Ancient Church – Word Study

To understand the Ancient Church, we have to say a little

about its predecessor – what Swedenborg calls the “Most Ancient Church.”

The Most Ancient Church, represented in the Bible by Adam, arose in the land of Canaan from early humans. Over many generations the Lord nurtured people into a state in which their internal love was love of the Lord, with love of marriage and children and one another flowing from that love. From love of the Lord they also had great wisdom; rather than learning about the world and other people and figuring out how to serve them, they could simply feel love and from love instantly understand right and wrong down to the smallest details. Indeed, in looking at the natural world they barely saw it; what they saw was the greater reality of the spiritual world reflected in all the details of the natural world.

The Lord knew, however, that this church would eventually fall, so he inspired a group, represented in the Bible by “Enoch,” to record the church’s knowledge and concepts so they could be passed on. And the Most Ancient Church did fall; people began letting pride and self-reliance creep into their hearts, their loves got corrupted, and with their loves driving their ideas they drowned in a sea of false thinking, represented in the Bible by the great flood.

The Lord responded by making a subtle but significant change in the nature of human beings: He separated our thoughts from our feelings, giving us the ability to want one thing but think another, so that using our minds we could let knowledge and understanding rule our corrupt hearts. He then took a remnant of the Most Ancient Church and gave it the doctrine of “Enoch.” This group, the first and noblest of the Ancient Church, is represented in the Bible by Noah.

According to Swedenborg, the Ancient Church quickly spread throughout the ancient world, all over the Middle East and northern Africa, with different forms of worship represented by Noah’s sons and his grandson Canaan. Its peoples had a deep understanding of the nature of the Lord, and knew Him as “Jehovah.” They also had vast knowledge of how every detail of the natural world reflected details of the spiritual world, and used those details to guide themselves in their spiritual development.

But the Ancient Church was also doomed to fall, so the Lord inspired a group starting with Eber to create forms of worship based on the relationship between the natural world and the spiritual world. From understanding the meaning of mountains and groves, this group started worshipping on mountains and in groves. From understanding the meaning of grains and domestic animals, this group started sacrificing them as a form of worship. Meanwhile, the rest of the church had turned from worshipping the Lord to worshipping themselves, and people were twisting their understanding of natural things into idolatry and magic. So the Lord cut them off from a true understanding of spiritual things, an event represented by the story of the Tower of Babel, leaving the descendants of Eber – the Hebrews – to preserve the knowledge that had been passed on from the Most Ancience Church.

But the Hebrews were surrounded by the increasingly pagan descendants of the Ancient Church, and were slowly corrupted to the point that almost none of their knowledge remained. So the Lord ordered Abraham to the Land of Canaan – a land full of spiritual meaning because it was home to the Most Ancient Church – and began re-establishing the representative worship of the Hebrews as a purely external thing. It’s noteworthy that the Lord had to introduce himself to Abraham as “God Shaddai” – even the name “Jehovah” had been forgotten.

This third version of the Ancient Church preserved representatives of the Holy Land and forms of worship including sacrifice and circumcision, and also established new representatives, particularly through the 12 sons of Jacob and the resulting tribes. Meanwhile, other pieces of the corrupted Ancient Church continued collapsing, the destruction of Sodom neing a notable example.

The preserved ideas nearly vanished again as the Hebrews spent 400 years in captivity in Egypt – like Abraham, Moses did not know the name “Jehovah” when he turned aside to see the burning bush – but were restored as external forms as Moses led the Children into the wilderness. There, at the foot of the “mountain of God,” the Lord established the ultimate replacement for the Ancient Church: the Jewish or Israelitish Church, which preserved the name “Jehovah,” and preserved spiritual representatives through the ark, the Tabernacle, the Ten Commandments and the laws of Moses. This third church did not have any of the internal spiritual knowledge which existed in the Ancient Church, but kept its ideas alive so the meaning could be restored by the Lord when He came on earth as Jesus.

