The Word
Consider the beautiful but cryptic statements of John 1:1:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
God's love has always been and will always be infinite and perfect. That means the expression of God's love -- His truth -- has also always been and will always be infinite and perfect.
The Lord has shared this truth with us in various ways since the beginning of humanity. The earliest people received truth directly, flowing into the inner parts of their minds from heaven. Later, people understood it through nature seeing the Lord's love expressed in mountains, trees, rivers, and the sun, moon and stars. By using natural language as a container for spiritual language, the Lord expressed truth within the Bible inside its stories, laws and prophecies. When humanity reached its lowest point, God took on a human form and walked among us as Jesus. In this way, the Lord brought us Divine truths in an accessible and tangible way. By accepting and loving the Lord as Jesus we can open ourselves to His love.
Finally, the Heavenly Doctrine received through the pen of Emanuel Swedenborg are themselves a container for Divine Truth, both in speaking plainly about heaven and by unlocking the truth as it is contained in the Bible.
The Word itself is Divine Truth; the Lord's expression of love has and never will change.
Canons of the New Church # 16
16. CHAPTER III. THIS DIVINE TRUTH IS MEANT BY "THE WORD" WHICH “BECAME FLESH" [John 1] 1
1. "Word" in Sacred Scripture signifies various things; for instance, it signifies "a thing that really comes into existence", then "the mind's thought", and thence "speech".
2. First of all it signifies everything that comes into existence from the mouth of God, and goes forth, thus the Divine Truth; then derivatively it signifies Sacred Scripture, for therein Divine Truth is in its essence and form. It is because of this that the Divine Truth is termed in a single expression "the Word".
3. The "ten words" of the Decalogue signify all Divine truths in the aggregate.
4. "The Word" in consequence signifies the Lord, the Redeemer and Saviour; for all things therein are from Him, thus Himself.
5. It can be seen from these things that by "the Word that in the beginning was with God" and that "was God" and that was "with God before the world was" is meant the Divine Truth, which before creation was in Jehovah, and after creation was from Jehovah, and finally was the Divine Human which Jehovah took to Himself in time; for it is said that "the Word became flesh", that is became Man.
6. The hypostatic Word is nothing else than the Divine Truth.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. Marginal Note: "The Hypostatic Word
The Son would not have been able to call Himself God, thus call Himself the Father. No Son of God from eternity could descend in accordance with the declaration of the doctrine of the present Church, inasmuch as:
1. He would not have been able to call Him His Father;
2. Nor would He have been able to say that all things of the Father were His.
3. Nor that He who sees Him sees the Father;
4. At the Baptism and the Transfiguration God the Father would not have been able to say:
This is My beloved Son. [Matt. 3:17; 17:5.]
besides a number of passages from the Old Testament Word about the Coming of the Lord, brought together in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD 6, and in them, that Jehovah would come."
In the Skara Manuscript this note follows in the text as number 8 of chapter ii.
