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Doctrine of the Lord #1

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1. The Holy Scripture Throughout Has the Lord As Its Subject, and the Lord Embodies the Word

We read in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of people. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.... And the Word moreover became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as though of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 14)

Again in the same Gospel:

...the light came into the world, but people loved darkness more than light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in it:

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be children of light.... I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

It is apparent from this that the Lord is, from eternity, God, and that God Himself is the Lord who was born in the world. For we are told that the Word was with God, and that the Word was God. Also that without Him nothing was made that was made. And later we are told that the Word became flesh, and people beheld Him.

[2] Why the Lord is called the Word is little understood in the church. However, He is called the Word because the term “Word” symbolizes Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself, and the Lord embodies Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself. That, too, is why He is called the light, which is also said to have come into the world.

Because Divine wisdom and Divine love are united, and were united in the Lord from eternity, therefore we are told as well that “In Him was life, and the life was the light of people.” Life means Divine love, and light Divine wisdom.

This is the union meant by the statement that the Word was in the beginning with God and that God was the Word. With God means in God, for wisdom is present in love, and love in wisdom.

So, too, we find elsewhere in John:

...Father, glorify Me with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. (John 17:5)

“With Yourself” means in Yourself. That, too, is why we are told, “And God was the Word.” And elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father, and the Father in Him, and that He and the Father are one.

Now because the Word is the Divine wisdom accompanying Divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah Himself, thus the Lord, by whom all things were made that were made, inasmuch as they were all created out of Divine love by means of Divine wisdom.

  
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Published by the General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1100 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, U.S.A. A translation of Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Domino, by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772. Translated from the Original Latin by N. Bruce Rogers. ISBN 9780945003687, Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954074.

The Bible

 

John 1:1-5

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1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

  

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #224

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224.And my new name. That this signifies, that they will also acknowledge the Divine Human of the Lord, is evident from the signification of I will write upon him My new name, as being the acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine Human. To write upon any one denotes to implant in the life (as may be seen above, n. 222), here to implant in faith from charity, because that faith is treated of in what is written to the angel of this church (see above, n. 203); and to implant in that faith denotes acknowledgment in heart. The reason why the new name of the Lord denotes His Divine Human is, that this prophetic book, called the Apocalypse, treats of those who will be in the New Jerusalem, and of those who will not be in it, and not of the successive states of the church as is usually believed (see above, n. 5); and those who will be in the New Jerusalem are all those who will acknowledge the Divine Human of the Lord; therefore it is also said, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, towards the end, "That there is a Trine in the Lord, namely, the Divine Itself, the Divine Human and the proceeding Divine, is an arcanum from heaven, and is for those who will be in the holy Jerusalem" (n. 297). That this is the new name of the Lord is evident from the fact that it was not before acknowledged in the church.

What is further meant by the name of Jehovah, of the Lord, and of Jesus Christ in the Word may be seen above (n. 26, 102, 135, 148); and that the Divine Human of the Lord is meant (n. 26 and 102). The reason why this is meant by the name of Jehovah is, that name in the Word signifies the quality of a state and thing (as may be seen above, n. 148); and the Divine quality by which all things were created and made in the heavens and in the earths is the Lord's Divine Human; as it is also said in John:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And the world was made by him. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (1:1, 2, 3, 10, 14).

From these considerations it is evident why it is that by the name of Jehovah is meant the Lord's Divine Human. That this is meant in the Word by the name of Jehovah, the Lord Himself shows in John:

Jesus said, "Father, glorify thy name; and there came a voice from heaven, saying, I both have glorified it, and will glorify it again" (12:28).

To glorify is to make Divine. And again:

Jesus said, "I have manifested thy name unto men. I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it" (17:6, 26).

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.