The Writings also tell us that the Ancient Church had a holy scripture of its own, a written collection of the wisdom preserved by “Enoch.” It is the source of the first seven chapters of Genesis (up to the flood), and includes the Book of Jasher (mentioned by Joshua in Joshua 10 and by David in II Samuel 1) and the books of Oracles and the Wars of Jehovah, which are quoted by Moses in Numbers 21.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 519
519. At that time there were people who formulated doctrine out of what had been matters of perception in the Most Ancient Church and in the Churches that came after it, and this doctrine was to serve as a yardstick by which people could recognize what good and truth were. Such people were called 'Enoch', and this is meant by these words, 'and Enoch walked with God'. They also applied this name to that doctrine of theirs, for this indeed was meant by the name Enoch, which is 'instructing'. The matter is also clear from the meaning of the expression walking' and from the fact that he is said to have walked, not with Jehovah, but 'with God'. 'Walking with God' is teaching and living according to the doctrine of faith, whereas 'walking with Jehovah' is leading a life of love.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 521
521. 'He was no more for God took him' means that that doctrine reserved for use by descendants. He was no more. As regards Enoch, that which the Most Ancient Church had perceived, as has been stated, was converted by him into doctrine, something that had not been allowed to people of that period. For knowing something from perception is altogether different from learning it from doctrine. People who have perception have no need to learn through the channel of formulated doctrine what they know already. Take, for the sake of illustration, someone who knows already how to think clearly. He has no need to learn rules on how to think. If he did so his ability to think clearly would perish, as happens to people buried in the dust of sheer intellectualism. In the case of people whose knowledge comes from perception, the Lord grants them to know what good and truth are through an internal channel, while those who learn from doctrine are granted it by an external channel, that is, by way of the physical senses. The difference between the two is like that between light and darkness. Furthermore the perceptions of the celestial man lie beyond all description, for they enter into the smallest details and are for ever varied according to states and attendant circumstances. Now as it was foreseen that the perceptivity of the Most Ancient Church would perish, and that subsequently people would learn what truth and good were by means of doctrines, that is, they would come to the light by way of darkness, it is therefore said here that 'God took him', which is to say, He preserved such doctrine for the use of descendants.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 895
895. 'The waters dried up from over the earth' means that falsities were not at that time apparent. This is clear from what has been stated. In particular these words mean that falsities had been separated from things of the will belonging to the member of this Church. The statement 'the waters dried up from over the earth' occurs at this point because here 'earth' means the person's will, which is nothing but evil desire. As stated already, the ground is situated in the understanding part of man's mind, in which part truths are sown. No sowing ever takes place in the will part, which in the spiritual man has been separated from the understanding part. This is why in the last part of this verse it is said that 'the face* of the ground was dry'. With the member of the Most Ancient Church there was ground in the will part of his mind, where the Lord implanted goods. It was from goods therefore that he was able to know and perceive truth, that is, it was from love that he was able to possess faith. If the same thing were to happen today however, a person would inevitably and eternally perish, for his will is utterly corrupted. What implantation in the will part entails and what in the understanding part becomes clear from the consideration that the member of the Most Ancient Church had in fact enjoyed revelations through which from early childhood onwards he was led into a perception of goods and truths. But since they used to be implanted in the will part of his mind he perceived without any further instruction the countless aspects of any one general matter. He knew from the Lord the details and the finer points which nowadays men must learn before knowing about them. And even then they can know scarcely one thousandth of them. For the member of the spiritual Church knows nothing unless he acquires it by learning; and what he gets to know in this fashion he retains and believes to be true. Indeed if he learns something false and this is impressed on him as though it were true, he believes that as well, for he has no other perception than that a thing is true because he has in that way been persuaded of it. People who possess conscience derive from conscience a certain dictate. Yet with them a thing is true only because they have heard and learned that it is. This is what constitutes their conscience, as becomes clear from people who have a conscience of what is false.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1238
1238. As for Eber meaning a nation as well, whose father was thus named Eber, the position is this: Those named so far were nations with whom the Ancient Church existed. All of them were called sons of Shem, Ham, Japheth, or Canaan, because 'Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Canaan' meant differing types of worship in the Church. Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Canaan never were actual people, but because the Ancient Church in particular was such, and every Church in general is such, that it includes a true internal, a corrupted internal, a true external, and a corrupted external, these names were therefore adopted so that all differences in general could be related to those characters and their sons as to their heads. The nations named here also at first possessed such worship, for which reason they are called the sons of one of Noah's sons, and also such forms of worship themselves are meant by the names of these nations in the Word.

