Many different names for the Lord appear in the Bible, and according to Swedenborg they all have different shades of meaning. “Jehovah” is the actual name of God, and was regarded as so holy that the Children of Israel didn’t dare to say it out loud. As such, it refers to the Lord’s essence, which is love itself – perfect, infinite, divine love. “God” is more external – other nations had gods – and thus represents divine truth, which is the full expression and form of the love that makes up the Lord’s essence. Using them together, then, represents the Lord as to both aspects, his love and its expression.
In some cases “Jehovah God” also has reference to the Lord’s humanity, which has always existed but reached physical expression as Jesus. This is because the only way we can know the Lord and experience his love is through his existence as the perfect, infinite, divine human.
Passages from Swedenborg
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 85
- 85
Jehovah God came down as the divine truth, which is the Word; but he did not separate the divine goodness from it. Two things constitute the essence of God: divine love and divine wisdom; or, what is the same, divine goodness and divine truth. (Above at 3648 we showed that these two constitute the essence of God.) The expression “Jehovah God” in the Word means these two qualities. “Jehovah” means divine love or divine goodness; “God” means divine wisdom or divine truth. This is why these names occur in various ways in the Word. At times just Jehovah is named; at other times, just God. When the subject is divine goodness he is called Jehovah. When the subject is divine truth he is called God. When both are involved he is called Jehovah God.
It is clear from John that Jehovah God came down as divine truth, which is the Word:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by it, and nothing that was made came about without it. And the Word became flesh and lived among us. (John 1:1, 3, 14)
“The Word” in this passage means divine truth because the Word that exists in the church is divine truth itself. The Word was dictated by Jehovah himself, and what Jehovah dictates is pure divine truth – it cannot be anything else. [2] Nevertheless, because it passed all the way through the heavens into the world, it became adapted to angels in heaven and also to people in the world. As a result, in the Word there is a spiritual meaning in which divine truth is in the light and there is an earthly meaning in which divine truth is in shadow. The divine truth in this Word is what was meant in John.
This is clearer still from the fact that the Lord came into the world to fulfill all the things in the Word. This is why it says many times that this or that happened to him in order to fulfill Scripture [see 262]. Divine truth is precisely what “the Messiah” and “Christ” mean, what “the Son of Humankind” means, and what the Comforter, the Holy Spirit that the Lord sent after his death means. During his transfiguration on the mountain before his three disciples (Matthew 17[:1-13]; Mark 9[:2-13]; Luke 9[:28-36]) and also during his transfiguration before John in Revelation 1:1216, the Lord represented himself as the Word, as we will see in the chapter below on Sacred Scripture [222].
[3] From the Lord’s own words it is clear that he was present in the world as divine truth: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). This is also clear from these words: “We know that the Son of God came and gave us understanding so that we would know the truth. And we are in the truth in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).
This becomes still clearer from the fact that he is called the light, as in these passages:
He was the true light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world. (John 1:9)
Jesus said, “For a brief time the light is still with you. Walk while you have the light so the darkness will not overtake you. While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become children of the light.” (John 12:35, 36)
I am the light of the world. (John 9:5)
Simeon said, “My eyes have seen your salvation, a light of revelation to the nations.” (Luke 2:30, 32)
This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world. Those who do the truth come toward the light. (John 3:19, 21)
There are other such passages as well. “The light” means divine truth.
True Christian Religion (Dick) n. 253
- On account of the marriage of Divine Good and Divine Truth in every part of the Word, the expressions, “Jehovah God,” and also “Jehovah and the Holy One of Israel,” so frequently occur, as if they were two, when yet they are one. For Jehovah means the Lord as to the Divine Good of the Divine Love; and God, and the Holy One of Israel, mean the Lord as to the Divine Truth of the Divine Wisdom. Although Jehovah and God, and Jehovah and the Holy One of Israel, are spoken of in many passages in the Word, still one only is meant, as may be seen in the “Doctrine concerning the Lord the Redeemer.”
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8864
- ‘I am Jehovah your God’ means the Lord in respect of the Divine Human reigning universally, in every single aspect of goodness and truth. This is clear from the consideration that in the Word no one other than the Lord is meant by ‘Jehovah’, 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 3448, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 8274, or likewise by ‘Jehovah Zebaoth’, ‘the Lord Jehovih’, and ‘JehovahGod’, 2921, 3023, 3448, 6303; and from the consideration that the Lord is called ‘Jehovah’ by virtue of the Divine Good, which is the Divine Being (Esse), and ‘God’ by virtue of Divine Truth, which is the Divine Coming-into-being (Existere), 6905, and also 709, 732, 1096, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921 (end), 4402. The reason why the Lord’s Divine Human is what ‘Jehovah God’ is used to mean here is that the Lord in respect of that Divine Human is meant in the Word both by ‘Jehovah’ and by ‘God’. Divine Good, which He is also in respect of the Human is meant by ‘Jehovah’, while Divine Truth, which He is because it goes forth from Him, is meant by ‘God’.
[2] The reason why the Lord’s Divine Human is meant by ‘JehovahGod’ is that the Divine Itself which is within the Lord cannot be seen in heaven or even perceived, thus cannot be received in faith and love; only the Divine Human can. The truth that the Divine Itself cannot be communicated to angels in heaven, still less to people on earth, except through the Divine Human is well known in the Churches from the Lord’s words in the Gospels, where He says that He is the Door; that He is the Mediator; that nobody can come to the Father except through Him; that no one except Himself knows the Father; and that no one has seen the Father, not even some shape He might take. From all this it is evident that it is the Lord who is meant here by ‘Jehovah God’. It is also well known that He is also the one who has redeemed the human race and delivered them from hell.
This truth is meant by the words that follow, by ‘I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves’. From all this it is now evident that Jehovah God, who spoke from Mount Sinai, is the Lord in respect of the Divine Human.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2921
- ‘My lord, you are a prince of God in the midst of us’ means the Lord as regards Divine good and truth with them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a lord’ and of ‘a prince of God’, and from the meaning of ‘in the midst of us’. The fact that the expression ‘lord’ is used when good is the subject is clear from the Old Testament Word, for there Jehovah is sometimes called Jehovah, sometimes God, sometimes Lord, sometimes Jehovah God, sometimes Lord Jehovih, sometimes Jehovah Zebaoth, and always for a hidden reason which cannot be known except from the internal sense. In general when the celestial things of love, that is, when good, are dealt with, the name Jehovah is used, but when the spiritual things of faith are dealt with, the name God is used. And when both together are dealt with, the names Jehovah God are used.