Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 191disciples, so in a sense abstracted from persons, which is thespiritual sense itself of the Word, truths and goods themselves,which are from the Lord through his Word, are meant. (That bythe Lord’s twelve disciples all things of faith and love in thecomplex, thus all the truths and goods of the church, are meant, seeArcana Coelestia, n. 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397; that the Wordin heaven is understood in a sense abstracted from persons, seeabove, n. 99, 100.)[3] When one knows that by the “disciples of the Lord” all thosewho are in truths from good from the Lord are meant, and in anabstract sense truths themselves from good; and that by their being“cast into prison by the devil” is meant the endeavor of those whoare in falsities from evil to deprive them of truths, and in a senseabstracted from persons, the detention or imprisonment of truthsby falsities, as described above, he can understand what is signifiedin each of these senses in the following passages:They shall lay hands on you and shall persecute you, delivering youup to the synagogues and prisons, for my name’s sake (Luke 21:12).That “for the sake of the Lord’s name” signifies for the sake of thegoods of love and the truths of faith, from him, see above (n. 102).Then shall they deliver you up to affliction, and shall kill you, andye shall be held in hatred for my name’s sake (Matt. 24:9, 11).They will deliver you up to councils and to synagogues, and theywill scourge you for my sake (Matt. 10:17, 18; Mark 13:9).Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; andsome of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shallscourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city (Matt.23:34).A man that was a householder planted a vineyard, and let it out tohusbandmen. When the season of the fruits drew near, he sent hisservants to the husbandmen, to receive the fruits of it. But thehusbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, andstoned another. Again, he sent other servants, and they did unto themlikewise. At length he sent unto them his son. But the husbandmen,