[2] This first Ancient Church meant by Noah and his sons was not confined to a few people but was spread throughout many kingdoms, as is clear from the nations mentioned - throughout Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Ethiopia, Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Philistia up to Tyre and Sidon, and throughout the whole of the land of Canaan, on this side of the Jordan and on the other side. Subsequently however a certain type of external worship started in Syria which spread far and wide from there and through many countries, particularly Canaan. It was a different form of worship from the worship of the Ancient Church. And because something of a Church arose in this way that was separate from the Ancient Church, a new Church so to speak rose up from it which may therefore be called the second Ancient Church. Eber was its first founder, and therefore this Church took its name from Eber. As stated already, everybody at that time was distinguished into separate houses, families, and nations. One nation recognized one father from whom it also took its name, as is clear throughout the Word, the nation which recognized Eber as its father thus being called the Hebrew nation.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1241
1241. As regards Eber's being the first founder of the second Ancient Church and meaning that Church, the situation is this: Spread far and wide, as has been stated, especially throughout the Asiatic world, the first Ancient Church degenerated in course of time - as all Churches do everywhere - and was adulterated by innovators as regards external worship as well as internal. And this happened in various places. It degenerated primarily through the conversion into idolatry, and among some nations into magic, of all the meaningful signs and the representatives which the Ancient Church received orally from the Most Ancient Church, all of which signs and representatives had reference to the Lord and His kingdom. To prevent the whole Church from going to ruin the Lord permitted worship made up of meaningful signs and of representatives to be re-introduced in some place, which was done by Eber. It was a worship that consisted chiefly in things that are external. The external features of worship, in addition to priests and the things requiring priests, were high places, groves, pillars, anointings, and many other things that were called statutes. The internal features of worship were matters of doctrine that had come down from the time before the Flood, chiefly from those people called 'Enoch' who gathered together perceptions the Most Ancient Church had possessed and made these into matters of doctrine. These matters of doctrine constituted their Word; and from these internal things and the previously mentioned external things came the worship of this Church, a form of worship established by Eber, but added to and also altered. Above all they began to make sacrifices more important than any other ritual forms. Sacrifices had been unknown in the true Ancient Church, and had existed solely among some of Ham's and Canaan's descendants who were idolaters, where those sacrifices had been permitted to prevent them from sacrificing their own sons and daughters. From these considerations it is clear what this second Ancient Church was like which was established by Eber and perpetuated among his descendants called the Hebrew nation.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1327
1327. 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth' means the state of this Ancient Church, that internal worship started to perish. This is clear from the fact that the phrase used is 'the lip of the whole earth' and not, as previously in verse 7, the lip of those who started to build a city and a tower. 'The face of the whole earth' means the state of the Church since 'the earth' is the Church, as shown already in 662, 1066. The story of the Churches after the Flood is as follows: There were three Churches which receive specific mention in the Word - the first Ancient Church which took its name from Noah, the second Ancient Church which took its name from Eber, and the third Ancient Church which took its name from Jacob, and subsequently from Judah and Israel.

[2] As regards the first Ancient Church, that called Noah, this was the parent so to speak of those that followed, and as is usually the case with Churches in their earliest phases, it was more untarnished and innocent, as is also clear from verse 1 of this chapter which says that it had one lip, that is, one doctrine. That is to say, everyone regarded charity as the essential. But in the course of time, as usually happens to Churches, that Church also started to decline, chiefly because many people started to divert worship to themselves so as to set themselves above others, as is clear from verse 4 above - 'they said, Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, and its head in heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves'. In the Church such people were inevitably like some fermenting agent, or like firebrands that start a fire. When the danger of profaning what is holy was consequently near at hand, referred to in 571, 582, the state of this Church was, in the Lord's Providence, altered. That is to say, its internal worship perished but its external worship remained, which here is meant by the statement that 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth'. From this it is also clear that the kind of worship called Babel was not prevalent in the first Ancient Church but in those that followed when people started to be worshipped in place of gods, especially after they had died. This was the origin of so many pagan deities.

