2538. 'Know that you will certainly die' means that no doctrine of truth and good will exist. This too becomes clear from what has been stated above in 2516, where also similar words occur. Likewise 'everyone who is yours' means all that belonged to it together, namely to doctrine. The reason why in the internal sense 'everyone' means every thing or all things is that persons mentioned in the Word mean real things, and so 'everyone who is Abimelech's' means every thing or all things of doctrine. From all this it is now evident what the internal sense is of the words in this verse, namely that the spiritual truth of doctrine was by him to be brought back untouched by the rational, and that in this way it was to be taught and to be revealed to Him, and so the doctrine would have life. But if spiritual truth was not by him brought back untouched from the rational, the doctrine of truth and good would be worthless in every single respect of it.
[2] The position with doctrine is that insofar as belief is rooted in what belongs to the human, that is, in sensory impressions, factual knowledge, and rational deductions, no doctrine exists; but insofar as sensory impressions, factual knowledge, and rational deductions are put aside, that is, insofar as belief is formed quite apart from these, doctrine comes into being because the Divine is able to flow in; whereas those properties possessed by the human prevent influx and reception. It is however one thing to rely for belief on rational deductions, factual knowledge, and sensory impressions, that is, to resort to them so as to arrive at belief, but quite another to confirm and strengthen belief by means of rational deductions, factual knowledge, and sensory impressions. The difference between the two approaches will be evident in what follows below, for these also are dealt with in the internal sense in this chapter.
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