developed, especially in the land of Canaan, Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea,
Syria, and Arabia; and in Tyre, Sidon, and Nineveh. From there it crossed
into Greece, but turned into myths there, as you can see from the earliest
Greek writings.
I wish to bring out an example from 1 Samuel chapters 5 and 6 so 203
you can see that the study of correspondences was long preserved among
the nations in the Middle East, particularly among those who were called
the diviners and the wise ones, referred to by some as the magi.
This passage mentions that the ark containing the two tablets with
the Ten Commandments written on them was captured by the Philistines.
It was placed in the shrine of Dagon in Ashdod. On the first day, Dagon
fell before it to the ground. On the next day, Dagon’s head as well as the
palms of its hands lay severed from its body across the threshold of the
shrine. Because of the ark, as many as several thousand inhabitants of
Ashdod and Ekron were afflicted with hemorrhoids and their land was
devastated by rats. The Philistines therefore called together their provin-
cial governors and diviners. To stave off impending death, they decided
that they should make five hemorrhoids and five rats out of gold, and
make a new cart and put the ark on it. They would send the ark back to
the children of Israel on this cart, pulled by two cows that would bellow
all the way, and the children of Israel would sacrifice the cows and the
cart. If the Philistines accomplished this, the God of Israel would be
appeased.
The meaning of these details clearly shows that everything the Philis-
tine diviners thought of was a correspondence. The Philistines them-
selves meant people who have faith but lack goodwill. Dagon was a
portrayal of their religion. The hemorrhoids that afflicted them meant
earthly loves that become unclean when separated from spiritual love.
The rats meant the devastation of the church by people falsifying the
truth. The new cart meant the earthly teaching of the church. (A chariot
or carriage in the Word means teachings that are based on spiritual
truths.) The cows meant earthly feelings that are good. The hemorrhoids
made of gold meant earthly loves that have been purified and have
become good. The golden rats meant goodness remedying the devasta-
tion of the church, since gold in the Word means goodness. The bellow-
ing of the cows along the way meant the difficulty of turning the lower
self ’s cravings for evil into desires for goodness. The offering of the cows
and the cart as a burnt offering meant that by these spiritual actions the
God of Israel would be appeased.
§203 sacred scripture 283