Arcana Coelestia volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 6Another such example is to be found in Swedenborg’s rathercommon expression scientia cognitionum, used in connection withthe Philistines, and usually rendered “science of knowledges,” andin the Rotch edition “learning of knowledges”; both of whichrenderings utterly fail to convey the author’s meaning, which issimply the “memory-knowledge of knowledges”; that is to say, thepeople who are represented by the Philistines are those who storeup knowledges from the Word in the memory, but have no otherknowledge of them than a mere memory-knowledge; thus have notthe knowledge of them that comes from a life in accordance withthem. A most important point; and it is distressing that it shouldbe so completely lost from view as has been the case.The same remark applies to the signification in the Word of“Egypt.” Swedenborg’s definition of the signification of “Egypt” isscientia, or scientifica. To render these terms “science” and“scientifics” is attended with the disastrous result that the ordinaryreader supposes (and even preachers have habitually manifested thesame lamentable ignorance) that “Egypt,” as mentioned in theWord, has something to do with science as generally understood;and thus the whole point of the Divine instruction given in theWord in connection with Egypt and the Egyptians is completelylost.In the present revision of Arcana Coelestia an effort has beenmade to translate this group of words on a systematic plan, so as toindicate to the English reader the terminology and the meaningthat exist in the original wherever these words occur. To this endthe following renderings have been adopted:Cognitio, cognitiones: “knowledge,” “knowledges.”Scientia (except when it really means “science”): “memoryknowledge.”Scientiae, scientifica: “memory-knowledges.”Latin words have also been given in brackets wherever for anyreason this seemed to be called for.John Faulkner Potts