[3] The reason internal worship was allowed to perish and external remain was to prevent what is holy being profaned. The profanation of what is holy carries eternal condemnation with it. Nobody is able to profane what is holy unless he possesses cognitions of faith and also acknowledges them. Anyone who does not possess them cannot acknowledge them, still less profane them. It is internal things which may be profaned, for it is in internal things, not external, that holiness resides. The situation is similar with someone who does evil but does not have evil in mind. The evil he does cannot be attributed to him any more than to someone who does not deliberately intend evil, or to anyone devoid of rationality. Thus anyone who does not believe in the existence of a life after death, but who nevertheless has external worship, cannot profane the things that belong to eternal life because he does not believe that they exist. The situation is different with those who do know and acknowledge them.

[4] This too is why a person is allowed rather to live engrossed in lusts and pleasures, and so to isolate himself from internal things, than to enter into a knowledge and acknowledgement of internal things and so profane them. The Jews of today therefore are allowed to immerse themselves in avarice so that in this way they may be removed from an acknowledgement of internal things, for they are the kind of people who, if they acknowledged them, would inevitably profane them. Nothing does more to isolate a person from internal things than avarice, for this is the lowest of all earthly desires. The same applies to many inside the Church, and to gentiles outside, though gentiles, least of all people, are able to profane anything. This then is the reason for the statement here that 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth', and the reason why these words mean that the state of the Church was altered, that is to say, its worship became external, having no internal worship within it.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1343
1343. That 'Eber' was a nation, the Hebrew nation, which took its name from 'Eber' as its forefather, and which means the worship in general of the second Ancient Church, is clear from the references to him in the historical sections of the Word. Because a new form of worship began with that nation, all those were called Hebrews whose worship was similar to it. Their worship was like that re-established at a later time among the descendants of Jacob, its chief features being that they called their God Jehovah and held sacrifices. The Most Ancient Church was of one mind in acknowledging the Lord and calling Him Jehovah, as is clear also from the early chapters of Genesis and elsewhere in the Word. The Ancient Church, that is, the Church after the Flood also acknowledged the Lord and called Him Jehovah, especially those who possessed internal worship and were called 'the sons of Shem'. The remainder whose worship was external also acknowledged Jehovah and worshipped Him. But when internal worship became external, and still more when it became idolatrous, and when each nation started to have its own god to worship, the Hebrew nation retained the name of Jehovah and called their own God Jehovah. In this they were different from all other nations

[2] Along with external worship, Jacob's descendants in Egypt, including Moses himself, lost knowledge even of this fact, that their God was called Jehovah. Consequently they had first of all to be taught that Jehovah was the God of the Hebrews, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as becomes clear from the following in Moses,

Jehovah said to Moses, You and the elders of Israel shall go in to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, Jehovah the God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now let us go, pray, a three days' journey into the wilderness, and let us sacrifice to Jehovah our God. Exod. 3:18.

In the same author,

Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah that I should hearken to His voice to send Israel away? I do not know Jehovah, and moreover I will not send Israel away. And they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us; let us go, pray, a three days' journey into the wilderness, and let us sacrifice to Jehovah our God. Exod. 5:2, 3.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2385
[4] It is altogether different if truth itself is the assumption that is taken, and this is confirmed; for example, that love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are that on which the whole law hangs and about which all the prophets speak, and so are the essentials of all doctrine and worship. In this case the mind would be enlightened by countless things in the Word which would otherwise lie hidden within the obscurity of a false assumption. Indeed in that case heresies would be dispelled and one Church would result from many, no matter how differing the doctrinal teachings and also religious practices might be flowing from that Church or leading into it.

[5] Of such a character was the Ancient Church which was spread throughout many kingdoms throughout Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Ethiopia, Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Philistia up to Tyre and Sidon, and the land of Canaan on both sides of the Jordan. Among these peoples doctrinal teachings and religious practices differed from one to the next, but there was nevertheless one Church because with them charity was the essential thing. At that time the Lord's kingdom existed on earth as it is in heaven, for such is the character of heaven, see 684, 690. If the same situation existed now all would be governed by the Lord as though they were one person; for they would be like the members and organs of one body which, though dissimilar in form and function, still related to one heart on which every single thing, everywhere varied in form, depended. Everyone would then say of another, No matter what form his doctrine and his external worship take, this is my brother; I observe that he worships the Lord and is a good man.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2896
The fact that particular objects in the world represent and mean those that exist in heaven has been shown all through from Genesis 1 to here. Such was also the origin of the representatives and meaningful signs, which, when communication with angels started to fade, were gathered together by the people meant by 'Enoch'. See 521, where it is shown that the gathering of those things is meant by the following words,

Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him. Gen. 5:24.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2897
2897. The Word in the Ancient Church after the Flood however was derived from these people meant by 'Enoch'. The member of this Church, being spiritual and not celestial, knew but did not see with perception what was embodied in representatives and meaningful signs. And because these embodied Divine things they held out a use to members of that Church and were employed by them in their Divine worship, to the end that they might have a communication with heaven; for, as has been stated, all things in the world represent and mean such things as exist in heaven. Also the Word which they had was a written Word, consisting of Historical Sections and Prophetical Parts, like the Old Testament Word. But in course of time that Word came to be lost. The historical sections were called The Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetical parts The Utterances, as is clear in Moses, Num. 21:14, 27, where they are quoted. The historical sections of their Word were written in the prophetical style and were for the most part made-up historical narratives, like those in Chapters 1-11 of Genesis, as is evident from the quotations of those historical narratives in Moses, where the following words occur,

Therefore it is said in The Book of The Wars of Jehovah, Waheb in Suphah, and the streams of Arnon, and the descent of the streams which runs down to the dwelling at Ar and leans to the border of Moab. Num. 21:14, 15.

The prophetical parts of their Word were written in a style similar to the prophetical parts of the Old Testament, as is also evident from the quotation of these in Moses, where the following words occur,

Therefore The Utterances (or The Utterers of Prophecies) say, Come to Heshbon the city of Sihon shall be built and established. For fire went out of Heshbon flame out of the city of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of Arnon. Woe to you, O Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He gave his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon, king of the Amorites. But we shot at them; Heshbon has perished even to Dibon; and we have laid waste even to Nophah, which reaches even to Medebah. Num. 21:27-30.

These prophetical utterances embody heavenly arcana in the same way as the prophetical parts of the Old Testament. This is quite evident not only from the fact that Moses copied them and applied them to the state of affairs prevailing in his own day, but also from the fact that almost the same words occur in Jeremiah. Included there among his prophetical sayings, they hold - as becomes clear from what has been stated about the internal sense of the Word - as many heavenly arcana within them as they consist of words. Those sayings as they occur in Jeremiah are as follows,

A fire has gone out of Heshbon, and a flame from between Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult. Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished, for your sons have been taken away into captivity, and your daughters into captivity. Jer. 48:45, 46.

AC 3686
[2] The Most Ancient Church which was celestial and existed before the Flood was situated in the land of Canaan, see 567. The Ancient Church which existed after the Flood was also situated there, as well as in many other countries, 1238, 2385. This was how it came about that all the gentile nations there, and also all the territories there, and all the rivers there, served as representatives. For the most ancient people, who were celestial, perceived through all the objects they beheld the kind of things that belong to the Lord's kingdom, 920, 1409, 2896, 2897, 2995, and so beheld the same through the territories and the rivers there.

[3] After their times those representatives survived in the Ancient Church, including the representatives related to the places there. Furthermore the Word that existed in the Ancient Church, dealt with in 2897-2899, contained place-names which were for the same reason representative; and the Word existing after their times, which is called Moses and the Prophets, also contains them. This was why Abraham was commanded to go there, and the promise was made to him that his descendants would possess that land. That promise was not made because they were any better than all the other nations, for they were the worst of them all, 1167, 3373. But it was made so that through them the representative Church might be established, in which no attention was paid to representative persons and places themselves but to the actual things which these represented, 3670, and thus also so that the names existing in the Most Ancient and the Ancient Churches might be preserved.

AC 4493
From this also it is evident that that Word too possessed an internal sense.
[3] It was for this reason that those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church were internal people and had no external forms of worship, while those who belonged to the Ancient Church were external people and did have them. For the former saw external things in the light of internal ones, as if by the light of the sun in the daytime, whereas the latter saw internal things in the light of external ones, as if by the light of the moon or stars at night. This also explains why the Lord is seen by the former in heaven as the Sun, but by the latter as the Moon, 1521, 1529-1531, 2441, 2495, 4060. The former are those who in explanations above are called celestial, the latter those who are called spiritual.

