Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3649“words” in the internal sense signify truths of doctrine; andtherefore all Divine truth in general is called the “Word,” and theLord himself, from whom comes all Divine truth, is in the supremesense the “Word” (n. 1288). And because nothing that exists in theuniverse is anything, that is, is a real thing, unless it is from Divinegood by Divine truth, therefore “words” in the Hebrew languagemean things also. That nothing in the universe is anything, that is,a real thing, unless it is from Divine good by Divine truth, that is,by the “Word,” is plain in John:In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, andGod was the Word. All things were made by him; and without him wasnot anything made that was made (John 1:1, 3).[2] The interior significations of expressions for the most partoriginate in the interior man, which is among spirits and angels; forevery man as to his spirit, or as to that very man which lives afterthe decease of the body, is in company with angels and spirits,although the external man is not aware of this; and because he is incompany with them, he is also with them in the universal language,and thus in the origins of words. Hence there are imparted towords many significations which in the external form appear out ofagreement, although in the internal form they are entirely inagreement—as here, that “words” signify things. It is the same in ahost of cases, as that the understanding is called the inward “sight,”light being attributed to it; that attention and obedience are called“hearing” and “hearkening”; that the perception of a thing is called“smelling”; and so forth.5076. That they sinned. That this signifies inverted order isevident from the signification of “sinning” as being to act contraryto Divine order: whatever is contrary to this is “sin.” Divine orderitself is Divine truth from Divine good. All are in this order whoare in truth from good, that is, who are in faith from charity, fortruth is of faith, and good is of charity; and they are contrary to thisorder who are not in truth from good, consequently who are intruth from evil, or in falsity from evil; nothing else is signified by“sin.” Here by their “sinning”—the butler and the baker—issignified that external sensuous things were in inverted order