每本福音书中都有关于耶稣在主日的早晨之后向门徒显现的内容，当他们发现墓穴是空的时候，他们就会发现耶稣在主日早晨向门徒显现。例如，见 马太福音28:16-20; 马可福音16:14-19; 路加福音24:13-33; 约翰福音20:19-31Ⅳ级，以及 约翰福音21.

在《路加福音》中有这样一个故事：两个门徒从耶路撒冷走到以马忤斯村，大约有七英里的路程。他们出城后不久，又有一个旅行者来找他们，他注意到他们不安的表情和严肃的谈话，就问他们有什么事困扰着他们。他们一起走着走着，就问这个陌生人说："你们没听说过耶路撒冷的麻烦吗？"难道你们没有听说过耶路撒冷的麻烦吗？说来也奇怪，第三天，当一些妇女去膏他的尸体时，他们看见天使告诉他们，他不在那里，而是从死里复活了。"

旅行者一听这话，就责备他们不信，说："难道你们不明白基督要受这些事的苦，要进入他的荣耀里，难道你们不明白吗？"然后，这个陌生人告诉那两个门徒许多关于耶稣的事，从旧约圣经中的摩西书和先知的书中，有许多关于耶稣的事。那两个门徒敬畏地听着，却不认识这个陌生人。最后，他们到了以马忤斯。陌生人似乎想继续讲下去，但他们也求他停下来，因为天色已晚，他们想听更多的故事。于是他们都坐下来分享晚上的饭菜，当陌生人拿起面包，掰开面包给他们吃时，他们的眼睛睁开了，认出了他，他就消失了。

可以想象，当他们都意识到这就是耶稣的时候，他们两个人都惊呆了。他们知道他是被钉在十字架上，但他已经走了几个小时，和他们说话。那两个女人是对的！天使是对的。天使们是对的! 他还活着！

新教会认为，主的话语、圣经中的所有故事都有内在的意义，而这种内在的意义，在亚伯拉罕、以撒、雅各、约书亚、撒母耳、大卫和其他的字面故事中，以及从以赛亚到玛拉基的所有先知的说法，还有四福音书......这种意义才是圣道的圣洁。

那么，在这个故事中，我们可以看到什么呢？ 那么，"摩西与先知 "中的那个内在意义，就是耶稣在世上的生活，从他在伯利恒出生到他所有的成长岁月，直到他的 "死"，再到他的复活。因为耶稣知道这一点，而且肯定是读过经文，内里明白，所以祂早就知道祂在世上的生命要如何结束，而且必须按 "经文 "所写的那样结束，以拯救人类。 所以，当他们向以马忤斯走去的时候，祂就把这个故事告诉了两个门徒。

更多关于行走的内容.....在圣言中，凡是提到行走，其实是指我们一天到晚的生活方式。 在圣经的许多故事中，都说有人与神同行。 说的是，我们应该在神的道路上行走，我们应该走直路、窄路。

在这个故事中，我们还被告知，这是一个由六十个驿站（原文是希腊文）组成的旅程。 六十（或其他倍数的 "六"）代表着我们一生的工作，就是拒绝来自于我们与生俱来的自私自利的诱惑。 启示录648.所以，这一次的以马忤斯之行，意味着我们的人生旅程--作为一个努力遵行主的教导，成为天使的人。

目的地是以马忤斯。在圣言中，任何城市都代表着一种教义，是一套有组织的真理，我们把这些真理放在一起，使我们能够按照这些真理来生活，也就是我们的生活准则。 请看 天国的秘密402.它们不一定是善的，如耶路撒冷或伯利恒，也可能是恶的教义，如所多玛或巴比伦。 我的字典告诉我，以马忤斯这个名字的意思是 "温泉"。圣经中的另一个普遍意义是，水的意思是指有益的真理，但也可以指被地狱中的人扭曲成虚假的真理，在相反的意义上，也可以指真理。比如说，请看。 天国的秘密790.想一想亚伯拉罕挖的水井，想一想耶稣在雅各的水井边向撒玛利亚的妇人所应许的水，想一想启示录中新耶路撒冷的宝座下流出来的纯洁的水河。从它的反面意义上说，水是有破坏性的，想想那场洪水，除了挪亚和他的家人之外，其他的人都被洪水摧毁了，或者是红海不得不分开，让以色列的子民可以渡过。 以马忤斯所代表的泉水，是圣洁的真理从圣言中涌出，供我们使用。 而这些都是温泉，热就代表着爱。所以，这就是我们的目的地，真理和爱一起流淌出来，从主那里源源不断地流淌出来，供我们使用。

