I was once asked how from a philosopher I became a theologian,** and I answered: In the same way in which fishermen were made by the Lord disciples and apostles; and that from my first youth I also have been a spiritual fisherman. On hearing this, he asked, What is a spiritual fisherman? I answered that in the Word in its spiritual sense, a fisherman signifies a man who teaches natural and then spiritual truths rationally. To the question as to how this is demonstrated, I said, From the following passages in the Word: "Then shall the waters fail from the sea, and the river be dried up and wither away. Therefore shall the FISHERS bewail, and all they that cast angle into the river shall be sad" (Isa. 19: 5, 8); and elsewhere: "Behold, saith Jehovah, I will send unto many FISHERS, who shall fish the sons of Israel" (Jer. 16:16). And elsewhere: "Upon the river whose waters were healed stood FISHERS from Engedi; they were there with the spreading of nets; their FISH was after its kind, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many" (Ezek. 47:9, 10). Hence it is clear why the Lord chose fishermen for disciples, and said: "Come after me and I will make you fishers of men" (Matt. 4:18, 19, Mark 1:16, 17); and to Peter, after he had caught a multitude of fishes: "From henceforth thou shalt catch men" (Luke 5:9, 10). From the Apocalypse Revealed, I then demonstrated the origin of this signification of fishermen, namely, because water signifies natural truths, nos. 50, 932; likewise a river, nos. 409, 932; a fish, those who are in natural truths, no. 405, and hence fishermen, those who search out truths, and teach them, no. 405e. Hearing this, my questioner raised his voice and said: Now I can understand why the Lord chose fishermen for disciples, and therefore I do not wonder that He also chose you; for as you have said, from your first youth you have been a fisherman in the spiritual sense, that is, an investigator and teacher of natural truths, and now of spiritual, since these are founded on the former. To this, being a man of reason, he added that the Lord alone knows who is fitted for the perceiving and teaching of the truths which are of His New Church, whether one among the primates or one among their servants. Moreover, among Christians, what theological student in gymnasiums does not first study philosophy before being inaugurated as a theologian? Whence, otherwise, does he have intelligence.***

Emanuel Swedenborg

1 John 5:20, 21.

* Cuno expressed doubts in a letter to Swedenborg concerning his Writings. Receiving no answer, Cuno called on Swedenborg, but did not succeed in inducing him to answer his letter orally. Instead, Swedenborg told him that if he did not believe his Writings, he had taken far too much trouble in reading them. A few days later, however, he called on Cuno and handed him this paper, presumably as an answer to his letter. ** c.f. Letter from Oetinger to Swedenborg of December 4, 1766 (Letters and Memorials of Swedenborg). *** Swedenborg kept a copy of this communication, and in July he published it in London as the last paragraph of his Interaction between Soul and Body.