New Christian Bible Study

Commentary

 

Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #11

Study this Passage

  
/ 962  
  

11. Which are in Asia. This symbolically means, to those who from the Word possess the light of truth.

Since, as we said before, all the names of persons and places in the Word mean things having to do with heaven and the church, so too does Asia, and likewise the names of the seven churches there, as will be apparent from considerations that follow.

Asia means those who possess the light of truth from the Word because the Most Ancient Church existed there, followed by the Ancient Church, and later the Israelite Church, and because the Ancient Word existed among them, and later the Israelite Word. For all light of truth comes from the Word.

To be shown that there were ancient churches in the Asiatic world, and that they had a Word which was afterward lost, and that there finally existed there the Word that we have today, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 101-103.

That, now, is the reason that Asia here symbolizes all those who from the Word possess the light of truth.

[2] Regarding the aforementioned Ancient Word which existed in Asia before the Israelite Word, this new information deserves to be reported, that it is still preserved there among peoples who live in Great Tartary. 1 I have spoken with spirits and angels in the spiritual world who came from there, who said that they possessed a Word, that they had possessed it from ancient times, that they conduct their worship in accordance with it, and that it consists of nothing but things that correspond. They said that it also contains the book of Jasher, which is mentioned in Joshua (Joshua 10:12-13) 2 and in the Second Book of Samuel (2 Samuel 1:17, 18) 3 , and that they have among them as well The Wars of Jehovah and Prophecies, books which Moses mentions in Numbers (Numbers 21:14, 15, 27-30) 4 .

Moreover, when I read in their presence the words that Moses took from those books, they looked to see whether they existed there, and they found them.

It was apparent to me from this that the Ancient Word still exists among them.

In the course of my conversation with them they said they worship Jehovah - some of them worshiping Him as an invisible God, some as a visible one.

Furthermore, they related that they do not allow foreigners to enter their midst, with the exception of the Chinese, with whom they cultivate a peaceful relationship, because the Chinese emperor came from them. They said, too, that their country is so populous that they do not believe any region in the whole world to be more populous - which is also believable on account of the wall extending so many miles which the Chinese once built to protect themselves from being invaded by them.

Inquire concerning the Ancient Word in China, and perhaps you will find it there among the Tartars. 5

Footnotes:

1. A vast region controlled by Mongols in the 13th and 14th centuries, extending from eastern Europe over much of Asia. After the Turkish groups known as Tatars were conquered and assimilated by the Mongols in the early 13th century, the Mongol invaders of Russia and Hungary became known to Europeans as Tatars or Tartars, and their territory was depicted in maps as Great Tartary.

2. "Then Joshua spoke to Jehovah in the day when Jehovah delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: 'Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.' So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher?"

3. "Then David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son, and he told them to teach the children of Judah the Song of the Bow; indeed it is written in the Book of Jasher."

4. "Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Jehovah: 'Waheb in Suphah, the brooks of the Arnon, and the slope of the brooks that reaches to the dwelling of Ar, and lies on the border of Moab.'" "...Therefore the Prophecies say: 'Come to Heshbon, let it be built; let the city of Sihon be repaired. For fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the heights of the Arnon. Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites. But we have shot at them; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon. Then we laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba.'"

5. I.e., among the descendants of the Mongols.

  
/ 962  
  

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #662

Study this Passage

  
/ 853  
  

662. 1 The second experience.

Some time later I went into a park and walked there reflecting on those who have a longing to possess worldly goods and so imagine that they do. Then I saw at some distance from me two angels in conversation, who from time to time looked towards me. So I went nearer, and as I approached they addressed me and said: 'We have an inward perception that you are reflecting upon what we are talking about, or that we are talking about what you are reflecting on, which is the result of the reciprocal communication of affections.'

So I asked what they were talking about. 'About imagination,' they said, 'longing and intelligence; and now about those who delight in day-dreaming and imagining they possess everything in the world.'

[2] So I asked them to reveal their thoughts on these three topics, longing, imagination and intelligence.

They began their reply by saying that everyone inwardly by birth has longings, but outwardly acquires intelligence by education. No one has intelligence, much less wisdom, inwardly, that is, in respect of his spirit, except from the Lord. 'For everyone,' they said, 'is restrained from longing for evil, and is kept in intelligence in proportion to the extent he looks to the Lord and at the same time is linked with Him. Failing this, a person is nothing but longing; yet in externals, that is, as regards the body, he has intelligence as the result of education. A person longs for honours and riches, or to be eminent and wealthy; and these two goals cannot be achieved unless he appears well-behaved and spiritual, and so intelligent and wise. So from childhood he learns to appear thus. This is why, as soon as he mixes with people or attends a meeting, he reverses his spirit, switching it away from longing, and speaking and acting in accordance with the principles of decency and honour which he learned from childhood and retains in his bodily memory. He also takes the greatest care to see that nothing of the mad longing of his spirit slips out.

