10478. 'And I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out' means self-love and love of the world, from which that worship sprang and with which it accorded. This is clear from the meaning of 'the fire' as love in both senses, dealt with in 4906, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, 7575, 10055, at this point self-love and love of the world, (since that nation was ruled by those loves because their interest lay in external things separated from what was internal,) so that 'throwing into the fire' means subjecting it to those loves, drawing from the literal sense of the Word things that lend support to them, and fashioning religious teachings out of them; and from the meaning of 'the calf' as the hellish worship springing from and according with those loves, dealt with in 10459.