Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6596

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6596. 'And he was put in an ark in Egypt' means a concealment within the Church's factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'an ark' as that in which something is stored or concealed; and from the meaning of 'Egypt' as the Church's factual knowledge, dealt with in 4749, 4964, 4966. The Church's factual knowledge was at that time a cognizance of the representative forms and the meaningful signs that had existed in the Ancient Church, a concealment of the internal within that knowledge being meant by the words under consideration here. Regarding the concealment of the Church's internal and the preservation of it from harm by means of that concealment, see immediately above in 6595. The fact that 'an ark' is that in which something is stored or concealed may be recognized from the Ark of the Covenant, in that it was called an ark for the reason that it had the covenant or law stored in it.


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