{"collection":"Swedenborg","page":1,"pages":[{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae01_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae01_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a verse-by-verse theological commentary on the Book of Revelation by the eighteenth-century Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, written between 1757 and 1759 and translated in 1911, working in the tradition of Christian scriptural exegesis but departing sharply from it. Swedenborg's central argument is that every prior exposition of Revelation has failed because its authors lacked access to the Bible's \"internal or spiritual sense\" \u2014 the hidden layer of meaning beneath the literal text, in which natural language encodes spiritual realities through a system of correspondences. He works through the opening chapter of Revelation phrase by phrase, decoding each image and term: \"servants\" signifies people who hold truth rooted in love rather than memory alone; \"quickly\" means not soon in time but certainly, because time is a natural concept with no direct spiritual equivalent; lampstands, stars, and the figure of the Son of Man each carry precise spiritual referents. The distinctively bold claim is that Swedenborg himself received direct revelation from heaven enabling him to read the Word in this spiritual register, a capacity he repeatedly contrasts with the mere historical and political guesswork of other commentators. The text is dense with cross-references to his earlier work *Arcana Coelestia*, positioning this commentary as part of a systematic theological project rather than a standalone interpretation. Readers drawn to esoteric Christian mysticism, the history of biblical hermeneutics, or Swedenborg's broader spiritual system will find this the primary source; those seeking conventional historical or literary analysis of Revelation will not.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 1-50","word_count":24614},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae21_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae21_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nVerse 14. For they are spirits of demons, signifies false reasonings from hell.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 1001-1050","word_count":31189},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae22_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae22_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nAnd when I saw her I wondered with great wonder, signifies an astonishing vision, in which were arcana of heaven that were unknown to him. This is evident from the signification of \"wondering with great wonder\" at those things that he saw, as being to be astonished respecting the vision, in which lay hidden arcana unknown to him, therefore the angel said to him, \"I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of\u2026","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 1051-1100","word_count":38783},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae23_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae23_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nVerse 3. For all nations have drunk of the wine of her whoredom, and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich from the abundance of her luxuries.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 1101-1150","word_count":37142},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae24_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae24_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nAnd ointment and frankincense signifies profaned worship from spiritual love. This is evident from the signification of \"ointment,\" as being the good of spiritual love (of which presently); also from the signification of \"frankincense,\" as being the truth of spiritual good (see n.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 1151-1200","word_count":33036},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae25_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae25_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a verse-by-verse theological commentary on the Book of Revelation by the 18th-century Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, working within a tradition of visionary Christian exegesis that treats scriptural language as an encoded spiritual symbolism requiring systematic decoding. The passages interpret Revelation's imagery of \"Babylon the harlot\" as the Roman Catholic Church and papacy, arguing that institutional religion corrupts divine truth by substituting its own statutes for Scripture and consecrating wealth-accumulation as holiness. Woven between the scriptural commentary are extended philosophical digressions on the hierarchy of souls: Swedenborg argues that human souls differ from animal souls not in kind but in degree, with humans uniquely possessing a spiritual mind above the natural mind, enabling the separation of will from understanding\u2014which accounts for both humanity's capacity for moral destruction and its capacity for eternal life. A notably distinctive claim is that evil and noxious animals (serpents, crocodiles, vermin) were not part of the original creation but arose spontaneously from hell via a \"plastic force\" present wherever spiritually homogeneous conditions exist in nature. Similarly, plant growth and reproduction are explained as expressions of a spiritual \"plant soul,\" not natural mechanics, since all tendency toward form and propagation must originate in spiritual rather than material causes. The work is of interest to readers curious about Swedenborg's comprehensive spiritual metaphysics, where exegesis, natural philosophy, and angelology are treated as one unified system.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 1201-1250","word_count":19328},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae04_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae04_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nThese things saith the Son of man, signifies the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, from which is that essential of the church. This is evident from the signification of \"the Son of man,\" as being the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, and in respect to Divine truth, since Divine truth proceeds from Him (see above, n.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 151-200","word_count":47488},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae10_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae10_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nVerses 9, 10. After these things I saw, and behold a great multitude which no one could number, out of every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palms in their hands.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 451-500","word_count":33956},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae02_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae02_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nFor the Word of God, signifies that Divine truth may be received. This is evident from the signification of \"the Word of God,\" as being Divine truth (see Arcana Coelestia, n.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 51-100","word_count":29681},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae18_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae18_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nAnd with Him a hundred forty-four thousand, signifies according to truths in the whole complex. This is evident from the signification of a \"hundred forty-four thousand,\" as being truths in the whole complex (see above n.