0. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture ¹

By Emanuel Swedenborg, (First published in 1763)

Translator’s Table of Contents:

The Sacred Scripture, or Word, Is Divine Truth Itself. 1

The Word Contains a Spiritual Meaning, One Previously Unknown. 4

1. What the spiritual meaning is. 5
2. The presence of the spiritual meaning in each and every particular of the Word. 9
3. The spiritual meaning is what causes the Word to be Divinely inspired and holy in every word. 18
4. The spiritual sense of the Word has been previously unknown. 20
5. The Word’s spiritual meaning is granted after this only to someone who possesses genuine truths from the Lord. 26

The Word’s Literal Sense Is the Foundation, Containing Vessel and Buttress of Its Spiritual and Celestial Meanings. 27

In the Word’s Literal Sense, Divine Truth Is Present in Its Fullness, in Its Holiness, and in Its Power. 37

Truths in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. 43

Truths and goods in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the Urim and Thummim. 44

Truths in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the precious stones in the Garden of Eden in which the King of Tyre is said in Ezekiel to have been. 45

The Word’s literal sense is symbolized by the curtains and veils of the Tabernacle. 46

The outer constituents of the Temple in Jerusalem represented the outer constituents of the Word, which are those of its literal sense. 47

When the Lord was transfigured, He represented the Word in its glory. 48

The Church’s Doctrine Must Be Drawn from the Word’s Literal Sense and Verified by It. 50

1. The Word is not understood apart from doctrine. 51
2. Doctrine must be drawn from the Word’s literal sense. 53
3. Genuine truth, of which doctrine ought to consist, is apparent in the Word’s literal sense only to people who are enlightened by the Lord. 57

The Word’s Literal Sense Makes Possible a Conjunction with the Lord and Affiliation with Angels. 62

The Word Exists in All of the Heavens, and Is the Source of the Angels’ Wisdom. 70

The Church Is Formed by the Word, and Its Character Is Such as Its Understanding of the Word. 76

Every Single Constituent of the Word Contains a Marriage of the Lord and the Church, and So a Marriage of Goodness and Truth. 80

Heresies May Be Seized On from the Word’s Literal Sense, But It Is Harmful to Affirm Them. 91

The Lord Came into the World to Fulfill Everything in the Word, and to Become as a Consequence Divine Truth, or the Word, Also in Outmost Expressions. 98

Before the Current Word in the World Today, There Was a Word That Has Been Lost. 101

The Word Is the Means by Which Those Have Light Who Are Outside the Church and Do Not Have the Word. 104

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. 114

अनुवादक के नोट्स या फ़ुटनोट:

50. The Church’s Doctrine Must Be Drawn from the Word’s Literal Sense and Verified by It

In the preceding section we showed that in its literal sense the Word is in its fullness, in its holiness, and in its power. And because the Lord embodies the Word — inasmuch as He is the totality of the Word — it follows that the Lord is most present in that sense, and that He teaches and enlightens a person in the light of it.

This, however, needs to be demonstrated according to the following outline:

1. The Word is not understood apart from doctrine.

2. Doctrine must be drawn from the Word’s literal sense.

3. However, Divine truth, of which doctrine ought to consist, is apparent only to people who are enlightened by the Lord.

12. The sixth chapter of the book of Revelation says that when the Lamb opened the first seal of the book, a white horse went out and that he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given him. That when He opened the second seal, a fiery red horse went out, and that he who sat on it was given a great sword. That when He opened the third seal, a black horse went out, and that he who sat on it had a scale in his hand. And that when He opened the fourth seal, a pale horse went out, and that the name of him who sat on it was Death.

The symbolic meanings of these images can be laid open only by knowing the spiritual sense, and they are fully laid open when one knows what opening the seals symbolizes, what a horse symbolizes, and all the rest. They describe the successive states of the church in respect to its understanding of the Word, from its beginning to its end. The Lamb’s opening the book’s seals symbolizes an exposure of these states of the church by the Lord. A horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word. A white horse symbolizes an understanding of truth from the Word in the church’s first state. The bow of him who sat on the horse symbolizes a doctrine of charity and faith fighting against falsities. The crown symbolizes eternal life, the reward of victory. The fiery red horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word extinguished as to goodness in the church’s second state. The great sword symbolizes falsity fighting against truth. The black horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word extinguished as to truth in the church’s third state. The scale symbolizes a regard for truth so little as to be almost nonexistent. The pale horse symbolizes no understanding of truth owing to evil practices and consequent falsities in the church’s fourth and last state. And Death symbolizes eternal damnation.

That this is what these images symbolize in the spiritual sense is not apparent in the literal or natural sense. Consequently, if the spiritual sense were not at some time revealed, the Word would remain closed in respect to this chapter and everything else in the book of Revelation, to the point that at last no one would know in what the Divine holiness in it lies. Neither would anyone know the symbolic meaning of the four horses in Zechariah 6:1-8 and the four chariots coming from between two mountains of bronze.