3、没有这种内层生命，文字上的圣言是死的。它类似于一个人，一个既有一个外在，也有一个内在的人，如基督教界所知道的。外在人若与内在人分离，就只是一个身体，因而是死的。那活着，并将生命赋予外在人的，正是内在人。内在人是外在人的灵魂。这同样适用于圣言；仅就文字而言，圣言就像一个没有灵魂的身体。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]3. Without this interior life, the Word in its letter is dead. It resembles a human being, in that a human has an outward self and an inward one, as the Christian world knows.{*1} The outer being, separated from the inner, is just a body and so is dead, but the inward being is what lives and allows the outward being to live.{*2} The inner being is a person's soul.
In the same way, the letter of the Word by itself is a body without a soul.
Footnotes:
{*1} Swedenborg is not necessarily limiting his conception of the "Christian world" to Christianity proper. In 54 of his 1763 work Sacred Scripture, he uses the term to include not only the Reformed Church (that is, Calvinists) and Catholics but Jews as well. See also note 2 in 3. [RS, GFD]
{*2} Swedenborg here alludes to a dynamic that infuses his work, as it does practically all of Christianity from its earliest origins: the contrast between the "outer" — equated with the purely physical, which, taken on its own, is lifeless — and the "inner," which is what gives life. This contrast between the inner self and the outer self is a common theme in the Christian tradition, going back to Jesus himself, who strongly emphasized the difference between external appearances of piety and the inner motivation. See the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Luke 18:10-14; also Matthew 23:27: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you make yourselves like bleached tombs, which do indeed look beautiful from the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and uncleanness of every kind." The dynamic can be seen in Paul's Epistles as well: see 2 Corinthians 4:16: "Although our outer self is perishing, our inner self is nevertheless being renewed day by day." Similarly, Paul contrasts those who are Jews "outwardly" with those who are Jews "inwardly;" the former have a circumcision that is "outward in the flesh," while the latter have one "of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter" (Romans 2:28-29). [RS]
Potts(1905-1910) 3
3. Without such a Life, the Word as to the letter is dead. The case in this respect is the same as it is with man, who-as is known in the Christian world-is both internal and external. When separated from the internal man, the external man is the body, and is therefore dead; for it is the internal man that is alive and that causes the external man to be so, the internal man being the soul. So is it with the Word, which, in respect to the letter alone, is like the body without the soul.
Elliott(1983-1999) 3
3. Without such life the Word as regards the letter is dead, for it is the same with the Word as it is with man, who, as the Christian world knows, is internal as well as external. The external man if parted from the internal man is just a body and therefore dead. It is the internal man which lives and imparts life to the external. The internal man is the soul of the external man. The same applies to the Word which as to the letter alone is like the body without a soul.
Latin(1748-1756) 3
3. Absque vita tali, Verbum quoad litteram est mortuum; se enim habet Verbum sicut homo, qui, ut in orbe Christiano notum est, externus est et internus; externus homo separatus ab interno est corpus, et sic mortuum; internus autem est qui vivit, et dat externo vivere; internus homo est ejus anima: ita Verbum, quoad litteram solum, est sicut corpus absque anima.