2445. A Vision about the interiors of the Word
I was inspired to speak of the interiors of the Word in the prophets and at the same time to show by a symbolic display that the words there are nothing, but that there is an inner meaning that begins to be alive when it was given to depict that the words are to be cast away as nothing, as is done in conversation, where one pays no attention to words but only to meaning.
So it is in the case of the Word of the Lord in regard to its letter, and when by this symbolic display the words or letter were cast away and thus put off, then there appeared to me in a vision a nude person, who was lifted up vertically above the head, upon seeing whom the spirits, surprised, said it is a miracle, because they saw the person better than they saw me, in a living form.
By that person, the inner meaning was symbolized, for a nude person is the inner sense, whose clothing is only words, or a letter. So it was corroborated that there is an inner sense that takes on life, or humanity, in the Word of the Lord. 1748, 29 June.
2445. A VISION CONCERNING THE INTERIORS OF THE WORD.
It was granted to speak concerning the interiors of the Lord's Word in [apud] the prophets, and then at the same time to show by representation that the words there are nothing, but the sense is interior, and begins to be alive when it is granted to represent, that the words are to be thrown away as nothing, as is usual in discourse, wherein no attention is paid to the words but only to the sense; [it is] so in the Lord's Word, as to the letter; and when by means of that representation the words or letters were thrown away, and thus as it were divested, then appeared to me in vision, a naked man, who was elevated upwards above the head to the crown thereof, whom spirits, seeing, wondered at, [and] said that it is a miracle because they saw the man better than [they did] me in living form: whereby the interior sense was signified, for the naked man is the interior sense, his garments are only the words or letter; thus it was confirmed that there is an interior sense which begins to be life, or man, in the Word of the Lord. - 1748, June 29.
2445. Visio de interioribus Verbi
Dabatur loqui de interioribus Verbi Domini, apud prophetas, et tunc simul per repraesentationem ostendere, quod voces ibi sint nihili, sed sensus interior sit, qui incipit vivere, cum repraesentare daretur, quod abjiciendae sint voces sicut nihili, ut solet in sermone, in quo nihil attenditur ad voces, sed modo ad sensum, ita in Verbo Domini 1
, quoad literam, et [cum] 2
sic per repraesentationem istam, abjicerentur voces seu litera, et sic quasi exuerentur, tunc apparuit mihi in visione homo nudus, qui sursum elevatus supra caput, ad verticem ejus, quem videntes Spiritus, admirati, dicebant, quod miraculum sit, quia viderunt hominem melius quam me, in viva forma; quo significabatur sensus interior, nam homo nudus est sensus interior, ejus vestes sunt modo voces, seu litera, ita confirmabatur, quod sensus interior est, qui incipit esse vita, seu homo, in Verbo Domini. 1748, 29 Junius.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has Domino
2. sic in J.F.I. Tafel's edition