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From Swedenborg's Works

 

The White Horse #16

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16. The books that are books of the Word. The books of the Word are all the Bible books that have an inner meaning. The other Bible books are not the Word. In the Old Testament, the books of the Word are the following: the five books of Moses, the Book of Joshua, the Book of Judges, the two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, the Psalms of David, and the prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. In the New Testament: the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and the Book of Revelation. The others do not have an inner meaning: 10325.

The Book of Job is an ancient book in which there is in fact inner meaning, but not in an unbroken chain: 3540, 9942. 1

Footnotes:

1. On Swedenborg’s complex usage of the term “the Word,” and how it varies in respect to texts such as Job and the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament, and Acts and the Epistles in the New Testament, see note 7 in New Jerusalem 1. [Editors]

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings #2

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2. Before dealing with the New Jerusalem and its teachings, I need to say something about the new heaven and the new earth. In the booklet " The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed" you will find an explanation of the meaning of the first heaven and the first earth that passed away. 1 After they had passed away-that is, after the Last Judgment 2 was complete-the Lord created, or formed, a new heaven. This heaven is made up of all the people who, from the time of the Lord's Coming to the time of the judgment, had lived lives of faith and caring, 3 because only they were forms of heaven. This is because the form of heaven that governs all the relationships and communications there is the form of the divine truth, derived from divine goodness, that radiates from the Lord, and we take on this form spiritually by living in harmony with divine truth. On this as the source of heaven's form, 4 see Heaven and Hell 5 200-212, and on all angels as being forms of heaven, see Heaven and Hell 51-58, 73-77.

This makes it possible for us to know which people make up the new heaven and therefore also what they are like-namely, that they are of one mind, because when we live a life of faith and caring we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and love that is mutually felt joins us to them and them to us. This joining is reciprocal and mutual because in the spiritual world love is a joining together. 6 So when everyone is acting on the same principle, then a single mind arises from the many-from countless individuals, in fact, who are gathered in harmony with heaven's form. 7 People become one in this way because there is nothing that separates or divides them; everything connects and unites them.

Footnotes:

1. "The first heaven," also referred to as "the former heaven," is treated in Last Judgment 65-72. "The first earth" (that is, the former church; see note 3 in New Jerusalem 4 below on the meaning of "church") is covered in Last Judgment 45-64, without being explicitly labeled as such. On "the first earth," see also Supplements 9-10. In this context, "the first heaven" is a reference to Revelation 21:1, in which "first" is a temporal term denoting a heaven that passes away and is replaced by a new heaven (compare note 1 in Last Judgment 69). This should not be confused with the "first heaven" that is the lowest in Swedenborg's system of three heavens arranged vertically one above the other, in which context "first" serves as a spatial analogy (see note 2 in New Jerusalem 4). [GFD, LSW]

2. Swedenborg begins Last Judgment by insisting that the term "the Last Judgment" does not refer to the end of the world. In Last Judgment 46, he notes two previous "last judgments," one at the time of the Flood and the other at the time of the Incarnation. He takes the word "last" in the familiar phrase "the Last Judgment" to refer to the end of a religious era; and the era he usually means is the one which began with the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ and which by his account ended with a cataclysmic upheaval in the spiritual world in 1757. [JSR, GFD]

3. Much like "goodness" and "truth" (see note 9 in New Jerusalem 1), "faith" (Latin fides) and "caring" (Latin charitas; sometimes elsewhere in this edition rendered "thoughtfulness," "goodwill," or the more traditional "charity") are treated by Swedenborg as a pair. In True Christianity 365 faith and caring (goodwill) are in fact defined together in terms of goodness and truth: "‘Faith' means all the truth from the Lord that we perceive, think, and speak. ‘Goodwill' means all the goodness from the Lord which moves us and which we then intend and do. " The Latin word charitas is an abstract noun related to the adjective charus, also spelled carus, meaning "dear," "beloved"; this connection is made quite explicitly in New Jerusalem 108. "Caring" is here used with the intent of suggesting that meaning. [JSR, GFD]

4. Without ever specifying exactly what the form is, Swedenborg mentions "the form of heaven" or "a form like heaven" in almost a hundred descriptions of spiritual objects in his published theological works. As Swedenborg says, "Heaven's form by its very nature can never be fathomed even in a general way and is thus incomprehensible even to angels" (Heaven and Hell 212). The phrase is occasionally plural (as it appears later in the sentence in question here), and apparently these forms are varied ( Marriage Love 14[2]). The chief characteristics of these forms are that they are "human," they incorporate a great variety of elements into one harmonious arrangement, and each element can be viewed as the central one; see Secrets of Heaven 4040, 4043, 6607, 9846, 9877. Even household utensils in the spiritual world may have this form ( Marriage Love 137[7]). See also Heaven and Hell 202. [JSR, SS]

5. Heaven and Hell was published by Swedenborg in London at some time in 1758. It would seem from the references to that volume throughout New Jerusalem that the date of the composition of Heaven and Hell was likely to have been earlier than that of New Jerusalem. On the order of composition of Swedenborg's works of 1758, see the editors' preface to this volume, pages 29-33. [GFD]

6. The Latin word here translated "a joining together" is conjunctio. Swedenborg uses the word to denote the relationship that develops when two people or things come together, without either element losing its identity. It may be used of our relationship with the Lord as well as of the relationship between inanimate objects or qualities of the mind. [JSR]

7. On the function of a fullness and variety of many differing individuals or parts working harmoniously together in the approach to the perfection of a form, see note 3 in Other Planets 9. [Editors]

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #730

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730. The case of the Holy Supper is similar to that of a treaty, which having been agreed and signed is finally sealed. The Lord Himself teaches us that His blood is a covenant, for He said when He took the cup and gave it:

Drink of it, all of you. This is my blood, the blood of the new testament, Matthew 26:27-28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20.

The new testament is the new covenant. This is why the Word written by means of the Prophets before the Lord's coming is called the Old Testament or covenant, and the Word written after His coming by means of the Evangelists and Apostles is called the New Testament or covenant. Blood, and likewise wine in the Holy Supper, means the Divine truth of the Word; see above in 706, 708. The Word too is the actual covenant which the Lord has made with man, and man with the Lord. For the Lord came down as the Word, that is, as Divine truth. It is because this is His blood, that blood in the Israelite church, which represented the Christian church, was called 'the blood of the covenant' (Exodus 24:8; Zechariah 9:11) and the Lord was called 'the Covenant of the people' (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalms 111:9).

[2] It is in keeping with the way things are arranged in the world, that there should be a signing as a guarantee, and this follows discussion of the terms. How can anyone have a commission or a will without a signature? How can one have a judgment without a signed decision to make it effective? How can one reach high office in a kingdom without letters patent? How can one get advancement to any office without written confirmation? How can one own a house without a bill of sale or an agreement with the owner? How can one advance towards an end or chase after a goal and so win a prize, unless there is some end or goal where the prize may be won? Or unless the presiding officer has somehow confirmed his offer? These last examples are only added as an illustration to enable even a simpleminded person to grasp that the Holy Supper is a kind of guarantee, seal, token and evidence of commission, to show, even in the sight of angels, that they are sons of God. It is in addition like a key to a home in heaven, where they may reside for ever.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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