D

THE APOCALYPSE

EXPLAINED ACCORDING TO THE SPIRITUAL SENSE

IN WHICH THE ARCANA

THEREIN PREDICTED BUT HERETOFORE CONCEALED

ARE REVEALED

A POSTHUMOUS WORK OF

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

VOL. I

NEW YORK

AMERICAN SWEDENBORG PRINTING AND PUBLISHING

SOCIETY

3 WEST TWENTY-NINTH STREET

MCMIII.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

In this translation the chief aim has been to express the meaning of the original as fully and accurately as possible in purely English words and phrases In a few instances, when the best attainable rendering seemed especially inade. quate, the Latin word or phrase has been inserted in parentheses. This has left the translator free to render the same word in different ways, as the context seemed to demand.

The translation of this first volume has been made under the supervision of the committee on translations of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, and the proofs were all carefully read by its chairman, Mr. E. A. Gibbens, and such merits as the translation possesses are due largely to his scholarship and careful criticism.

The heavy-faced figures ([2.], [3.), etc.) inserted in the text indicate the divisions that are employed in Potts' Swedenborg Concordance.

THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED.

T

APOCALYPSE.

CHAPTER I.

HE Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants the things

which must quickly come to pass, and signified, sending by His angel, unto His servant John,

2. Who bare witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatsoever things he saw.

3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein; for the time is near.

4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven spirits which are in sight of His throne;

5. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loveth us, and washeth us from our sins in His blood;

6. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: to Him be the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

7. Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him. Even so; Amen.

8. I am the Alpha and the Omega, Beginning and