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

വിവർത്തകൻ്റെ കുറിപ്പുകൾ അല്ലെങ്കിൽ അടിക്കുറിപ്പുകൾ:

96. We said that it is harmful to affirm the apparent truth of the Word to the point of destroying the genuine truth that lies concealed within, and that is because each and every particular in the Word’s literal sense communicates with heaven and opens it, in conformity with what we said in nos. 62-69 above.

So then, when a person uses that sense to justify worldly loves in opposition to heavenly loves, the inner meaning of the Word is falsified. And as a result, when that outer meaning or literal sense, whose inner meaning is false, communicates with heaven, it then closes heaven. For the angels who are present in the Word’s inner meaning reject the falsified meaning.

It is apparent from this that inner falsity or truth falsified takes away communication with heaven and closes it.

This is why it is harmful to affirm some heretical falsity.

96. [repeated]. The Word is like a garden, one rightly called a heavenly paradise, which contains delights to the tongue and to the eye and nose — delights to the tongue in its fruits and delights to the eye and nose in its flowers — with trees of life at its center by gushing springs of water. But surrounding the garden is a forest of trees.

A person guided by Divine truths in accordance with doctrine resides in the center where the trees of life are and experiences in fact the delicacies and delights of the garden.

In contrast, a person not guided by truths in accordance with doctrine, but who focuses on the literal sense alone, resides on the periphery and sees only the forest and its trees.

But someone caught up in the doctrine of a false religion, who has affirmed in himself the falsity of it, resides not even in the forest, but in a sandy plain round about, devoid even of grass.

That such are the states after death of the people described is something we will establish in its proper place.

5. 1. What the spiritual meaning is. The spiritual meaning is not the sense that shines from the literal one when one is studying the Word and interpreting it in order to confirm some dogma of the church. This sense is the Word’s literal sense. Rather its spiritual meaning is one not apparent in the literal one. The spiritual meaning lies within the literal one, like the soul within the body, like thought within the eyes, and affection within the face, which operate in concert, like cause and effect.

That spiritual meaning is what principally causes the Word to be spiritual, not only for people, but also for angels. Consequently that meaning is the means by which the Word communicates with the heavens.