1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

3373. And unto thy seed. That this signifies truth, is evident from the signification of “seed,” as being truth (see n. 29, 255, 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3310); thus it signifies the truth which is from the Lord’s Divine, which is “thy seed.” They who apprehend the Word only according to the sense of the letter cannot know but that “seed” denotes posterity, consequently here the posterity of Isaac from Esau and Jacob, and chiefly from Jacob, because the Word was in that nation and it contains so many historical facts concerning them. But in the internal sense by “seed” there is not meant any posterity from Isaac, but all those who are sons of the Lord, thus the sons of His kingdom, or what is the same, who are in good and truth from the Lord; and because these are “seed,” it follows that the very good and truth from the Lord are “seed,” for hence come the sons; wherefore also the very truths from the Lord are called the “sons of the kingdom,” in Matthew:

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom (Matthew 13:37-38);

hence also by “sons” in general are signified truths (n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623).

[2] Everyone who thinks somewhat more deeply or interiorly may know that in the Divine Word by the “seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,” so often mentioned, and concerning which it is so frequently said that it should be blessed, and this above all nations and people in the world, cannot be signified their posterity; for above all nations they were least of all in the good of love to the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor, and were not even in any truth of faith; for they were utterly ignorant of what the Lord is, what His kingdom, thus what heaven is, and what the life after death, both because they did not want to know, and because if they had learned about these things, they would at heart have totally denied them, and would thus have profaned interior goods and truths, just as they so frequently profaned exterior ones by becoming open idolaters; which is the reason why in the sense of the letter of the Word of the Old Testament any interior things so rarely stand forth to view. Being of this nature, the Lord has said concerning them, quoting Isaiah:

He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them (John 12:40);

and again when they said:

We are Abraham’s seed; Abraham is our father; Jesus said unto them, If ye were Abraham’s sons, ye would do the works of Abraham; ye are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do (John 8:33, 39, 44);

by “Abraham” here is meant the Lord, as everywhere in the Word; and that the Jews were not his seed, or sons, but the seed of the devil, is plainly stated. All this shows very plainly that by the “seed of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” as mentioned in the historical and prophetical Word, are by no means meant their posterity-for the Word throughout is Divine-but all those who are the Lord’s “seed,” that is, who are in the good and truth of faith in Him. (That from the Lord alone comes heavenly seed, that is, all good and truth, may be seen above n. 1438, 1614, 2016, 2803, 2882-2883, 2891, 2892, 2904, 3195)