Concerning The Word (series) Pt. 10

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Word of the Lord is wonderful in this, that in every particular of it there is a reciprocal union of good and truth, which testifies that the Word is the Divine proceeding from the Lord, which is the Divine good and the Divine truth reciprocally united; and also testifies that in the Word there is a marriage of the Lord with heaven and the church, which also is reciprocal. There is a marriage of good and truth, also of truth and good, in every particular of the Word, in order that it may be a source of wisdom to angels and of intelligence to men, for from good alone no wisdom or intelligence is born, neither from truth alone, but from their marriage when the love is reciprocal. This reciprocal love the Lord teaches in John:

He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him (John 6:56).

In the same:

In that day ye shall know, that ye are in Me and I in you. He that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and I will love him (John 14:20-21).

The reciprocal is that they are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, also that whoever loves the Lord, the Lord also will love him. "To have His commandments" is to be in truths, and "to do them" is to be in good.

The reciprocal is also described by the Lord in His union with the Father, in these words:

Philip, How sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? Believe Me, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me (John 14:9-11).

From this reciprocal union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord proceeds the reciprocal union of the Divine good and the Divine truth; and this proceeds from the Lord's Divine love; and the same is true of the Lord's reciprocal union with heaven and the church, and in general the reciprocal union of good and truth with an angel of heaven and with a man of the church. And as good is of charity and truth is of faith, and as charity and faith make the church, it follows that the church is in a man when there is a reciprocal union of charity and faith in him. Again, as good is of the will and truth is of the understanding, and as the will and understanding make man, it follows that man is man according to the union of the will and all things belonging to it with the understanding and all things belonging to it, and this reciprocally. This union is what is called marriage, which from creation is in every particular of heaven and in every particular of the world; and from this is the production and the generation of all things. That in every particular of the Word there is such a marriage that good loves truth and truth loves good, thus mutually and in turn, the spiritual sense of the Word reveals; and it is from this marriage that good and truth are one and not two, and are one when good is of truth and truth is of good.

(to be continued)
(Apocalypse Explained 1077:2, 3)

Concerning The Word (series) Pt. 9

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It has been said that the Divine truth proceeds from the Lord, and that the Word is from that, and that through the Word angels and men have wisdom. But so long as it is unknown how the Divine truth proceeds from the Lord, this may be said but it cannot be understood.

The Divine truth, which is the same as the Divine wisdom, proceeds from the Lord as light and heat do from the sun. The Lord is the Divine love itself, and love appears in the heavens from correspondence as fire, and the Lord's Divine love as a sun, glowing and resplendent like the sun of the world. From that sun, which is high above the heavens where the angels are, and which is the Divine love, heat and light proceed; the heat therefrom is the Divine good, and the light therefrom is the Divine truth.

The heat is the Divine good, because all the heat of life proceeding from love is felt as good, for it is spiritual heat; and the light is the Divine truth, because all the light proceeding from love is felt as truth, for it is spiritual light; consequently it is from that light that the understanding sees truths, and it is from that heat that the will is sensible of goods; and this is why in the Word love is meant by heavenly fire and wisdom by heavenly light.

It is the same with a man and with an angel. Every angel and man is his own love, and a sphere flowing out from his love encompasses every man and angel. That sphere consists of the good of his love and of the truth of his love, for love produces both, as fire produces both heat and light; from the will of a man or angel it produces good, and from his understanding it produces truth. This sphere, when the man or angel is good, has an extension into the heavens in every direction according to the quality and the amount of the love, and into the hells in every direction when the man or angel is evil. But the sphere of the love of a man or an angel has a finite extension into a few societies only of heaven or hell, while the sphere of the Lord's love, because it is Divine, has an infinite extension, and creates the heavens themselves.

(to be continued)
(Apocalypse Explained 1076:2)

Concerning The Word (series) Pt. 8

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

As the Divine truth, when passed from the Lord Himself through the three heavens down to men in the world, was written and became the Word in each heaven, therefore the Word is the union of the heavens with each other, and the union of the heavens with the church in the world. For the Word is the same everywhere, differing only in the perfection of glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are; consequently the holy Divine from the Lord flows in through the heavens with the man in the world who acknowledges the Lord's Divine and the holiness of the Word when he reads it; and so far as such a man loves wisdom, he can be instructed and can imbibe wisdom from the Word as from the Lord Himself, or from heaven itself, and can thus be nourished with the food with which the angels themselves are nourished, and in which there is life; according to these words of the Lord:

The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life (John 6:63).

The water that I will give you shall become a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life (John 4:14).

Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).

Work for the food that abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27)

Such is the Word.

(to be continued)
(Apocalypse Explained 1074:2)

Concerning The Word (series) Pt. 7

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Word is such because in its origin it is the Divine itself that proceeds from the Lord, and is called the Divine truth. When this descended to men in the world it passed through the heavens in their order according to their degrees, which are three. In each heaven it was written there in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels. Finally it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to men, and there it was written and promulgated in adaptation to man's understanding and apprehension. This, therefore, is the sense of its letter, and in this, the Divine truth such as it is in the three heavens, lies stored up in distinct order.

From this, it is clear that all the wisdom of the angels in the three heavens has been imparted by the Lord to our Word, and in its inmost there is the wisdom of the angels of the third heaven, which is incomprehensible and ineffable to man, because full of arcana and treasures of Divine verities. These lie stored up in each particular and in all the particulars of our Word.

