4、只要思维仅仅局限于字义，就绝无可能看见它里面的内容。以《创世记》头几章为例：单从字义来看，人们只会发现所论述的主题是创世，被称为伊甸园的园子，以及作为第一个被造之人的亚当。谁会想到别的？然而，这些事却包含了至今都未揭示的奥秘，这一点从以下章节足以清楚看出来；尤其是这一事实：《创世记》第一章在内义上概括地论述了人的新造，或他的重生，尤其论述了上古教会。这个主题是以这种方式来呈现的：就连最小的音节都无不代表、表示并包含这些事物在里面。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]4. The Word's literal meaning alone, when it monopolizes our thinking, can never provide a view of the inner contents. Take for example this first chapter of Genesis. The literal meaning by itself offers no clue that it is speaking of anything but the world's creation, the Garden of Eden (paradise), and Adam, the first human ever created.{*1} Who supposes anything else?
The wisdom hidden in these details (and never before revealed) will be clear enough from what follows. The inner sense of the first chapter of Genesis deals in general with the process that creates us anew — that is to say, with regeneration — and in particular with the very earliest church;{*2} and it does so in such a way that not even the smallest syllable fails to represent, symbolize, and incorporate this meaning.{*3}
Footnotes:
{*1} The creation story is one area in which Secrets of Heaven differs radically from most earlier allegorical interpretations of Scripture (see note 1 in 606). The latter assume that the opening of Genesis does indeed attempt to explain the creation of the world and humankind (see, for example, Philo 1993, 3-5; Matt 2004, 107 and following). Swedenborg, by contrast, asserts that this passage is not dealing with actual cosmogenesis, but with the spiritual life of an individual human being. [RS]
{*2} Swedenborg uses the term ecclesia, or "church," in a number of ways. Here, as often, it does not denote a group of Christians but instead refers to one of five major phases Swedenborg assigns to the world's religious history. In general Swedenborg calls the first phase the earliest church, the second the ancient church, the third the Jewish church (up to the time of Christ), the fourth the Christian church, and the fifth a new church. In the early volumes of the present work, though, he often adds another, called the Hebrew church, between the ancient and Jewish churches. [LHC]
{*3} "Represent" (Latin repraesentare) and "symbolize" (significare) are heavily used terms in Swedenborg's theology. The two have related but distinguishable meanings. Both indicate the presence of an inner meaning in an object, person, name, or action, but symbolism directs our attention to the meaning itself (especially as communicated by words), whereas representation generally directs our attention to the living enactment of that meaning (especially by persons). One result, as described in 665 and 1361, is that a person who represents something good does not actually have to be good; an evil monarch, to use Swedenborg's own example, can represent the Lord's power. In 920, in the first volume of the first edition, Swedenborg makes clear that these distinctions parallel certain of the divisions in the world's religious history he calls churches (see note 2 in 4). Members of the earliest church, he says, had the ability to perceive the inner meaning without effort; their perceptiveness was replaced in the ancient church by the codified knowledge of symbolism. In 1361:3, also in the first volume, he adds that when the church with an intuitive gift for symbolism came to an end, representation took the place of symbolism. However, by the third volume (that is, starting at 2760), Swedenborg becomes fairly consistent in assigning representative meaning to the individuals who appear in a story and symbolic meaning to everything else. A typical example occurs in 3131, which expounds a phrase in Genesis 24:29, "And Laban ran to the man outside at the spring." Swedenborg describes this as symbolizing the predisposition that goodness has toward truth; running symbolizes predisposition, and a man symbolizes truth, as does a spring, but Laban represents a desire for what is good. These distinctions apply only where Swedenborg is using the word symbolize in a technical sense. Often he uses it much more broadly. For more on these distinctions in inner meaning in relation to various modes of biblical discursion, see 66. For a very brief overview of the history of biblical interpretation as it relates to Swedenborg's views, see Smoley 2005, 27, and the references given there. [LHC, GHO]
Potts(1905-1910) 4
4. While the mind cleaves to the literal sense alone, no one can possibly see that such things are contained within it. Thus in these first chapters of Genesis, nothing is discoverable from the sense of the letter other than that the creation of the world is treated of, and the garden of Eden which is called Paradise, and Adam as the first created man. Who supposes anything else? But it will be sufficiently established in the following pages that these matters contain arcana which have never yet been revealed; and in fact that the first chapter of Genesis in the internal sense treats in general of the new creation of man, or of his regeneration, and specifically of the Most Ancient Church; and this in such a manner that there is not the least expression which does not represent, signify, and enfold within it these things.
Elliott(1983-1999) 4
4. As long as the mind confines itself to the sense of the letter alone one cannot possibly see that its contents are such. Take for instance these first sections of Genesis: From the sense of the letter the only subject matter people recognize is the creation of the world, and the Garden of Eden which is called Paradise, and Adam as the first man to be created. Who thinks anything different? The fact that these things contain arcana however which have never been revealed up to now will be sufficiently clear from what follows - especially clear from the fact that the subject of Genesis 1 is, in the internal sense, the NEW CREATION of man, that is, in general his REGENERATION, and in particular the Most Ancient Church. And the subject is presented in such a way that not the smallest part of any expression fails to have a representation, carry a spiritual meaning, or embody something within itself.
Latin(1748-1756) 4
4. Ex solo sensu litterae, cum ei inhaeret mens, nusquam videri potest quod talia contineat; sicut prima haec Geneseos, ex sensu litterae nusquam aliud noscitur quam quod agatur de Creatione Mundi, et de Horto Edenis qui vocatur Paradisus; tum de Adamo, ut primo homine creato; quis aliud autumat? Sed quod haec arcana contineant quae nusquam adhuc revelata sunt, ex illis quae sequuntur satis constabit; et quidem quod primum caput Geneseos in sensu interno agat de NOVA CREATIONE hominis, seu de ejus REGENERATIONE in genere, deque Antiquissima Ecclesia in specie, et quidem ita ut ne minimum vocis sit quod non repraesentat, significat et involvit.