这个关于门徒们在去以马忤斯路上与主相遇的平凡小轶事，不仅仅是一个关于耶稣用灵体复活的故事。这也是一个关于我们应该如何生活的故事。 我们可以向着天堂进发，听从主的话，与主同行，在路上与主同行，到了最后，主要与我们一起擘饼吃晚饭。

The Internal Sense of the Word

[NCBSP Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from a preface to "The Dictionary of Bible Imagery" (1973), by Alice Spiers Sechrist, a leading scholar of Swedenborgian theology and a skilled Latinist. It's a good introduction to the underpinnings of Swedenborg's Bible exposition.]

The method of biblical interpretation set forth in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish scientist and seer — in itself an unusual coupling of interests — is as unique a system as its author was a philosopher. However, he disclaimed possession of it as an original invention, saying that it was well-known among the most ancient peoples, being the law that attests the unity and homogeneous nature of all creation, conjoining man’s inner world of the spirit — and its celestial wisdom — with his outer world of nature and science, and making possible communication between the human and the Divine, even to the point of conjoining human affection and thought with the divine love and wisdom, through what is good and true (Arcana Coelestia 911:2, 978:2, 1476).

Swedenborg called this symbolic system correspondence, using also the terms representative and significative. “Man does not comprehend naked spiritual truths,” he says, “and so they are presented in the Word by corresponding natural things.” Also: “Between the spiritual and the natural there is correspondence, and the things in nature that exist from spiritual things are representatives.” Persons in the Word, however, do not correspond to spiritual things, but represent something in the Lord, or in man’s acceptance or rejection of Him, and it is their functions or acts which are thus representative. Historical events recorded in the Bible also represent the spiritual states of man, either at some era in history, or in the course of an individual’s regeneration (Arcana Coelestia 1409, 6948; Apocalypse Revealed 768).

In illustration, Swedenborg cites the relationship between mind and body, the former representing man's spiritual world, and the latter his natural, or the world of nature. In one who has not been taught to dissemble, the expression of the face and the gestures of the body correspond to the affections and thoughts of the mind; or, in words often employed by Swedenborg, to the will and the understanding. The “forms” existing in the mind are effigied in the face, and in physical acts, but in the mind they are celestial and spiritual, while they are natural in the body. In brief, the natural things which appear in the outer man represent his internal self, and the particulars which agree with his internal, correspond to it (Arcana Coelestia 2987-2991; Heaven and Hell 97-99).

Swedenborg goes on to say that the three kingdoms of nature — animal, vegetable, and mineral — correspond to or represent the spiritual world, down to their smallest particulars; for the causes of all that is in the world are from spiritual things, while their uses are from celestial things. “Blessed is he who is in correspondence, that is, whose external man corresponds to his internal” (Arcana Coelestia 2994).

CORRESPONDENCE IN SCRIPTURE

The Bible speaks of sun, moon, and stars, of times and seasons, of animals of all kinds — wild or domestic, in water, on land, or in the air; of lands and their valleys and mountains; of floods and rivers; of stones, common and precious; of metals — gold, silver, copper, iron; of storms and earthquakes; also of things directly produced by man: food, clothing, dwellings and temples, roads, ships, and cities; of the parts and organs of the human body; and of historical people and events. The realities of all these symbols mentioned in the Word are in man. Both the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of hell are in him, and in the Word also is pictured the warfare man undergoes to overcome the one and to yield to the other; and there are symbolic promises made “to him who overcometh.”

It is in this way that our Creator communicates with His creature. If you and I talk together, we do not reach each other in truth unless we communicate mind to mind and soul to soul: bodies do not communicate without their inner realities. So it is with the Lord’s Word: unless we address the spirit within the letter, and permit it to address us in return, we have ears that hear not, and eyes that do not see (Heaven and Hell 99-114).