As the Divine truth is the Lord in the heavens, so the Lord Himself is present, and may be said to dwell in all the particulars and each particular of His Word, as He does in His heavens. In the same way as He has said of the ark of the Covenant, in which were deposited only the Ten Commandments written on the two tables, the first fruits of the Word, for He said that He would speak there with Moses and Aaron, that He would be present there, that He would dwell there, and that it was His holy of holies, and His dwelling place as in heaven.

(to be continued)
(Apocalypse Explained 1073:2)

Concerning The Word (series) Pt. 6

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

That the Word is holy and Divine from inmosts to outermosts is not evident to the man who leads himself, but is evident to the man whom the Lord leads. For the man who leads himself sees only the external of the Word, and judges from its style; but the man whom the Lord leads judges of the external of the Word from the holiness that is in it. The Word is like a garden, that may be called a heavenly paradise, in which are dainties and delightful things of every kind, dainties from the fruits, and delightful things from the flowers; and in the middle of it trees of life, and near them fountains of living water, and round about trees of the forest, and near them rivers. The man who leads himself judges of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference, where the trees of the forest are; but the man whom the Lord leads judges of it from the middle of it, where the trees of life are. The man whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the circumference, and looks away from it to the world.

Again, the Word is like fruit within which there is a nutritious pulp, and in the middle of it seed vessels, in which inmostly is a living germ that germinates in good soil. Again, the Word is also like a most beautiful infant, which, except the face, is enveloped in wrappings upon wrappings; the infant itself is in the inmost heaven, the wrappings are in the lower heavens, and the general covering of the wrappings is on the earth. As the Word is such, it is holy and Divine from inmosts to the externals.

(to be continued)
(Apocalypse Explained 1072:2, 3)

Concerning The Word (series) Pt. 5

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 2, 14)

But as the world does not know how the words [here] in John 1:1, 2, 14 that the Lord is the Word, are to be understood, this shall be further explained.

It is known in the church that God is good itself and truth itself, and thus that all the good that an angel has and that a man has is from God, and likewise all truth. Now since the Lord is God, He is also the Divine good and the Divine truth; and this is what is meant by "the Word, that was with God, and was God," and also was "the light that enlighteneth every man," and that also "became flesh," that is, Man in the world. That when the Lord was in the world He was the Divine truth, which is the Word, He Himself teaches in many passages where He calls Himself "the Light," also where He calls Himself "the Way, the Truth, and the Life;" and where He says that "the Spirit of truth" proceeds from Him. "The Spirit of truth" is the Divine truth. When the Lord was transfigured He represented the Word, "His face that shone as the sun" represented its Divine good; and "His garments, which were bright as the light" and "white as snow," represented its Divine truth. "Moses and Elijah," who then talked with the Lord, also signified the Word, "Moses" the historical Word, and "Elijah" the prophetic Word. Moreover, all things of the Lord's passion represented the kind of violence that the Jewish nation offered to the Word. Again, the Lord from Divine truth, which He is, is called "God," "King," and "Angel," and is meant by "the rock in Horeb," and "the rock" where Peter is spoken of. All this makes clear that the Lord is the Word, because He is the Divine truth. The Word in the letter, which is with us, is the Divine truth in ultimates.

(to be continued)
(Apocalypse Explained 1070:2)

Concerning The Word (series) Pt. 4

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Since the Word is the Divine truth, and this proceeds from the Lord's Divine Being [Esse] as light proceeds from the sun, it follows as a consequence that the Lord is the Word because He is the Divine truth. The Lord is the Word, because He is the Divine truth, and this proceeds from His Divine Being [Esse], which is the Divine love, because the Divine love was in Him when He was in the world as the soul is in its body; and as the Divine truth proceeds from the Divine love as light proceeds from the sun, as has been said, therefore the Lord's Human in the world was the Divine truth proceeding from the Divine love that was in Him. That the Divine Itself, which is called "Jehovah" and the "Father," and which is the Divine love, was in the Lord from conception, is evident in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

In Matthew from these words:

When Mary the mother of Jesus had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. And the angel said to Joseph in a dream, Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. This came to pass that it might be fulfilled which was said of the Lord by the prophet, Behold the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son. And Joseph knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son; and he called His name Jesus (Matt. 1:18-25).

And in Luke from these words:

The angel said to Mary, Behold thou shalt conceive in the womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call His name Jesus; He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High. But Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? The angel answered her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also the Holy One that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:30-35).

It was because He was conceived of Jehovah that He is so frequently called in the Word "the Son of God," and Jehovah is called His "Father." Jehovah as to His Being [Esse] is the Divine love, and as to His Existing [Existere] He is the Divine good united to the Divine truth.

From this it can be seen what is meant by:

The Word that was with God and that was God, and also was the light that enlighteneth every man (John 1:1-10),

namely, that it was the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, thus the Lord as to His Existing [Existere]. That the Lord as to His Existing [Existere] was Divine truth, and that this was His Divine Human, because this existed from His Divine Being [Esse] as the body from its soul, these words in John clearly certify:

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

"The Word" is the Divine truth, which also is "glory;" "flesh" means the Divine Human, "the only-begotten of the Father" means that which exists or proceeds from the Divine Esse in Him.

(to be continued)
(Apocalypse Explained 1069:2, 3)