20. 4. The spiritual meaning of the Word has not been recognized before. It was explained in Heaven and Hell 87-105 that absolutely everything in the physical world corresponds to something spiritual, as does absolutely everything in the human body. However, the nature of this correspondence has been unknown until the present time, even though it was common knowledge in ancient times. For the people who lived in those times, the knowledge of how things correspond to each other was the very essence of knowledge. This knowledge was so universal that it governed the writing of all their scrolls and books.

[2] The Book of Job, which is an ancient work, is full of correspondences. So were the Egyptian hieroglyphs and the fables of the earliest peoples. All the ancient churches had practices that symbolized heavenly things. Their rituals, as well as the regulations underlying their worship, were made up entirely of correspondences. The same held true for everything about the church among the children of Jacob - their burnt offerings and sacrifices were correspondences even with respect to details. So were the tabernacle and everything in it. So were their feasts - the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of First Fruits. So too was the priesthood of Aaron and the Levites as well as the sacred garments of Aaron and his sons. So also were all the laws and judgments that had to do with their worship and life.

[3] And since divine things become manifest in this world by means of correspondences, the Word was written entirely by means of them. That is why the Lord, speaking as he did from his divine nature, spoke in correspondences, since in the physical world whatever comes from the divine nature clothes itself in things that correspond to divine realities and that therefore conceal in their embrace the divine realities that we call heavenly and spiritual.