The Bible

 

Daniel 12

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1 Or in quel tempo si leverà Micael, quel gran principe, che sta per li figliuoli del tuo popolo; e vi sarà un tempo di distretta, quel non fu giammai, da che questo popolo è stato nazione, fino a quel tempo; ed in quel tempo d’infra il tuo popolo sarà salvato chiunque si troverà scritto nel libro.

2 E la moltitudine di quelli che dormono nella polvere della terra si risveglierà; gli uni a vita eterna, e gli altri a vituperii, e ad infamia eterna.

3 E gl’intendenti risplenderanno come lo splendor della distesa; e quelli che avranno giustificati molti, risplenderanno come le stelle in sempiterno.

4 Or tu, Daniele, serra queste parole, e suggella questo libro, infino al tempo della fine; allora molti andranno attorno, e la conoscenza sarà accresciuta.

5 Poi io Daniele riguardai, ed ecco, altri due, che stavano ritti in piè; l’uno di qua sopra l’una delle ripe del fiume; l’altro di là, sopra l’altra.

6 E l’uno d’essi disse all’uomo vestito di panni lini, il quale era sopra le acque del fiume: Quando sarà infine il compimento di queste maraviglie?

7 Ed io udii l’uomo vestito di panni lini, ch’era sopra le acque del fiume, il quale, levata la man destra, e la sinistra, al cielo, giurò per Colui che vive in eterno, che tutte queste cose sarebbero compiute, infra un tempo, de’ tempi, e la metà di un tempo; ed allora che colui avrebbe finito di dissipar le forze del popolo santo.

8 Ed io udii ben ciò, ma non l’intesi. E dissi: Signor mio, qual sarà la fine di queste cose?

9 Ed egli mi disse: Va’, Daniele; perciocchè queste parole son nascoste, e suggellate, infino al tempo della fine.

10 Molti saranno purificati, e imbiancati, e posti al cimento; ma gli empi opereranno empiamente; e niuno degli empi intenderà queste cose: ma gli intendenti le intenderanno.

11 Ora, del tempo che sarà stato tolto il sacrificio continuo, e sarà stata posta l’abbominazione desertante, vi saranno mille dugennovanta giorni.

12 Beato chi aspetterà pazientemente, e giungerà a mille trecentrentacinque giorni!

13 Ma quant’è a te, vattene al tuo fine; or tu avrai riposo, e dimorerai nella tua condizione fino alla fine de’ tuoi dì.

   


To many Protestant and Evangelical Italians, the Bibles translated by Giovanni Diodati are an important part of their history. Diodati’s first Italian Bible edition was printed in 1607, and his second in 1641. He died in 1649. Throughout the 1800s two editions of Diodati’s text were printed by the British Foreign Bible Society. This is the more recent 1894 edition, translated by Claudiana.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #548

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548. And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and its angels fought. (12:7) This symbolizes the falsities of the previous church fighting against the truths of the New Church.

A war symbolizes a spiritual war, which is one of falsity against truth and of truth against falsity (no. 500); for that is the only war that can take place in heaven, where this war is said to have broken out. Nor can a spiritual war take place in any heaven once it is formed by angels, but it took place in the previous heaven which passed away, as said in Revelation 21:1. Regarding that heaven, see our exposition of that verse. For that heaven passed away in consequence of the Last Judgment on the dragon and his angels, which is also the symbolic meaning of the dragon's being cast out and no place for it being found in heaven any longer, as said in the next verse.

To learn what falsities are meant by the dragon which will fight against the truths of the New Church, see no. 537 above.

Michael does not mean some archangel, and neither does Gabriel or Raphael, but ministries in heaven are meant. The ministry that is Michael there is performed by people who confirm from the Word that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, that God the Father and the Lord are one as soul and body are one, that one must live according to the Ten Commandments, and that a person then possesses charity and faith. Michael is mentioned also in Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1, and the same ministry is meant by him, as is apparent from chapters 9-11 there, and from the last verses in chapter 12.

Gabriel, on the other hand, means the ministry performed by people who teach from the Word that Jehovah came into the world and that the humanity that he took on there is the Son of God and Divine. The angel who announced this to Mary is accordingly called Gabriel (Luke 1:19, 26-35).

People who are engaged in these ministries are also called Michaels and Gabriels in heaven.

It may be seen in numbers 5, 65, 258, 342, 344, 415, 465 above that an angel in the highest sense means the Lord, and in a relative sense heaven, which is formed of angels, and also an angelic society. But here it means a ministry, because it is named; and in Daniel Michael is called a prince, 1 and a prince in the Word symbolizes a principal truth, and a king, truth itself (no. 20).

Footnotes:

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.