Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5253

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5253. 'And there is no one who can interpret it' means ignorance about what it held within it. This is clear from the meaning of 'interpreting' as what something held within it, dealt with in 5093, 5105, 5107, 5141 - ignorance about what it held within it therefore being meant by 'no one who can interpret it'. In the internal sense 'no one' does not mean no one or nobody, but simply absence or non-existence. Here therefore that which is 'not' is meant, thus something that is unknown to people or of which they are ignorant. The explanation for this is that one does not see in the internal sense any particular person, or indeed anything that has to do specifically with any person, see 5225; and by the expression 'no one' or nobody' no more than some general aspect of a person is implied.

[2] There are in general three elements which depart from the literal sense of the Word when it becomes the internal sense; these are the temporal, the spatial, and the personal. The reason for this is that neither time nor space exists in the spiritual world. These two elements belong properly to the natural order, which also accounts for its being said that those who die depart from the realm of time, leaving temporal concerns behind them. And the reason why in the spiritual world they do not see anything that has to do specifically with some person is that any focusing, when they speak, on some particular person narrows down and limits the idea they have in mind; such a focusing prevents any broadening or removal of limits to their idea. Their use, when they speak, of broadened and unlimited ideas renders their language universal, a language that includes and enables them to express countless and also wondrous ideas. This is what the language used by angels is like, especially that used by celestial angels, which, compared with that employed by others, knows no limitations. This being so, the whole of their speech reaches into what is infinite and into what is eternal, consequently into the Divine of the Lord.


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