[4] To illustrate the essential difference between the two let an example be taken. If a member of the Most Ancient Church had read the Word, the historical or the prophetical, he would have seen its internal sense without prior instruction or any explanation. He would have seen it so perfectly that the celestial and spiritual things belonging to the internal sense would have instantly met his eyes, and scarcely anything belonging to the sense of the letter. Thus the internal sense would have been for him in brightness, but the sense of the letter in obscurity. He would be like someone listening to a person speaking, and taking in only the sense and paying no attention to the words used by the speaker. But if a member of the Ancient Church had read the Word he would not have been able, without prior instruction or explanation, to see its internal sense, and so the internal sense would have been for him in obscurity but the sense of the letter in brightness. He would be like someone listening to a person speaking and in thought hanging on to the words used by him, all the while paying no attention to the sense of them, which would therefore be lost on him. But when a member of the Jewish Church reads the Word he does not understand anything beyond the sense of the letter. He does not know of and also denies the existence of any internal sense. And it is similar with the member of the Christian Church at the present day.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4772
4772. 'And brought it to their father' means comparison with the goods and truths of the Ancient Church and of the Primitive [Christian] one. This is clear from the representation of Jacob, to whom 'father' refers here, as the Ancient Church, dealt with in 4680, 4700, and also the Primitive Church, that is, the Christian Church when it first began, dealt with below. 'Bringing the tunic' in the condition in which it now was to the Church means in the internal sense bringing about a comparison of falsified goods and truths with the genuine goods and truths of the Church.* The reason Jacob here represents not only the Ancient Church but also the Primitive one - that is, the Christian Church when it first began - is that the two are exactly alike so far as internal features are concerned and differ from each other only so far as external ones are concerned. The external features of the Ancient Church consisted of all the representatives of the Lord and of the celestial and spiritual realities of His kingdom, which are love and charity, and faith derived from these, and so the kinds of things that constitute the Christian Church. When therefore the external features of the Ancient Church, and also of the Jewish, are opened out and are so to speak stripped away from what is present within them, the Christian Church is laid bare. This was also meant by the veil in the Temple being torn apart, Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45. This explains why Jacob 'their father' represents not only the Ancient Church but also the Primitive Christian one.

AC 4904
[2] It is well known that the Lord revealed the internal truths of His kingdom and of His Church. Even so, those truths had been known to the ancients, such as the truth that a person needed to be born again, so that he could enter into life; the truth that in this case he needed to cast aside the old man, that is, self-love and love of the world together with their lusts, and to put on the new man, that is, love towards the neighbour and towards God; and the truth that heaven needed to exist within the regenerate person; and many more truths that were internal ones. Those who belonged to the Ancient Church knew these truths, but they were led to know them through external representatives. However, because among the Jewish nation such truths had become completely lost the Lord presented those same truths in His teaching. Actual representatives were done away with by Him since the majority of them had regard to Himself; for the image must pass away when the actual likeness presents itself.

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10355
[3] Afterwards information about heavenly matters and those which belong to eternal life was provided through the kinds of things that are termed correspondences and representations, knowledge of which they derived from the most ancient people who had the direct contact with the angels of heaven. With the people of that time those were the things into which heaven flowed, bringing enlightenment. For correspondences and representations are the outward forms that heavenly realities take; and people received enlightenment then to the extent that the good of love and charity was present in them. For all Divine influx from heaven passes into the good that exists with a person, and through that good into the truths there. And since people of the Church then were governed by spiritual good, which in essence is truth, the term 'the silver age' is used to describe those times; for silver is the sign of such good.

[4] When the knowledge of correspondences and representations however was turned into magic that Church passed away and a third one took its place. In this Church all the worship did, it is true, involve the practice of things that were almost the same; nevertheless the inner meanings of them were not known. This Church was established among the Israelite and Jewish nation. But since information about heavenly matters or those which belong to eternal life could not be provided to them by influx into their interiors, and so by enlightenment, angels from heaven spoke to certain of them by word of mouth, giving them instruction about outward things, and little about inner realities, because they were incapable of comprehending inner realities. Those of them who were governed by natural good received those outward things in a holy manner. The term 'bronze' is therefore used to describe those times, for bronze is the sign of such good.

