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:

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.

26. 5. The Word’s spiritual meaning is granted after this only to someone who possesses genuine truths from the Lord. The reason is this: because no one can see the spiritual meaning unless he is enabled to do so by the Lord alone, and unless he possesses genuine truths from Him. For the Word’s spiritual meaning deals with the Lord alone and His kingdom, and that sense is the one possessed by His angels in heaven. It is, indeed, His Divine truth there. It is possible for a person to violate that truth if he has a knowledge of correspondences and tries to use it to explore the Word’s spiritual meaning in accord with his own intelligence. Applying some of the correspondences he knows, he may twist its meaning and use it to confirm even falsity, which would be to do injury to Divine truth, and to heaven as well. If someone tries to lay open that sense on his own, therefore, and not from the Lord, heaven is closed, and when heaven is closed, a person either sees nothing, or he becomes spiritually irrational.

[2] There is also another reason. Because the Lord teaches everyone by means of the Word, and teaches him in accordance with the truths the person already possesses and does not infuse new truths directly, therefore if the person is without any Divine truths, or if he possesses only a few truths and is caught up at the same time in falsities, it would be possible for him to use those falsities to falsify the truths — as is also commonly known to be the case with every heretic as regards just the Word’s literal sense.

Consequently, to keep people from entering into the Word’s spiritual meaning, or from twisting the genuine truth found in that sense, the Lord has set protections, meant in the Word by cherubim.

[3] That protections have been set was represented to me in the following way:

I was given to see large purses, looking like sacks, which had stored away in them a great deal of silver. Since they were open, it seemed as if anyone might take some of the silver deposited in them, even to make off with it. However, next to the purses two angels were sitting as guards. The place where the purses rested looked like a manger in a stable. In the next room I saw modest maidens, together with a chaste wife. Near that room were two little children, and I heard it said they were not to be played with in a childish way, but wisely. Afterward a harlot appeared, then a horse lying dead.

4] On seeing these images I was informed that they represented the literal meaning of the Word, which has a spiritual meaning within. The large purses full of silver symbolized concepts of truth there in great abundance. The purses’ being open and yet guarded by angels symbolized that anyone might draw concepts of truth there, but that people should take care not to falsify the spiritual meaning, which contains only truths. The manger in the stable where the purses were sitting symbolized spiritual instruction for the intellect. (A manger has this symbolism, because a horse, which feeds from it, symbolizes the intellect.)

5] The modest maidens I saw in the next room symbolized affections for truth, and the chaste wife the conjunction of truth and good. The little children symbolized the innocence of the wisdom in it (they were angels from the third heaven, all of whom appear like little children). The harlot together with the dead horse symbolized the falsification of the Word by many people today, by which all understanding of the truth has been extinguished. (A harlot symbolizes falsification, and a dead horse no understanding of truth.)