The Bible

 

Revelation 2

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1 To the angel of the Ephesian church write: These·​·things says He who holds the seven stars in His right·​·hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands,

2 I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and that thou canst not bear those who are evil, and hast tested those who say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars;

3 and hast borne, and hast patience, and on·​·account·​·of My name hast labored, and hast not tired.

4 But I have this against thee, that thou hast left thy first love*.

5 Remember therefore from whence thou hast fallen; and repent, and do the first works; but if not I will come to·​·thee quickly, and will move thy lampstand out·​·of its place, unless thou repent.

6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I·​·also hate.

7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

8 And to the angel of the church of the Smyrneans write: These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and is alive,

9 I know thy works, and affliction, and poverty (but thou art rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but they are a synagogue of Satan.

10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the Devil will cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you shall have affliction ten days; be thou faithful to death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.

12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write: These·​·things says He who has the sharp two-edged* sword,

13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, where Satan’s throne is; and thou holdest My name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr*, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

14 But I have a few things against thee, that thou hast there those who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast an offense before the sons of Israel, to eat idol-sacrifices, and to commit·​·harlotry.

15 So thou hast, even thou, those who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which I hate*.

16 Repent; otherwise I will come to thee quickly, and will fight among them with the sword of My mouth.

17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone*, and on the stone a new name written, which no·​·one knows except him who receives it.

18 And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These·​·things says the Son of God, who has His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine·​·brass,

19 I know thy works, and love, and ministry, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

20 But I have a few things against thee, that thou allowest that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce My servants to commit·​·harlotry, and to eat idol-sacrifices.

21 And I gave her time to repent of her harlotry, and she repented not.

22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and those who commit·​·adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent of their works.

23 And I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the kidneys and hearts; and I will give to each of you according to your works.

24 But to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you no other burden.

25 Nevertheless, that which you have, hold until I come.

26 And he who overcomes and keeps My works to the end, to him will I give authority over the nations;

27 and he shall shepherd*, them with an iron staff; as the vessels of a potter they shall be broken in pieces*, even as I have received from My Father.

28 And I will give him the morning star.

29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

Commentary

 

Exploring the Meaning of Revelation 2

By Rev. N. Bruce Rogers

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING of Revelation 2

(This text is excerpted from "Apocalypse Revealed", by Emanuel Swedenborg, as translated by N.B. Rogers.)

The Contents of the Whole Chapter

To the churches in the Christian world: to people there who regard primarily doctrinal truths and not goods of life, those meant by the church of Ephesus, nos. 73-90.

To those there who are engaged in good endeavors as regards life, and caught up in falsities as regards doctrine, those meant by the church of the people of Smyrna, nos. 91-106.

To those there who place everything of the church in good works and not anything in truths, those meant by the church in Pergamum, nos. 107-123.

And to those there who possess a faith springing from charity, as well as to those who possess a faith divorced from charity, those meant by the church in Thyatira, nos. 124-152.

These are all called to the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.

