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

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17. When the Lord was in the world, He spoke in terms of things that correspond, thus speaking spiritually while speaking naturally, and this can be seen from His parables, in which every single word has in it some spiritual meaning. Consider, for example, the parable of the ten virgins. The Lord said:

...the kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were prudent, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil..., while the prudent took oil in...their lamps. But while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was made: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” Then all those virgins awakened and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish said to the prudent, “Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.” However, the prudent answered, saying, “No, lest there not be enough perhaps for us and you; go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.” But when they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. And finally the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us!” But he answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.” (Matthew 25:1-12)

[2] The presence in these words of a spiritual meaning, and so of a Divine holiness, is seen only by someone who knows of the existence of the spiritual sense, and the nature of it.

In the spiritual sense, the kingdom of God means heaven and the church. The bridegroom means the Lord. The wedding means the marriage of the Lord with heaven and the church through the goodness of love and faith. The virgins symbolize people who are members of the church. Ten symbolizes all. Five, some. Lamps, truths of faith. Oil, the goodness of love. Slumbering and awaking symbolize a person’s life in the world, which is natural, and his life after death, which is spiritual. To buy is to procure for oneself. To go to those who sell and buy oil means, symbolically, to procure for oneself the goodness of love from other people after death. And because it can then no longer be procured, therefore even though the foolish virgins came with their lamps and the oil they bought to the door where the wedding was taking place, they were nevertheless told by the bridegroom, “I do not know you.” The reason is that, after his life in the world, a person remains such as he had lived in the world.

[3] It is apparent from this that the Lord spoke solely in terms of correspondences, and this because He spoke from the Divinity that He had in Him and that He possessed.

That the bridegroom symbolizes the Lord, and the kingdom of God the church; that the wedding symbolizes the marriage of the Lord with the church through the goodness of love and faith; that the virgins symbolize people who are members of the church, ten symbolizing all, and five some; that slumbering symbolizes a natural state; that buying symbolizes the procuring of something for oneself; that a door symbolizes entrance to heaven; and that not knowing, when said by the Lord, is to be without love for Him — all this can be seen from many passsages in the prophetic Word where these same depictions have similar symbolic meanings.

Because virgins symbolize people who are members of the church, therefore the prophetic Word so often makes mention of virgins and the daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem, and of Israel. And because oil symbolizes the goodness of love, therefore all the holy accouterments of the Israelite Church were anointed with oil.

[4] The same is the case in the rest of the parables, and in all the words spoken by the Lord and recorded in the Gospels. That is why the Lord says that His words are spirit and life (John 6:63).

The same is the case with the Lord’s miracles, which were Divine miracles, because they symbolized the various states of the people among whom the Lord was going to establish the church. For example, when the blind were given sight, it symbolically meant that people ignorant of truth would gain understanding. When the deaf were given hearing, it symbolically meant that people who had heard nothing before about the Lord and the Word would hearken and obey. When the dead were raised, it symbolically meant that people who would otherwise have perished would be made alive. And so on.

This is what the Lord meant by His reply to John’s disciples, when John wished to know whether the Lord was the one who was to come:

...tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead rise again and the poor hear the Gospel. (Matthew 11:3-5)

Moreover, all the miracles mentioned in the Word contain within them such matters as have to do with the Lord, heaven and the church. This is what makes them Divine miracles and distinguishes them from miracles that are not Divine.

Let these few example serve to illustrate what the spiritual sense is, and its presence in each and every constituent of the Word.

18. 3. The spiritual meaning is what causes the Word to be Divinely inspired and holy in every word. People in the church say that the Word is holy, and this because Jehovah God spoke it. But because its holiness is not apparent from the letter alone, therefore someone who once doubts its holiness on that account, later finds, when he reads the Word, many things in it to confirm himself in that doubt. For he asks himself then, “Is this holy? Is this Divine?”

Therefore, to keep this kind of thinking from flowing in and prevailing among many people, and so causing the conjunction of the Lord with the church where the Word is to perish, it has pleased the Lord now to reveal the spiritual sense, in order to make known in what the holiness in the Word lies.

[2] But let examples illustrate this as well:

The Word has as it subject sometimes Egypt, sometimes Assyria, sometimes Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, Tyre and Sidon, Gog. Someone who does not know that the names of these entities symbolize matters relating to heaven and the church may be led astray into the error of supposing that the Word has much to say about nations and peoples and only a little relating to heaven and the church, thus much about earthly matters and little about ones having to do with heaven. On the other hand, when he know what these entities or their names symbolize, it enables him to return from error into the truth.

[3] The same is the case when a person sees in the Word its frequent mention of gardens, groves, and forests, and the trees in them, such as olives, vines, cedars, poplars, and oaks, as well as the frequent mention of lambs, sheep, goats, calves, and oxen; and also of mountains, hills, and valleys, and the springs, rivers, and waters in them; and still more of the like. Someone who knows nothing of the Word’s spiritual meaning cannot help but believe that these are the only things meant. For he does not know that gardens, groves and forests mean wisdom, understanding and knowledge; that olives, vines, cedars, poplars and oaks mean the church’s celestial, spiritual, rational, natural and sensual goodness and truth; that lambs, sheep, goats, calves and oxen mean innocence, charity, and natural affection; that mountains, hills and valleys mean the higher, lower and lowest planes of the church; and that Egypt symbolizes knowledge, Assyria reason, Edom the natural component, Moab the adulteration of goodness, the sons of Ammon the adulteration of truth, Tyre and Sidon concepts of truth and goodness, and Gog outward worship without any internal worship.

However, when a person knows this, he is able then to see that the Word deals only with matters connected with heaven, and that the earthly expressions are simply the vessels in which these are contained.

[4] But let an example from the Word illustrate this too. We read in the book of Psalms:

The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters; the God of glory causes it to thunder; Jehovah is upon the great waters.... The voice of Jehovah breaks the cedars..., Jehovah shatters the cedars of Lebanon, and makes them skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like the offspring of unicorns. The voice of Jehovah strikes like a flame of fire. The voice of Jehovah causes the wilderness to quake; (it) causes the wilderness of Kadesh to quake. The voice of Jehovah makes deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; but in His temple everyone says, “Glory!” (Psalms 29:3-9)

Someone who does not know that each and every word there is holy and Divine may say to himself, if he is a merely natural person, “What does it mean that Jehovah sits upon the waters, that He shatters cedars with His voice, that He makes them skip like a calf, and Lebanon like the offspring of unicorns, that He makes deer give birth?” And so on.

[5] That is because he does not know that in the spiritual sense these declarations describe the power of Divine truth or of the Word. For in that sense the voice of Jehovah, which in this case is thunder, means Divine truth or the Word in its power. The great waters on which Jehovah sits mean the falsities of the rational self. A calf and the offspring of unicorns mean the falsities of the natural and sensual self. A flame of fire means the affection accompanying falsity. A wilderness and the wilderness of Kadesh mean a church without any truth and one without any goodness. The deer which the voice of Jehovah causes to give birth mean gentiles possessing a natural goodness. And the forests which it strips bare mean the kinds of knowledge and concepts which the Word lays open to them. Consequently the passage says next, “in His temple everyone says, ‘Glory!’ ” which means that there are Divine truths in every constituent of the Word; for the temple symbolizes the Lord, and so also the Word, as well as heaven and the church, and glory symbolizes Divine truth.

It is apparent from this that there is no word in the passage that does not describe the Divine power of the Word against falsities of every kind in natural people, and the Divine power of reforming gentiles.