[3] Thus everyone, who is not inwardly guided by the Lord, is a pretender, a sycophant and hypocrite, appearing to be a human being without being one. Of him it can be said that his shell or body is wise, his kernel or spirit is mad; that his external is human, his internal that of a wild beast. Such people go about with the back of their heads pointing upwards, and downwards with the front, so that they are weighed down by their burden, with their heads hanging down, their gaze fastened on the ground. When they put off their bodies, becoming spirits and being set free, they turn into what their own mad longings are. For those who are ruled by self-love long to be masters of the universe, or even to extend its limits so as to have wider sway, for they can see no end to it. Those ruled by love of the world long to possess everything in it, and are grieved and envious if anyone has any treasures stored away in secret. So to prevent such people from turning into sheer longings and losing their humanity, they are allowed in the spiritual world to have their thoughts influenced by fear of losing their reputation, and so their honours and profit, as well as by fear of the law and its penalties. They are also allowed to concentrate their mind on some study or task, so that they are kept in externals and so in a state of intelligence, however much inwardly they rave and behave like madmen.'

[4] After this I asked whether all who have this longing also suffer from the delusion that they do possess worldly goods. They replied that the people who suffer from this delusion are those who think inwardly about it and over-indulge their imagination, talking to themselves about it. These people come close to separating their spirit from its link with the body; they swamp the understanding by day-dreaming, and indulge in the empty pleasure of imagining they possess everything. A person is after death the victim of this madness, if he has withdrawn his spirit from the body, and has not been willing to retreat from the delight his madness gives him. He thinks little from a religious point of view about evils and falsities, and hardly anything about unrestrained self-love as being destructive of love to the Lord, and unrestrained love of the world as being destructive of love towards the neighbour.

[5] After this the two angels and I felt a desire to see those who suffer from this imaginary longing, or delusion that they possess the wealth of all as the result of love of the world. We perceived that this desire came upon us in order that we should get to know these people. Their homes were under the ground on which we stood, but above hell. So we looked at one another and said: 'Let us go.' We saw an opening and some steps, so we went down them. We were told to approach them from the east, to avoid entering the cloud of their delusion and putting our understandings in shadow, which would at the same time obscure our sight.

Suddenly we caught sight of a building made of reeds, and therefore full of chinks, standing in the cloud, which continually seeped out like smoke from the chinks in three of the walls. We went in and saw fifty on one side and fifty on the other, sitting on benches. They had their backs to the east and south and faced the west and north. Each had a table in front of him with bulging money-bags on it, and around the bags piles of gold coins.

[6] 'Are those,' we asked each, 'the wealth of all in the world?'

'Not all in the world,' they said, 'but all in the kingdom.' Their speech sounded like a whistle, and they themselves had round faces which had a ruddy look like the shell of a snail. The pupils of their eyes seemed to sparkle against a green background; this was caused by the light of their delusion.

We took up a position in between them and said: 'Do you believe that you possess all the wealth of the kingdom?' 'Yes,' they replied.

Then we asked: 'Which one of you possesses this?' 'Each of us,' they said.

'How can you each possess this?' we asked. 'There are many of you.'

'We each of us,' they said, 'know that everything that belongs to another is ours. We are not allowed to think, much less say, "What is mine is not yours," but we are allowed to think and say, "What is yours is mine."'

Even to our eyes the coins on the tables looked as if made of pure gold. But when we let in light from the east, they turned out to be small particles of gold which they had magnified to such an extent by means of shared joint delusion. They said that anyone who comes in has to bring with him some gold, which they cut up into pieces, and these into small particles, and these they then magnify by concentrating their delusive powers with one intention, to make them look like coins of the larger sort.

[7] Then we said: 'Were you not born rational human beings? Where have you acquired that foolish fancy?'

'We know,' they said, 'that our vanity is fanciful, but because it pleases the interiors of our minds, we come in here and are delighted by seeming to possess everyone's wealth. But we do not stay here for more than a few hours, and having spent this time here we go out, and each time sanity returns to our minds. But still the attraction of our day-dreams from time to time comes upon us, and makes us alternate between coming in and going out, so that by turns we are wise and crazy. We know too that a harsh fate awaits those who cunningly filch other people's property.'

'What fate is that?' we asked.

'They are sucked down,' they said, ‘and thrown naked into some prison in hell, where they are obliged to work for clothing and for food, and then for a few pennies which they hoard and make their hearts' desire. But if they do harm to their companions, they have to give up some of their pennies as a fine.'

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated from Conjugial Love 267-268.

  
/ 853  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

©2024 New Christian Bible Study Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed from newchristianbiblestudy.org