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 851-900","word_count":34362},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae19_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae19_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nFor their works do follow with them, signifies that they have spiritual life, which is the life of the angels of heaven. This is evident from the signification of \"works,\" as being spiritual life, such as the angels of heaven have (of which presently); also from the signification of \"to follow with them,\" as meaning to be in them, for what follows with anyone, when it is predicated of his life, is in him, and is\u2026","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 901-950","word_count":34301},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae20_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae20_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nAs \"the seven angels that had the seven last plagues,\" signify the manifestation of the evils and falsities that have devastated the church, and as these are made manifest by means of the Divine truth in the Word, therefore those angels appeared \"clothed in linen clean and bright;\" for \"linen clean and bright\" signifies genuine truth. All angels appear clothed according to their functions; for the garments in\u2026","title":"Apocalypse Explained: 951-1000","word_count":36131},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae00_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ae_ae00_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911]\nApocalypse Explained by Emanuel Swedenborg. Originally written between 1757-59.","title":"Apocalypse Explained: Title Page","word_count":33},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar01_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar01_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nRevelation 1 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He signified, sending by His angel to His servant John, 2.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 1-50","word_count":24177},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar03_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar03_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nAnd ye shall have affliction ten days, signifies that this will endure its full time, that is, as long as they are willing to remain in falsities. \"Affliction\" here signifies infestation (of which above, n.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 101-150","word_count":9312},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar04_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar04_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 28. And I will give him the morning star, signifies intelligence and wisdom then.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 151-200","word_count":16079},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar05_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar05_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 15. I know thy works, signifies that the Lord sees all their interiors and exteriors at once, as above (n.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 201-250","word_count":15815},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar06_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar06_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 10. The four-and-twenty elders fell down before Him that sat upon the throne and adored Him that liveth for ages of ages, signifies the humiliation of all in heaven before the Lord.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 251-300","word_count":20207},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar07_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar07_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nAnd he went forth conquering and to conquer, signifies victory over falsities and evils to eternity. It is said \"conquering and to conquer,\" because he who in spiritual combats, which are temptations, conquers in this world, conquers to eternity, for the hells cannot assault anyone who has conquered them.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 301-350","word_count":19189},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar08_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar08_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nOf the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand signifies wisdom from celestial love, with those who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church. By \"Reuben,\" in the highest sense is signified omniscience; in the spiritual sense, wisdom, intelligence, and science, also faith; and, in the natural sense sight; but here by \"Reuben\" is signified wisdom, because it follows after \"Judah,\" by whom is signified\u2026","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 351-400","word_count":17895},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar09_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar09_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is a verse-by-verse Biblical commentary \u2014 specifically an excerpt from Swedenborg's *Apocalypse Revealed* (1766) \u2014 interpreting chapters 8 of the Book of Revelation through his doctrine of \"correspondences,\" which holds that every physical image in Scripture maps precisely onto a spiritual reality. Swedenborg's central argument in this passage is that the apocalyptic plagues (burning grass, sea turning to blood, dying sea-creatures, destroyed ships) are not literal prophecies but spiritual descriptions of the ruin that befalls a church when it practices \"faith alone\" \u2014 salvation by faith separated from charity (love toward one's neighbor). He distinguishes between the \"earth\" (clergy, those in the internals of the church) and the \"sea\" (laity, those in the externals), arguing each trumpet-blast exposes a different layer of this corruption. A notably distinctive claim is that in the spiritual world, people who hold faith separated from charity literally appear to angels as dwelling in a desert without grass, and their affections take the visible forms of sea-creatures \u2014 explaining, he argues, why Christ chose fishermen as disciples and why fish appear throughout Scripture. The work is representative of Swedenborg's broader theological project: a systematic, encyclopedic re-reading of the entire Bible as an encoded spiritual map, with each element rigorously cross-referenced across dozens of Old and New Testament passages to demonstrate consistent hidden meaning. Readers interested in 18th-century visionary theology, Reformation-era debates over sola fide, or the history of allegorical Biblical interpretation will find it most relevant.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 401-450","word_count":21543},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar10_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar10_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is an excerpt from Emanuel Swedenborg's *Apocalypse Revealed* (1766), a verse-by-verse spiritual commentary on the Book of Revelation in the tradition of Christian mystical exegesis. Working through his doctrine of \"correspondences\" \u2014 the belief that every image in Scripture maps to a specific spiritual reality \u2014 Swedenborg decodes the apocalyptic imagery of horses, fire, smoke, and brimstone as symbols for the spiritual condition of Protestant believers who hold the doctrine of \"faith alone\" (sola fide). His central argument is that faith separated from charity (loving works) is not genuine faith at all but a fantasy or \"specter,\" and that the Reformed church's insistence on sola fide produces spiritual death by filling believers with self-love, intellectual pride, and disordered lusts. What makes the work distinctive is Swedenborg's claim to direct experiential authority: he writes not merely as a theologian but as someone who has personally visited the spiritual world and conversed with its inhabitants, describing, for instance, a vision of Reformed believers dwelling in dim northern cottages with livid faces, knowing almost nothing of true religion. The commentary is polemical throughout, treating Lutheran and Calvinist soteriology as the primary spiritual danger facing Christianity, while positioning Swedenborg's own \"New Jerusalem\" theology \u2014 in which inner charity and outer works are inseparable \u2014 as the corrective. Readers interested in 18th-century heterodox Christian mysticism, anti-Protestant polemic, or the intellectual system behind Swedenborg's influential spiritual cosmology will find this representative of his mature thought.