259、“脚跟”表示属世层的最低部分，也就是肉体之物。这一点不可能为人所知，除非他知道上古之人如何看待人里面的各种事物。他们将人的属天和属灵事物与头和脸联系在一起；将来自这些，如仁爱和怜悯的事物与胸部联系在一起；将较低的属世事物与脚掌联系在一起；将最低的属世和肉体事物与脚跟联系在一起；他们不仅将人里面的事物与身体部分联系在一起，还如此称呼它们。雅各对但的预言也表示理性的最低事物，也就是记忆知识：
但必作道上的蛇，路上的角蝰，咬伤马蹄，使骑马的坠落于后。（创世纪49:17）
诗篇：
我脚跟的罪孽环绕我。（诗篇49:5）
类似的话论及雅各，当他出生时，他的手抓住以扫的脚跟，遂被称为“雅各”（创世纪25:26）。“雅各”这个名源自“脚跟”一词，因为“雅各”所表示的犹太教会要伤脚跟。蛇只能伤最低的属世事物，除非是某种毒蛇，否则伤不了人里面的内在属世事物，更伤不了他的属灵事物，最不能伤他的属天事物。在人不知不觉中，主将这些保存并储存在他里面。在圣言中，被主如此储存起来的事物被称为“余剩”。至于蛇如何通过专注于感官和爱自己而毁灭大洪水之前的人当中的最低属世事物；如何通过感官判断、传统和繁文缛节，以及爱自己爱世界而毁灭犹太人当中的最低属世事物；又如何在今天通过感官判断，记忆知识和哲学，同时通过爱自己爱世界而毁灭并继续毁灭它们的，蒙主的神性怜悯，容后再述。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]259. The meaning of the heel as what is bottommost on the earthly level, or the bodily dimension, cannot be known without information on the way the earliest people viewed the various levels inside us. They connected heavenly and spiritual qualities in us with the head and face. They connected the effects of those qualities — charity and mercy, for instance — with the chest. Things on the earthly level they connected with the lower leg. Those that rank fairly low they associated with the foot, and the very lowest earthly and bodily concerns, with the heel. In addition, not only did they connect such attributes with those body parts, they even called them by those names.
The heel also means the bottommost things in the rational mind, which are the facts we know. They are involved in Jacob's prophecy concerning Dan:
Dan will be a snake on the path, an asp on the track, biting the horse's heels, and its rider falls off behind. (Genesis 49:17)
They are also meant in David:
The wickedness at my heels has surrounded me. (Psalms 49:5)
Genesis 25:26 says that when Jacob came out of the womb, he was grasping Esau's heel (which is why he was called Jacob) and the meaning here is the same. The name Jacob comes from [the Hebrew word for] "heel" because the Jewish church, symbolized by Jacob, was to wound the heel.{*1} [2] Snakes are able to hurt only the lowest things on the earthly plane. Unless they are a species of viper, they cannot harm the more interior things we have on the earthly plane, still less those on the spiritual plane, least of all those on the heavenly plane. All these things the Lord protects, and he stores them away without our awareness. (What the Lord stores away is called "a remnant" [or "survivors"] in the Word.){*2} The pages to come, though, by the Lord's divine mercy, will reveal how the snake destroyed those lowest things in pre-Flood people through a focus on the senses and through self-love.{*3} They will show how the snake destroyed them among Jews through a concern with sensory experiences, tradition, and trivialities, and through self-love and materialism.{*4} Then they will show how the snake has destroyed and is destroying people at the present day through sensory, scientific, and philosophical matters, and once more through self-love and materialism.{*5}
Footnotes:
{*1} The Hebrew root of the name Jacob is עָקֵב (‘āqēḇ), or "heel." The verb עָקַב (‘āqaḇ), which has the same root, means "to follow at the heel," thus, figuratively, to assail in a furtive way, or per Swedenborg's reading at Genesis 27:36, to supplant. The latter passage is a good example of how Hebrew plays on the literal and figurative meanings in its account of Jacob. [RS] In saying that the Jewish church was to wound the heel, Swedenborg is doubtless referring to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, who also, like Jacob, was seen by Swedenborg as representing the Jewish church (see Secrets of Heaven 4751; The Lord 16; True Christianity 130). [LHC]
{*2} On the concept of the remnant in the Bible, see note 1 in 8. [LHC]
{*3} Throughout his treatment of Genesis 6 (554-683) Swedenborg describes how self-love corrupted the desires and thoughts of people living just before the Flood. [LHC]
{*4} Swedenborg's attitude toward Jews echoes much of the Christian tradition. On the one hand, Jews are the preservers of the true religion handed down from the most ancient church; on the other hand, the Jewish religion is assailed for its degeneracy, corruption, and literalism. The tensions and ambiguities reflected in this attitude go back to the New Testament. The Gospel of John, for example, states that "salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22), but the Gospel also stresses the role of "the Jews" as Christ's enemies and persecutors (see, for example, John 7:1; 19:31). Modern scholars tend to see these views as reflections not of Christ's actual teachings, but of tensions between the Jewish synagogue and the nascent Christian community in the late first century c.e. (for one example, see Schmithals 1997, 258-277). See also the reader's guide, pages 51-55 [NCBSP: Available from Swedenborg Foundation], which cites several passages pertinent to Swedenborg's statement here in 259:2. [RS] The "pages to come" to which Swedenborg is referring here may include such passages as 1094, 1200, 1205. [LHC]
{*5} Swedenborg describes the harmful effect of over-reliance on sensory evidence and logic in such passages as 1072, 2568, 2588, 4658. [LHC]
Potts(1905-1910) 259
