Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 165[2] From this it can be seen not only what is signified by the“paradise” or “garden in Eden,” but also by the “paradises” or“gardens of God” elsewhere in the Word, as in Isaiah:Jehovah shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places,even that he may make her wilderness into Eden, and her desert into agarden of Jehovah; joy and gladness shall be found therein (Isa. 51:3).In Ezekiel:Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stonewas thy covering (Ezek. 28:13).These things are said of Tyre, because by “Tyre” in the Word achurch that is in the knowledges of truth and good and inintelligence therefrom is signified (see Arcana Coelestia, n. 1201); itsintelligence therefrom is “Eden, the garden of God,” likewise “theprecious stone” from which is its “covering” (see n. 114, 9863,9865, 9868, 9873). In the same:Behold Asshur a cedar in Lebanon. The cedars have not hid it inthe garden of God; nor was any tree in the garden of God equal to it inbeauty. I have made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches; and allthe trees of Eden in the garden of God envied it (Ezek. 31:3, 8, 9).By “Asshur” in the Word those who have become rational by theknowledges of good and truth, thus whose minds are illustratedfrom heaven, are meant. (That “Asshur” is the rational of man, seeArcana Coelestia, n. 119, 1186.)[3] Something shall now be said to explain how it is to beunderstood that all knowledges of good and truth look to the goodof love to the Lord and proceed therefrom, which is the significanceof these words: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of thetree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” The goodof love to the Lord is the Lord himself, since the Lord is in thegood of his love with man, spirit, and angel. That all knowledges ofgood and truth look thereto, or to the Lord, is known in theChristian church; for the doctrine of the church teaches that there