1. Teachings for the New Jerusalem on the Lord

The Entire Sacred Scripture Is about the Lord, and the Lord Is the Word

WE read in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing that was made came about without him. In him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not grasp it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us; and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only-begotten child of the Father. He was full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 5, 14)

In the same Gospel,

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in the same Gospel,

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light. I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

We can see from this that the Lord is God from eternity and that he himself is that Lord who was born into the world. It actually says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God, as well as that nothing that was made came about without him, and then that the Word became flesh and that they saw him.

There is little understanding in the church of what it means to call the Lord “the Word.” He is called the Word because the Word means divine truth or divine wisdom and the Lord is divine truth itself or divine wisdom itself. That is why he is also called the light that is said to have come into the world.

Since divine wisdom and divine love are one with each other and have been one in the Lord from eternity, it also says “in him there was life, and that life was the light for humankind.” The life is divine love, and the light is divine wisdom.

This oneness is what is meant by saying both that “in the beginning the Word was with God” and that “the Word was God.” “With God” is in God, since wisdom is in love and love is in wisdom. This is like the statement elsewhere in John, “Glorify me, Father, together with yourself, with the glory I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). “With yourself” is “in yourself.” This is why it adds “and the Word was God.” It says elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father and the Father is in him [John 14:10], and that the Father and he are one [John 10:30].

Since the Word is the divine wisdom of the divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah himself and therefore the Lord, the one by whom all things were made that were made, since everything was created out of divine love by means of divine wisdom.

6963. And behold his hand was leprous, as snow. That this signifies the profanation of truth, is evident from the signification of “hand,” as being power (n. 6947), and as being truth, because spiritual power consists in truth (n. 6948, 6960); and from the signification of “leprosy,” as being profanation, specifically, the profanation of truth (of which below). In the historic Word much is said about leprosy, and about its various appearances in the skin, and about the judgment thence to be formed of its quality—whether the leper was to be shut in, or to go out of the camp, or to be set at liberty; and also about leprosy in garments, in vessels, and in the very houses. Leprosy is so much treated of, not on account of leprosy as a disease, but because it signified the profanation of truth, thus for the sake of the spiritual sense; and because the Jews and the Israelites were capable of profaning truth more than other people.

[2] For if they had known the internal things of the Word, and the truths themselves which were represented by the rites of the church among them, and had faith in them, and yet had lived according to their inclination, namely in the love of self and the love of the world, in hatred and revenge among themselves, and in cruelty toward the Gentiles, they must needs have profaned the truths in which they once had faith; for to believe in truths and to live contrary to them, is to profane them. And therefore they were withheld as far as possible from the knowledges of internal truth (see n. 3398, 3489); insomuch that they did not even know that they would live after death; neither did they believe that the Messiah would come to save souls eternally, but to exalt that nation above all others in the universe. And because that nation was such, and also is such at this day, therefore they are still withheld from faith, even though they live in the midst of Christendom. Hence then it is that the nature of leprosy was so particularly described.

[3] That “leprosy” signifies the profanation of truth, is plain from the statutes concerning leprosy that are recorded by Moses in Leviticus 13. In this description there is contained in the internal sense the whole nature of the profanation of truth—as what the nature of this profanation is if recent, what if old, what if inward in man, what if also outward, what if curable, what if incurable, what are the means of cure, and other particulars, which cannot be at all known to anyone, except by means of the internal sense of the Word.

[4] But as it is profanations which are described by “leprosy,” it is not allowable to explain in detail what is contained in the description of it. Moreover, heaven is horrified at the bare mention of what is profane. I may quote this passage only:

If the leprosy effloresce fully in the skin, and the leprosy cover the whole skin of him that hath the plague, from his head even to his heel, under every look of the priest’s eyes; and the priest see, and behold the leprosy hath covered all his flesh, then he shall pronounce the plague clean; it is all turned white, he is clean. But in the day that there shall appear in him living flesh, he shall be unclean (Leviticus 13:12-14).

Unless it is known from the internal sense how the case herein is, namely, that he is clean who is all leprous from his head even unto his heel, it must appear like a paradox; but by “one leprous from his head to his heel” is meant one who knows internal truths, but does not acknowledge or believe them. Such a one is not inwardly in profanation, but outwardly, which profanation is removed, and therefore he is clean. But if he knows the truths of faith, and believes them, and yet lives contrary to them, he is in profanation inwardly, as is the case also with one who has once believed, and afterward denies. Therefore it is said, “in the day that there shall appear in him living flesh, he shall be unclean;” by “living flesh” is meant acknowledgment and faith (see what has been adduced above, n. 6959).