258. There is a spiritual meaning in the Word that is known as "the inner meaning. " No one who does not know what correspondence is can know what the inner meaning of the Word is: 2895, 4322. Absolutely everything in the earthly world, right down to the smallest details, corresponds to and therefore means something spiritual: 2987-3003, 3213-3227. The spiritual realities to which earthly things correspond take on different guises on the earthly level and therefore are not recognized: 1887, 3632, 8920. Hardly anyone nowadays knows where in the Word its divine quality resides, when in fact it is in its inner or spiritual meaning-and people nowadays do not even know that this meaning exists: 4989, 9280. The mystical dimension of the Word is precisely that the contents of its inner or spiritual meaning deal with the Lord, his kingdom, and the church, and not with earthly things that take place in this world: 4923. In many passages the statements of the prophets are unintelligible and therefore of no use apart from their inner meaning: 2608, 8020, 8398 (which provide some examples). For example, the meaning of the white horse in the Book of Revelation (2760 following); the meaning of the keys of the kingdom of the heavens that were given Peter (preface Genesis 22, §9410); the meaning of flesh, blood, bread, and wine in the Holy Supper, and therefore why it was instituted by the Lord (8682); the meaning of Jacob's prophecies about his sons in Genesis 49 (6306, 6333-6465); the meanings of many of the prophecies about Judah and Israel, prophecies that in their literal meaning contradict each other and do not square with [the actual history of] that people (6333, 6361, 6415, 6438, 6444); and countless other passages (2608).

An overview of the inner or spiritual meaning of the Word: 1767-1777, 1869-1879. There is deeper meaning throughout the Word and in every detail of it: 1143, 1984, 2135, 2333, 2395, 2495, 2619. These meanings are not visible in the literal meaning, but they are there within: 4442.

8020. It is plainly evident from the statutes and laws regarding the eating of the Passover lamb which appear in this chapter that in every detail they contain and conceal heavenly arcana, and that without knowledge gained from the internal sense one can see no more in them than the outward form of a religious custom, and nothing heavenly, let alone Divine. Without that knowledge one does not know the reason for any of the following: Why the Passover animal was to be a lamb or a kid; why the animal was to be a male, and 'the son of a year'; why it was to be slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the month; why the blood from it was to be sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel; why it was to be eaten roasted with fire, together with unleavened bread on bitter herbs, and not any of it raw or boiled in water; why its head was to be roasted over its legs and over its middle; why none of it was to be left till morning, and why what remained was to be burned with fire; why they were to eat unleavened bread for seven days, and why anyone eating anything made with yeast was to be cut off; why the foreigner, the stranger, and the hired servant could not eat it, but a man's slave, a purchase paid for with silver, and a sojourner, could eat it if they were circumcised; why it was to be eaten in one house and none of the flesh was to be brought outside; and why no bone of it was to be broken. What these and very many other regulations hold within them, and why they were commanded, would remain completely unknown unless the laws of order in the spiritual world to which they correspond were known, unless knowledge were acquired from the internal sense of what each regulation means in that world, that is, in heaven, and in particular unless the belief existed that all of them contain a spiritual level of meaning. Unless every single one contained this spiritual level of meaning the angels present with a person would understand little or scarcely anything of the Word when read by the person; for all the things which have been described in the Word in a natural way are understood by the angels on a spiritual level of meaning.