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

Translator's Notes or Footnotes:

9. 2. The presence of the spiritual meaning in each and every particular of the Word. This can best be seen from illustrations, such as the following. In the book of Revelation, John says:

I saw heaven opened, when behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and does combat. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many jewels. He had a name written that no one knew but Himself. He was clothed with a garment stained with blood, and His name is called “The Word of God.” (His) hosts in heaven followed Him on white horses, wearing fine linen, white and clean.... He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

I saw moreover an angel standing in the sun, who cried with a loud voice..., “Come and gather together for the great supper..., that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” (Revelation 19:11-18)

No one can see the symbolic meanings of these words apart from the Word’s spiritual sense, and no one can see the spiritual sense apart from a knowledge of correspondences. For the words are all correspondents; no word there is without meaning.

A knowledge of correspondences makes plain the symbolic meaning of the white horse and of Him who sat on the horse, of the eyes that were like a flame of fire, of the jewels on the head, of the garment stained with blood, of the white linen worn by His hosts in heaven, of the angel standing in the sun, of the great supper for which all were to come and gather together, and of the flesh of kings, commanders, and several others that they were to eat.

[2] The symbolic meanings of each of these images may be seen in the short book, The White Horse, where we explained them. We therefore forgo any further explanation of them here. In that short book we showed that the above description is a depiction of the Lord in relation to the Word, that His eyes like a flame of fire, the jewels on His head, and the name that no one knew but Himself mean the Word’s spiritual sense, and that no one knows that sense but the Lord Himself and he to whom the Lord wills to reveal it. We showed as well that the garment stained with blood means the Word’s natural sense, which is its literal sense, to which violence has been done.

That it is the Word which is so described is clearly apparent, for we are told that His name is called “The Word of God.” And that it is the Lord who is meant is also clearly apparent, for we are told that the name written of Him who sat on the horse was “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

That the Word’s spiritual sense will be revealed at the end of the church is symbolically meant not only by what we have now said about the horse and Him who sat on it, but also by the great supper to which the angel standing in the sun summoned people to come and eat the flesh of kings and commanders, of mighty men, of horses and of those who sit on them, and of all people, free and slave.

All of these statements would be meaningless words, devoid of life or spirit, without something spiritual concealed within them, like a soul in its body.

35. As we showed in no. 28, the prophets of the Old Testament represented the Lord in relation to the Word, and consequently represented the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word, and for that reason they were called sons of man. It follows from this that by the various hardships they suffered and bore, they represented the violence done by the Jews to the Word’s literal sense.

For instance, the prophet Isaiah put off the sackcloth from his loins and put off the sandals from his feet, and went naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20:2-3).

The prophet Ezekiel likewise drew a barber’s razor over his head and beard, burned a third part of the hair in the midst of the city, struck another third part with a sword, scattered the remaining third part into the wind, bound a few of the hairs in the edges of his garment, and finally threw them into the midst of the fire and burned them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

[2] Because, as we said above, the prophets represented the Word and so symbolized the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word, and because the head symbolizes wisdom from the Word, therefore the hair of the head and a beard symbolized the outmost expression of truth.

Because this is what they symbolized, therefore it was a sign of great mourning and also a great disgrace to make oneself bald or to be seen bald. It was for this reason and no other that the prophet shaved off the hair of his head and his beard, in order for him to represent by it the state of the Jewish church in relation to the Word. It was for this reason and no other that the forty-two she-bears tore apart the boys who called Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23-24), inasmuch as the prophet represented the Word, as we said before, and baldness symbolized the Word without its outmost sense.

[3] Nazirites represented the Lord in relation to the Word in its outmost expressions, as will be seen in no. 49 in the next section. Therefore they were required to let their hair grow and not to shave any of it off. The word “Nazirite” in the Hebrew also means the hair.

The high priest, too, was required not to shave his head (Leviticus 21:10). Likewise those who were heads of families (Leviticus 21:5).

So it was that baldness was, for the people then, a great disgrace, as can be seen from the following:

On all their heads baldness, and every beard shaved. (Isaiah 15:2, cf. Jeremiah 48:37)

Shame on every face, and baldness on all their heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

Every head made bald, and every shoulder shaved. (Ezekiel 29:18)

I will cause sackcloth to ascend upon all loins, and baldness on every head. (Amos 8:10)

Put on baldness and shave yourself for your precious children, and expand your baldness..., for they shall go from you.... (Micah 1:16)

To put on baldness here and expand it means, symbolically, to falsify the Word’s truths in its outmost expressions. When these are falsified, as they were by the Jews, the whole Word is destroyed. For the outmost expressions of the Word are its supports and underpinnings. Indeed, every single word supports and underpins its celestial and spiritual truths.

[4] Because the hair of the head symbolizes truth in outmost expressions, therefore all those in the spiritual world who scorn the Word and falsify its literal sense appear bald, whereas those who honor and love it appear to have attractive hair.

On this subject, see also no. 49 below.