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馬太福音 5

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1 耶穌看見這許多的人,就上了,既已下,門徒到他跟前來,

2 他就開口教訓他們,

3 虛心的人有福了!因為國是他們的。

4 哀慟的人有福了!因為他們必得安慰。

5 溫柔的人有福了!因為他們必承受地土。

6 飢渴慕的人有福了!因為他們必得飽足。

7 憐恤人的人有福了!因為他們必蒙憐恤。

8 清心的人有福了!因為他們必得見神。

9 使人和睦的人有福了!因為他們必稱為神的兒子。

10 受逼迫的人有福了!因為國是他們的。

11 人若因我辱罵你們,逼迫你們,捏造各樣壞話毀謗你們,你們就有福了!

12 應當歡喜快樂,因為你們在上的賞賜是大的。在你們以前的先知,人也是這樣逼迫他們。

13 你們是世上的若失了味,怎能叫他再鹹呢?以後無用,不過丟在外面,被人踐踏了。

14 你們是世上的光。城造在山上是不能藏的。

15 人點,不放在斗底下,是放在燈臺上,就亮一家的人。

16 你們的光也當這樣在人前,叫他們看見你們的好行為,便將榮耀歸給你們在上的父。

17 莫想我要廢掉律法和先知。我不是要廢掉,乃是要成全。

18 我實在告訴你們,就是到地都廢去了,律法的一點一畫也不能廢去,都要成全。

19 所以,無論何人廢掉這誡命中最小的一條,又教訓人這樣作,他在國要稱為最小的。但無論何人遵行這誡命,又教訓人遵行,他在國要稱為大的。

20 告訴你們,你們的若不勝於文士和法利賽人,斷不能進國。

21 你們見有吩咐古人的話,:不可殺人;又:凡殺人的難免受審判。

22 只是我告訴你們:凡(有古卷在凡字下加:無緣無故地)向弟兄動怒的,難免受審斷;凡罵弟兄是拉加的,難免公會的審斷;凡罵弟兄是魔利的,難免地獄的火。

23 所以,你在祭壇上獻禮物的時候,若想起弟兄向你懷怨,

24 就把禮物留在壇前,先去同弟兄和好,然後禮物

25 你同告你的對頭還在上,就趕緊與他和息,恐怕他把你送給審判,審判交付衙役,你就下在監裡了。

26 我實在告訴你,若有一文錢沒有還清,你斷不能從那裡出來。

27 你們見有話:不可姦淫。

28 只是我告訴你們,凡看見婦女就動淫念的,這人心裡已經與他犯姦淫了。

29 若是你的右眼叫你跌倒,就剜出來丟掉,寧可失去百中的一,不叫全身丟在地獄裡。

30 若是右手叫你跌倒,就砍下來丟掉,寧可失去百中的一,不叫全身下入地獄。

31 又有話:人若休妻,就當給他休書。

32 只是我告訴你們,凡休妻的,若不是為淫亂的緣故,就是叫他作淫婦了;人若娶這被休的婦人,也是犯姦淫了。

33 你們又見有吩咐古人的話,:不可背誓,所起的誓總要向主謹守。

34 只是我告訴你們,甚麼誓都不可起。不可指著起誓,因為是神的座位;

35 不可指著地起誓,因為地是他的腳凳;也不可指著耶路撒冷起誓,因為耶路撒冷是大君的京城;

36 又不可指著你的頭起誓,因為你不能使一根頭髮變黑變白了。

37 你們的話,是,就說是;不是,就說不是;若再多說,就是出於那惡者(或作:就是從惡裡出來的)。

38 你們見有話:以眼還眼,以牙還牙。

39 只是我告訴你們,不要與惡人作對。有人打你的右臉,連左臉也過來由他打;

40 有人想要告你,要拿你的裡衣,連外衣也由他拿去;

41 有人強逼你走一里路,你就同他走二里;

42 有求你的,就給他;有向你貸的,不可推辭。

43 你們見有話:當愛你的鄰舍,恨你的仇敵。

44 只是我告訴你們,要愛你們的仇敵,為那逼迫你們的禱告

45 這樣就可以作你們父的兒子;因為他叫日頭照好人,也照歹人;降雨給人,也給不的人。

46 你們若單愛那愛你們的人,有甚麼賞賜呢?就是稅吏不也是這樣行麼?

