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From Swedenborg's Works

 

Secrets of Heaven #231

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231. A single evil afflicted not only the earliest church, before the Flood, but also the ancient church, after the Flood, and the Jewish church, and then the new church or the church among non-Jews that came after the Lord's arrival into the world, 1 just as it afflicts the modern church. It is the evil of not believing the Lord or the Word but trusting oneself and one's senses. The result is an absence of faith, and when faith is absent, so is love for others — a situation that leads to all falsity and evil.

Footnotes:

1. By "the church among non-Jews" (ecclesia gentium, in the Latin) Swedenborg seems to mean the early Christian church as expanded by Paul to include non-Jews (see, for example, Acts 9:15; 13:47). Specifically, the Latin word here translated as "non-Jews" is gentium, literally, "nations;" the traditional translation is "Gentiles." Swedenborg uses this term differently in different contexts. In §367 below, the term clearly means "non-Jews" as opposed to Jews; in Heaven and Hell 516, it means certain unspecified non-Christians who are also not Muslims. In Heaven and Hell 308, he uses the term to refer to "people who are outside the church, where the Word is not found," and this seems to be the core meaning of the term as he employs it (see §410 below). In sum it would be safe to say that, although in the current passage the term refers to those within the church, in most instances when Swedenborg speaks of "Gentiles" he refers to those who are outside the church of a given dispensation. [LHC, GFD, RS]

  
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Many thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation and its New Century Edition team.

The Bible

 

Acts 9:15

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15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Secrets of Heaven #367

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367. These things do not need to be proved by similar passages from the Word beyond the identification of charity as the brother of faith and the symbolism of a field as every point of doctrine.

From the nature or essential character of faith, anyone can see that charity is the brother of faith. The brotherhood of these was also represented by Esau and Jacob — another relationship that gave rise to controversy over the birthright and the dominance it entailed. The same brotherhood was represented by Perez and Zerah, Tamar's sons by Judah (Genesis 38:28-29, 30), a story that also dealt with birthrights. And it was represented by Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:13-14), likewise a tale about birthrights and the implied dominance. The same thing was represented by others, too.

Both faith and charity, after all, are the church's offspring. Faith is called a man, as Cain was in the first verse of this chapter, and charity a brother, as in Isaiah 19:2; Jeremiah 13:14; 1 and elsewhere. The union of faith and charity is called a brothers' pact in Amos 1:9.

[2] Something like the relationship symbolized by Cain and Abel was represented by Jacob and Esau, as I said, in that Jacob wanted to supplant Esau. This can be seen in Hosea too:

... to bring on Jacob the consequences of his ways; according to his deeds will [Jehovah] repay him. In the womb he supplanted his brother. (Hosea 12:2-3)

But Esau, or the charity that Esau represented, was still dominant, as can be seen in the enigmatic prediction of his father Isaac:

By your sword you will live, and your brother you will serve. And it will happen when you gain the dominance that you will force his yoke off your neck. (Genesis 27:40)

In other words, Esau represented a church among non-Jews, 2 or a new church, while Jacob represented the Jewish church. This is why it says so many times that they should acknowledge non-Jewish nations as their brothers and sisters. 3

In the church of the non-Jews, or the early [Christian] church, they all called each other "sister" or "brother," because of the charity among them. "Sisters and brothers" was also used by the Lord of those who hear the Word and act on it (Luke 8:21); the "hearers" are those who have faith, the "doers" those who have charity. However, those who hear (or say they have faith) and do not act on it (have no charity) are not "sisters and brothers," and the Lord compares them to fools (Matthew 7:24, 26).

Footnotes:

1. The Hebrew of Jeremiah 13:14 says, literally, "And I will smash them, a man against his brother" (וְנִפַּצְתִּים‭ ‬אִישׁ‭ ‬אֶל-אָחִיו [vǝnippaṣtîm 'îš 'el-'āḥîv]). Both Isaiah 19:2 and Jeremiah 13:14 appear to use "a man" and "his brother" in a negative sense. [LHC]

2. For more about the "church among non-Jews," see note 1 in §231. [LHC]

3. It is not entirely clear which passages are referred to here, but the prophets sometimes speak of other nations as being equally under God's protection and mercy. Examples are Amos 9:7; Isaiah 19:23-25. The term translated here as "brothers and sisters" (and in other inclusive ways below) is fratres, which can apply collectively to siblings of either gender, and which also applies to people unrelated except by their common humanity. [LHC, LSW]

  
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Many thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation and its New Century Edition team.

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