The Preface to Part III of Genesis in the Arcana Coelestia
by Philip N. Odhner, 1976

On September 29, 1976, Rt. Rev. Philip N. Odhner, in his series of Doctrinal Classes on the Arcana Coelestia, presented in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, a class on The Preface to Part 3 of Genesis in the Arcana Coelestia and on the introductory numbers placed before the 22nd Chapter of Genesis. The following text is the section dealing with The Preface to Part 3. (back to Preface)

In the Original Edition the Arcana Coelestia was written and published in what are, there, called "parts." The explications of Genesis were published in five parts, and those of Exodus in three parts. In English, these parts are called volumes or tomes; but those words are not used in the Original. The "parts" of Genesis and Exodus are numbered independently, that is, the five parts of Genesis are numbered one to five, and the three of Exodus are numbered one to three. Why the word "part is used instead of volume or tome is not explained. But one can see that the word "part" means that it is a part of a whole, whereas the word "volume" or "tome" does not indicate that it is a part of a whole, but may indicate a complete work in itself.

Part 2 [Genesis 16-21] and Part 3 [Genesis 22-30] each have a preface, in addition to introductory numbers coming before the explication of the verses of a chapter. The other parts have not such a preface. Chapter 18, in part 2, also has a preface. These prefaces are not numbered. No doubt sometime the Church will understand the cause for the inclusion or omission of these prefaces. As we pointed out in connection with Chapter 18 of Genesis, the word "preface" means something said before, something that ought to be perceived by a man in the things following the preface. No obvious connection is made in this preface with the things that follow in Part 3, but that there is a connection is beyond doubt.

The preface begins with How much they hallucinate who remain in the sense of the letter alone, nor seek out the internal sense from other places where it is unfolded in the Word, can be manifestly evident from so many heresies each of which confirms its own dogmas out of the literal sense of the Word. Here, the instruction is to seek out the internal sense where it is unfolded in other places in the Word.

Two things here come to mind. One is the example, as it were, of the Third Testament itself, in which many passages from the Old and New Testaments are brought together in a single number to show the meaning of some one word. Sometimes also it is said that some word or name cannot be unfolded as to its meaning because it only occurs once in the Old or New Testament. The second thing that comes to mind in relation to this teaching about the need of seeking out the internal sense in other places where it is unfolded, is the teaching in Arcana Coelestia 7233 (below), of which we have spoken in a former class: The internal sense is not only that sense which lies hidden in the external sense, as hitherto shown, but also that which results from many places of the sense of the letter rightly collated among themselves, and apperceived by those who are illustrated by the Lord as to the intellectual. As said in that former class, these teachings cannot be understood in any mere natural way, that anyone who compiles and compares many passages of the Word can see its internal sense. The rightful collation of passages is an ordering of them in the mind by the Lord through regeneration, through the illustration thence of the intellectual of man. So also the seeking out of the internal sense from other places where it is unfolded cannot be any mere mechanical process of study; such a comparison and search made by one not enlightened by the Lord could be most complete and yet result in nothing of value. On the other hand, the merely natural meaning of these teachings cannot be ignored. In order for a man to come to anything of the internal sense of the Word, a careful study and comparison of teachings in the Word must be made. It is not wise to have some superficial knowledge of some teaching of the Third Testament and from that superficial knowledge jump to conclusions as to what the meaning is when applied to the regeneration of one man. Careful studies must be made, and the coming to interior natural ideas as to the meaning of the teachings of the sense of the letter of the Third Testament. A natural understanding must precede, and this must be made with prayer for understanding, and must be as complete as possible; otherwise, the illustration from the Lord has nothing in the mind to rightly collate. We must beware from trying to see some supposed internal sense on the basis of superficial knowledge and understanding of the literal sense of the Word. The study of the sense of the letter is the formal, and illustration from the Lord is the essential. But, both must be together for the Lord to produce in the mind that transformation of the formal by the essential which is of the internal sense of the Word. And we must remember always that such a thing cannot be produced in the mind by the Lord apart from all those changes wrought by the Lord through the living of the true, the combats of temptation, and the openings of the mind toward Heaven. As is said in that same number, AC 7233 (below), Each one within the spiritual Church acknowledges as the true of faith that which the instaurators of them have dictated, nor do they inquire out of the Word whether this is the true itself; and even if they do inquire, if they have not been regenerated, and then peculiarly illustrated, they have not found it.

