The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture ¹

By Emanuel Swedenborg, (First published in 1763)

Translator’s Table of Contents:

The Sacred Scripture, or Word, Is Divine Truth Itself. 1

The Word Contains a Spiritual Meaning, One Previously Unknown. 4

1. What the spiritual meaning is. 5
2. The presence of the spiritual meaning in each and every particular of the Word. 9
3. The spiritual meaning is what causes the Word to be Divinely inspired and holy in every word. 18
4. The spiritual sense of the Word has been previously unknown. 20
5. The Word’s spiritual meaning is granted after this only to someone who possesses genuine truths from the Lord. 26

The Word’s Literal Sense Is the Foundation, Containing Vessel and Buttress of Its Spiritual and Celestial Meanings. 27

In the Word’s Literal Sense, Divine Truth Is Present in Its Fullness, in Its Holiness, and in Its Power. 37

Truths in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. 43

Truths and goods in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the Urim and Thummim. 44

Truths in the Word’s literal sense are meant by the precious stones in the Garden of Eden in which the King of Tyre is said in Ezekiel to have been. 45

The Word’s literal sense is symbolized by the curtains and veils of the Tabernacle. 46

The outer constituents of the Temple in Jerusalem represented the outer constituents of the Word, which are those of its literal sense. 47

When the Lord was transfigured, He represented the Word in its glory. 48

The Church’s Doctrine Must Be Drawn from the Word’s Literal Sense and Verified by It. 50

1. The Word is not understood apart from doctrine. 51
2. Doctrine must be drawn from the Word’s literal sense. 53
3. Genuine truth, of which doctrine ought to consist, is apparent in the Word’s literal sense only to people who are enlightened by the Lord. 57

The Word’s Literal Sense Makes Possible a Conjunction with the Lord and Affiliation with Angels. 62

The Word Exists in All of the Heavens, and Is the Source of the Angels’ Wisdom. 70

The Church Is Formed by the Word, and Its Character Is Such as Its Understanding of the Word. 76

Every Single Constituent of the Word Contains a Marriage of the Lord and the Church, and So a Marriage of Goodness and Truth. 80

Heresies May Be Seized On from the Word’s Literal Sense, But It Is Harmful to Affirm Them. 91

The Lord Came into the World to Fulfill Everything in the Word, and to Become as a Consequence Divine Truth, or the Word, Also in Outmost Expressions. 98

Before the Current Word in the World Today, There Was a Word That Has Been Lost. 101

The Word Is the Means by Which Those Have Light Who Are Outside the Church and Do Not Have the Word. 104

Without the Word No One Would Have Any Knowledge of God, of Heaven and Hell, of Life after Death, and Still Less of the Lord. 114

Footnotes:

9. 2. The presence of the spiritual meaning in each and every particular of the Word. This can best be seen from illustrations, such as the following. In the book of Revelation, John says:

I saw heaven opened, when behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and does combat. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many jewels. He had a name written that no one knew but Himself. He was clothed with a garment stained with blood, and His name is called “The Word of God.” (His) hosts in heaven followed Him on white horses, wearing fine linen, white and clean.... He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

I saw moreover an angel standing in the sun, who cried with a loud voice..., “Come and gather together for the great supper..., that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” (Revelation 19:11-18)

No one can see the symbolic meanings of these words apart from the Word’s spiritual sense, and no one can see the spiritual sense apart from a knowledge of correspondences. For the words are all correspondents; no word there is without meaning.

A knowledge of correspondences makes plain the symbolic meaning of the white horse and of Him who sat on the horse, of the eyes that were like a flame of fire, of the jewels on the head, of the garment stained with blood, of the white linen worn by His hosts in heaven, of the angel standing in the sun, of the great supper for which all were to come and gather together, and of the flesh of kings, commanders, and several others that they were to eat.

[2] The symbolic meanings of each of these images may be seen in the short book, The White Horse, where we explained them. We therefore forgo any further explanation of them here. In that short book we showed that the above description is a depiction of the Lord in relation to the Word, that His eyes like a flame of fire, the jewels on His head, and the name that no one knew but Himself mean the Word’s spiritual sense, and that no one knows that sense but the Lord Himself and he to whom the Lord wills to reveal it. We showed as well that the garment stained with blood means the Word’s natural sense, which is its literal sense, to which violence has been done.

That it is the Word which is so described is clearly apparent, for we are told that His name is called “The Word of God.” And that it is the Lord who is meant is also clearly apparent, for we are told that the name written of Him who sat on the horse was “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

That the Word’s spiritual sense will be revealed at the end of the church is symbolically meant not only by what we have now said about the horse and Him who sat on it, but also by the great supper to which the angel standing in the sun summoned people to come and eat the flesh of kings and commanders, of mighty men, of horses and of those who sit on them, and of all people, free and slave.

All of these statements would be meaningless words, devoid of life or spirit, without something spiritual concealed within them, like a soul in its body.

