3. Van zodanig leven beroofd, is het Woord ten aanzien van de letter dood. Het is met het Woord als met de mens, die, zoals in de christelijke wereld bekend is, uiterlijk is en innerlijk; de uitwendige mens, afgescheiden van de innerlijke, is slechts een lichaam en dus dood, maar het is de innerlijke mens die leeft, en aan de uitwendige mens het leven geeft. De innerlijke mens is zijn ziel; zo ook is het Woord naar de letter slechts als een lichaam zonder ziel.

11. In the internal or spiritual sense of the Word innumerable things are hidden.

The Word in its internal sense contains many things which surpass human comprehension: 3085-3086. They cannot be expressed in words, and cannot be explained: 1955. They exist solely for the angels, and are understood by them: 167. The internal sense of the Word contains the hidden things of heaven, which have to do with the Lord and His kingdom in heaven and on earth: 1-4, 937. Those hidden things do not appear in the literal sense: 937, 1502, 2161. Many other things in the writings of the prophets, which appear as if randomly scattered, in the internal sense fit together continuously in a beautiful ¹ sequence: 7153, 9022. In its original language not a single word, not even a single jot, can be missing from the literal meaning without interruption of the internal sense; and for that very reason the Word, out of the Lord's divine providence, has been preserved so completely, down to the last tittle: 7933. There are innumerable things in each individual part of the Word: 6617, 6620, 8920. And in each and every phrase: 1869. Countless things are contained in the Lord's Prayer and in its individual petitions: 6619. And in the Ten Commandments; though in the external sense of these there are some ideas which are known to every nation without revelation: 8862, 8899. In every tiny little tittle of a letter of the Word in its original language there is something holy, revealed from Heaven, this may be seen in the work Heaven and Hell 260, where the words of the Lord are explained, that Not one jot or tittle shall be lost from the Law; Matthew 5:18.

Particularly in the prophetical part of the Word there are two expressions of the same thing, as it were, but one refers to what is good and the other to what is true: 683, 707, 2576, 8339. In the Word things relating to what is good and what is true are married together, to an amazing degree, but that marriage is evident only to one who is acquainted with the internal sense: 10554. So, in the Word and in its individual parts there are divine marriage and heavenly marriage: 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 5138, 7022. Divine marriage, which is the marriage between divine good and divine truth, is thus the Lord in heaven, in whom alone that marriage exists there: 3004-3005, 3009, 4137, 5194, 5502, 6343, 7945, 8339, 9263, 9314. Through Jesus also there is signified divine good, and through Christ divine truth, and thus through both divine marriage in heaven is signified: 3004-3005, 3009. This marriage-and thus the Lord as regards divine good and divine truth-is in each individual part of the Word in its internal sense: 5502. The marriage of good and truth by the Lord in heaven and in the Church is what is called heavenly marriage: 2508, 2618, 2803, 3004, 3211, 3952, 6179. Thus in this respect the Word is heaven, so to speak: 2173, 10126. Heaven is likened to marriage in the Word from the marriage of good and truth there: 2758, 3132, 4434, 4835. The internal sense is itself the genuine doctrine of the Church: 9025, 9430, 10400. Those who understand the Word according to its internal sense know the true doctrine itself of the Church, because the internal sense contains that: 9025, 9430, 10400. The internal part of the Word is also the internal part of the Church, and so also of worship: 10460. The Word is the doctrine of love towards the Lord, and affectionate regard for your neighbour: 3419-3420.

The Word in its literal meaning is like a cloud, and its glory is in its internal sense-Preface to Genesis 18; also 5922, 6343-where there is explained that the Lord will come in the clouds of the sky with glory. Also 'cloud' in the Word signifies the Word in its literal sense, and 'glory' signifies the Word in its internal sense-Preface to Genesis 18: also 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 8106, 8781, 9430, 10551, 10574. Things which are in the literal sense, compared to those in the internal sense, are like rough projections round a polished optical cylinder, from which nevertheless there exists in the cylinder a beautiful image of a man: 1871. Those who wish for and recognize only the literal sense are represented in the spiritual world as an ugly little old woman, while those who wish for and recognize at the same time the internal sense appear as a virgin finely clothed: 1774. The Word in all that it embraces is an image of heaven, because the Word is divine truth, and divine truth constitutes heaven, and heaven resembles one human, and in that respect The Word is an image of a human, as it were: 1871. That heaven in its total make-up resembles one human may be seen in the work Heaven and Hell 59-67. That divine truth proceeding from the Lord constitutes heaven, 126-140, 200-212. The Word is presented to the Angels in a beautiful and delightful way: 1767-1768. The literal sense is like a body, and the internal sense is like the soul of that body: 8943.