De Verbo (Rogers) n. 15
15. The Lost Ancient Word

Angels of the third heaven have told me that the ancients had a Word among them, written, like our Word, solely in terms of things that correspond, but which has since been lost. They also said that this Word is still preserved among them, and is used by the ancients in that heaven, for whom this was theWord when they lived in the world.

These ancients among whom this Word is still used in heaven came partly from the land of Canaan and its borders, also from certain kingdoms in Asia, such as Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea and Assyria, and from Egypt, Sidon and Tyre. The inhabitants of all those kingdoms possessed a representational worship and therefore had a knowledge of correspondences. They acquired the wisdom of that age from that knowledge, since by it they had communication with the heavens and an interior perception. And by it many of them were able to speak with spirits.

But because that Word was filled with correspondent things that only remotely signified heavenly things, and because as a consequence many in the course of time began to falsify it, therefore in the Lord's Divine providence it gradually disappeared, and another Word was given, written in terms of things whose correspondences were not so remote. This was the Word given through the prophets to the children of Israel. Nevertheless, this latter Word retained the names of places located in the land of Canaan and round about in Asia, and these maintained the same symbolic meanings. For this reason, the descendants of Abraham through the line of Jacob were brought into the land of Canaan, and there the Wordgiven to them was written, where those places existed whose names were to be used.

[2] The existence of such a Word among the ancients is also apparent in the writings of Moses, who refers to it and quotes something from it in Numbers 21, verses 14 and 27. Narrative portions of this Word written as history were called The Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetic portions were called Oracles. Moses quoted the following from the narratives of that Word:

Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah: "Waheb in Suphah, and the streams, the Amon, and the channel of the streams which went down to the dwelling place of Ar and stops at the border of Moab." (Numbers 21:14, 15)

The Wars of Jehovah in that book mean and describe the Lord's combats with the hells and His victories over them, which would take place when He came into the world. These same combats are also meant and described in many places in the historical portions of our Word-such as by the wars of Joshua with the nations of the land of Canaan, and by the wars of the judges and kings, both the wars of David and those of the other kings.

[3] From the prophetic portion of the Ancient Word Moses quoted the following:

Therefore the prophetic Oracles say: "Go into Heshbon; the city of Sihon will be built and established. For a fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon, which consumed Ar of Moab, the possessors of the heights of the Amon. Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and given his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites. We finished them with arrows; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon. And we laid them waste as far as Nophah, which (reaches) even to Medeba." (Numbers 21:27-30)

That these prophetic utterances were called Oracles, and not proverbs or "those who speak in proverbs" as translators render it, can be seen from the meaning of the wordmoshalim* in the original Hebrew, which means not only proverbs but also prophetic oracles - as can be seen in Numbers 23:18, 24:3, 15. In each of these verses Balaam is said to have put forth his oracle, which was a prophetic one (prophetic, in fact, of the Lord). His oracle each time is called mashal, in the singular. The words quoted by Moses in these verses are also prophecies, not proverbs.

[4] That the Ancient Word was similarly Divine or Divinely inspired as our Word is apparent from Jeremiah, where almost the same words occur as those quoted above, namely:

... a fire has gone out from Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, which consumed the corner of Moab and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult. Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished! For your sons have been taken off into captivity, and your daughters into captivity. (Jeremiah 48:45, 46)

In addition to these references, a prophetic book also of that same Ancient Word, called the Book of Jashar or Book of the Upright, is cited by David (2 Samuel 1:18) and Joshua (Joshua 10:13). it is apparent from this that the story in Joshua about the sun and the moon was a prophecy from that book.

I further have been told that the first seven chapters of Genesis appear in the same Ancient Word so completely that not the least word is missing.

