wrong dates, false titles, and palpable calumnies and contradictions: it is thus that self-love, disfiguring, falsifying, and obscuring everything, is the source of every evil, and the scourge of the human race. The first labor, then, to be undertaken to arrive at the truth is, to combat, to conquer, and to chain down, this principle for ever. Then the soul of man recovering its liberty, and restored to the light for which it was born, may roam at pleasure through the whole of nature, and pursuing its flight, may elevate itself even to that world which ignorant mortals regard as imaginary, but which will always be, whatever they may say, the vivifying sphere, and the true home of the human mind. This, gentlemen, is what I thought it my duty to make public for the benefit of society, from a regard for truth, and in gratitude to him to whom I am indebted for the major part of the little that I know; though, before I met with his writings, I had sought for knowledge amongst almost all the writers, ancient and modern, who enjoyed any reputation for possessing it. I have the honor to be, &c., MARQUIS DE THOME. Paris, Aug. 4, 1785. No. IX. REMARKS BY MR. A. NORDENSKJOLD, ON THE DIFFERENT EDITIONS OF THE BIBLE MADE USE OF BY SWEDENBORG. We have seen above, pp. 11, 137, that after Swedenborg's spiritual illumination had commenced he applied himself exclusively to the study of the Word, both as to its letter, in the Hebrew text, and as to its "spirit and its life," or as to that spiritual sense which he demonstrates as existing in every part of the Holy Scriptures. It may be interesting to the present as well as to future generations, to know the different editions of the Bible which he made use of. This information is contained in the New Jerusalem Magazine for 1790, p. 87, where we read as follows: Swedenborg possessed four editions of the Holy Bible in Hebrew: I. That by T. Pagnini Montani, containing, fol. 1657, in which he made no remarks in the margin, as I was informed by the person who bought it at his sale. 'II. Biblia Hebraica punctata, cum Novo Testamento Græco, 8vo. of the edition of Manasse Ben Israël, 1639, Amsterdam. This was also without remarks. "III. Reineccii Bibl. Hebr. Lipsiæ, 1739, 4to. This I have happily found; it is filled with remarks, and with the Latin translation of several Hebrew words, as also some observations on the internal sense. The book is much used. I shall add it to the collection of manuscripts. "IV. Bibl. Hebr. secundum Edit. Belgii Edvardi Vander Hoogt, cum versione Latina Sebastian Schmidii; Lipsia, 1740, 4to. This book was given to the Rev. Mr. Fernelius of Schöfde, for interring him at London, where he then was minister to the Swedish chapel. There is no remark in the margin, but a great number of lines and asterisks, at the most remarkable places of the Latin version, the original text not being in any manner touched; because, according to the expression of Swedenborg, "The Word is perfect, such as we have it." Of the New Testament in Greek, he had none besides that mentioned, No. II., and which is a fresh edition of that by Elzevir in 1624, made by Janson, and the edition of Leusden, Amsterdam, 1741, with the Latin version. It is probable he has followed this edition in translating the ApocaÎypse. Of the Latin translations of the Bible, he chiefly made use of that by Schmidius, Lipsiæ, 1740, after the time that he began the Arcana Cœlestia, because he found this to be more literal and exact than all the others. Nevertheless, in all his quotations, and above all in the Arcana Calestia, he has more exactly expressed the sense according to the original language. He has never followed the version of Arius Montanus, either of the Old or New Testament, as I have carefully examined and found to be the case. But he had four copies of the Latin translation of Castelliano, apparently for the purity of the language, which he was very studiously applying himself to, before he learnt Hebrew in 1745. In his quotations of the New Testament, he only made use of the translation of Schmidius, first edition, which he sometimes has left, the better to express the sense of the Greek. From this it appears, that he always had the originals at hand. But with respect to the author's translations of Genesis, Exodus, and the Apocalypse, they are directly translated from the originals. *We wish to observe that Swedenborg required the absolute literal sense of Scripture as the basis of his spiritual interpretation, and as the Latin version of Schmidius was in this respect the most complete of any in existence, being an improvement on the literal version of Montanus, he preferred it, and in his very numerous quotations from the Word, especially in the Apocalypse Explained. seldom departs from the version of Schmidius, unless to render the Hebrew text still more faithfully and literally. THE END. |