THE

BOOK OF GENESIS.

1. THAT the Word of the Old Testament includes arcana of heaven Original Latin: arcana coelestia. This refers to "heavenly secrets" or deep spiritual mysteries hidden within the text., and that all its contents, to every particular, regard the Lord, his heaven, the church, faith, and the things relating to faith, no one can imagine who only views it from the letter. For the letter, or literal sense The plain, surface-level historical narrative of the Bible., suggests only such things as respect the external appearance of the Jewish church, when, nevertheless, it everywhere contains internal things The deeper, spiritual meanings that Swedenborg argues lie beneath the surface of the biblical narrative., which do not in the least appear in those externals, except in a very few cases, where the Lord revealed and unfolded them to the apostles—as that sacrifices are symbols of the Lord—and that the land of Canaan and Jerusalem are symbols of heaven (on which account they are called the heavenly Canaan and Jerusalem)—and that Paradise has a similar meaning.

2. But that all and every part of its contents, even to the most minute—not excepting the smallest stroke or dot—signify and involve spiritual and celestial things In this context, 'spiritual' refers to matters of the intellect and truth, while 'celestial' refers to matters of the heart, will, and love., is a truth to this day deeply hidden from the Christian world; in consequence of which little attention is paid to the Old Testament. This truth, however, might appear plainly from this single circumstance: that the Word being from the Lord and of the Lord, could not possibly be given without containing within it such things as relate to heaven, to the church, and to faith. For, if this be denied, how can it be called the Word of the Lord, or be said to have any life in it? For where does its life come from, if not from those things which possess life? That is, except from this: that all things in it, both generally and particularly, relate to the Lord, who is Life Itself. Therefore, whatever does not inwardly regard Him does not live; indeed, any expression in the Word that does not involve Him, or relate to Him in its own way, is not divine.

3. Without such a living principle, the Word, as to the letter, is dead. For it is with the Word as it is with a human being, who, as all Christians are taught to believe, consists of two parts, an external and an internal. The external man The physical body and the worldly, sensory part of the mind. separate from the internal is the body, which, in such a state of separation, is dead; but the internal man The soul, or the spiritual part of a person that lives on after death. is that which lives and causes the external to live. The internal man is the soul; and thus the Word, as to the letter alone, is like a body without a soul.