Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 35“daughters-in-law,” and “son’s sons,” are signified goods and truthswhich generate and are generated in their order (Arcana Coelestia n.10490), for in heaven there are no other nativities. This being so,by “firstborn” is not meant the firstborn, but the good of heavenand of the church, because this is in the first place. And since it isthe Lord from whom all good in heaven is, he is called the“firstborn.” He is called “the firstborn from the dead,” because,when he arose from the dead, he made his human to be Divinegood by union with the Divine that was in him from conception.[2] This is why he is called “the firstborn from the dead,” andsays of himself in David:I will make him the firstborn, high above the kings of the earth(Ps. 89:27).What is meant by his being “high above the kings of the earth” willbe seen in a subsequent article. (That the Lord, when he departedfrom the world, made his human Divine good, see Arcana Coelestian. 3194, 3210, 6864, 7499, 8724, 9199, 10076; thus that he cameforth from the Father and returned to the Father, n. 3194, 3210;and that after the union, the Divine truth, which is the comforter,the spirit of truth, proceeds from him, n. 3704, 3712, 3969, 4577,5704, 7499, 8127, 8241, 9199, 9398, 9407. But this arcanum maybe seen more fully explained in New Jerusalem and Its HeavenlyDoctrine, n. 293–295; and in the passages there cited from ArcanaCoelestia, n. 303–305.) As the Lord in respect to the Divine humanis called “the firstborn,” for the reason that all good proceeds fromhim, so all the firstborn in the Israelitish church were holy toJehovah; so also the Levites were received in place of all thefirstborn in Israel; for by the sons of Levi were represented those ofthe church who are in the good of charity; therefore also a doubleportion of inheritance was allotted to the firstborn; all this for thereason that the firstborn signified the good that is from the Lord,and in the highest sense, the Lord himself in respect to the Divinehuman from which is all good. For all things that were commandedin the Israelitish church were representative of Divine things,spiritual and celestial.