655. The window that was to be finished to a cubit above' means the understanding part of the mind. This may become clear to anyone from what has been stated so far, and also from the fact that when the subject is the construction of the ark and 'the ark' means the member of the Church, the understanding part cannot be compared to anything other than 'a window above'. Similar examples occur in the Word in which man's understanding part, that is, his internal sight - whether reason is present or mere reasoning - is called a 'window', as in Isaiah,
O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I will make your suns (windows) of ruby, and your gates into carbuncle stones, and all your border into pleasant stones. Isa 54:11, 12.
Here the word 'suns' is used instead of the word 'windows' because of the light sent in or through. 'Suns' or 'windows' here are intellectual concepts springing indeed from charity, which is why they are likened to a ruby. 'Gates' are rational concepts deriving from these, and 'border' is factual knowledge and sensory evidence. Here the subject is the Lord's Church.
[2] All the windows of the Temple in Jerusalem had the same representation; the highest represented intellectual concepts, the middle rational concepts, while the lowest represented facts and sensory evidence, for there were three storeys, 1 Kings 6:4, 6, 8. Similarly the windows of the New Jerusalem, in Ezekiel 40:16, 22, 25, 33, 76. In Jeremiah,
Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street and young men from the lanes. Jer. 9:21.
Here middle-storey windows are meant, which is to say that rational concepts are being destroyed. 'The young child in the street' is new-born truth. Since 'windows' means intellectual concepts and rational concepts, which are matters of truth, the same also means reasonings, which are matters of falsity, as in the same prophet,
Woe to him who builds his house in unrighteousness, and his upper rooms not in judgement, who says, I will build myself a wide house and spacious upper rooms, and he cuts out windows for himself, panelling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion. Jer. 21:13, 14.
The 'windows' stands for false assumptions. In Zephaniah,
Herds of beasts will lie down in the midst of her, every wild beast of that nation. Both the spoonbill and the qippoda will lodge in her pomegranates.b A voice will sing in the window, vastation will be on the threshold. Zeph. 2:14.
This refers to Asshur and Nineveh. 'Asshur' stands for the understanding, here when it has been laid waste, while 'a voice singing in the windows' stands for reasonings based on false notions.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church