The Works of Emanuel Swedenborg - on your Palm

When Emanuel Swedenborg discusses events that occurred during the life of Jesus, he always mentions how every event had a symbolic meaning, as Jesus not only was the Word incarnate, but represented how the Church had violated that Word. Which is why he had to suffer. I once had found a deeper meaning, hidden in the following passage:

And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was:

JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'He said, "I am the King of the Jews."'"
Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." (Jn 19:17-22)

What is interesting, is that when the Jews looked at the saying in Hebrew, they asked Pilate to change it - and he refuses to do so. So why would scripture call attention to this? What some have noted is that in Hebrew, the saying would appear as follows:

ישוע הנצרי ומלך היהודים (Yeshua.. HaNotsri U'Melech HaYehudim)

And obviously, when the Jews saw it, the acronym would read YHVH, which is the tetragrammation for Yahweh or Jehovah. In the revelations given to Swedenborg, Jesus was Jehovah incarnate - and this observation of the tetragrammation on the sign of the cross is a confirmation of that revelation. The idea of a trinity of three persons is a great falsity. Instead there is a trine of the Divine itself, the Divine in the Human, and the proceeding Divine - all in one person.

Helen Keller, a woman who was born blind, deaf and dumb, became an avid reader of Swedenborg's writings. Emanuel Swedenborg lived in the 18th century and was given complete and open visions into heaven in order to explain the meaning of the Word, which he did in many volumes written in Neo-Latin. Helen Keller wrote an interesting opinion when discussing the above passage: just as the name of Jesus was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, so there would be three testaments of the Word: the Old Testament (Hebrew), the New Testament (Greek), and the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (Latin).

The volumes of Swedenborg's writings is so immense that it is almost impossible for me to carry his works around, especially since I travel a lot. One day I found a web site that has all his writings online: I then wrote a script in Perl that automatically browsed the entire web site and sucked down all of Swedenborg's writings, and I created a series of e-texts and uploaded them to another site here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/swd/index.htm. Since then, the site is now Googled and I keep seeing more of these translations pop up across the internet.

Still, I desired to carry Swedenborg around with me. So I then exported the e-texts into a Palm database file to read it on my mobile Palm . I used a program called ISilo, however it was insufficient as it did not index the chapters and notes of the books. I then found a Palm Bible+ application, and found a converter to convert any writing to that reader. I set out to then convert the e-texts of Swedenborg's writings to the Palm Bible+ application - I was then confronted with a problem: how to sort and order all of the books?

As it turns out, the books I had uploaded to the sacred texts is a chronological list of both published works of Swedenborg and his unpublished works - even his own personal diary. And the two sets should be distinguished - what was unpublished is often in draft form, and was used later to publish the work as he was directed to do so. An analysis between the two writings can be found here: http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/contets/books.html.

If we take a look at the published works of Swedenborg (which are described in detail here: http://newearth.org/frontier/esbooks.html, we have the following chronological list of works:

Arcana Coelestia: Or Heavenly Mysteries, 1747-1758, 12 vols.
Earths in the Universe, 1756-1758, 105 pp.
Heaven and Hell, 1757-1758, 455 pp.
Last Judgment, 1757-1758, 83 pp.
New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, 1757-1758, 205 pp.
White Horse, 1757-1758, 26 pp.
Doctrine of the Lord, 1761-1763, pp.
Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, 1761-1763, 94 pp.
Doctrine of Life, 1761-1763, 58 pp.
Doctrine of Faith, 1761-1763, 58 pp.
Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment, 1763, 43 pp.
Divine Love and Wisdom, 1763, 292 pp.
Divine Providence, 1763-1764, 376 pp.
Apocalypse Revealed, 1764-1766, 2 vols.
Conjugial Love, 1767-1768, 525 pp.
Brief Exposition, 1768-1769, 103 pp.
Intercourse of the Soul and the Body, 1769, 38pp.
True Christian Religion, 1769-1771, 2 vols.

The second work, Earths in the Universe, is an unusual work discussing extraterrestrial life - one of the earliest explicit references to UFO visitation I have ever seen. Although published as a separate work, it is in fact a compilation of passages already found in Arcana Coelestia. As Arcana Coelestia was publishd over a period of several years in 8 volumes, its not exactly clear if Earths in the Universe counts as a separate book.

Then there is the Last Judgment, with a follow on that was published much later, Continuation of the Last Judgment. As these were obviously one work, each quite short, I decided to consolidate them as two chapters in one book.

