Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 6729

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6729. And Pharaoh's daughter came down. That this signifies the religiosity there, is evident from the signification of "daughter," as being the affection of truth and good, and hence the church (see n. 2362, 3963); and in the opposite sense the affection of falsity and evil, and hence the religiosity that is from these (n. 3024); here a religiosity from false memory-knowledges, because it was the daughter of Pharaoh, for by Pharaoh is here represented false memory-knowledge (see n. 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692). That by "daughters" in the Word are signified churches, can be seen from the numerous passages in which the church is called the "daughter of Zion," and the "daughter of Jerusalem;" and that by "daughters" are also signified the false religiosities of many nations, is plain also from the passages in which these are called "daughters;" as the "daughter of Tyre" (Ps. 45:12); the "daughter of Edom" (Lam. 4:22); the "daughter of the Chaldeans" and "of Babylon" (Isa. 47:1, 5; Jer. 50:41, 42; 51:33; Zech. 2:7; Ps. 137:8); the "daughter of the Philistines" (Ezek. 16:27, 57); the "daughter of Tarshish" (Isa. 23:10); the "daughter of Egypt," in Jeremiah:

Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt. Make thee vessels of migration, O thou inhabitress daughter of Egypt. The daughter of Egypt is put to shame; she is given into the hand of the people of the north (Jer. 46:11, 19, 24);

the "daughter of Egypt" denotes the affection of reasoning about the truths of faith, whether a thing be so, from memory-knowledges, when what is negative reigns; thus it denotes the religiosity which thence arises, which is of such nature that nothing but falsity is believed.


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