Angels of the third heaven have told me that the ancients had a Word among them, written, like our Word, solely in terms of things that correspond, but which has since been lost. They also said that this Word is still preserved among them, and is used by the ancients in that heaven, for whom this was the Word when they lived in the world.

These ancients among whom this Word is still used in heaven came partly from the land of Canaan and its borders, also from certain kingdoms in Asia, such as Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea and Assyria, and from Egypt, Sidon and Tyre. The inhabitants of all those kingdoms possessed a representational worship and therefore had a knowledge of correspondences. They acquired the wisdom of that age from that knowledge, since by it they had communication with the heavens and an interior perception. And by it many of them were able to speak with spirits.

But because that Word was filled with correspondent things that only remotely signified heavenly things, and because as a consequence many in the course of time began to falsify it, therefore in the Lord's Divine providence it gradually disappeared, and another Word was given, written in terms of things whose correspondences were not so remote. This was the Word given through the prophets to the children of Israel. Nevertheless, this latter Word retained the names of places located in the land of Canaan and round about in Asia, and these maintained the same symbolic meanings. For this reason, the descendants of Abraham through the line of Jacob were brought into the land of Canaan, and there the Word given to them was written, where those places existed whose names were to be used.

[2] The existence of such a Word among the ancients is also apparent in the writings of Moses, who refers to it and quotes something from it in Numbers 21, verses 14 and 27. Narrative portions of this Word written as history were called The Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetic portions were called Oracles. Moses quoted the following from the narratives of that Word:

Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah: "Waheb in Suphah, and the streams, the Amon, and the channel of the streams which went down to the dwelling place of Ar and stops at the border of Moab." (Numbers 21:14, 15)

The Wars of Jehovah in that book mean and describe the Lord's combats with the hells and His victories over them, which would take place when He came into the world. These same combats are also meant and described in many places in the historical portions of our Word-such as by the wars of Joshua with the nations of the land of Canaan, and by the wars of the judges and kings, both the wars of David and those of the other kings.

[3] From the prophetic portion of the Ancient Word Moses quoted the following:

Therefore the prophetic Oracles say: "Go into Heshbon; the city of Sihon will be built and established. For a fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon, which consumed Ar of Moab, the possessors of the heights of the Amon. Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and given his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites. We finished them with arrows; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon. And we laid them waste as far as Nophah, which (reaches) even to Medeba." (Numbers 21:27-30)

That these prophetic utterances were called Oracles, and not proverbs or "those who speak in proverbs" as translators render it, can be seen from the meaning of the word moshalim* in the original Hebrew, which means not only proverbs but also prophetic oracles - as can be seen in Numbers 23:18, 24:3, 15. In each of these verses Balaam is said to have put forth his oracle, which was a prophetic one (prophetic, in fact, of the Lord). His oracle each time is called mashal, in the singular. The words quoted by Moses in these verses are also prophecies, not proverbs.

[4] That the Ancient Word was similarly Divine or Divinely inspired as our Word is apparent from Jeremiah, where almost the same words occur as those quoted above, namely:

... a fire has gone out from Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, which consumed the comer of Moab and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult. Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished! For your sons have been taken off into captivity, and your daughters into captivity. (Jeremiah 48:45, 46)

In addition to these references, a prophetic book also of that same Ancient Word, called the Book of Jashar or Book of the Upright, is cited by David (2 Samuel 1:18) and Joshua (Joshua 10:13). it is apparent from this that the story in Joshua about the sun and the moon was a prophecy from that book.

I further have been told that the first seven chapters of Genesis appear in the same Ancient Word so completely that not the least word is missing.

[5] The religious beliefs and practices of many nations were derived and transmitted from that Word. For instance, they were transmitted from the land of Canaan and from various places in Asia to Greece, and from Greece to Italy, and through Ethiopia and Egypt into several countries in Africa. But in Greece the people used correspondences to create fables, and they turned the attributes of God into so many deities, the greatest of which they called Jove, after Jehovah. * Sic. The writer does not distinguish between moshelim (the utterers) and meshalim (the utterances), both here and elsewhere. Cf. The Sacred Scripture, no. 103; True Christian Religion, no. 265; Arcana Coelestia, nos. 2897, 2898. The Masoretic text in Numbers 21:27 reads moshelim, but which could be repointed to read meshalim.