259. That by the "heel" is meant the lowest natural or corporeal cannot be known unless the way in which the most ancient people considered the various things in man is known. They referred his celestial and spiritual things to the head and face; what comes forth from these (as charity and mercy), to the chest natural things, to the feet; lower natural things, to the soles of the feet; and the lowest natural and corporeal things, to the heel; nor did they merely refer to them, but also so called them. The lowest things of reason, that is, memory-knowledges [scientifica], were also meant by what Jacob prophesied concerning Dan:
Dan shall be a serpent upon the way, an adder upon the path, biting the horse's heels, and his rider falls backward (Gen. 49:17). Also in David:
The iniquity of my heels hath compassed me about (Ps. 49:5). In like manner by what is related of Jacob, when he came forth from the womb, That his hand laid hold of Esau's heel, whence he was called Jacob (Gen. 25:26),for the name "Jacob" comes from the "heel" because the Jewish Church, signified by "Jacob" injured the heel. A serpent can injure only the lowest natural things, but unless it is a species of viper, not the interior natural things in man, still less his spiritual things, and least of all his celestial things, which the Lord preserves and stores up in man without his knowledge. What are thus stored up by the Lord are called in the Word "remains." The mode in which the serpent destroyed those lowest natural things in the people before the flood, by the sensuous principle and the love of self; and among the Jews, by sensuous things, traditions, trifles, and by the love of self and of the world; and how at this day he has destroyed and continues to destroy them by the things of sense, of memory-knowledge, and of philosophy, and at the same time by the same loves, shall of the Lord's Divine mercy be told hereafter.
Elliott(1983-1999) 259
259. 'The heel' is used to mean the lowest part of the natural, which is the bodily. This cannot be known unless one knows how the most ancient people looked on the things that are in man. Celestial and spiritual things within him they associated with the head and face. The things that sprang from these, such as charity and mercy, they associated with the breast. Natural things however they associated with the foot, lower natural things with the sole of the foot, and the lowest natural and bodily with the heel. Not only did they associate things within man with parts of the body, they also called them such. The lowest things of reason, namely facts, were also meant by what Jacob prophesied concerning Dan, Dan will be a serpent on the road, an asp on the path, biting the horse's heels; and its rider falls backwards. Gen 49:17.
And the statement in David,
The iniquity of my heels has surrounded me. Ps 49:5.
A similar statement is made in reference to Jacob whose hand, as he was being born, was grasping Esau's heel, which was why he was called Jacob, Gen 25:26.The name Jacob derives from the word for a heel, for the Jewish Church, meant by Jacob, was to bruise the heel.
[2] The serpent is capable of harming only the lowest natural things in man, but not, unless they are types of vipers, the interior natural, still less the spiritual, and least of all the celestial. These the Lord preserves, and stores away in man without his awareness. The things which the Lord stores away are in the Word called 'remnants'. But how the serpent through sensory-mindedness and self-love destroyed those lowest things with people before the Flood; how it destroyed them with the Jews by means of sensory judgements, traditions, and things of no importance, as well as by self-love and love of the world; and how today it is destroying them and has destroyed them by means of sensory judgements, material facts, and philosophical arguments, along with the same self-love and love of the world, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on.
Latin(1748-1756) 259
259. Quod per 'calcaneum' intelligatur infimum naturale seu corporeum, non sciri potest nisi sciatur quomodo antiquissimi considerarunt ea quae sunt in homine. Caelestia et spiritualia ejus referebant ad caput et faciem; quae ex illis existebant, ut charitas et misericordia, ad pectus; naturalia autem ad pedem, inferiora naturalia ad plantam; infima naturalia et corporea ad calcaneum; nec solum referebant ad ea, sed etiam ita vocabant. Infima rationis seu scientifica quoque intellecta sunt, [per] quae de Dane prophetavit Jacob, Erit Dan serpens super via, aspis super semita, mordens calcaneos equi, et cadit eques ejus retrorsum, Gen. xlix 17:et quae apud Davidem, Iniquitas calcaneorum meorum circumdedit me, Ps. xlix 6 [A.V. 5]:
similiter quod de Jacobo refertur, cum exivit, Quod manus ejus prehenderit calcaneum Esavi, et inde vocatus Jacob, Gen. xxv 26;
nomen Jacobi est ex calcaneo, quia Ecclesia Judaica, per 'Jacobum' significata, laederet calcaneum. [2] Serpens modo laedere potest naturalia infima, non autem, nisi sint species viperae, naturalia interiora in homine, minus adhuc spiritualia, et minime caelestia; illa Dominus conservat, et homine nesciente recondit; quae Dominus recondit, vocantur in Verbo 'reliquiae.' Quomodo autem serpens destruxerit infima ista apud antediluvianos per sensuale et amorem sui; et quomodo destruxerit apud Judaeos per sensualia, traditiones et nugas, perque amorem sui et mundi; et quomodo hodie destruit, et destruxit, per sensualia, scientifica et philosophica, et simul per eosdem amores, in sequentibus, ex Divina Domini Misericordia, dicendum est.