Matthew 24 and 25 are the only chapters in the four gospels that receive systematic commentary by Swedenborg. That makes them really interesting, because we get a glimpse of how to look for the inner meaning using methods like the ones he used to study Genesis, Exodus, and Revelation.

We find this commentary deep in the middle of "Arcana Coelestia". For chapter 24, it starts in Arcana Coelestia 3353, (and continues in 3487-3489, 3650-3655, 3750-3757, 3897-3900, 4056-4060, 4229-4335, 4422-4424). Here's an excerpt from no. 3353:

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"Here first let the... words be explained which appear in Matthew [24:3-8].... Those who confine themselves to the sense of the letter cannot know whether these words and those that follow in this chapter refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews, or whether they refer to the end of days which is called the Last Judgement. But those admitted into the internal sense see clearly that the end of the Church is being referred to, this end being that which here and in other places is called 'the coming of the Lord' and 'the close of the age'. And inasmuch as the end of the Church is meant one is able to see that all these statements made by the Lord mean such things as have to do with the Church. But their overall meaning may be seen from the individual meaning below which each of them has in the internal sense.

Many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ; and they will lead many astray. 'Name' here does not mean name, nor 'the Christ' the Christ, but 'name' means that by which the Lord is worshipped, 2724, 3006, while 'the Christ' means truth itself, 3009, 3010. Thus the meaning is that people will come who say that this is the sum and substance of faith, that is, it is the truth, when in fact it is neither the sum and substance of faith, nor the truth, but falsity.

They will hear of wars and rumours of wars means that arguments and disagreements over truths will arise which are wars in the spiritual sense.

Nation will be roused against nation and kingdom against kingdom means that evil will conflict with evil, and falsity with falsity, 'nation' meaning good, but in the contrary sense evil, see 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849, and 'kingdom' meaning truth, but in the contrary sense falsity, 1672, 2547. And there will be famines, and plagues, and earthquakes in various places means that no cognitions of good and truth will exist any more, and thus that the state of the Church is altered, meant by 'an earthquake'.'

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That's how Swedenborg described the inner meaning. Not surprisingly, it's pretty consistent with his exegesis of other books. It's interesting to see it applied to the Gospels, where often the literal meaning seems easier to apply to our lives than the stories of the Old Testament.

Next, we'll append the commentary on this chapter that Rev. John Clowes wrote back in the 1850's:

Verses 1, 2. The Lord predicts the vastation and destruction of the church.

Verses 3, 4. And from His Divine Love teaches, that the understanding ought to be opened to the light of truth, to prevent its being misled by falsities.

Verse 5. Because those are about to come who will say that this is of faith, or this is truth, when yet it is neither of faith nor is it truth, but what is false.

Verse 6. Debates also and disputes will exist concerning truths.

Verse 7. And the evil is about to fight against good, and the false against truth, and there will no longer be any knowledge of what is good and true, but perversion instead thereof, whereby the state of the church will be changed.

Verse 8. That this is the first state of the perversion of the church.

Verse 9. That the second state is when good and truth are about to perish, first by perversion, next by denial, and then by contempt for, and aversion from, all things which are of good and truth.

Verse 10. That hence will come enmities against the Lord's Divine Humanity, and likewise against all truth and good.

Verse 11. Also false doctrines and derivations thence.

Verse 12. And with faith will expire charity, according to the falsities of faith.

Verse 13. But they who are in charity, and do not suffer themselves to be seduced, will be saved.

Verse 14. And these things will first be made known in the Christian world, that none may pretend that they were ignorant, and then will be the consummation.

Verse 15. And when such things are observed, which had been predicted concerning vastation as to all things that are of good and truth, they ought to be carefully attended to, especially by those who are in love and faith.

Verse 16. Who, on such occasion, ought not to look elsewhere than to the Lord, thus to love to Him and charity towards the neighbour.

Verse 17. And they who are in the good of charity, ought not to take themselves thence to those things which are of the doctrines of faith.

Verse 18. And they who are in the good of truth, should not take themselves from its good to the doctrines of truth.

Verse 19. For they who are imbued with the good of love to the Lord, and with the good of innocence, will then be in danger of profaning those goods, and thus of eternal damnation.