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 451-500","word_count":28214},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar11_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar11_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 8. And their bodies shall be upon the street of the great city, signifies that the two essentials of the New Church are totally rejected by those who are interiorly in the falsities of doctrine concerning justification by faith alone.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 501-550","word_count":22133},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar02_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar02_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 16. And having in His right hand seven stars, signifies all the knowledges of good and truth in the Word, which are thence with the angels of heaven and with the men of the church.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 51-100","word_count":15957},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar12_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar12_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nThat seduceth the whole world, signifies that they pervert all things of the church. By \"to seduce\" is signified to pervert, and by \"the world\" is signified the church; the same as by \"earth\" (n.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 551-600","word_count":20174},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar13_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar13_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nSaying to them that dwell upon the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which hath a stroke of a sword and liveth, signifies that they induce the men of the church to receive for doctrine, that faith is the only means of salvation, because no one can do good from himself but what is meritorious, and because no one can fulfil the law, and so be saved. By \"them that dwell on the earth,\" are meant the\u2026","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 601-650","word_count":22880},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar14_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar14_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nAnd he cast it into the great winepress of the anger of God, signifies exploration of the quality of their works, that they were evil. By \"casting the clusters of the vineyard into the winepress,\" is signified to explore their works, for these are signified by \"clusters,\" as may be seen above (n.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 651-700","word_count":22147},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar15_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar15_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 13. And I saw out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, signifies the perception that from the theology founded on the doctrine of a Trinity of Persons in the Divinity, and on the doctrine of justification by faith alone without the works of the law.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 701-750","word_count":22204},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar16_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar16_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 18. And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, that hath a kingdom over the kings of the earth, signifies that the Roman Catholic religious persuasion as to doctrine reigns in the Christian world, and still also in some respects with the Reformed, although they are not under the papal dominion.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 751-800","word_count":28383},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar17_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar17_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 24. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth, signifies that from the religious persuasion, which is meant by \"the city Babylon,\" is the adulteration and profanation of every truth of the Word and thence of the church, and that falsity has emanated therefrom into the whole Christian world.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 801-850","word_count":25591},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar18_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar18_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nThis is the first resurrection, signifies that salvation and life eternal is primarily to worship the Lord, and live according to His commandments in the Word, because thereby conjunction is effected with the Lord and consociation with the angels in heaven. The reason why all these things are signified by \"This is the first resurrection,\" is because it follows as a conclusion from what goes before, and therefore\u2026","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 851-900","word_count":25225},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar19_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar19_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"*Apocalypse Revealed* is an 18th-century verse-by-verse theological commentary on the Book of Revelation by Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, working within a visionary Protestant tradition but departing radically from it. The excerpt interprets details of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 \u2014 its gates, foundations, measurements, and orientation \u2014 as an encoded spiritual map rather than literal description, with every element assigned a precise allegorical meaning through Swedenborg's system of \"correspondences.\" The four cardinal directions correspond to degrees of spiritual development: east signifies higher love, west lesser love, south higher wisdom, and north lesser wisdom, all oriented around the Lord as the sun of the spiritual world \u2014 a cosmology Swedenborg treats as empirically verified in his companion work *Heaven and Hell*. The twelve foundations of the city's wall represent all doctrine of the New Church, reducible ultimately to two inseparable principles: love toward the Lord and love toward the neighbor, which Swedenborg argues are the soul of all Christian teaching. Most distinctively, Swedenborg asserts privileged access to a hidden \"spiritual sense\" beneath Scripture's literal text, positioning himself as the authoritative decoder of Revelation's symbolism for a coming \"New Church\" he regards as imminent and doctrinally specific. Readers drawn to heterodox Christian mysticism, 18th-century visionary literature, or the history of biblical hermeneutics will find this a dense but systematic primary text; those expecting conventional exegesis or scholarly distance from the material will find neither.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 901-950","word_count":24255},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar20_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar20_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nVerse 14. Happy are they that do His commandments, that their power may be in the tree of life, and they may enter in through the gates into the city, signifies that they have eternal felicity who live according to the Lord's commandments, to the end that they may be in the Lord and the Lord in them by love, and in His New Church by knowledges concerning Him.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: 951-1000","word_count":8129},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar00_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ar_ar00_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Apocalypse Revealed, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1766], tr. by John Whitehead [1912]\nApocalypse Revealed by Emanuel Swedenborg. Originally published in 1766.","title":"Apocalypse Revealed: Title Page","word_count":33},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac001_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac001_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nFrom the mere letter of the Word of the Old Testament no one would ever discern the fact that this part of the Word contains deep secrets of heaven, and that everything within it both in general and in particular bears reference to the Lord, to His heaven, to the church, to religious belief, and to all things connected therewith; for from the letter or sense of the letter all that anyone can see is that-to speak\u2026","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 1-50","word_count":12289},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac201_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac201_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nThou shalt bring near unto the door of the Tent of meeting.