Does Scripture Itself Suggest an Inner Content?

There is much in the Word itself to support Swedenborg’s thesis. In his Apocalypse Explained he states that in its ultimate or lowest form, that is, in the languages of earth, it is like a man clothed, but with hands and feet bare, or all that is essential to salvation openly expressed in the letter. Where it is thus bare, its goods and truths appear as they are in heaven, or with the spiritual sense evident in the literal sense. He compares the outer meaning to the garments of the Lord, while the inner is likened to His body. From still another viewpoint, the Word is like the garments mentioned in the crucifixion story in John: the outer garment was divided among four soldiers, but the inner vesture or tunic, being without seam, was assigned by lot to one only. This signifies the dispersal and falsification of the external truths of the Law and the Prophets by the church of that era — which was only a representative of a church; but that the internal sense could not be falsified, as it was protected by the letter (Arcana Coelestia 9035; Apocalypse Explained 644, 776; True Christian Religion 130).

For some supporting literal statements in the Word, consider the following:

1. As the Word made flesh, the Lord said:

“It is the spirit that gives life... The words I speak to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

Also:

“He said nothing to them without a parable” (Matthew 13:34).

2. In Psalm 78:2, we read: “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old.” Then follows a poem telling the history of the Sons of Israel and the trials they endured in leaving their state of servitude in Egypt and journeying to the Promised Land. Does this not suggest that they represent Everyman in his efforts to free himself from the dominion of external things, the “fleshpots of Egypt,” and to win the peace and security of the regenerate life? The land of Canaan represents a state of love to the Lord and the neighbor, or heaven. As a people the Israelites never fully reached that state, although probably some individuals did; so the land merely represented the state as an ideal, but did not correspond to it (Arcana Coelestia 1025:4, 1093, 1413).

3. There are many other situations and incidents in the Word of both Old and New Testaments which are obviously symbolic. Such is the creation story in the first chapters of Genesis: in Swedenborg’s system it describes, not the forming of our physical earth, but the re-forming or regeneration of man’s inner self. Here let us remind ourselves that only twice did our Lord in His Incarnation employ a word which is translated must, as absolutely binding upon his followers. These occasions are both in the Gospel of John:

"You MUST be born again” (John 3:7);

and:

“Those who worship Him MUST worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

This is profoundly significant. In another internal sense (for there are layers within layers, or “Wheels within wheels” as Ezekiel puts it), the first two chapters of Genesis depict the building of the first Church among men, meaning by "church” not an ecclesiastical institution, but a certain type of celestial or spiritual life in a country, or in an epoch.

4. Then there is the account of the benedictions or maledictions pronounced upon his sons and their descendants by Jacob in Genesis 49, and also a number of contradictory statements in the letter of Scripture. For an example, we are given the Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother”; yet Jesus says in Luke 14:26, that unless a man “hate his father and mother ... he cannot be my disciple.” Swedenborg points out, in explaining such contradictions, that every correspondence or representative has both a positive and genuine significance, or a negative and opposite one. In the last quotation, it is the negative father and mother who are meant, the ruthless self-love and its mate, false thinking, which generate an evil life — the same parentage which is referred to when Eli’s sons, for instance, are called “sons of Belial.” It could not mean that Eli was Belial (Arcana Coelestia 6333).

Now if these accounts are not only true history, or even if they are fabrications, but also apply to the spiritual development and history of an individual or a race, why may not all of Scripture do the same? The primary object of the Word is to teach man about his spiritual nature, the life that leads to heaven, His Maker’s perfect love and wisdom, and how he may respond to Him; so does it matter that the accounts are not always literally true? Our Heavenly Father has no need to inspire a Word to teach His children things they may learn by their own investigations. We do not denounce Aesop’s Fables because they cannot be taken literally, but are designed to point a moral (Arcana Coelestia 6948; Heaven and Hell 89; Apocalypse Explained 985:4).

