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Things in General Involved in the Internal Sense
Selection from
Arcana coelestia
the
HEAVENLY ARCANA
contained in the holy scripture or word of the lord
UNFOLDED
together with wonderful things seen in the world of
spirits and in the heaven of angels
translated from the latin of
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
... the series or connection itself of the things, and its beauty, cannot appear when each separate thing is explained in detail according to the signification of the words, as they would if they were embraced in a single idea, for when they are all apprehended under a single idea the things that had been scattered appear beautifully coherent and connected. The case herein is like that of one who hears another speaking, and gives his attention to the words; in which case he does not so well apprehend the idea of the speaker as he would if he paid no attention to the words or their signification. For the internal sense of the Word holds nearly the same relation to the external or literal sense as speech does to its words when these are scarcely heard, still less attended to, and when the mind is kept exclusively in the sense of the things signified by the words of the speaker.
The most ancient mode of writing represented subjects by using persons and words which were understood as meaning things that were quite different. Profane writers then composed their historicals in this way, even those matters which pertained to civic and moral life; and in fact so that nothing was exactly the same as it was written in the letter, but under this something else was meant; they even presented affections of every kind as gods and goddesses, to whom the heathen afterwards instituted Divine worship, as may be known to every man of letters, for such ancient books are still extant. They derived this mode of writing from the most ancient people who existed before the flood, who represented heavenly and Divine things to themselves by such as were visible on the earth and in the world, and so filled their minds and souls with joys and delights while beholding the objects of the universe, especially such as were beautiful in their form and order; and therefore all the books of the church of those times were written in this way. Such is the book of Job; and, in imitation of those books, such is Solomon's Song of Songs. Such were the two books mentioned by Moses in Num. 21:14, 27; besides many that have perished.
At a later period this style of writing was venerated on account of its antiquity, both among the Gentiles and the posterity of Jacob, to such a degree that whatever was not written in this style they did not venerate as Divine, and therefore when they were moved by the prophetic Spirit, they spoke in a similar manner; and this for many hidden reasons. This was the case with Jacob (Gen. 49:3-17); with Moses (Exod. 15:1-21; Deut. 33:2-29); with Balaam, who was of the sons of the East, from Syria where the Ancient Church still existed (Num. 23:7-10, 19-24; 24:5-9, 17-24); with Deborah and Barak (Judges 5:2-31); with Hannah (1 Sam. 2:2-10); and with many others. And though very few understood or knew that their words signified the heavenly things of the Lord's kingdom and church, still, being touched and penetrated with the awe of admiration, they felt that what was Divine and holy was in them.
But that the historicals of the Word are similar - that is, that in respect to every name and every word they are representative and significative of the celestial and the spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom - has not yet become known to the learned world, except in that the Word is inspired as to the smallest iota, and that there are heavenly arcana in all things of it in both general and particular.
(Arcana Coelestia 1756)
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Appended to Letter written by Emanuel Swedenborg to Oetinger, November 8, 1768
ON THE NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE WORD
Hitherto it has been entirely unknown in the Christian world that in the Word there is an internal or spiritual sense within its external or natural sense like a precious stone in its matrix or a beautiful infant in its swaddling clothes, and as a result it has also been unknown what is understood by the Consummation of the Age, the advent of the Lord, the Last Judgment, and the New Jerusalem - matters, concerning which many things are said and predicted in the Word of both Testaments, the Old and the New.
Without the unfolding and unswathing of the sense of the letter of the Word by means of its spiritual sense, who can grasp with his understanding the least thing of what is meant by the things the Lord foretold in the 24th chapter of Matthew, and also in the Revelation or by the things in Daniel and in many places in the Prophets! Be so good as to try it. Read the prophetic Word here and there, where it deals now with wild animals and beasts, now with pools and marshes, now with woods and thickets, now with valleys and mountains, now with screech owls, howling creatures (ochim), wild beasts of the desert (tziim), satyrs, etc. Would you be able to perceive anything Divine in these things, unless you believed it to lie hidden within like a gem in its matrix, as just stated, and this because the Word is inspired by God? That the gems or precious things which lie hidden within are the things contained in the internal sense, has been fully shown in the
DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE n. 5-26. It is also shown in that work that the literal sense of the Word is the basis, containant, and support of its spiritual sense, n. 27-36; further that the Divine Truth is in its fullness, its holiness, and its power in the sense of the letter of the Word, n. 37-49; as also that the doctrine of the Church is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word and confirmed by that sense, n. 50-61; and still further that there is conjunction with the Lord and consociation with angels by means of the sense of the letter of the Word through the medium of its spiritual sense, n. 62-9.
To the above I wish to add something new from the spiritual world. The leaders of the Church who come into that world after death are first taught, with regard to the Sacred Scripture, that there is a spiritual sense within it, which was unknown to them in the world; and it is also told them that the angels of heaven are in that sense when a man is in the sense of the letter; and further that the translation or change of the sense of the letter into the spiritual sense takes place near to the man [prope hominem, i.e. in his spiritual environment] when he reads the Word in a holy manner, and that there is a certain unfolding or unswathing in like manner as when a shell around an almond is broken, and the shell is scattered and the bared almond passes into heaven and is received by angels. It is also as when a seed is cast into the earth, and is there bared of its coverings and puts forth a shoot. That seed is the Word in the sense of the letter, and the shoot from it is the spiritual sense. This sense passes on to the angels, while the sense of the letter remains dormant with the man. Nevertheless that seed remains with the man in his mind as in its soil, and in time it produces its sprout and this its fruit, provided the man is conjoined to the Lord, and thus consociated with angels, by means of the seeds of life, which are the truths of faith and the forms of goodness that are part of charity.
The leaders are further warned at all costs to accept the belief that the Word is spiritual within, because it is Divine, and that unless they have accepted this belief they call be seduced by satans, to the point of denying the holiness of the Word; and if this is denied, the Church with them disappears. It is also impressed upon them that if they do not believe in this internal sense of the Word, the Word may at last appear to them like an ill-formed and clumsy writing, or like a book of all heresies, since from its sense of the letter as from some pool or other heresies of all kinds may be drawn, and confirmed by means of it.
Later those who believe in the internal sense of the Word are received into companies of angelic spirits who are afterwards lifted up into heaven and become angels.
But those who do not believe are sent away to companies of spirits who are afterwards cast into hell and become satans. Those are called satans there who in the world had falsified every truth of the Word, and are therefore so imbued with falsehoods that they no longer see the least thing of truth. |
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