Verse 20. They, therefore, who are principled in good and truth, ought to take heed lest a removal from those principles should be made precipitately in a state of too much cold arising from self-love, and in a state of too much heat arising from a holy external, concealing inwardly the loves of self and of the world.

Verse 21. For on that occasion will be the highest degree of perversion and vastation of the church as to good and truth, which is profanation.

Verse 22. So that for the salvation of those who are in the life of good, it will be necessary that they who are of the church should be removed from interior goods and truths to exterior.

Verses 23, 24. And the doctrine of those who are in a holy external principle, but in a profane internal, is to be guarded against, because it abounds with falsities.

Verse 24, latter part. Which falsities are supported by confirmations and persuasions grounded in external appearances and fallacies, whereby the simple suffer themselves to be seduced, but against which they are guarded who are in the life of good and truth.

Verse 25. Therefore there is need of prudence and caution.

Verse 26. Since they are not to be believed either as to what they speak about truth, or what they speak about good.

Verse 27. For as the lightning is instantly dissipated, so the internal worship of the Lord will at that time be dissipated also.

Verse 28. And confirmations of what is false will be multiplied by reasonings in the vastated church.

Verse 29. And where there is no longer any faith remaining, all love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour will disappear, and the knowledges of good and truth will perish, and thus the foundations of the church will be removed.

Verse 30. And then shall be the appearing of Truth Divine, and all who are in the good of love and the truth of faith will be in grief, and then shall be revealed the Word as to its internal sense, in which the Lord is.

Verse 31. And then shall be election by the influx of holy good and truth from the Lord by the angels, and thus the establishment of a new church.

Verse 32. And when this new church is creating by the Lord, then first of all appears the good of the natural principle with its affections and truths.

Verse 33. And when all the things above spoken of appear, then will be the consummation of the church, that is the last judgement and coming of the Lord, consequently then the old church will be rejected, and the new established.

Verse 34. And the Jewish nation in the mean time will not be extirpated like other nations.

Verse 35. And the internals and externals of the former church will perish, but the Word of the Lord will remain.

Verse 36. And the state of the church at that time, as to goods and truths, will not appear to anyone, neither in earth nor in heaven, but to the Lord alone.

Verse 37. But the state of the vastation of those who are of the church will resemble that of the first or most ancient church, the consummation of whose age, or whose last judgement, is described by a flood.

Verse 38, 39. For they will appropriate evil and the false, and will conjoin those principles in themselves, and will not know that they are inundated by them, because they will be ignorant what the good of love to the Lord is, and the good of charity towards the neighbour, also what the truth of faith is, therefore they will not receive the Divine Truth.

Verse 40. Nevertheless they within the church, who are in good, will be saved, and they within the church, who are in evil, will be damned.

Verse 41. And they within the church who are in truth, that is, in the affection thereof from good, will be saved, and they within the church who are in truth that is in the affection thereof from evil, will be damned.

Verses 42, 43, 44. Therefore man ought to procure to himself life from the Lord, which is spiritual life, because he is in ignorance what the state of his life is, which is to remain to eternity.

Verse 45. And for this purpose he should make enquiry concerning the principles of heavenly good and truth, by which the natural man is restored to order, and made receptive of heavenly life.

Verses 46, 47. Until he discovers that those principles are in conjunction with the Lord, and have thence dominion over all inferior principles.

Verses 48, 49, 50, 51. And that if the natural man through unbelief perverts those principles, and appropriates to himself evils and falsities, he will then know nothing of the interior state of his own life, but will be separated from all the goods and truths of heaven, and will have his lot with those who outwardly appear in truth as to doctrine, and in good as to life, but inwardly believe nothing of truth, and will nothing of good, whose state thereof in the other life is most lamentable, from the distraction between evils and goods, and the collision of falsities with truths.

5037. The reason why 'being committed to the prison-house' and 'being kept bound there' mean being subjected to temptations involving false-speaking against good is that the expression 'the prison house' is used for the entire place just beneath and round about the soles of the feet where those undergoing vastation are kept. Those undergoing vastation there are people who, in spite of their false assumptions and of their evil life arising from falsity, have nevertheless had good intentions. Such people cannot be received into heaven until they have divested themselves of their false assumptions and also of a living delight in them which sprang from these assumptions. People in that place are subjected to temptations, for the false assumptions and the living delights springing from these cannot be ousted except by means of temptations. The place where those people are, or rather the state which they are passing through, is meant in general by 'the prison-house' and those actual places by 'pits'. Regarding vastations in the next life, see 698, 699, 1106-1113, 2699, 2701, 2704. Those undergoing vastations are called 'the bound'; not that they are literally bound in any way but that they lack freedom so far as their previous thoughts and resulting affections are concerned.

