102. That the Word among ancient peoples was written solely in terms of correspondences, but has since been lost, is something reported to me by angels in heaven. And I have been told that this Word is still preserved among them and used by the ancient peoples in that heaven who had that Word when they lived in the world.

Those ancient peoples, among whom that Word is still used in heaven, came partly from the land of Canaan and the lands surrounding it — Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea, Assyria, Egypt, Sidon, Tyre, and Nineveh — and the inhabitants of all those kingdoms practiced a representational worship and so possessed a knowledge of correspondences. The wisdom of that time flowed from that knowledge, and because of it they had an inner perception and communication with the heavens.

Those who had a more interior knowledge of the correspondences of that Word were called wise and intelligent, but later diviners and magi.

[2] However, because that Word was full of correspondences which only remotely symbolized celestial and spiritual things, and many people consequently began to falsify it, therefore in the course of time, of the Lord’s Divine providence it vanished and finally was lost. And another Word, written in terms of correspondences not so remote, was given, and this through prophets among the children of Israel.

Still, this latter Word retained many names of places in the land of Canaan and in Asia round about, which had the same symbolic meanings as in the Ancient Word.

It was for this reason that Abram was commanded to go to that land, and that his posterity descended from Jacob was led into it.

5801. 'Have you a father, or a brother?' means the good that is the source, and the truth that is the means. This is clear from the representation of Israel, to whom 'a father' refers here, as spiritual good or the good of truth, dealt with in 3654, 4598, good that is the source being meant because spiritual good is the source from which truths in the natural derive; and from the representation of Benjamin, to whom 'a brother' refers here, as truth, truth that is the means being meant because truth is the means by which the truths of the Church present in the natural, represented by 'Jacob's sons', are joined to spiritual good, represented by 'Israel'. And since the joining together is effected by means of that truth, much is said about how their father loved Benjamin, who represents that truth, and about how Judah together with the rest could not return to their father unless Benjamin was with them. For more about that truth, see below in 5835. ¹

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