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Matteus 5

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1 Og da han så folket, gikk han op fjellet, og da han hadde satt sig, kom hans disipler til ham.

2 Og han oplot sin munn, lærte dem og sa:

3 Salige er de fattige i ånden; for himlenes rike er deres.

4 Salige er de som sørger; for de skal trøstes.

5 Salige er de saktmodige; for de skal arve jorden.

6 Salige er de som hungrer og tørster efter rettferdighet; for de skal mettes.

7 Salige er de barmhjertige; for de skal finne barmhjertighet.

8 Salige er de rene av hjertet; for de skal se Gud.

9 Salige er de fredsommelige; for de skal kalles Guds barn.

10 Salige er de som er forfulgt for rettferdighets skyld; for himlenes rike er deres.

11 Salige er I når de spotter og forfølger eder og lyver eder allehånde ondt på for min skyld.

12 Gled og fryd eder! for eders lønn er stor i himmelen; for således forfulgte de profetene før eder.

13 I er jordens salt; men når saltet mister sin kraft, hvad skal det så saltes med? Det duer ikke lenger til noget, uten til å kastes ut og tredes ned av menneskene.

14 I er verdens lys; en by som ligger på et fjell, kan ikke skjules;

15 en tender heller ikke et lys og setter det under en skjeppe, men i staken; så skinner det for alle i huset.

16 La således eders lys skinne for menneskene, forat de kan se eders gode gjerninger og prise eders Fader i himmelen!

17 I må ikke tro at jeg er kommet for å opheve loven eller profetene; jeg er ikke kommet for å opheve, men for å opfylle.

18 For sannelig sier jeg eder: Før himmel og jord forgår, skal ikke den minste bokstav eller en eneste tøddel forgå av loven, før det er skjedd alt sammen.

19 Derfor, den som bryter et eneste av disse minste bud og lærer menneskene således, han skal kalles den minste i himlenes rike; men den som holder dem og lærer andre dem, han skal kalles stor i himlenes rike.

20 For jeg sier eder: Dersom eders rettferdighet ikke overgår de skriftlærdes og fariseernes, kommer I ingenlunde inn i himlenes rike.

21 I har hørt at det er sagt til de gamle: Du skal ikke slå ihjel, men den som slår ihjel, skal være skyldig for dommen.

22 Men jeg sier eder at hver den som blir vred på sin bror uten grunn, skal være skyldig for dommen; men den som sier til sin bror: aka! skal være skyldig for rådet; men den som sier: Du dåre! skal være skyldig til helvedes ild.

23 Derfor, når du bærer ditt offer frem til alteret, og der kommer i hu at din bror har noget imot dig,

24 så la ditt offer ligge der foran alteret, og gå først bort og forlik dig med din bror, og kom så og bær ditt offer frem!

25 Skynd dig å være føielig mot din motstander så lenge du er med ham på veien, forat ikke motstanderen skal overgi dig til dommeren, og dommeren overgi dig til tjeneren, og du bli kastet i fengsel.

26 Sannelig sier jeg dig: Du skal ingenlunde komme ut derfra før du har betalt den siste øre.

27 I har hørt at det er sagt: Du skal ikke drive hor.

28 Men jeg sier eder at hver den som ser på en kvinne for å begjære henne, har alt drevet hor med henne i sitt hjerte.

29 Om ditt høire øie frister dig, da riv det ut og kast det fra dig! for det er bedre for dig at ett av dine lemmer går tapt enn at hele ditt legeme blir kastet i helvede.

30 Og dersom din høire hånd frister dig, da hugg den av og kast den fra dig! for det er bedre for dig at ett av dine lemmer går tapt enn at hele ditt legeme kommer i helvede.

31 Det er sagt: Den som skiller sig fra sin hustru, skal gi henne skilsmissebrev.

32 Men jeg sier eder at hver den som skiller sig fra sin hustru uten for hors skyld, han volder at hun driver hor, og den som gifter sig med en fraskilt kvinne, han driver hor.

33 Atter har I hørt at det er sagt til de gamle: Du skal ikke sverge falsk ed, men du skal holde dine eder for Herren.

34 Men jeg sier eder at I aldeles ikke skal sverge, hverken ved himmelen, for den er Guds trone,

35 eller ved jorden, for den er hans fotskammel, eller ved Jerusalem, for det er den store konges stad.

36 Heller ikke skal du sverge ved ditt hode; for du kan ikke gjøre ett hår hvitt eller sort.

37 Men eders tale skal være ja, ja, nei, nei; det som er mere enn dette, er av det onde.

38 I har hørt at det er sagt: Øie for øie, og tann for tann!

39 Men jeg sier eder at I ikke skal sette eder imot den som er ond mot eder; men om nogen slår dig på ditt høire kinn, da vend også det andre til ham,

40 og om nogen vil føre sak mot dig og ta din kjortel, da la ham også få kappen,

41 og om nogen tvinger dig til å gå en mil, da gå to med ham.

42 Gi den som ber dig, og vend dig ikke bort fra den som vil låne av dig.

43 I har hørt at det er sagt: Du skal elske din næste og hate din fiende.

44 Men jeg sier eder: Elsk eders fiender, velsign dem som forbanner eder, gjør vel imot dem som hater eder, og bed for dem som forfølger eder,

45 forat I kan bli eders himmelske Faders barn; for han lar sin sol gå op over onde og gode, og lar det regne over rettferdige og urettferdige.

46 For om I elsker dem som elsker eder, hvad lønn har I da? Gjør ikke også tolderne det samme?

47 Og om I hilser bare på eders brødre, hvad stort gjør I da? Gjør ikke også hedningene det samme?

48 Derfor skal I være fullkomne, likesom eders himmelske Fader er fullkommen.

   

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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.