51. 1. The Word is not understood apart from doctrine. That is because the Word in its literal sense consists of nothing but correspondent forms, in order for spiritual and celestial concepts to be present in it at the same time, and for each word to be a containing vessel and buttress of those concepts. In some places in the literal sense, therefore, we find not naked truths, but truths clothed, which we call appearances of truth. Many of these truths, too, are accommodated to the comprehension of simple folk, who do not elevate their thoughts above the kinds of things they see before their eyes. And some of them seem to involve contradictions, even though there is no contradiction in the Word when seen in its true light.

Moreover, in some places in the Prophets, we find also collections of place names and the names of people from which it is impossible to elicit any meaning, as from those passages presented in no. 15 above.

Since that is the nature of the Word in its literal sense, it can be seen therefore that it cannot be understood apart from doctrine.

[2] But let instances serve to illustrate this:

We are told that Jehovah repents (Exodus 32:12, 14, Jonah 3:9, 4:2). We are also told that Jehovah does not repent (Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29). Without doctrine these declarations are not brought into accord.

We are told that Jehovah visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation (Numbers 14:18). And we are told that the father shall not die for the son, nor the son for the father, but everyone for his own sin (Deuteronomy 24:16). In the light of doctrine these declarations do not conflict, but are in harmony.

[3] Jesus says,

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Everyone...who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8, cf. 21:21-22)

Without doctrine one might believe that everyone receives what he asks for. But doctrine teaches us to believe that a person is given whatever he asks for, not on his own, but in response to the Lord. For this, too, the Lord teaches:

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you will, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)

[4] The Lord says,

Blessed are the poor, for (theirs) is the kingdom of God. (Luke 6:20)

Without doctrine one could think that heaven is for the poor and not for the rich. But doctrine teaches us that the poor in spirit are meant, for the Lord says,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

[5] The Lord says,

Judge not, that you be not judged. ...with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. (Matthew 7:1-2, cf. Luke 6:37)

Without doctrine this injunction could be used to assert that one must not say of evil that it is evil, thus that one must not judge an evil person to be evil. But in the light of doctrine one is permitted to judge, only to do so justly. For the Lord says, “judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24).

[6] Jesus says,

...do not be called teacher; for one is your teacher, the Christ.... Do not call anyone on earth your father; for one...in heaven is your Father. And do not be called masters; for one is your master, the Christ. (Matthew 23:8-10)

Without doctrine it would not be lawful to call anyone teacher, father, or master. But we know from doctrine that it is lawful in a natural sense, but not in a spiritual sense.

[7] Jesus said to His disciples,

...when the Son of man sits on the throne of His glory, you...will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28)

One could conclude from these words that the Lord’s disciples will also sit in judgment, when in fact they can judge no one. Doctrine, therefore, must reveal this mystery by showing that the Lord alone, who is omniscient and knows the hearts of all, will judge, and that His twelve disciples mean the church in respect to all the truths and goods it has from the Lord through the Word. Doctrine concludes from this that those truths and goods will judge everyone, in accordance with the Lord’s words in John 3:17-18, 12:47-48.

[8] Someone who reads the Word apart from doctrine does not know how the declarations made in the Prophets regarding the Jewish nation and Jerusalem hang together, that the church in that nation and its seat in that city will remain to eternity, as in the following places:

...Jehovah...will visit His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them as His glorious horse in battle. From him comes the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, and from him the bow of war.... (Zechariah 10:3-4, 6-7)

...behold, I am coming to dwell in your midst.... And Jehovah will make Judah His inheritance..., and will again choose Jerusalem. (Zechariah 2:10-12)

It will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, and the hills flow with milk.... But Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (Joel 3:18-20)

Behold, the days are coming..., that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man..., when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.... And this is the covenant that I will make...: I will put My law among them, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jeremiah 31:27, 31, 33)

In that day ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” (Zechariah 8:22-23)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 44:24, 26, 49:22-23, 65:9, 66:20, 22; Jeremiah 3:18, 23:5, 50:19-20; Nahum 1:15; Malachi 3:4. The subject in these places is the Lord’s advent, and the church’s then remaining to eternity.

[9] The opposite, however, is said in a number of other places, of which we will cite only the following: I will hide My face from them, I will see what their posterity will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith.... I would have said, “I will cast them into the farthest corners, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men.” ....For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them.... ...their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the venom of dragons, and the cruel poison of asps. Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and retribution. (Deuteronomy 32:20-35)

This is said of that same nation. And the like elsewhere, as in Isaiah 3:1-2, 8, 5:3-6; Deuteronomy 9:5-6; Matthew 12:39, 23:27-28; John 8:44. And everywhere in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

But these declarations that appear contradictory will be seen to be in harmony in the light of doctrine, which teaches that Israel and Judah in the Word do not mean Israel and Judah, but the church in both senses — in one sense that it has been destroyed, and in the other that the Lord is going to establish it.

Other passages like these occur in the Word, which make clearly apparent that the Word is not understood apart from doctrine.