6383. 'Zebulun' means the dwelling together of goodness and truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Zebulun' as the heavenly marriage, dealt with in 3960, 3961, thus goodness and truth joined together, since that conjunction is the heavenly marriage. The words 'the dwelling together of goodness and truth' are used because in the original language 'Zebulun' means a dwelling together. Here 'Zebulun' has reference to those within the Church who use the facts they know to draw inferences about spiritual truths and thereby strengthen their grasp of those truths. But it should be recognized that 'Zebulun' does not mean those people who do not believe something unless they are shown factual and sensory evidence to prove it and who until then have a negative attitude of mind. Such people do not ever come to believe it because that negative attitude of mind reigns in all their thinking; and when it reigns in all their thinking, facts which contradict, not those that corroborate, enter in and are gathered up by those people. They cast aside facts that may serve to corroborate, or else interpret them in such a way that they lend support to other factual evidence that contradicts the truth. Thus the negative attitude becomes all the stronger.
[2] But 'Zebulun' is used here to mean people who believe teachings drawn from the Word and accordingly have something of an affirmative attitude in all their thinking. Yet their faith does not exist in truths but in factual knowledge, for they bring such knowledge to bear on those teachings and by doing this strengthen their affirmative attitude. The ones who are meant by 'Zebulun' do not therefore go above factual knowledge; rather, when they hear or contemplate any truth of faith they instantly fall back on the facts they know. Many in the world are like this; and the Lord even makes provision so that factual knowledge and sensory evidence may serve them to that end.
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