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10001-10050","word_count":22959},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac021_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac021_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nThat the \"blood\" signifies charity, is evident from many things.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 1001-1050","word_count":17636},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac202_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac202_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nAnd put them upon its pieces and upon its head.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10051-10100","word_count":21600},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac003_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac003_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nThat the Lord is the \"east\" also appears from the Word, as in Ezekiel: He brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh the way of the east, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and His voice was as the voice of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory (Ezek.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 101-150","word_count":7857},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac204_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac204_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nAnd the altar.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10151-10200","word_count":19247},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac205_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac205_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nIn dressing the lamps he shall burn it.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10201-10250","word_count":25840},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac206_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac206_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nAnd do thou take to thee chief spices.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10251-10300","word_count":23213},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac207_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac207_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nPure.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10301-10350","word_count":11422},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac208_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac208_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nFor the holy.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10351-10400","word_count":14859},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac209_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac209_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nAnd Aaron said unto them.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10401-10450","word_count":16642},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac210_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac210_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nAnd the two tables of the Testimony were in his hand.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10451-10500","word_count":13901},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac211_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac211_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nAnd Moses returned unto Jehovah.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10501-10550","word_count":12893},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac022_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac022_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10]\nAnd the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 1051-1100","word_count":13954},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac212_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac212_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"*Arcana Coelestia* is an 18th-century systematic biblical commentary in the Swedenborgian mystical tradition, proceeding verse by verse through Genesis and Exodus and decoding each element as a symbolic correspondence to spiritual realities. This passage interprets Exodus 33 (Moses, the tent of meeting, and the pillar of cloud) as an allegory of how human beings relate to Scripture: the cloud at the tent's door represents dense spiritual obscurity that overtakes those who engage with the Bible's external letter alone, while Moses inside the tent represents perception of the Word's hidden internal sense. Swedenborg's most distinctive claim is that genuine scriptural enlightenment is unconscious \u2014 heavenly light flows into the reader through angelic influx, blending silently into natural thought, so the enlightened person cannot directly detect it \u2014 and that this illumination is available only to those who love truth for the sake of living rightly, not for honor or reputation. Those who read for worldly ends are, in his view, in a state of \"thick darkness\" regardless of how confident they feel in their understanding, capable of mistaking falsehood for truth and evil for good. The passage closes with a theological argument that truth and good must be mutually conjoined \u2014 like understanding and will in the human mind \u2014 or neither constitutes anything real, a principle Swedenborg treats as the structural law governing both Scripture and heaven itself.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10551-10600","word_count":19315},{"api_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac213_htm","collection":"Swedenborg","id":"sacred_texts_v1_swd_ac_ac213_htm","source":"sacred_texts_v1","summary":"This is an excerpt from *Arcana Coelestia* (Heavenly Secrets), Swedenborg's massive 18th-century theological commentary on Genesis and Exodus, working in the tradition of Christian mystical exegesis. The passage interprets Exodus 34:1-9 \u2014 Moses hewing the second stone tablets \u2014 through what Swedenborg calls the \"internal sense\": a complete system of spiritual correspondences in which every word of Scripture secretly signifies something about divine love, truth, the church, and the human soul's relationship to God. Swedenborg's central argument here is that the Old Testament's external form \u2014 its laws, rituals, sacrifices, plural marriage, centralized worship, and even the prominence of the Israelites \u2014 was deliberately adapted to suit a nation he characterizes as fundamentally idolatrous and incapable of receiving divine truth inwardly, while the hidden spiritual meaning beneath the letter remained unchanged and celestial. The second tablets hewn by Moses (rather than God) thus symbolize this accommodated external religion, distinct from the divinely-original internal sense. Distinctively, Swedenborg claims that practices like animal sacrifice, divorce law, and Jerusalem-centered worship entered Scripture only as concessions to Israelite spiritual incapacity, not as enduring divine ideals \u2014 a radically historicizing and at times dismissive view of the Hebrew tradition unusual for its era. Readers drawn to allegorical biblical interpretation, the history of Western esotericism, or Swedenborg's theological system will find this representative of his method, though the sheer density of verse-by-verse correspondence-decoding makes it demanding reading.","title":"Arcana Coelestia: 10601-10650","word_count":18954}],"sort":"title","tag":null,"total":495}