Then there is his shortest work of all, White Horse, an explanation of the white horse in Revelation 19 (and no, its not a literal white horse out of heaven). As the topic was similar to the Last Judgment, I decided to append this as the third chapter to that consolidated work.

Next came five short works - all dealing with doctrines of the New Church. Although published separately, here its not so clear if they should count as separate books or if they are separate volumes to one work, as they were all published in the same year. I decided to consolidate them into one work, New Jerusalem Doctrines, with each book having its own chapter as the latter four are especially short in length.

Two other small works, Brief Exposition, and Intercourse of the Soul and Body, deal with common religious misconceptions that persist in our day - I decided to consolidate those two in one book with two chapters.

When all is said and done, I ended up with the following list of official theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg:

1. Arcana Coelestia (AC)
2. Heaven and Hell (HH)
3. Last Judgment (LJ)
4. New Jerusalem Doctrines (NJD)
5. Divine Love and Wisdom (DLW)
6. Divine Providence (DP)
7. Conjugial Love (CL)
8. Apocalypse Revealed (AR)
9. Brief Expositions (BE)
10. True Christian Religion (TCR)

One thing that puzzled me about the article about Swedenborg's published works was that he actually could have written much more - but only published what he was commanded to publish. But what has caught my attention is that I ended up with 10 books for my Palm database file. And then it hit me: each book of Emanuel Swedenborg corresponds to one of the Ten Commandments. Its unlikely that he planned this, as he numbered the commandments differently, but it seems like he was led to do this. One wonders what Moses wrote on the original tablets of stone that he wrote - apparently the Jews were not ready for the full revelation.



Working on this Palm e-book reader has paid off - perhaps a standard division of Swedenborg's writings will fall out of this. I have finally finished a version of these works that can now be read on your Palm: the database file can be downloaded here:

http://www.divshare.com/download/6206481-192

You will need a Palm Bible+ reader, which can be found here:

http://palmbibleplus.sourceforge.net/

I may move on to other ebook readers, perhaps more popular ones on other PDAs such as iPhone, Android, or Windows CE pdas. Another plan is to make these works available in free Bible readers such as Online Bible...but basically most of my vacation has been taken up with this Palm version.

The Spiritual Sense of Scripture: Elijah & John the Baptist

We have heard that the Bible is Holy, but how is it so?  How is it Divinely inspired?  In the 18^th century visions were given to Emanuel Swedenborg's which explained the spiritual meaning behind the literal sense of the words.  This is in fact, was the Second Coming:  the first coming was a revelation of the Word in the flesh, the second coming is a revelation of the Word in our Bible.  What I like about Swedenborg is that all those obscure passages that everyone else ignores is explained in such detail.

To give an example, lets take a passage where Jesus talks about John the Baptist: 

After John's messengers went away Jesus began to speak about John, saying, What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A person clothed in soft garments? Behold, those who wear soft garments are in kings' houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one of whom it has been written, Behold, I send My angel before your face, who will prepare your way before you. Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not been raised up one greater than John the Baptist; but one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. All the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to believe it, he is the Elijah who is to come. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear. (Matt. 11:7-15)

I chose this passage since Elijah is a well known prophet who ascended into heaven, whom the Jews expected to return before the coming of the Messiah.  The passages concerning Elijah and John the Baptist are often taken as examples for evidence in the belief for reincarnation.  The above passage looks ordinary enough, but what does it mean in the spiritual sense?  What was revealed to Swedenborg is that ordinary passages, even historical sections, were written in a symbolic fashion.  And because it is symbolic, many passages do not make sense, or will be ignored, if read in the literal sense.   Lets go through the above passage, line by line: 

What did you go out into the wilderness to see?

John the Baptist, and Elijah, are representations of the Lord as to the Word, or Divine Truth.  The fact that John the Baptist was in the wilderness meant that at that time the Word was in obscurity, and was not understood.  A "wilderness" is a desolate area, an area which does not lead to much cultivation.  Thus John would say "bear fruits" worthy of repentence, as "fruits" represent good works that were planted by the seed of God's truth.  The beginning of our understanding of God begins in the wilderness: where truth is desolate, where there is much to learn.  Many passages in the Word describe the regeneration and new spiritual life of those who dwell in the wilderness: 

I will make with them a covenant of peace and I will banish the evil wild animal from the land, and they will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods, and I will give them and the places around My hill a blessing. The tree of the field will give its fruit, and the earth will give its increase.  (Ezek. 34: 25-27)

I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the parched land into streams of water. I will put in the wilderness the shittim-cedar, and the myrtle, and the oil tree. I will set in the wilderness the fir, that men may see and know, and may consider and understand together, for the hand of Jehovah has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. (Isa. 41: 18-20.) 

