15. XV. THE ANCIENT WORD THAT IS LOST. That there was a Word with the ancients, written like our Word by mere correspondences, but that this has been lost, has been told me by angels of the third heaven. They said further that this Word is still preserved with them, and is in use among the ancients in that heaven, whose Word it was when they were in the world. Those ancients, with whom that Word is still in use in the heavens, were in part from the land of Canaan and its borders, and also from certain kingdoms in Asia, as from Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea, Assyria, and Egypt, from Sidon and Tyre, the inhabitants of all of which kingdoms were in representative worship, and thus in a knowledge of correspondences. Their wisdom at that time was from that knowledge, since by it they had communication with the heavens, and interior perception, and also many had converse with spirits. But because that Word was full of such correspondences, which remotely signified heavenly things, and for that reason in the course of time began to be falsified by many, therefore from the Divine providence of the Lord it gradually passed out of sight, and another Word was given, which was written by correspondences less remote, and this through the prophets with the sons of Israel. In this Word, however, the names of places in the land of Canaan and in Asia round about, were retained and kept their signification. For this reason, the posterity of Abraham from Jacob were introduced into the land of Canaan, and the Word in which those places were to be named was there written.
[2] That there was such a Word with the ancients is plain also in Moses, by whom it is mentioned and something is taken from it (Num. 21:14-27). The historicals of that Word were called the Wars of Jehovah, and the propheticals the Enunciations. From the historicals of that Word Moses took these words:
Wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah, At Vaheb in Suphah, and the streams of Arnon, and the channel of the streams that descend towards the dwelling of Ar, and reach to the border of Moab (Num. 21:14, 15). By "the Wars of Jehovah" are there meant and described the combats of the Lord with the hells and victories over them, when He should come into the world. The same combats are also meant and described in many places in the historicals of our Word, as in the wars of Joshua with the nations of the land of Canaan, in the wars of the judges, and in the wars of David and the rest of the kings. [3] From the propheticals of that Word these words were taken by Moses:
Wherefore the prophetic enunciations say, Come ye to Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and established, for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath devoured Ar of Moab, the possessors of the high places of Arnon. Woe to thee, Moab! Thou hast perished, O people of Chemosh. He hath given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, unto Sihon king of the Amorites. With darts we have destroyed them. Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which is even unto Medeba (Num. 21:27-30). That these propheticals were called Enunciations, and not Proverbs or the makers of proverbs, as the translators render it, may be evident from the signification of the word maschalim in the Hebrew language, which means not only proverbs, but also prophetic enunciations, as may appear elsewhere in Numbers (23:7, 18; 24:3, 15), where it is said that Balaam put forth his enunciation, which also was a prophecy, yea, concerning the Lord. His enunciation is there called a maschal, in the singular. Furthermore, those things which are described by Moses in those citations are prophecies, but they are not proverbs. [4] That that Word was in like manner Divine, or Divinely inspired, is plain in Jeremiah, where are almost the same words, as follows:
A fire has gone forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and hath devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult. Woe unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh hath perished; for thy sons are carried away into captivity, and thy daughters into captivity (Jer. 48:45, 46). Besides these, a prophetic book of that ancient Word, called the Book of Jasher, or the Book of the Upright, is also cited by David (2 Sam. 1:18), and by Joshua (Josh. 10:13); from which it is plain that the historic statement there about the sun and moon, was a prophecy from that book. It has moreover been told me that the first seven chapters of Genesis are so manifestly extant in that same Word, that not a little word is wanting.
[5] The religious systems of many nations have been derived from that ancient Word and carried elsewhere, as from the land of Canaan and from various parts of Asia into Greece and from there into Italy, and through Ethiopia and Egypt into certain kingdoms of Africa. In Greece, however, out of correspondences they made fables, and out of the Divine attributes they made so many gods, the greatest of whom they called Jove, from Jehovah.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church