[2] Such is the condition of those meant in the Word by 'the bound' and by 'those who are in prison', as is evident from other places in the Word:

In Isaiah,

I will give You to be a covenant of the people, a light of the nations, to open the blind eyes, to bring the bound out of prison, out of the dungeon-house those who sit in darkness. Isaiah 42:6-7.

This refers to the Lord and His Coming. Here 'opening the blind eyes and bringing the bound out of prison, and out of the dungeon-house those who sit in darkness' stands for those who have no knowledge of goodness and truth but who nevertheless have the desire to know and be taught about these. But in this instance a different word is used in the original language to describe a prison.

[3] In the same prophet,

All the young men are hidden in prison houses; they have become a prey, and none delivers and none says, Bring out. Isaiah 42:22.

'The young men' in the internal sense are the truths of faith, which are said 'to be hidden in prison-houses and to become a prey' when they are not acknowledged any longer. In the same prophet,

It will be on that day, that Jehovah will visit the host of the height on high, and the kings of the ground on the ground, and the bound will be gathered together over the pit, and they will be shut in ¹ the dungeon; after a multitude of days they will be visited. Isaiah 24:21-22.

'The bound over the pit' stands for those undergoing experiences of vastation, that is, temptation.

[4] In the same prophet,

What will you do on the day of visitation and vastation? It will come from afar. To whom will you flee for help? [Anyone] who has not bowed himself down will fall beneath the bound and beneath the slain. Isaiah 10:3-4.

'Beneath the bound' stands for the hell which lies below the places of vastation.' The slain' stands for those who through the false assumptions adopted by them have destroyed the truths of faith to a smaller extent than those pierced [by the sword] have done, dealt with in 4503.

[5] In Zechariah,

He will speak peace to the nations, and His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. Also as for You, through the blood of Your covenant I will let out the bound ones from the pit in which there is no water. Return to the stronghold, O bound ones of hope. Zechariah 9:10-12.

'Letting out the bound ones from the pit' stands for those who are undergoing vastation and temptation; for the places where such undergo vastation are called 'pits', see 4728, 4744. In David,

Jehovah hears the needy and does not despise His bound ones. Psalms 69:33.

In the same author,

Let the groaning of him who is bound come before You. Psalms 79:11.

In the same author,

Jehovah looked from the heavens towards the earth to hear the groaning of him who was bound, to open to the sons of death. Psalms 102:19-20.

'Those who are bound' stands for those who are undergoing vastation and temptations. In Isaiah,

In a time of good pleasure I have answered You, and in a day of salvation I have helped ² You; I have also guarded You, and I have given You for a covenant of the people to restore the land, to apportion the inheritances that have been laid waste, to say to those that are bound, Go out; and to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed ³ along the roads, and on all slopes will their pasture ⁴ be. And they will neither hunger nor thirst. Isaiah 49:8-10.

[6] In the same prophet,

The Spirit of the Lord Jehovih is upon Me, Jehovah has anointed Me; to bring good tidings to the poor He has sent Me, and to bind up the broken in heart; to preach liberty to captives, and to those who are bound, to him who is blind; to proclaim the year of Jehovah's good pleasure.

In David,

Jehovah who executes judgement for the oppressed, who gives bread to the hungry; Jehovah who sets the bound free; Jehovah who opens the blind [eyes]; Jehovah who lifts up the bowed down; Jehovah who loves the righteous; Jehovah who guards strangers, upholds the orphan and the widow. Psalms 146:7-9.

'The bound' stands for those who are undergoing vastation and temptations because of falsities.

From all these places it is also evident who are meant in Matthew by those who are bound or 'in prison' and likewise who are meant by 'the hungry, the thirsty, and strangers',

Then the King will say to those at His right hand, I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, naked and you clothed Me around, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me. Matthew 25:34-36

Regarding these verses, see the preliminary section of the present chapter, 4954-4958.

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