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

Everyone says that the Word comes from God, is Divinely inspired, and so is holy. But even so, no one has known before this wherein the Divinity in it lies. For in its letter the Word appears as though written in the ordinary way, in a foreign style, neither as sublime or nor as lucid as writings of the present age seem to be.

As a result, a person who worships nature as God, or in preference to God, and so thinks prompted by self and his own self-interest, and not prompted by heaven in response to the Lord, may easily fall into error regarding the Word, and into scorning it, and when reading it, saying to himself, “What is this? What is that? Is this Divine? Can God, whose wisdom is infinite, speak so? Where is the holiness in it, and what makes it holy, other than some teaching of religion and so conviction?”

43. Truths in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. This follows from the fact that the New Jerusalem means a new church in respect to doctrine, as shown in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord 62, 63. Its wall, therefore, and the foundations of the wall, can only mean the outer component of the Word, which is its literal sense; for that is the origin of doctrine, and through doctrine, the church. Moreover, doctrine is like a wall which, with its foundations, surrounds a city and protects it.

Respecting the wall of the New Jerusalem and its foundations, we read in the book of Revelation the following:

(The angel) measured (the city Jerusalem’s) wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits, (which was) the measure of a person, that is, of an angel. (Revelation 21:17)

And the wall had twelve foundations, “adorned with all kinds of precious stones”:

The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. (Revelation 21:19-20)

The number 144 symbolizes all the truths and goods of the church drawn from the Word’s literal sense, and so does the number 12. A person symbolizes intelligence; an angel, Divine truth from which that intelligence originates; measuring, their character; the wall and its foundations, the Word’s literal sense; and precious stones, the Word’s truths and goods in their sequence, from which doctrine originates, and through doctrine, the church.

47. The outer constituents of the Temple in Jerusalem represented the outer constituents of the Word, which are those of its literal sense. That is because the Temple had the same representation as the Tabernacle, namely heaven and the church, and so also the Word.

That the Temple in Jerusalem symbolized the Lord’s Divine humanity is something the Lord Himself tells us in John:

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.... But He was speaking of the temple of His body. (John 2:19, 21)

And wherever the Lord is meant, the Word is meant as well, because the Lord embodies the Word.

Now because the inner constituents of the Temple represented the inner constituents of heaven and the church, thus also those of the Word, therefore its outer constituents represented and symbolized the outer constituents of heaven and the church, thus also those of the Word, which are those of its literal sense.

Regarding the outer constituents of the Temple, we read that they were built of whole, uncut stone, and inside of cedar; that all its walls within were carved with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and that the floor was overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:7, 18, 29-30). All of these particulars, too, symbolized the outer constituents of the Word, which are the holy ones of its literal sense.