189. Chapter 4: Sacred Scripture, the Word of the Lord{1}

Sacred Scripture, the Word, Is Divine Truth Itself

IT is on everyone's lips that the Word comes from God, is divinely inspired, and is therefore holy. Nonetheless, until now we have not known where the divinity is in the Word. At the literal level the Word seems like poor writing in a strange style, lacking the sublime and lucid quality that modern works seem to have.

There are people who can easily fall into the wrong perspective on the Word and into contempt for it - people who respect nature more than God or as God and who therefore think under the influence of themselves and their own identity rather than the influence of heaven from the Lord. When people like this read the Word they are prone to say to themselves, "What is this? What is that? Is this divine? Would a God who had infinite wisdom be capable of talking this way? Where is its holiness? Where else could the holiness come from except [the reader's] religious attitudes and convictions?"

322. The four animals and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, signifies the acknowledgment and consequent glorification of the Lord by the angels of the higher heavens. This is evident from the signification of "the four animals and the four and twenty elders," as being, in general, the whole heaven, but especially the inmost heaven, consequently the angels of the higher heavens (of which see above, n. 313; here especially the angels of those heavens, because in what follows there is glorification by the angels of the lower heavens. Also from the signification of "fell down before the Lamb," as being acknowledgment from a humble heart. That "to fall down" signifies humiliation, and in that state acknowledgment of heart, see above n. 290. Acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine Human is clearly meant, for that is signified by "the Lamb" (See above, n. 314). What the higher heavens are, and what the lower heavens are, shall be told in a few words. There are three heavens: the third or inmost heaven is where the angels are who are in celestial love; the second or middle heaven is where the angels are who are in spiritual love; the first or ultimate heaven is where the angels are who are in spiritual-natural love. The third or inmost heaven is conjoined with the second or middle by intermediate angels, who are called celestial-spiritual and spiritual-celestial angels; these intermediate angels, together with the angels of the third or inmost heaven, constitute the higher heavens; while the remainder of those in the second or middle heaven, together with those who are in the first or outmost heaven, constitute the lower heavens. The "four animals" signify specifically the third or inmost heaven, and the "four and twenty elders" the second or middle heaven that is in conjunction with the third or inmost; thus together they signify the higher heavens. Respecting the intermediate angels, called celestial-spiritual and spiritual-celestial, and the conjunction of the third heaven with the second by these, see Arcana Coelestia 1577, 1824, 2184, 4047, 4286, 4585, 4592, 4594, 6435, 6526, 8787, 8802, 9671).