47 你們若單請你弟兄的安,比人有甚麼長處呢?就是外邦人不也是這樣行麼?

48 所以,你們要完全,像你們的父完全一樣。

   

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De Verbo (The Word) # 14

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14. XIV. The Word in the heavens.

The Word exists in all the heavens, and it is read there as it is in the world, and sermons are based on it. For it is the Divine Truth which is the source of the angels' intelligence and wisdom. For without the Word no one knows anything about the Lord, love and faith, redemption, and all the other secrets of heavenly wisdom. In fact without the Word heaven would not exist, just as without the Word there would be no church in the world, so that there would be no linking with the Lord. I demonstrated above that natural theology is impossible without revelation, and in the Christian world without the Word. If it is not granted in the world, neither would it be granted after death. For the nature of a person's religious belief in the world dictates its nature after death, when he becomes a spirit. The whole of heaven is not made up of angels created before the world or at the same time as it, but of those who were people on earth, and were then angels inwardly. By means of the Word these in heaven acquire spiritual, that is, inner wisdom, because the Word there is spiritual.

[2] The Word in the Lord's spiritual kingdom is not the same as the Word in the world. In the world there is the natural Word, but in that kingdom there is a spiritual Word. The difference is like that between its natural and spiritual senses. The nature of the spiritual sense has been demonstrated at length in my Arcana Caelestia, where the whole contents of Genesis and Exodus have been explained in accordance with that sense. The difference is such that no word is the same. Things take the place of names, and likewise of numbers; the histories are replaced by matters concerning the church. The surprising thing is that, when an angel reads it, he is unaware that it is not the same as what he read in the Word while in the world. This is because he no longer has any natural ideas, since they are replaced with spiritual ones; and the natural and the spiritual are linked by correspondences into a kind of unity.

So when someone passes from the natural into the spiritual, it seems to him as if they were the same. In fact an angel does not know that he is wiser than he was in the world, though his wisdom is really so superior as to be comparatively indescribable. He is unable to recognise the difference, because in his spiritual state he knows nothing of the natural state, which he had in the world; and he is unable to compare and differentiate them, because he cannot return to his former state so as to make a comparison. Still an angel in heaven is constantly being brought to a higher degree of perfection in wisdom than he had in the world, because his affection for spiritual truth is purer. 1

[3] However, the Word in the Lord's celestial kingdom is far superior and wiser than the Word in His spiritual kingdom. The difference is of the same kind as that which distinguishes the natural Word in the world from the spiritual Word, as has been stated. For that Word contains an inmost sense, called celestial, which in all its details refers to nothing but the Lord. In this Word the Lord is read in place of Jehovah, and of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and also the Lord is named in place of David, Moses, Elijah and the rest of the Prophets; and His divinity is distinguished by special marks. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and also the names of the Apostles, when read there, convey something about the Lord as regards the church; and so with all the rest. From this it became plain to me that the whole of the Sacred Scripture deals in its inmost sense with nothing but the Lord.

The difference which distinguishes the two Words, the spiritual and the celestial, is like that between thoughts, the province of the intellect, and affections, the province of the will. For the angels of the celestial kingdom are guided by love to the Lord and so affection for good; the angels of the spiritual kingdom are guided by faith in the Lord and so by perception of truth.

