1. Dat het Woord van het Oude Testament verborgenheden van de hemel bevat, en dat zowel het geheel als elke bijzonderheid daarvan op de Heer betrekking heeft, op Zijn hemel, op de Kerk, op het geloof en de dingen van het geloof, kan geen sterveling uit de letter opmaken. Uit de letter of uit de letterlijke zin ziet niemand iets anders, dan dat het in het algemeen gaat over de uiterlijke dingen van de Joodse Kerk, terwijl er overal een innerlijke zin is, dat nergens in het uiterlijke aan het licht komt, behalve dan het zeer weinige dat de Heer onthuld heeft en aan de apostelen heeft ontvouwd; zo bijvoorbeeld, dat de offeranden de Heer betekenen, het land Kanaän en Jeruzalem en ook het Paradijs, de hemel betekenen, waarom dan ook van het hemelse Kanaän en Jeruzalem gesproken wordt.

2592. Present with me there was a certain person who in the past had been one of those with more wisdom than others and was for that reason well-known in the learned world. I spoke to him on various subjects. ¹ Knowing that he was a wise man I talked to him about wisdom, about intelligence, about order, about the Word, and finally about the Lord. Of wisdom he said that no other wisdom existed except that which had to do with life and that wisdom could not have reference to anything else. Of intelligence he said it had its origin in wisdom. Of order he said that order had its origin in the supreme God and that living within that order was being wise and intelligent.

[2] As regards the Word, when I read to him something from the prophetical parts he was extremely delighted, above all with the fact that individual names and individual expressions meant things that were interior. He was utterly amazed that the learned nowadays take no delight in studying matters such as this. I perceived clearly that the interior parts of his thought or mind had been opened, and at the same time that those of certain Christians who were present had been closed, for with these Christians there reigned ill-will towards him and lack of belief that the Word was of such a nature. Indeed when I continued reading the Word he said that he could not remain because he perceived something more sacred than he could endure, being stirred inwardly by so much feeling. The Christians on the other hand said quite openly that they were able to remain; and the reason why they were able to do so was that their interiors had been closed and sacred things did not stir any such feelings within them.

[3] At length I spoke to him about the Lord, that He was born a man but conceived from God, that He cast off the human and put on the Divine, and that it is He who rules over all. To these points he replied that he knew many things about the Lord, and in his own way recognized that if the human race was to be saved it could not have been done in any other way. During this time certain bad Christians were introducing various objections, but to these he paid no attention, saying that it was not surprising that they did so, for during their lifetime they had absorbed obnoxious ideas regarding these matters and that unlike the ignorant they could not admit things of a confirmatory nature until these ideas had been dispersed. This person had been a gentile.

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