole Reformed Christian world among the clergy, though not in like manner among the laity. "By streets," in the Word, almost the same is signified as by "ways," because streets are ways in a city; but still by "streets" are signified the truths or falsities of doctrine, because "a city" signifies doctrine (n. 194); and by "ways" are signified the truths or falsities of the church, because "the earth" signifies the church (n. 285). That "streets" signify truths or falsities of doctrine, may be seen from the following passages:
And judgment is rejected, and justice hath stood afar off: for truth is stricken in the street, and rectitude cannot come (Isa. 59:14). The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall run to and fro in the broad ways (Nah. 2:4). In the days of Jael the ways ceased, the broad ways ceased in Israel (Judg. 5:6-7). How is the city of glory left? therefore her young men shall fall in the streets (Jer. 49:25-26; 50:30). They that did feed delicately are devastated in the streets. The form of the Nazarites is darker than blackness; they are not known in the streets. They wandered blind in the streets. They hunted our steps, that we cannot go in the streets (Lam. 4:5, 8, 14, 18). I will cut off the nations, their corners shall be laid waste, I will desolate their streets (Zeph. 3:6). Afterwards in sixty-two weeks the streets of Jerusalem shall be built again, but in troublous times (Dan. 9:25). The street of the city New Jerusalem was pure gold, as clear glass (Rev. 21:21). In the midst of the street of it, on this side and that, the tree bearing twelve fruits (Rev. 22:2; besides other places; as in Isa. 15:3; 24:10-11; 51:20; Jer. 5:1; 6:16; 7:17; 9:21; 11:13; Ezek. 16:24-25, 31; Jer. 44:9, 17; Lam. 2:11, 19; Ezek. 11:6; 26:11-12; Amos 5:16; Zech. 8:3-5; Ps. 144:13; Job 18:17). Since "streets" signify the truths of doctrine of the church, therefore:
They taught in the streets (2 Sam. 1:20). And it was said:
We have eaten before Thee and drunk before Thee, and Thou hast taught in our streets (Luke 13:26). And therefore:
Hypocrites prayed in the corners of the streets (Matt. 6:2-5). And therefore:
The householder commanded the servants to go into the streets and broad ways, and bring them in (Luke 14:21). For the same reason, also, what is false and falsified is called:
Mire, dirt, and dung of the streets (Isa. 5:25; 10:6; Micah 7:10; Ps. 18:42). The prophets who prophesied what was false, should be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them (Jer. 14:16).
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