21. I have been informed that people of the Most Ancient Church, which existed before the Flood, were of such a celestial nature that they spoke with angels in heaven, and that they were able to speak with them through correspondences. As a result, the state of their wisdom became such that whatever they saw on earth, they thought of it not only naturally, but at the same time spiritually too, thus thinking as well in conjunction with angels.

Moreover, I have been informed that Enoch, mentioned in Genesis 5:21-24, with his contemporaries, made a collection of correspondences from those earlier people’s utterances and transmitted a knowledge of them to their posterity. It came about as a consequence that a knowledge of correspondences was not only known in many Asiatic kingdoms, but also cultivated, especially in the land of Canaan, in Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, and Arabia, and in Tyre, Sidon, and Nineveh; and that it subsequently spread from the coastal areas into Greece — only in Greece it was turned into fables, as can be seen from the writings of the earliest peoples there.

114. Without the Word No One Would Have Any Knowledge of God, of Heaven and Hell, of Life after Death, and Still Less of the Lord

This follows as a general conclusion from everything we have already said and shown: That the Word is Divine truth itself (nos. 1-4). That the Word is the means of conjunction with angels in heaven (nos. 62-69). That the Word throughout contains a marriage of the Lord and the church and so a marriage of goodness and truth (nos. 80-89). That the character of a church is such as its understanding of the Word (nos. 76-79). That the Word exists also in the heavens and is the source from which angels have their wisdom (nos. 70-75). That it is by means of the Word that nations and peoples not in the church have spiritual light (nos. 104-113). And more as well.

One may conclude from this that without the Word no one would have any spiritual intelligence, which consists in having knowledge of God, of heaven and hell, and of life after death. And no one would have any knowledge at all of the Lord, and of faith in and love for Him, thus nothing of redemption, even though it is the means of salvation.

The Lord also says to His disciples, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

And John [the Baptist] says, “A man can gain nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven” (John 3:27).