302. This was the reason why mysteries of faith were never revealed to the Jews. Being what they were they were not even explicitly told that they would live after death, nor explicitly told that the Lord would come into the world to save them. Indeed they were kept in such ignorance and stupidity, and are so still, that as a result they did not know and still do not know of the existence of the internal man, or of anything internal at all. For if they had known it then, or were to know it now, so as to acknowledge it, they would profane it and in so doing would have no hope at all of salvation in the next life. This is what the Lord meant in John,
He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and are converted and I heal them. John 12:40.
Also, the Lord spoke to them in parables, and without explaining any to them, 'lest seeing they might see, and hearing they might hear, and understand', as He declares in Matthew 13:13. For the same reason all mysteries of faith were concealed from them and hidden beneath the representatives of their Church, and it was for the same reason that the prophetical style took the form it did. It is one thing however to know and another to acknowledge. Anyone who knows but does not acknowledge is in the same position as one who does not know, whereas anyone who does acknowledge and after that speaks blasphemy and practises profanation is what the Lord was referring to.