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

მთარგმნელის შენიშვნები ან სქოლიოები:

71. As regards the Word in heaven, it is written in the spiritual style of writing, which is quite different from any natural style. The spiritual style consists of nothing but letters, each of which carries a meaning, and there are diacritical marks over the letters which enhance the meaning.

The letters used by angels in the spiritual kingdom are similar to typographical letters in our world. But the letters used by angels in the celestial kingdom — each of which also carries a whole meaning — are similar to ancient Hebrew letters, being curved in various ways, with marks above and within them.

[2] Because that is the nature of their writing, therefore their Word does not contain any names of the persons or places found in our Word, but instead of names it has expressions with symbolic meanings. For example, instead of Moses it has “historical Word.” Instead of Elijah it has “prophetic Word.” Instead of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob it has “the Lord in respect to His Divinity and Divine humanity.” Instead of Aaron it has “priesthood, ” instead of David “kingship, ” both as attributes of the Lord. Instead of the names of the twelve sons of Jacob, or of the tribes of Israel, it has various expressions having to do with heaven and the church. Similar expressions are used for the names of the Lord’s twelve disciples. Instead of Zion and Jerusalem, it has the church in relation to the Word and in relation to doctrine drawn from the Word. Instead of the land of Canaan it has the church itself. Instead of the cities there on each side of the Jordan it has various expressions having to do with the church and its doctrine. And so on with all the other names.

[3] It is the same with numbers. These are not found in the Word in heaven, either, but instead it has expressions to which the numbers in our Word correspond.

It can be seen from this that the Word in heaven is one that corresponds to our Word, and thus that they are united. For they are united by the correspondences.

44. Truths and goods in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the Urim and Thummim. The Urim and Thummim were placed on the ephod of Aaron, whose priesthood represented the Lord in respect to His Divine goodness and in respect to His work of salvation. Priestly vestments or holy garments represented Divine truth springing from Divine goodness. The ephod represented Divine truth in its outmost expression, thus the Word in its literal sense, for that is Divine truth in its outmost expression, as we said above. Consequently the twelve precious stones, bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, which were the Urim and Thummim, represented Divine truths springing from Divine goodness in their entirety.

[2] Regarding the Urim and Thummim, we read in Exodus the following:

They shall make the ephod of gold, blue and purple, of scarlet double-dyed, and fine linen interwoven.... (Afterward) you shall make the breastpiece of judgment..., according to the workmanship of the ephod.... And you shall fill it with settings of stones, four rows of stones: ...a garnet, a topaz, and an emerald, the first row; ...a chrysoprase, a sapphire, and a diamond, the second row; a lazulite, an agate, and an amethyst, the third row; a beryl, a sardius, and a jasper, the fourth row.... These stones shall have the names of the sons of Israel..., like the engravings of a signet, each one with its own name, for the twelve tribes.... And Aaron shall bear (the Urim and Thummim) on the breastplate of judgment...over his heart, when he goes in...before Jehovah. (Exodus 28:6, 15-21, 29-30)

[3] What Aaron’s vestments represented — his ephod, robe, tunic, turban, and sash — was explained in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven) in our treatment of this chapter. There we showed that the ephod represented Divine truth in its outmost expression; that the precious stones on it represented truths made translucent by goodness; that the twelve precious stones represented all outmost expressions of truth in succession made translucent by the goodness of love; that the twelve tribes of Israel represented everything having to do with the church; that the breastpiece represented Divine truth springing from Divine goodness; and that the Urim and Thummim represented the radiance in outmost expressions of Divine truth springing from Divine goodness. For Urim means a shining fire, and Thummim means, in angelic language, radiance, and in Hebrew, perfection. Answers, moreover, were given by variegations of the light, and at the same time by a tacit perception or by hearing a voice, and in other ways as well.

It can be seen from this that these precious stones also represented truths springing from goodness in the Word’s outmost sense. Nor were answers given from heaven by any other means, because in that sense the emanating Divinity is present in its fullness.

[4] Precious stones and jewels symbolize Divine truths in their outmost expressions, the kind of truths found in the Word’s literal sense, and this has been made clearly apparent to me from the precious stones and jewels in the spiritual world possessed by angels and spirits there, whom I have seen wearing them, and which they also have in their jewelry cases. I have been given to know moreover that these precious stones and jewels correspond to truths in outmost expressions, indeed that they also exist and are visible because of those truths.

Because jewels and precious stones have this symbolism, therefore jewels were seen by John on the head of the dragon in Revelation 12:3, and on the horns of the beast in Revelation 13:1. And he saw precious stones on the harlot sitting on the scarlet beast in Revelation 17:4. These were seen on them because those figures symbolize people in the Christian world who possess the Word.