Swedenborg's Exegesis

Swedenborg analyzed three scriptural books according to this law: in the Old Testament, Genesis and Exodus, and in the New Testament, the book of Revelation. However, scattered through all of his works, other passages are interpreted, particularly in his "Apocalypse Explained". On the other hand, many were not considered at all. Yet it is believed that the student will find here some help upon almost any verse in those books which Swedenborg accepted as being the Word. Certain books were excluded by him, and for a reason: in the Old Testament, Ruth, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon were unacceptable because they do not have that inmost sense which refers to the Lord alone. Of Job, he says that it was consciously written in correspondences for the people of an ancient church among whom the laws were known, a people later called “wise men of the east.” He also states that the Song of Solomon was produced in imitation of such writings (Arcana Coelestia 1756:2; Doctrine Regarding the Sacred Scripture 20).

In the New Testament only the four Gospels and Revelation are accepted by Swedenborg as belonging to the Word. He spoke of Paul as “inspired,” but says his inspiration did not go so far as to reach the inmost or celestial sense, which treats solely of the Lord Jesus Christ, the temptations to which His maternal humanity was subjected, His eventual Glorification and union with the Father, and his kingdom (Arcana Coelestia 3540; Apocalypse Explained 422, 543, 740:16).

[...] To man’s spirit, and to the angels, ideas are more important than words, and the same word may have different connotations in different passages. Several degrees of significance — discrete degrees, or separate but homogeneous frames of reference — exist in all scriptural symbols, for there are several interior senses, one within another.

Swedenborg especially mentions four degrees:

1. The inmost or celestial sense, that of the Celestial Heaven, the third or highest. As has been said, it treats of the Lord alone, and is that Scripture "concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27 which he unfolded, at least partially, after His resurrection to the two disciples whom He accompanied on the way to Emmaus, and whose "hearts burned within them” at the unfolding. Of course, no one on earth can enter that degree to the height of the celestial angels, hut we may view it from afar (Arcana Coelestia 1963, 1965, 8943, 9407; Doctrine Regarding the Sacred Scripture 39, 40, 80; Heaven and Hell 95).

2. The spiritual sense, for the regenerated men and women (angels) of the Spiritual, or middle, Heaven, and for regenerating people on earth who know that they must be born again. It concerns especially love of the neighbor, and shunning evils as sins against God. It also tells the history of man’s spiritual development, his backslidings and his progressions, or his reception or rejection of the truths of the church universal. While the celestial sense deals primarily with the divine love, the spiritual treats of man’s relation to the divine truth (Doctrine Regarding the Sacred Scripture 39).

3. The celestial-natural and the spiritual-natural of the First or lowest Heaven, sometimes called by Swedenborg the Natural or Ultimate Heaven. In terms, this sense is about the same as the spiritual, or even the celestial; and there is much in Swedenborg to suggest that when he speaks in general of the inner meaning of the Word he means the spiritual-natural or the celestial-natural; for it is of something taught, something for us to learn and hold in the memory, as they seem to do in the Ultimate Heaven; whereas in the Spiritual and Celestial Heavens there is no need for external teaching: the angels come spontaneously into the form of the Word adapted to their states, and live in it (Doctrine Regarding the Sacred Scripture 5, 26, 39; Apocalypse Explained 375:2, 449, 629:6, 832:6; Heaven and Hell 414; Apocalypse Revealed 325).

4. Finally, there is the “proximate” sense, that nearest to the letter. This concerns the moral history of the Sons of Israel and their descendants; and also other nations or even historical individuals in the scripture stories. Swedenborg only occasionally touches upon this; but sometimes, rather disconcertingly, he will apply it to several verses when he has been explaining the previous passages on more internal levels. Similarly, now and then he will suddenly switch from the celestial to the spiritual, or vice versa, without explanation (Arcana Coelestia 4690).

In closing, I can do no better than to quote a passage from the hand of the Reverend William F. Wunsch, Swedenborgian minister and scholar, in which he gives expression to one of the principal teachings of Swedenborg, namely, that in thus opening the inner meaning of Scripture, the Lord is making His Second Coming in the “clouds of heaven,” i.e. the “cloudy” literal sense, so opened that the power and glory of the inner contents are revealed, and may appear to the clouded minds of men on earth.