Consequently, life for the Word comes from its internal sense: 1405, 4857. The Word is pure in its internal sense, and it does not appear so in its literal sense: 2362, 2395. Things in the literal sense become holy from internal things: 10126, 10276. In the historical narratives of the Word also there is an internal sense, but within them: 4989. Thus the historical parts just as much as the prophetical parts contain hidden things of heaven: 755, 1659, 1709, 2310, 2333. The angels perceive these not in relation to history but in relation to doctrine, because they perceive them spiritually: 6884. The innermost hidden things in the historical narratives are less evident to humans than those in the prophetical parts for the simple reason that their minds are intent upon, and in contemplation of, the historical parts: 2176, 6597.

Moreover, the nature of the internal sense of the Word is shown: 1756, 1984, 2004, 2663, 3035, 7089, 10604, 10614, and it is illustrated by comparisons: 1873.

Notes de bas de page:

10604. 'And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke' means the Divine celestial and spiritual realities belonging to the interior level of these three entities, which are present also in those external things. This is clear from the meaning of these 'tablets' as the outward or external things of the Word, the Church, and worship, dealt with above in 10603; and from the meaning of 'the words' which Jehovah wrote on them as Divine things on an interior level, thus those composing the inward or internal sense, dealt with in 10453, 10461, which appear before the angels in heaven, in the light there, and are therefore called celestial and spiritual realities. The celestial realities there are those of love, and the spiritual ones are those of faith springing from love. From all this it is evident that 'I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke' means that the Divine celestial and spiritual realities belonging to the interior level of the Word, the Church, and worship are present also in those external things. For the nature of all this, see what has been shown in the previous paragraph.

[2] Since at the present day the fact that the Word contains an internal sense, and indeed what the internal sense of the Word is, are completely unknown, a further brief statement must be made regarding it. The ideas constituting angels' thought are not natural, as those constituting men's are; instead they are spiritual. But it is difficult for anyone to grasp what their spiritual ideas are like unless he thinks and reflects on a more internal level about his own thoughts as they are in their first beginnings. They then exist without the words of language, as is recognized from their being of such a nature that a person can grasp in an instant more than can be expressed by an utterance made in any space of time. Ideas such as these composing thought belong to the person's spirit. But the ideas that a person grasps and that pass into words are natural ones, which the learned call material, whereas the former, that is, those existing on a more internal level, are called spiritual, and by the learned immaterial. A person enters into these ideas after death, when he becomes a spirit, and uses them to converse with other spirits. A correspondence exists between these ideas and natural ones, and through that correspondence spiritual ideas are converted into natural ones when the person speaks. The person is not conscious of this because he does not stop to reflect on it, nor are any capable of reflecting on it except those who think on a more internal level, that is, on that of their spirit separately from the body. This is something that people whose minds do not rise above the level of the senses cannot do at all.

[3] Now since a correspondence exists between spiritual thought and natural thought, and since angels' thought is spiritual, that which man perceives on a natural level the angels perceive on a spiritual one; and they do so in an instant without any reflection on the difference. This happens in particular when a person reads the Word or has thoughts inspired by the Word; for the Word has been written in such a way that a correspondence exists in every single part, as when for example a person reads these words of the Lord in Matthew,

After the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory. Matthew 24:29-30.

[4] The angels understand these words altogether differently from man. By 'the sun' which will be darkened they do not understand the sun but love to the Lord; nor by 'the moon' do they understand the moon but faith in the Lord, nor by 'the stars' the stars but cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth. By 'the Son of Man' they understand the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, and 'the tribes of the earth' all the truths of the Church; by 'the clouds of heaven' they understand the Word in the literal sense, and 'power and glory' the Word in the internal sense. Angels come, through correspondence, instantaneously into this understanding of these words when a person reads them. Nor do they know that the person's thoughts then are of the sun, moon, stars, clouds of heaven, and all the rest. The reason for this is that angels' ideas are spiritual, and spiritual ideas are such that objects belonging to the natural order are converted into realities seen in heavenly light, which is Divine Truth from the Lord.

[5] A further reason why angels perceive the Word in that kind of way when a person reads it is that angels are present with a person, residing in his affections, while the person as to his spirit lives in association with spirits, and as to his more internal thought, which is spiritual, with the angels of heaven. From this also comes the person's ability to think.

These things have been mentioned in order that people may know what the internal sense of the Word is or what the interior things of the Word, the Church, and worship are, which are called celestial and spiritual realities.