From Swedenborg's Works

 

Secrets of Heaven #1887

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1887. To call the Word inspired is to say that everything in it, both the narratives and the other parts, contains heavenly qualities (which relate to love and goodness) and spiritual qualities (which relate to faith and truth). In other words, the contents are divine.

What the Lord inspires comes down from him through the heaven of angels and so through the world of spirits all the way to humankind. Among human beings it presents itself in its literal form, but in its first origins it is radically different. In heaven there is no such thing as a plain, ordinary narrative; instead, everything there represents something divine, and no one there perceives it any other way. This can be recognized from the fact that what it holds is inexpressible [2 Corinthians 12:4]. Consequently, unless the narratives represent divine matters and are therefore heavenly, they cannot possibly be divinely inspired.

Only the inner meaning reveals what the Word is like in the heavens, because that is what the Lord's Word in the heavens is.

  
/ 10837  
  

Many thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation and its New Century Edition team.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Secrets of Heaven #1767

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1767. 1 Genesis 15

Sacred Scripture, or the Word, Which Conceals a Divine Message That Lies Open to the View of Good Spirits and Angels

SOME people love the Lord's Word and live a kind and charitable life. Others believe what it says in a simple-hearted way, without making assumptions that undermine the religious truth of its inner meaning. When the Word is read by either kind of person, it is displayed by the Lord before angels' eyes with tremendous beauty and charm, accompanied by visual representations and adapted with inexpressible variety to every phase they are then passing through. The beauty and charm are so great that every single facet is perceived as alive. This vital energy is the life that lies within the Word and that gave birth to the Word when it was sent down from heaven. For this reason, the Lord's Word by its very nature conceals spiritual and heavenly messages within, no matter how unpolished it seems in the letter. These inner messages lie open to the view of good spirits and of angels when people on earth read the Word.

Footnotes:

1. There are no sections numbered 1765, 1766 in the first edition. [LHC]

  
/ 10837  
  

Many thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation and its New Century Edition team.