Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

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DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 16820. (d) Hitherto the spiritual sense of the Word has been unknown.It has been shown in the work Heaven and Hell (n. 87–105) that allthings of nature, and likewise of the human body, and also everysingle particular in them, correspond to spiritual things. Hitherto,however, it has not been known what correspondence is, althoughin the most ancient times this was very well known; for the scienceof correspondences was then the science of sciences, and was souniversal that all the writings and books were written by means ofcorrespondences.[2] The book of Job, which is an ancient book, is full ofcorrespondences. The hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, and also thefabulous stories of highest antiquity, were nothing butcorrespondences. All the ancient churches were churchesrepresentative of heavenly things; their rites, and also theordinances according to which their worship was instituted,consisted exclusively of correspondences.So did all things of the church among the sons of Jacob; theirburnt offerings and sacrifices, with each and every thing theretopertaining, were correspondences; so was the tabernacle with all itscontents; so were their feasts, the feast of unleavened things, thefeast of tabernacles, and the feast of first-fruits; so was thepriesthood of Aaron and the Levites, and also the holy garments ofAaron and his sons; besides all the ordinances and judgments thatconcerned their worship and their life.[3] And as Divine things present themselves in the world bycorrespondences, the Word has been written exclusively by meansof them. And therefore the Lord spoke by correspondences, becausehe spoke from his Divine, for that which is from the Divine,descending into nature, is turned into such things as correspond toDivine things, and which then store up and conceal in their bosomthe Divine things that are called celestial and spiritual.21. I have been instructed that the men of the most ancientchurch (the church before the flood) were of a genius so heavenlythat they spoke with angels of heaven, and that they were able to
DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 169speak with them by means of correspondences. From this the stateof their wisdom was rendered such that whatever they saw in thisworld they thought about not only in a natural way, but spirituallyalso at the same time, so that they thought unitedly with angels. Ihave been instructed besides that Enoch (of whom mention ismade in Genesis 5:21–24) together with his associates, collectedcorrespondences from the lips of those men of the most ancientchurch, and transmitted the knowledge of them to posterity, andthat in consequence of this the science of correspondences was notonly known but was also much cultivated in many kingdoms ofAsia, especially in the land of Canaan, in Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea,Syria, Arabia, and also in Tyre, Sidon, and Nineveh; and that it wascarried over from places on the seacoast there into Greece; butthere it was turned into fabulous stories, as is evident from theearliest writers of that country.22. But when in process of time the representative things of thechurch, which were correspondences, were converted into thingsidolatrous and also into magic, then of the Lord’s Divineprovidence the knowledge of correspondences was gradually blottedout of remembrance, and among the Israelitish and Jewish peoplewas altogether lost and annihilated. The worship of that nation didindeed consist exclusively of correspondences, and wasconsequently representative of heavenly things; but still they didnot know what anything of it signified, for they were utterlynatural men, and therefore were neither willing nor able to knowanything about spiritual things, nor consequently aboutcorrespondences.23. The reason why, in ancient times, the idolatries of thenations originated from the knowledge of correspondences, wasthat all things visible on the earth have a correspondence; not onlytrees, but also beasts and birds of every kind, and likewise fishes,and all other things. The ancients, possessing a knowledge ofcorrespondences, made for themselves images that corresponded toheavenly things, and delighted in them because they signifiedthings such as belong to heaven, and therefore to the church. Theytherefore set them not only in their temples, but also in their
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Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

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