[2] For if those people had known the inner contents of the Word and the actual truths which the religious observances of the Church among them represented, and if they had believed those truths and yet led the lives they were predisposed to lead - namely lives ruled by self-love and love of the world, involving acts of hatred and vengeance on one another, and involving cruelty to gentiles - they could not have avoided profaning the truths they had once believed. For believing truths and leading a life that goes against them is profaning them. It was for this reason too that they were withheld as far as was possible from any recognition of internal truth, 3398, 3489, withheld from it so completely that they did not even know that they would be alive after death. Nor did they believe that the Messiah was coming to save their souls for evermore, only that He would exalt that nation above all throughout the world. And because that nation was like this, and is also like it today, they are still withheld from faith, even though they live amid Christianity. This then is the reason why the nature of leprosy has been described so extensively.

[3] The meaning of 'leprosy' as the profanation of truth is evident from the regulations regarding leprosy in Moses, Lev. 13:1-end. That description contains in the internal sense the whole nature of the profanation of truth - what profanation is like if recent, what it is like if long-established, what it is like if it exists inwardly in a person, what it is like if it also exists outwardly, what it is like if it can be cured, what it is like if it cannot, what means can be used, and a number of other details. No one can ever come to know about any of this without the help of the internal sense of the Word. But since profane things are what 'leprosy' describes, a detailed explanation of the contents of that description must not be given; heaven has a feeling of horror at the very mention of what is profane.

[4] So let just the following be quoted from those regulations,

If leprosy has broken out severely in the skin and the leprosy has covered the entire skin of [him who has] the plague, from his head to his heels, wherever the priest looks,^a and the priest sees that, behold, the leprosy has covered the person's entire flesh, then he shall pronounce [him] clean [who has] the plague. It has all turned white; he is clean. But on the day living flesh appears on him he shall be unclean. Lev 17:12-14.

Unless one knew from the internal sense how it could be that one who is leprous all over from his head to his heels was clean it would seem to be an absurdity. But one who is leprous from head to heels means a person who has a knowledge of internal truths but does not acknowledge them, that is, has no belief in them. Profanation does not exist with him inwardly, only outwardly, and is being removed. Therefore he is clean. But if he knows the truths of faith and believes them, and yet leads a life that goes against them, profanation does exist with him inwardly, as it also does with someone who has had a belief in them but subsequently denies them. This explains why it says, 'on the day living flesh appears in him he shall be unclean'; 'living flesh' is used to mean acknowledgement and faith. See also the paragraphs referred to above in 6959.

Notes