The preface then gives as an example of heresy drawn from the sense of the letter alone that great heresy which the insane love of self and of the world has induced from the Lord's words to Peter, in Matthew 16:15-19, about the rock on which He would build His Church, and about the keys of the kingdom of the Heavens being given to Peter. The rest of the preface is devoted to unfolding that teaching of the Lord. It is shown that Faith into the Lord, which is solely with those who are in love into the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor, has the power of opening and closing Heaven, and still not faith, but the Lord from whom is that faith. That Faith closes Heaven lest evils and falses enter, and opens Heaven to trues and goods. Then it is said that the twelve apostles, like the twelve tribes of Israel represent all things of that faith. Peter represents faith itself, Jacob, charity, and John, the goods of charity, similarly as do Reuben, Simeon and Levi, the first born sons of Jacob.

As to why these things are placed in this preface to Part 3, we can only suggest the following: The heresy or falsity out of evil here mentioned, the confirmation of the love of dominion in spiritual things, is essentially that of the dominion of the external over the internal, of man over Heaven, of man over the Lord. Man can only be delivered from this horrible thing through the faith of love and charity. And the faith of love and charity is in its power only so far as the natural is regenerated and brought to obedience to the regenerated rational.

Part 3 of the Arcana Coelestia, in all things looks to the birth of the Divine Natural of the Lord, represented by Esau and Jacob, and to the birth in the Divine Natural of all those things represented by eleven of the twelve sons of Jacob. Part 2 of the Arcana Coelestia treated of the birth and the making Divine of the Rational with the Lord, and of the regeneration of the rational with the man of the Church. Part 3 in general treats of the birth and coming into existence of the Divine Natural out of the Divine Rational, and, in regard to man, of the regeneration of the natural by the Lord through the regenerated rational. Before the natural is so regenerated, it is in conflict with the rational, and will seek to dominate over it. In this sense, this preface to Part 3 places the essential of this part before us.

AC 7233

[2] ...that the doctrine of the spiritual church is not that of truth Divine itself, because those who are of the spiritual church have no perception of truth Divine, as have those who are of the celestial church; but instead of this perception they have conscience, which is formed from the truth and good which they have acknowledged within their own church, of whatever kind these may be. (That those who are of the spiritual church are relatively in obscurity in respect to the truths of faith, see n. 86, 2708, 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 3833, 6289, 6500, 6865, 6945.) Hence it is that everyone within the spiritual church acknowledges as the truth of faith that which its founders have dictated, nor do they search further from the Word whether it be the very truth; and moreover if they did search they would not find it unless they had been regenerated and at the same time enlightened in an especial manner; and this for the reason that their intellectual can indeed be enlightened, but the new will cannot be affected with any other good than that which has been formed by means of conjunction with the truth received within the church. For their own will has been destroyed, and a new will has been formed in the intellectual part (see n. 863, 875, 1023, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256, 4328, 5113); and when their own will has been separated from the new will which is in the intellectual part, the light in this is feeble, such as is the nocturnal light from the moon and stars compared with the diurnal light from the sun. Hence also it is that by the "moon" in the Word, in the internal sense, is meant the good of spiritual love, and by the "sun" the good of celestial love (n. 30-38, 1529-1531, 2495, 4060).

[3] The case being so with the spiritual church, it is not to be wondered at that with most persons faith is the essential of the church, and not charity, and also that they have no doctrine of charity. Their doctrinal things being from the Word does not make them Divine truths, for from the sense of the letter of the Word any doctrinal thing whatever can be hatched, and that which favors the concupiscences can be readily learned; thus also what is false can be taken for what is true, as is the case with the doctrinal things of the Jews, of the Socinians, and of many others; but not so if doctrine is formed from the internal sense. The internal sense is not only that sense which lies concealed in the external sense, as has heretofore been shown, but is also that which results from a number of passages of the sense of the letter rightly collated, and which is discerned by those who are enlightened by the Lord in respect to their intellectual. For the enlightened intellectual discriminates between apparent truths and real truths, especially between falsities and truths, although it does not judge about real truths in themselves. But the intellectual cannot be enlightened unless it is believed that love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor are the principal and essential things of the church. He who proceeds from the acknowledgment of these, provided he himself is in them, sees innumerable truths; nay, he sees very many secrets disclosed to him, and this from interior acknowledgment, according to the degree of the enlightenment from the Lord.