The Contents of the Individual Verses

Verse ContentsSpiritual Meaning
1. "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,To people and concerning people who regard doctrinal truths primarily, and not goods of life:
'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand,The Lord, the source of all truths by means of the Word,
who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:the source of all enlightenment for people who are part of His church.
2. I know your works,The Lord sees all a person's inner and outer qualities simultaneously,
your labor, and your patience,their effort and perseverance,
and that you cannot bear those who are evil.that they cannot endure to have evils called goods, or the converse.
And you have explored those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;They have examined what in the church are called goods and truths, which nevertheless are evils and falsities.
3. and you have endured and have patience,Their perseverance with them.
and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.Their effort and work in acquiring for themselves the constituents of religion and its accompanying doctrine.
4. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first charity.But this is against them, that they do not hold goods of life in first place.
5. Remember therefore from where you have fallenA calling to mind of their going astray,
and repent and do the first works,in order to turn the state of their life around.
or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent.Otherwise it is certain that enlightenment will not be granted for them to continue to see truths.
6. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.Owing to their truths they know this and therefore do not wish works to be merit-seeking.
7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.Anyone who understands these things, let him obey what the Divine truth of the Word teaches those who will be members of the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.
To him who overcomesTo him who fights against evils and falsities and is reformed,
I will give to eat from the tree of life,an assimilation of the goodness of love and charity from the Lord,
which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.'inwardly in the truths of wisdom and faith.
8. "And to the angel of the church of the people of Smyrna write,To people and concerning people who as to life are engaged in good endeavors, but as to doctrine are caught up in falsities:
'These things says the First and the Last,The Lord, that He alone is God,
who was dead, and is alive:that He has been disregarded in the church and His humanity not acknowledged to be Divine, even though in respect to it, too, He alone is life and the only source of eternal life.
9. I know your works,The Lord sees all those people's inner and outer qualities simultaneously,
and tribulation, and poverty,that they are caught up in falsities and so are not engaged in good practices,
and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not,their false speaking in saying that they have among them goods of love, when in fact they do not,
but are a synagogue of Satan.because as to doctrine they are caught up in falsities.
10. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer.Do not despair when you are infested by evils and attacked by falsities.
Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison,Their goodness of life will be infested by evils emanating from hell,
that you may be tested,through falsities assailing them.
and you will have tribulation ten days.This will continue the whole time.
Be faithful until death,Their reception of truths until their falsities are removed.
and I will give you the crown of life.They will then have eternal life, their reward for overcoming.
11. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.The same here as before [verse 7].
He who overcomesHe who fights against evils and falsities and is reformed
shall not be hurt by the second death.'will not later succumb to evils and falsities from hell.
12. "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write,To people and concerning people who place everything having to do with the church in good works, and not anything in doctrinal truths:
'These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword:The Lord in relation to doctrinal truths from the Word, by which evils and falsities are dispelled.
13. I know your works,The same here as before [verses 2, 9].
and where you dwell, [where Satan's throne is].Their life in darkness,
And you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith,even though they have religion and worship in accordance with it,
even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.at a time when all truth has been extinguished by falsities in the church.
14. But I have a few things against you,Against them are the following:
because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.that they have among them people who perform hypocritical works, by which the worship of God in the church is defiled and adulterated;
15. Thus you have also those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.that they have among them also people who make works deserving of merit.
16. Repent,They should guard themselves against such works.
or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.If they do not, the Lord will contend with them from the Word.
17. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.The same here as before [verses 7, 11].
To him who overcomesThe same here as before [verses 7, 11].
I will give to eat of the hidden manna.An assimilation of the good of celestial love then, and thus a conjunction of the Lord with those who perform works.
And I will give him a white stone,Truths supportive of and united to good.
and on the stone a new name written,Thus they will have a quality of good that they did not have before,
which no one knows except him who receives it.'which is not apparent to anyone, because it is engraved on their life.
18. "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write,To people and concerning people who are governed by a faith arising from charity, and so are engaged in good works; and also to people and concerning people who are governed by a faith divorced from charity, and so are engaged in evil works.
'These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire,The Lord in respect to the Divine wisdom of His Divine love.
and His feet like fine brass:Natural Divine good.
19. I know your works,The same here as before [verses 2, 9, 13].
and charity and ministry,The spiritual affection called charity, and the practice of it.
and your faith and patience,Truth and their effort to acquire it and teach it.
and your works, and the last more than the first.The growth of these from an affection for spiritual truth.
20. Nevertheless I have a few things against you,These are the things that follow:
that you allow the woman Jezebel,that they have among them people in the church who divorce faith from charity,
who calls herself a prophetess,and who make faith the only doctrine of the church,
to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immoralityin consequence of which faith the truths of the church are falsified.
and eat things sacrificed to idols.The defilement of worship and profanations.
21. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.Those who confirm themselves in that doctrine do not turn back from it, even if they see things contrary to it in the Word.
22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation,Therefore they must be left to their doctrine with its falsifications and be sorely infested by falsities,
unless she repents of her deeds.if they refuse to turn back from divorcing faith from charity.
23. I will kill her sons with death,Truths from the Word will all be turned into falsities,
that all the churches may know that I am He who searches the reins and hearts.so that the church may know that the Lord sees the quality of truth and the quality of good in everyone,
And I will give to each one of you according to his works.and gives to everyone according to the charity and its accompanying faith present in his works.
24. Yet to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine,To those in whose case the doctrine of faith is divorced from charity, and to those in whose case the doctrine of faith is combined with charity,
and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say,who do not understand the interior constituents of their tenets, which are nothing but falsities:
I will put on you no other burden.Only let them guard themselves against those people,
25. Still, hold fast what you have till I come.so that they may retain the few things that they know from the Word about charity and its resulting faith, and live according to them, until the Lord's advent.
26. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end,Those who are in fact governed by charity and its resulting faith, and continue to be governed by them to the end of their life,
to him I will give power over the nations.will overcome the evils in themselves that come from hell
27. He shall rule them with a rod of iron;by truths drawn from the literal sense of the Word and at the same time by rational considerations from a natural sight,
they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels,as being of little or no account.
as I also have received from My Father;And this owing to the Lord, who, when He was in the world, acquired for Himself all power over the hells, by virtue of His Divinity that He had in Him.
28. and I will give him the morning star.Intelligence and wisdom then.
29. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"The same here as before [verses 7, 11, 17].

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #24

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24. Behold, He is coming with the clouds (of heaven). (1:7) This symbolically means that the Lord will reveal Himself in the literal sense of the Word and lay open its spiritual meaning at the end of the church.

Someone who knows nothing of the internal or spiritual meaning of the Word cannot know what the Lord meant by His coming in the clouds of heaven. For He said to the high priest who was adjuring Him to say whether He was the Christ, the Son of God,

As you have said... I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:63-64)

Moreover, in speaking to His disciples about the end of the age, the Lord said,

And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear..., and they will see (Him) coming in the clouds of heaven with power and... glory. (Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26)

The clouds of heaven in which He will come mean nothing else than the Word in its literal sense, and the glory in which they will see Him, the Word in its spiritual meaning.

