Will and Molly Graham sitting on the pier in Manhunter. Molly has committed what Swedenborg calls triplicate adultery (adultery with blood-relatives) by having an affair with Dr. Sidney Bloom, her half-brother, while married to Will.
Emanuel Swedenborg on adultery ('C.L.' denotes Conjugial Love):
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY. In the natural sense, this commandment means not only not to commit adultery, but it refers also to willing and doing obscene things and thinking and speaking about lascivious things. That merely to lust is to commit adultery, is evident from the Lord's words: Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you, that everyone that looketh on another man's wife to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matt. 5:27, 28). (--from T.C.R. n. 313.)
In the spiritual sense, "to commit adultery" means to adulterate the goods of the Word and to falsify its truths. That "to commit adultery" means this also, has been hitherto unknown, because the spiritual sense of the Word has been hitherto concealed. That such is the meaning in the Word of "to commit adultery," "to adulterate," and "to commit whoredom" is evident from the following passages: Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and seek if ye can find a man that executeth judgment, and seeketh the truth. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery (Jer. 5:1, 7). In the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible stubbornness in adulterating and walking in a lie (Jer. 23:14). They have wrought folly in Israel, and have committed whoredom, and have spoken My Word falsely (Jer. 29:23)...There are many other passages where "adulteries" and "whoredoms" mean adulterations and falsifications of the Word... (--from T.C.R.. n. 314.)
In the celestial sense, "to commit adultery" means to deny the holiness of the Word, and to profane it. This meaning follows from the preceding spiritual meaning, which is to adulterate its goods and to falsify its truths. The holiness of the Word is denied and profaned by those who in heart ridicule all things of the church and of religion, for in the Christian world all things of the church and of religion are from the Word. (--from T.C.R.. n. 315.)
That at this day in the kingdoms where the church is, adulteries are made light of by very many persons, is because the church is at its end, and thus there is no longer any faith, because there is no charity; for the one corresponds to the other. Where there is no faith, falsity is in the place of truth, and evil is in the place of good, and from this there flows the result that adulteries are no longer accounted as criminal; for when heaven is closed with a man, such things flow in from hell. (--from A.C. n. 8904.)
I. _There are three genera of adulteries,--simple, duplicate, and triplicate._ II. _Simple adultery is that of an unmarried man with another's wife, or of an unmarried woman with another's husband._ III. _Duplicate adultery is that of a husband with another's wife, or of a wife with another's husband._ IV. _Triplicate adultery is with relations by blood. (--from C.L. n. 478.)
To skip over the remainder of the Swedenborgian analysis of the Hannibal Lecter movies, click here.
The works of Emanuel Swedenborg from the Internet Sacred Texts Archive
True Christian Religion, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1771], tr. by John C. Ager [1906] at sacred-texts.com. Web. 14 Jun. 2010.
Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10], at sacred-texts.com. Web. 14 Jun. 2010.
Conjugial Love, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1768], at sacred-texts.com. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.
