TheArcana Cœlestia, quae in Scriptura Sacra seu Verbo Domini sunt, detecta, usually abbreviated asArcana Cœlestia (Heavenly Mysteries orSecrets of Heaven) orArcana Cælestia,[1] is an eight-volume theological work published byEmanuel Swedenborg in the 1750s.[2][3]
Swedenborg was born in Sweden in 1688. His father was aChristian pastor in theLutheran Church. The first part of his life was devoted to studying sciences, especially metallurgy. In 1740 he publishedOeconomia Regni Animalis (Dynamics of the Soul's Domain), where he looked at connections between the spiritual and physical worlds. In 1744 he had a spiritual awakening and started to record his experiences and visions.Arcana Cœlestia was his first theological publication. It was published in London, partly to avoid Swedish anti-heresy laws.[4]
The publication is a spiritual interpretation ofGenesis andExodus (the first two books of theBible), according to the doctrine ofcorrespondence (theology), and demonstrated by many supporting quotations from theHebrew Bible and theNew Testament. While not denying the historicity of the stories of thePatriarchs andthe Exodus from Egypt, it explains them as describing symbolically the process of spiritual growth and struggles in each individual person.
The volumes are laid out as follows;[5]
| Volume | Latin (Chapters) | English (Chapters) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gen 1–15 | Gen 1–9 |
| 2 | Gen 16–21 | Gen 10–17 |
| 3 | Gen 22–30 | Gen 18–22 |
| 4 | Gen 31–40 | Gen 23–27 |
| 5 | Gen 41–50 | Gen 29–31 |
| 6 | Exod 1–15 | Gen 32–38 |
| 7 | Exod 16–24 | Gen 39–43 |
| 8 | Exod 25–40 | Gen 44–50 |
| 9 | — | Exod 1–12 |
| 10 | — | Exod 13–21 |
| 11 | — | Exod 22–28 |
| 12 | — | Exod 29–40 |
The opening paragraph ofArcana Coelestia Volume 1 is the opening statement of the corpus of theological work that Swedenborg claimed was revealed to him.[6]
From the mere letter of the Word of the Old Testament no one would ever discern the fact that this part of the Word contains deep secrets of heaven, and that everything within it both in general and in particular bears reference to the Lord, to His heaven, to the church, to religious belief, and to all things connected therewith; for from the letter or sense of the letter all that anyone can see is that - to speak generally - everything therein has reference merely to the external rites and ordinances of the Jewish Church. Yet the truth is that everywhere in that Word there are internal things which never appear at all in the external things except a very few which the Lord revealed and explained to the Apostles; such as that the sacrifices signify the Lord; that the land of Canaan and Jerusalem signify heaven - on which account they are called the Heavenly Canaan and Jerusalem - and that Paradise has a similar signification. (Arcana Cœlestia #1)
There have been several translations made ofArcana Cœlestia (together with the rest of Swedenborg's theological work), including:
Volumes of the Standard Edition were originally issued from 1929 to 1956, with the majority in 1938.
This is a new contemporary translation.
This edition was updated in the 1900s.[7]
Swedenborg's theological work the Arcana Coelestia, published from 1749 to 1756 were originally written inNeo-Latin.[8][9]
The translation from Neo-Latin into English was commissioned by Swedenborg himself.
The Reviser Preface contains a summary of the publishing history for the work originally published by Swedenborg.[10][11]