[4] Another difference between the celestial and spiritual Words is their script. The script of the spiritual Word is made up of letters resembling the printed letters of our world; but each letter has a meaning. If therefore you were to see that script, you would not understand a single word. For one letter succeeds another without a break, with dashes and dots above and below, since it is in accordance with spiritual speech, which has nothing in common with natural speech. The wiser angels are, the more they see of the inner secrets of their Word so written, more so than the simpler angels. What is stored there is plainly visible to the eyes of the wise, but not to the eyes of the simple. It is similar to what happens with our Word, but to a greater degree; here too the wise see more than the simple.

The script of the celestial Word, however, is made up of letters not known in the world. They are indeed alphabetical, but each one of them is composed of curved lines with serifs above and below, and there are small marks or dots in the letters, and also above and below them. I was told that the most ancient people on this earth had such a script. Some details agree with the Hebrew script, but not much. Such a script expresses the affections which make up a love; so it contains more secrets than they themselves can ever utter. They express these unutterable secrets which they perceive from their Word by means of representations. The wisdom hidden away in this Word surpasses the wisdom in the spiritual Word as a thousand does one.

[5] To make the difference between the three Words, the natural, the spiritual and the celestial, intelligible, let us take as an example the first chapters of Genesis, which deal with Adam, his wife and the Garden. 2 In the natural Word which we have in this world there is a description of the creation of the world, the first creation of man, and the earthly pleasures and delights of man and the world. By the persons named following him up to the Flood are meant his descendants, and the numbers mean their ages. But in the spiritual Word the angels of the spiritual kingdom have, this is not what is meant. The first chapter is a description of the reform and regeneration of the people of the most ancient church; this too is called a new creation. The second chapter describes as the Garden the intelligence of the people of that church; Adam and his wife stand for the church itself, and their descendants down to the Flood describe the changes in the state of that church, up to the time when it came to an end and was finally destroyed by the Flood.

But in the celestial Word possessed by the angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom, the first chapter describes the glorification of the Lord's Human; the Garden describes his Divine wisdom. Adam himself is understood to mean the Lord as regards the Divine itself and at the same time the Divine Human. His wife stands for the church, which since it has life from the Lord is called Eve from [the Hebrew word for] life. Adam says of her that she was to be his bone and his flesh, and [they should be] one flesh, because the church comes from the Lord, and is out of Him and with Him as if one. The names of the descendants of Adam describe the successive states by which the Lord was received by the people of that church and linked with them, until there was nothing at all received and so no linking.

[6] So when the first chapters in our Word are read by upright people, especially by boys and girls, and they feel joy at the state when everything was created and at the Garden, then these meanings are unfolded, and the spiritual angels understand them in accordance with their Word, and the celestial angels in accordance with theirs, without being aware that a person or a child is reading it. These meanings are unfolded in their due sequence because they correspond, and correspondences are from creation like this. This makes it plain what the Word is like in its depths, that is, it has three senses. The last is the natural one for men on earth; this deals mainly with worldly matters and where it deals with Divine matters, they are still described by the kind of things which the world contains. The middle sense is the spiritual one, which describes the kind of things which belong to the church. The inmost sense is the celestial one, which contains the kind of things which belong to the Lord. For the whole of nature is a theatre representing the Lord's kingdom; and the Lord's kingdom, heaven and the church, is a theatre representing the Lord Himself. For just as the Lord glorified His Human, so too He regenerates a person; and as He regenerates a person, so too did He create him.

[7] These facts may establish what the Word is like in its depths. The natural Word as possessed by the Christian part of the world contains within itself a spiritual and a celestial Word. For the spiritual sense of our Word is the Word in the heavens which make up the Lord's spiritual kingdom; and the celestial sense of our Word, its inmost sense, is the Word in the heavens which make up the Lord's celestial kingdom. Our Word therefore contains both the spiritual and the celestial Words; but the spiritual Word and the celestial Word do not contain the natural Word. The Word of our world is therefore the one most full of Divine wisdom, and consequently more holy than the Word of the heavens.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. Reading veri spiritualis for veri spirituali. -Translator

2. i.e. the Garden of Eden. -Translator

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.