1. The Sacred Scripture, or Word, Is Divine Truth Itself

Everyone says that the Word comes from God, is Divinely inspired, and so is holy. But even so, no one has known before this wherein the Divinity in it lies. For in its letter the Word appears as though written in the ordinary way, in a foreign style, neither as sublime or nor as lucid as writings of the present age seem to be.

As a result, a person who worships nature as God, or in preference to God, and so thinks prompted by self and his own self-interest, and not prompted by heaven in response to the Lord, may easily fall into error regarding the Word, and into scorning it, and when reading it, saying to himself, “What is this? What is that? Is this Divine? Can God, whose wisdom is infinite, speak so? Where is the holiness in it, and what makes it holy, other than some teaching of religion and so conviction?”

92. The fact that appearances of truth, which are truths clothed, may be seized on from the Word as naked truths, and that when affirmed, they become falsities, may be seen from the many heresies that have existed in the Christian world, and which exist still.

Heresies themselves do not condemn people. An evil life does. And so do affirmations from the Word of the falsities found in any heresy and defended by the reasonings of the natural self.

Everyone, indeed, is born into the religion of his parents, is introduced into it from early childhood, and afterward holds to it, nor is he able to extricate himself from its falsities owing to his dealings in the world.

But to live an evil life, and to affirm falsities to the point that they destroy genuine truth — that is what condemns.

For someone who remains in his religion and believes in God, and in the case of Christianity believes in the Lord, considers the Word holy, and lives in accordance with the Ten Commandments religiously — such a one does not swear to falsities. Consequently, when he hears truths and in some measure perceives their truth, he is able to embrace them and so be extricated from falsities. Not so someone who has affirmed the falsities of his religion, for falsity once affirmed remains and cannot be rooted out. That is because once falsity is affirmed, it is as though the person has sworn to it, especially if it is connected with his self-love and consequent conceit in his own wisdom.

35. As we showed in no. 28, the prophets of the Old Testament represented the Lord in relation to the Word, and consequently represented the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word, and for that reason they were called sons of man. It follows from this that by the various hardships they suffered and bore, they represented the violence done by the Jews to the Word’s literal sense.

For instance, the prophet Isaiah put off the sackcloth from his loins and put off the sandals from his feet, and went naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20:2-3).

The prophet Ezekiel likewise drew a barber’s razor over his head and beard, burned a third part of the hair in the midst of the city, struck another third part with a sword, scattered the remaining third part into the wind, bound a few of the hairs in the edges of his garment, and finally threw them into the midst of the fire and burned them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

[2] Because, as we said above, the prophets represented the Word and so symbolized the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word, and because the head symbolizes wisdom from the Word, therefore the hair of the head and a beard symbolized the outmost expression of truth.

Because this is what they symbolized, therefore it was a sign of great mourning and also a great disgrace to make oneself bald or to be seen bald. It was for this reason and no other that the prophet shaved off the hair of his head and his beard, in order for him to represent by it the state of the Jewish church in relation to the Word. It was for this reason and no other that the forty-two she-bears tore apart the boys who called Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23-24), inasmuch as the prophet represented the Word, as we said before, and baldness symbolized the Word without its outmost sense.

[3] Nazirites represented the Lord in relation to the Word in its outmost expressions, as will be seen in no. 49 in the next section. Therefore they were required to let their hair grow and not to shave any of it off. The word “Nazirite” in the Hebrew also means the hair.

The high priest, too, was required not to shave his head (Leviticus 21:10). Likewise those who were heads of families (Leviticus 21:5).

So it was that baldness was, for the people then, a great disgrace, as can be seen from the following:

On all their heads baldness, and every beard shaved. (Isaiah 15:2, cf. Jeremiah 48:37)

Shame on every face, and baldness on all their heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

Every head made bald, and every shoulder shaved. (Ezekiel 29:18)

I will cause sackcloth to ascend upon all loins, and baldness on every head. (Amos 8:10)

Put on baldness and shave yourself for your precious children, and expand your baldness..., for they shall go from you.... (Micah 1:16)

To put on baldness here and expand it means, symbolically, to falsify the Word’s truths in its outmost expressions. When these are falsified, as they were by the Jews, the whole Word is destroyed. For the outmost expressions of the Word are its supports and underpinnings. Indeed, every single word supports and underpins its celestial and spiritual truths.

[4] Because the hair of the head symbolizes truth in outmost expressions, therefore all those in the spiritual world who scorn the Word and falsify its literal sense appear bald, whereas those who honor and love it appear to have attractive hair.

On this subject, see also no. 49 below.