When we read the Gospels and see Jesus addressing the disciples, we assume his words are meant for us as well. And indeed they are! The disciples, according to Swedenborg, represent all people who are in a state of love to the Lord and who believe what they hear from the Lord, and in an abstract sense represent that love and belief itself.
It’s interesting that Swedenborg specifically uses the terms “faith” and “truth from good” in reference to the disciples. Both terms refer to truth that is based in trust rather than reason or proof: “Faith” means is truth that we accept because it comes from the Lord and from insight into the Bible; “truth from good” is understanding that arises from the desire to be good and loving. This makes sense, because the disciples often did not truly understand Jesus or the depth of the things he taught, but followed him and spread his teachings because they loved him and trusted him.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3488
[2] At that time they will deliver you up to affliction, and will kill you means that goodness and truth will perish, at first through ‘affliction’- that is, through perversion – and then through men ‘killing’ them, that is, through denial. For ‘killing’, when used in reference to goodness and truth, means that these are not being accepted, and thus that people deny them, see 3387, 3395. ‘You’ – the apostles – means all things of faith in their entirety, and so means the good of faith as well as the truth of faith; for the twelve apostles meant those things, see 577, 2089, 2129, 2130 (end), 3272, 3354. Here it is quite evident that they have that meaning, for the subject is not the preaching of the apostles but the close of the age.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3857
[6] Such also was mankind when the Lord came into the world. They had grown even more bodily-minded, especially so those who were members of the Church. This is quite evident even from the disciples who, though with the Lord constantly and hearing so many things about His kingdom, were as yet unable to perceive interior truths. They were still unable to have any other concept of the Lord than such as exists with the Jews at the present day about the Messiah whom they are still awaiting. They imagined that He would promote that people to a position of dominion and glory over all nations throughout the world. And after hearing so many things from the Lord about the heavenly kingdom the disciples were still unable to think anything else than that the heavenly kingdom would be like an earthly kingdom, where God the Father would be supreme, after Him the Son, and then themselves the twelve, and so would reign in this order. For the same reasons also James and John asked to sit one on His right and the other on the left, Mark 10:35-37; and the rest of the disciples were angry at these two wishing to be greater than the rest, Mark 10:41; Matt. 20:24. For the same reason also, after teaching them what it was to be greatest in heaven, Matt. 20:25-28; Mark 10:42-45, the Lord still spoke in the way that they themselves thought. That is to say, He spoke of them sitting on twelve thrones and judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Luke 22:24, 30; Matt. 19:28.
[7] If they had been told that the word ‘disciples’ was not used to mean themselves but all people in whom the good of love and faith dwells, 3354, 3488, and also that in the Lord’s kingdom there are no thrones, nor positions of government and dominion, as in the world, and that they would not be able to pass judgement on even the smallest aspect of any one person, 2129, 2553, they would have rejected that saying, and each would have left the Lord and gone back to his own employment. The reason why the Lord spoke in the way He did was so that they would receive those things and through them be introduced into internal truths. For within the external truths which the Lord spoke internal truths lay stored away which in course of time are laid bare. And when these are laid bare those external truths are dispelled and serve solely as the objects or the means for thought about internal ones.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3858
[3] From this it may be clear to anyone that ‘twelve’ used so many times in that description, also ‘tribes’, and ‘apostles’ too, are not used to mean twelve, or tribes, or apostles, but that ‘twelve’ is used to mean all things in their entirety; see what has been shown in 577, 2089, 2129, 2130 (end), 3272. The same is true of the number ‘a hundred and forty-four’, for this is twelve twelves. And since ‘twelve’ means all things it is evident that ‘the twelve tribes’ means all things constituting the Church, which, as stated above, are truth and good, or faith and love. The same is also true of ‘the twelve apostles’ who as well represented all things constituting the Church, that is, all things of faith and love, see 2129, 3354, 3488, 3857.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4535
[6]The reason why the Lord said that He would be with the disciples even to the close of the age is that the Lord’s twelve disciples are similar in meaning to the twelve tribes of Israel. That is to say, they mean all things of love and faith, and therefore all things of the Church, see 3354, 3488, 3858, as do the twelve tribes, 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 122
[2] This casting into prison by the devil is described in the Word, where it is said that the Jews and the wicked would persecute the disciples of the Lord, evil entreat, and kill them. For by the Lord’s disciples are meant all who are in truths from good, thus who are in truths from the Lord; and when these are meant by the Lord’s disciples, in a sense apart from persons (which sense is the very spiritual sense of the Word), truths and goods themselves, which are from the Lord by means of His Word, are also meant. (That by the Lord’s twelve disciples are meant all things of faith and love in the aggregate, thus all the truths and goods of the church, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia, n. 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397; that the Word in heaven is understood apart from persons, may be seen above, n. 99, 100.)
[3] He who knows that by the Lord’s disciples are meant all those who are in truths from good from the Lord, and in an abstract sense, the truths themselves from good and that by their being cast into prison by the devil is meant the endeavour of those who are in falsities from evil to deprive them of truths, and, in the abstract, detention or imprisonment of truths by falsities, as said above, will be able to understand what is signified in each of these senses in the following passages:
“They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and into prisons, for my name’s sake” (Luke xxi. 12).
(That for the Lord’s name’s sake signifies on account of the goods of love and the truths of faith, from Him, may be seen above, n. 102.)
“Then shall they deliver you up to affliction, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated for my name’s sake” (Matt. xxiv. 9, 11).
“They will deliver you up to councils, to synagogues, and they will scourge you, for my sake” (Matt. x. 17, 18; Mark xiii. 9).
“Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city” (Matt. xxiii. 34).
“There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen. And when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, and they did unto them likewise: last of all, he sent unto them his son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they took him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him” (Matt. xxi. 33-44).
“The wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute” (Luke xi. 49).