[5] The religious beliefs and practices of many nations were derived and transmitted from that Word. For instance, they were transmitted from the land of Canaan and from various places in Asia to Greece, and from Greece to Italy, and through Ethiopia and Egypt into several countries in Africa. But in Greece the people used correspondences to create fables, and they turned the attributes of God into so many deities, the greatest of which they called Jove, after Jehovah.
* Sic. The writer does not distinguish between moshelim (the utterers) and meshalim (the utterances), both here and elsewhere. Cf. The Sacred Scripture, no. 103; True Christian Religion, no. 265; Arcana Coelestia, nos. 2897, 2898. The Masoretic text in Numbers 21:27 reads moshelim, but which could be repointed to read meshalim.
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 279
279
The third memorable occurrence. Seven years ago, when I was remembering that Moses mentions two books called The Wars of Jehovah and The Pronouncements (Numbers 21), some angels became present and said to me that these books were the ancient Word. Its historical portion was called The Wars of Jehovah and its prophetical portion was called The Pronouncements. The angels said that that Word is still preserved in heaven and is used by ancient peoples there who had had that Word when they were in the world. Some of theancient peoples who are still using that Word in heaven came from the land of Canaan and its neighbors, such as Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea, Assyria; Egypt; and Sidon, Tyre, and Nineveh. The people in all these countries had symbolic worship and therefore studied correspondences. The wisdom of their times was in fact based on the study of correspondences. That study gave them inner awareness and communication with the heavens. The people who knew the correspondences in that Word were called "the wise" and "the intelligent." Later they were called "diviners" and "magi."
[2] Since that Word was full of correspondences that referred indirectly to heavenly and spiritual realities, and consequently many people began to falsify its correspondences, by the Lord's divine providence that Worddisappeared over the course of time.
Another Word, written in correspondences that were less indirect, was given through the prophets of the children of Israel. In it many of the names of places were retained - places not only in the land of Canaan but also in the surrounding areas in the Middle East. All these names referred to aspects and conditions of the church. Their meanings were taken over from the ancient Word. This is why Abram was commanded to go into that country and why his descendants through Jacob were established there.
[3] Here I am allowed to relate something previously unknown about the ancient Word that used to exist in the Middle East before the Israelite Word: it is still preserved among the peoples who live in Great Tartary.
I have spoken with spirits and angels in the spiritual world who were originally from that area. They said that they possessed this Word and had done so since ancient times; that they followed this Word in conducting their divine worship; and that their Word consisted entirely of correspondences.
They said that their Word included the Book of Jasher that is mentioned in Joshua 10:12, 13, and 2 Samuel 1:17, 18. Other books it contains are The Wars of Jehovah and The Pronouncements, which are mentioned by Moses (Numbers 21:14, 15, 2730). When I read these people the words that Moses quoted from it, they looked up the passages to see whether the words were still in their text, and they found the passages. These events made it clear to me that the ancient Word still exists among them. During our conversation they said that they worship Jehovah. Some of them worship Jehovah as a God who can be seen, some as a God who cannot be seen.
[4] They went on to say that they do not let in foreign immigrants except the Chinese, with whom they have peaceful relations because the Chinese emperor is from their area. They also said that their territory is so heavily populated that they cannot imagine that any other part of the entire world is populated more heavily. This seems plausible given the many miles of the Great Wall that the Chinese once built to protect themselves from an invasion of these people.
I have also heard from angels that the first chapters in Genesis, which deal with creation, Adam and Eve, the garden of Eden, their children and descendants right down to the flood, and also Noah and his children, are in that Word as well. Moses copied these stories from that Word.
The angels and spirits from Great Tartary are found in a southern region toward the east. They are separated from all others by their location on a high plateau. They do not let in people from the Christian world. If some manage to climb up to them, they put them under guard to keep them from leaving. The reason for this separation is that they have a different Word.

Who (or What) is Swedenborg?

The ideas on this site are based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18^th-century Swedish scientist and theologian. Swedenborg claimed that his religious writings, the sole focus of the last three decades of his life, were done at the behest of the Lord himself, and constituted a revelation for a successor to the Christian Church.

In keeping with Swedenborg’s own statements, modern believers downplay his role as author, attributing the ideas to the Lord instead. For this reason they generally refer to Swedenborg’s theological works as “the Writings,” and some resist the label “Swedenborgian” as placing emphasis on the man rather than the message.

Since “the Writings” would be an unfamiliar term to new readers, we have elected to use the name “Swedenborg” as a label for those theological works, much as we might use “Isaiah” or “Matthew” to refer to books of the Bible. The intent, however, is not to attribute the ideas to Swedenborg, any more than we would attribute the divinity of the Bible to Isaiah the man or Matthew the man.

So when you read “according to Swedenborg” on this site, it’s really shorthand for “according to the theological works from the Lord through Swedenborg.” When you read “Swedenborg says,” it’s really shorthand for “the theological works of Swedenborg say.”