The reality of this can hardly be believed by people who do not think of the Word beyond the sense of its letter. To them a cloud is a cloud, and so they believe that the Lord will appear in the clouds of the sky when the Last Judgment is at hand. But this idea collapses when the meaning of a cloud is known, that it is Divine truth in its outmost expressions, thus the Word in its literal meaning.

[2] One sees clouds in the spiritual world just as in the natural world. However, clouds in the spiritual world appear beneath the heavens, in the region of people who are caught up in the literal meaning of the Word - clouds that are darker or brighter according to their understanding of the Word and at the same time acceptance of it. That is because the light of heaven there is Divine truth, and degrees of darkness falsities. Bright clouds, therefore, are Divine truth veiled in truthful appearances, like the Word in its letter with people who possess truths, while dark clouds are Divine truth wrapped in misconceptions affirmed on the basis of appearances, like the Word in its letter with people caught up in falsities. I have seen these clouds often, and their origin and nature have been apparent.

Now because, after the glorification of His humanity, the Lord became the embodiment of Divine truth or the Word even in its outmost expressions, He said to the high priest that thereafter they would see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven. 1

[3] Moreover, He said to His disciples that at the end of the age the sign of the Son of Man would appear, and that they would see Him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory, 2 which symbolically means that at the end of the church, when the Last Judgment takes place, He will appear in the Word and reveal its spiritual meaning, an event that has occurred at the present day, because now is the time of the church's end and of the accomplishment of the Last Judgment, as may be seen from short works recently published. 3

This, then, is what is meant here in the book of Revelation by the declaration, "Behold, He is coming with clouds," and in the following one,

I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud One sitting like the Son of Man... (Revelation 14:14)

As also in Daniel,

I was watching in the night visions, and behold..., the Son of Man coming with... clouds...! (Daniel 7:13)

To be shown that the Son of Man means the Lord in relation to the Word, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 19-28.

[4] Clouds elsewhere in the Word, too, mean Divine truth in its outmost expressions, and so also the Word in its letter, as may be seen from passages there where clouds are mentioned, as in the following:

There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides in heaven..., and in magnificence on the clouds. (Deuteronomy 33:26)

Sing to God, praise His name; extol Him who rides on the clouds... (Psalms 68:4)

...Jehovah rides on a light cloud... (Isaiah 19:1)

To ride on clouds means, symbolically, to possess the Word's wisdom, for a horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word. Who does not see that God does not ride upon clouds?

Similarly:

(God) rode upon cherubs..., (and) made... His canopy... the clouds of the heavens. (Psalms 18:10-11)

Cherubs, too, symbolize the Word, as may be seen in nos. 239, 672, below. A canopy symbolizes an abode.

[5] (Jehovah) lays the beams of His dining chambers in the waters; He makes a cloud His chariot... (Psalms 104:3)

Waters symbolize truths, dining chambers doctrinal tenets, and a chariot doctrine, all of which are called clouds, because they are derived from the literal meaning of the Word.

Similarly:

He binds up the waters in His clouds, and the cloud is not broken under them...; (and) He spreads His cloud over (His throne). (Job 26:8-9)

...God... causes the light of His cloud to shine. (Job 37:15)

Ascribe strength to God, ...strength upon the clouds. (Psalms 68:34)

The light of a cloud symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word, and strength symbolizes the Divine power in it.

[6] (Lucifer,) you have said in your heart...: "I will ascend above the heights of a cloud, I will be like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:13-14)

Forsake (Babylon)..., for... she has lifted herself up to the clouds. (Jeremiah 51:9)

Lucifer and Babylon symbolize people who profane the goods and truths of the Word. Consequently those are things meant there by clouds.

(Jehovah) spreads a cloud for a covering... (Psalms 105:39)

Jehovah has created above every dwelling place of Mount Zion... a cloud by day... For over all the glory there will be a covering. (Isaiah 4:5)

A cloud here, too, means the Word in its literal sense, which, because it encloses and covers the spiritual meaning, is called a covering over the glory. To be shown that the literal sense of the Word is a covering, to prevent its spiritual meaning from being injured, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture 33, and that it is a protection, no. 97.

[7] Divine truth in its outmost expressions, which is the same as the Word in its literal sense, was also represented by the cloud in which Jehovah descended upon Mount Sinai and proclaimed the Law (Exodus 19:9; 34:5). Also by the cloud which covered Peter, James and John when Jesus was transfigured, concerning which we are told:

While (Peter) was still speaking, behold, a... cloud overshadowed them; and lo, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son... Hear Him!" (Matthew 17:5; cf. Mark 9:7, Luke 9:34-35)

In this transfiguration the Lord caused Himself to be seen as the Word, which is why a cloud overshadowed them and a voice was heard from the cloud, saying that this was the Son of God. The voice from the cloud means from the Word.

We will see elsewhere that in an opposite sense, a cloud means the Word falsified in respect to its literal meaning.

Footnotes:

1Matthew 26:63-64.

2Matthew 24:30.

3. A reference probably to The Last Judgment (London, 1758) and A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual World (Amsterdam, 1763).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.