Table of Subjects ¹

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1. The Lord's advent.

2. The successive vastation of the church.

3. The church totally devastated, and its rejection.

4. The rejection of the Lord by the church.

5. Temptations of the Lord in general.

6. Temptation even to despair.

7. The combats of the Lord with the hells.

8. Victory over them, or their subjugation.

9. The passion of the cross.

10. The glorification of the Human of the Lord, or its union with the Divine.

11. A new church in place of the former.

12. A new church together with a new heaven.

13. The state of humiliation before the Father.

14. ² 15. A last judgment by the Lord.

16. Celebration and worship of the Lord.

17. Redemption and salvation by the Lord.

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[NCBS Notes, Editor's Introduction]

In this work, Emanuel Swedenborg outlined the internal meaning of all the Prophetical Books, from Isaiah to Malachi, and the Psalms, and then the first 16 chapters of Genesis. It provides a survey of the inner meaning of a substantial portion of the Old Testament, in one place.

This work was written by Swedenborg in Latin, in 1761. It was translated from Latin into English by Rev. J. E. Schreck, and this translation was published by the Swedenborg Foundation, in New York, in 1900. This modified version of Schreck's 1900 translation does not update the text; instead just modifying numbering and formatting for clarity of use online.

Each chapter of each book of the Prophets has one corresponding numbered section in Swedenborg's explanation of its inner meaning, or internal sense. Swedenborg listed the verses that relate to each outlined point. We have added hyperlinks to the verse references, shown to the left of each outlined point. The Psalms and initial chapters of Genesis are treated in a similar fashion.

This work was not published by Swedenborg, but it is consistent with other more detailed treatments made in his published works. For example, Swedenborg refers to this work in Doctrine of the Lord 37.

Readers may also find these comparisons useful:

- No. 124 of this work, explaining Ezekiel 1, with The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture 97,

- Nos. 161, 162, explaining Ezekiel 38, and 39, with Apocalypse Revealed 859,

- No. 236, explaining Zechariah 4, with Apocalypse Revealed 43, and

- Nos. 244-246 of this work, explaining Zechariah 12, 13, 14, with Apocalypse Revealed 707.

In the manuscript, at the beginning, Swedenborg wrote out a list of works that he intended to write and publish. While it's clearly related to the project of outlining the internal meaning of the Prophets, Psalms, and historical parts of the Word, it seems to be an independent list. We reproduce Rev. Schreck's translation of that list here:

"To Be Published:

1. Concerning the Lord.

2. Concerning the Sacred Scripture or concerning the Word of the Lord.

3. All things of religion and of the worship of God in one complex in the Decalogue.

4. Concerning Faith.

5. Angelic wisdom concerning the Divine Providence.

6. Angelic wisdom concerning the Divine omnipotence and omniscience, and concerning infinity and eternity.

7. Angelic wisdom concerning life.

8. Angelic wisdom concerning the Divine love and Divine wisdom."

訳者注または脚注:

98. 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

That the Lord came into the world to fulfill everything in the Word may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord 8-11. That He became as a consequence Divine truth, or the Word, also in outmost expressions — this is what is meant by these words in John:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as though of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

To become flesh is to become the Word in outmost expressions.

What the Lord was like as the Word in outmost expressions — this He showed His disciples when He was transfigured (Matthew 17:2ff., Mark 9:2ff., Luke 9:28ff.). And we are told in Luke that Moses and Elijah appeared in glory. Moses and Elijah mean the Word, as may be seen in no. 48 above.

The Lord is also described as the Word in outmost expressions by John in the book of Revelation, in chapter one, verses 13-16, where everything in the description of Him symbolizes the outmost expressions of Divine truth or of the Word.

The Lord, indeed, had embodied the Word before, but in its first origins. For we read:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. It was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-3)

But when the Word became flesh, then the Lord became also the Word in outmost expressions. It is because of this that the Lord is called the First and the Last (Revelation 1:8, 11, 17, 2:8, 21:6, 22:13).

46. The Word’s literal sense is symbolized by the curtains and veils of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle represented heaven and the church. Its form was therefore shown by Jehovah on Mount Sinai. Consequently everything in the Tabernacle — the lampstand, the golden altar for incense, and the table with showbread on it — represented and so symbolized the sanctities of heaven and the church. Moreover, the most holy place, where the Ark of the Covenant was, represented and so symbolized the inmost constituent of heaven and the church; and the Law itself, written on two tables of stone and contained in the ark, symbolized the Lord in relation to the Word.

Now because outward manifestations take their essence from inner components, and both of these from the inmost one, which in this case was the Law, therefore the holy qualities of the Word were also represented and symbolized by all the constituents of the Tabernacle.

It follows from this that the outmost constituents of the Tabernacle, which were its curtains and veils, thus its coverings and enclosures, symbolized the outmost constituents of the Word, which are the truths and goods of its literal sense.

[2] Because they symbolized these outmost constituents, therefore the curtains and veils were made “of fine woven linen, and blue, purple, and scarlet double-dyed, with...cherubim” (Exodus 26:1, 31, 36).

What the Tabernacle and everything found in it represented and symbolized, in general and in particular, is something we explained in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), in our treatment of this chapter in Exodus. And we showed there that the curtains and veils represented the outer constituents of heaven and the church, thus also the outer constituents of the Word. We showed, too, that the linen, or fine linen, symbolized truth from a spiritual origin; the blue, truth from a celestial origin; the purple, celestial goodness; the scarlet double-dyed, spiritual goodness; and the cherubim, protections for the Word’s inner constituents.