1. APOCALYPSE. CHAPTER 1.

[Note: The text from the Book of Revelation is shown first, followed by an explanation of its meaning.]

1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show unto His servants the things which must quickly come to pass, and signified, sending by His angel, unto His servant John.

2. Who bare witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatsoever things he saw.

3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein; for the time is near.

4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven spirits which are in sight of His throne;

5. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the Firstborn from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loveth us, and washeth us from our sins in His blood;

6. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: to Him be the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

7. Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall lament over Him. Even so; Amen.

8. I am the Alpha and the Omega, Beginning and End, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

9. I, John, who also am your brother and partaker in the affliction and in the kingdom and patient expectation of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, ¹ for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

10. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day; and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

11. Saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last; and what thou seest write in a book, and send to the churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and Smyrna, and Pergamum, and Thyatira, and Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

12. And I turned to see the voice which spake with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,

13. And in the midst of the seven lampstands one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the paps with a golden girdle.

14. And His head and hairs white as white wool, as snow: and His eyes as a flame of fire.

15. And His feet like unto burnished brass, as if glowing in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.

16. And having in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth; and His face as the sun shineth in his power.

17. And when I saw Him I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the First and the Last;

18. And the Living One; and I became dead; and behold I am alive unto the ages of the ages, Amen: and I have the keys of hell and of death.

19. Write the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which are to be hereafter.

20. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches; and the seven lampstands which thou sawest are the seven churches.

1. Many have expounded this prophetical book called Revelation, but none of them understood the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. They have therefore applied the particular things in the book to the successive states of the church, which they have learned from histories; many things, moreover, they have applied to civil affairs. For this reason those expositions are for the most part conjectures, which can never appear in such light that they can be affirmed as truths. As soon, therefore, as they are read, they are put aside as speculations. The expositions of Revelation now extant are of this character, because, as has been said, their authors had no knowledge of the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. Yet, in fact, all things recorded in Revelation are written in a style similar to that of the Old Testament prophecies, and to the style, in general in which everything in the Word is written. The Word in the letter is natural, but in its bosom it is spiritual; and being such, it contains within it a sense that is not at all apparent in the letter. How the one sense differs from the other may be seen from what is said and shown in the small work on the The White Horse and in the appendix there from the Arcana Coelestia. ²

Footnotes:

73. THEREFORE EVERY ANGEL IS IN A COMPLETE HUMAN FORM.

In the two preceding chapters it has been shown that heaven in its whole complex, and likewise each society in heaven, reflects a single man. From the sequence of reasons there set forth it follows that this is equally true of each angel. As heaven is a man in largest form, and a society of heaven in a less form, so is an angel in least. For in the most perfect form, such as the form of heaven is, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole. This is so for the reason that heaven is a common sharing, for it shares all it has with each one, and each one receives all he has from that sharing. Because an angel is thus a recipient he is a heaven in least form, as shown above in its chapter; and a man also, so far as he receives heaven, is a recipient, a heaven, and an angel (see above, 57). This is thus described in the Apocalypse:-

He measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty and four cubits, the measure of a man, which is that of an angel (Apocalypse 21:17).

"Jerusalem" means here the Lord's church, and in a more eminent sense, heaven; ¹ the "wall" means truth, which is a defence against the assault of falsities and evils; ² "a hundred and forty and four" means all goods and truths in the complex; ³ "measure" means what a thing is, ⁴ a "man" means one in whom are goods and truths in general and in particular, thus in whom is heaven. And as it is from this that an angel is a man, it is said "the measure of a man, which is that of an angel." This is the spiritual meaning of these words. Without that meaning how could it be seen that "the wall of the Holy Jerusalem" is "the measure of a man, which is that of an angel?" ⁵

Footnotes:

3272. 'Twelve princes of their peoples' means all the first and foremost features of that spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'twelve' as all things of faith and so of the Church, dealt with in 577, 2089, 2129 (end), 2130 (end); from the meaning of 'princes' as first and foremost features, dealt with in 1482, 2089; and from the meaning of 'peoples' as those who are governed by truths, dealt with in 1259, 1260, and so those who belong to the spiritual Church, for they are said to be those with whom truths predominate. The fact that all numbers in the Word mean real things becomes quite clear from the number twelve which occurs so many times. Whenever that number is used in the Word it means all things. For example, the twelve tribes in the Old Testament and the twelve apostles in the New mean all things of faith, and so all things of the Church. Here 'twelve princes' accordingly means all the first and foremost features of that Church which are represented by just so many sons of Ishmael.

[2] That the number twelve means those things becomes clear from what has been introduced in the places mentioned above, as well as from the following in the Word: In John,

I heard the number of the sealed out of every tribe of Israel - twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Gad, and so on. Revelation 7:4-6, and following verses.

Here 'twelve thousand sealed out of every tribe' means nothing else than that everyone who receives faith, that is, who receives the good that accompanies it, is saved. In the same book,

A woman encircled with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Revelation 12:1.

'A woman' stands for the Church, 252, 253, 'the sun' for celestial love, 'the moon' for spiritual love, 30-38, 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495. 'Twelve stars' stands for all things of faith - 'stars' being cognitions of good and truth, which are matters of faith, 2495, 2849.

[3] In the same book,

The holy city New Jerusalem, having twelve gates, and above the gates twelve angels, and names written which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. He measured the city with the measuring rod, twelve thousand stadia. And he measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits (twelve twelves), which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Revelation 21:12, 14, 16-17, 21.

Here nothing else is meant by the holy city than the Lord's spiritual kingdom, and by the gates, wall, and foundations the things that constitute charity and faith, all of which things are meant by the frequently mentioned number twelve. The fact that neither the twelve tribes nor the twelve apostles are meant literally may be recognized by anyone. In the same book,

In the middle of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that, was the tree of life bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month. Revelation 22:2.

'Twelve fruits' means all things of charity.

[4] In Matthew,

Jesus said, Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on His throne of glory, will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matthew 19:28.

Here 'the apostles' is not used to mean the apostles, nor 'thrones' to mean thrones, nor 'tribes' tribes, but matters of faith in their entirety, see 2129. Furthermore when the twelve tribes are referred to in the Old Testament Word they mean all things of the Church. The same applies to the twelve stones set according to the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, in the Urim and Thummim, Exodus 28:21; to the twelve loaves of the presence that were laid out on the table, Leviticus 24:5-6; and so on with every other reference to twelve. Also the names themselves of the twelve sons of Jacob or Israel contain all things of faith, as will be seen in the Lord's Divine mercy in Chapters 29, 30 below.