The above passages involve even more symbols, but many examples can be pulled which contextually show that a "wilderness" always signifies a spiritual state where there is a lack of truth, where one can wander and get lost.  Man must pass from darkness into light, from the wilderness into a garden: man's destiny is to be regenerated and turned from evil into a child of God.  Lets proceed to the next sentence:

A reed shaken by the wind?

Is this a simple metaphor?  No it is not, it is in fact well chosen.  The Israelites under Moses passes through the Sea of Reeds before wandering through the wilderness for 40 years.  Plants signify truths, a reed its lowest form: the truths that reside in our own knowledges retrieved from memory.  In several passages a prophet is given a reed like a staff in order to measure something: using a measuring reed the quality of something is known.  A reed also signifies the Word in its literal sense, as a reed is a symbol of Divine Truth in its lowest form:

 

That all the inhabitants of Egypt may know that I am Jehovah, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel; in their taking hold of thee in the hand thou shalt be broken, and shall rend for them every shoulder (Ezek. 29:6-7).

 

In the spiritual sense, the above passage speaks of people who seek out and measure spiritual things according to their own memory-knowledge: such power is signified by a "staff of reed".  For a reed to be "shaken by the wind" means that the Word can be explained by everyone according to their own whims: it can be shaken back and forth according to our own perception of it.  Wind is equivalent to spirit, which is based in thought.  Now back to the original passage:

 

But what did you go out to see? A person clothed in soft garments? Behold, those who wear soft garments are in kings' houses.

 

Garments, or clothing, in the Word signifies truth; thus the angels shine in white according to their understanding of the truth that shines from what they receive from God.  In many of his visions Swedenborg saw angels clothed in garments that were soft and shining.  The residences of angels are known as "king's houses", as those who dwell in the truth are known as "kings", by virtue of the goodness in which they dwell (symbolized by a "house").  In the literal sense the Word is dull and rough, but in its spiritual sense it is soft and shining – and this internal sense is more readily apparent to the angels than it is to the mind of man.

 

But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one of whom it has been written, Behold, I send My angel before your face, who will prepare your way before you.

 

A "prophet", in the spiritual sense, signifies a doctrinal teaching.  The Word of God contains doctrines greater than any other doctrine.  The Word comes by means of messengers, which prepares the way for God to enter into one's heart.  What is not known to many is that as the Word is read and received, one is entering into communion with God via the angels of heaven.  It prepares the way to reception into one's heart.  Thus the Israelites were guided through the wilderness by a pillar of light.

 

Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not been raised up one greater than John the Baptist;

 

In the literal sense, it reads like John the Baptist was the greatest man who ever lived.  In the spiritual sense, "one born among women" means a truth that has been conceived in one's mind.  Greater than any truth that has been conceived by man is the truth that is revealed by God's Word.  The Divine Truth has such a nature and power, that it cleanses and sanctifies one from sin.  Without truth, we continue in our errors, in our sins, leading to unhappiness, sickness, mental illness, and death.  The greatest truth is Divine Truth, which addresses our sinful nature and leads us away from it.

 

but one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

 

So what does the above passage mean?  It means that those who dwell in the lowest of heavens can see much more in the Word than anyone here on earth. 

All the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

All the prophecies concerning the Lord in the Bible came to an end with the coming of Jesus, for the entire Word is centered on Him and his kingdom.

And if you are willing to believe it, he is the Elijah who is to come. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.

More so than any other prophet, Elijah was a representation of the Lord as to his Divine Truth.  That is was not understood among the Jews, is represented by Elijah being taken away and caught up into heaven.  That the Word was completely rejected by the Jews, is represented by the beheading of John the Baptist.  Jesus stated that Elijah would come again to restore all things: this signifies that the meaning of the Word would eventually be revealed and restored.

So, the hidden spiritual sense of this passage can be summed up, at one level of meaning, as follows: 

We are in darkness and obscurity in understanding spiritual truths concerning God.  The literal sense of the Word can be explained one way or another according to our thoughts, yet it is seen in its glory in the angelic heavens.  The Word contains a greater doctrine than doctrines given by man: it gives us communion with angels and prepares the way for us to receive God in our hearts.  The Word contains a greater truth than those revealed to man: it sanctifies and cleanses us from error and sin: this is apparent in the lowest of heavens much more than to the living on earth.  The entire Word prophesied of the coming of the Lord in human form.  If you believe, you will see that the Word is the Divine Truth given by God.