Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3563Editor’s PrefaceThis edition of Arcana Coelestia is based on the translation of J.Clowes and his revisers, as further revised by J. F. Potts. The textfor this edition was electronically scanned from the Foundation’sStandard Edition. This process has allowed the book to becompletely redesigned and set in a new and more readable typeface.Certain stylistic changes have also been introduced. These includemodernized spelling and punctuation as well as substituting newwords for terms whose meanings have become obscure or havechanged since the nineteenth century. Arabic numerals havereplaced roman numerals in Bible passages, and certain capitalizedwords, including pronouns referring to God, have been lowercasedto reflect contemporary usage. All these changes have been carefullymade in order to make the book easier to read and use whilepreserving the dignity and power of the original Latin. On thewhole, however, the Clowes/Potts translation has not beenmaterially altered.Volume 7 of Arcana Coelestia continues Swedenborg’s verse-byverseexposition, or commentary, of the biblical text of the book ofGenesis. As was the custom in his day, Swedenborg referred to thePsalms as the book of David, and to the Pentateuch (Genesis,Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) as the books ofMoses. In this volume Swedenborg also continues his practice ofinserting topical articles or “continuation” passages between eachchapter of the textual exegesis. The page number of the start ofeach of these continuations is listed in the table of contents.The reader may also wish to read the “Prefatory Notes by theReviser” in the front of the first volume of this work, as it containsfurther details about the publishing history of this first and largestof Swedenborg’s theological works. It also discloses a criticaldecision made by Potts regarding his translating of the severalwords used by Swedenborg to refer to “knowledge.” The readerneeds to know that this translation pattern was not followed byother translators of Swedenborg.