Allegories of Genesis

Preface

These short chapters were written from week to week from notes used in a course of mid-week lectures given to my Congregation.

The interpretation of these early chapters of Genesis given in this little book lays no claim to originality; nor has it been the aim of the Author to be critical. He has followed the opening of the internal sense of them as given by the Lord through the divinely illumined mind of His called and prepared servant, Emmanuel Swedenborg.

The lectures were productive of much good in my parish; and letters from England and from all parts of the United States, have come to me urging their publication in book form.

I therefore, send forth this little volume thankful for

the opportunity to be of service to the cause of the Lord's

New Church.

Thomas A. King,

Lakewood, Ohio July 15, 1922.

Foreword

The early chapters of Genesis have been the cause of many controversies in the Church and the world. The reason is that these Genesis stories have been regarded as narratives of actual events of history. It was believed and taught in the Church that creation took place about 4000 years B. C; that it was completed in six days; that the first man and woman were then created; and that the stories of their life in Eden, the great ages of their descendants, and the account of Noah and the Flood, all took place as described in Genesis.

When the sciences of cosmogony, geology, and archaeology, were developed, it was seen that the antiquity of the world and of man was immensely greater than the time assigned by the theologians. A great controversy arose between science and the Church on this subject. It is now generally conceded that the early chapters of Genesis cannot be regarded as historical. Consequently the question arises, How shall we regard them, and can we still believe them to be a part of the Word of God and Divine?

If Swedenborg's teaching had been accepted that these early chapters of Genesis are non-historical but Symbolical or representative, there would not have been any controversy concerning them. He placed the book of Genesis in a new light, which clearly manifests the Divine nature of these Genesis stories. In order to see that these stories, now often called myths, constitute an essential part of the Word of God, we must know;

First: That there was a Divine revelation or Word prior to the time of Moses. This Word was the source of the religions of many nations, and from it were derived the many traditions and fables concerning creation, the Garden of Eden, and the Flood. Swedenborg says: "There was a Word among the Ancients, written by correspondences. The ancients among whom that Word existed were in the land of Canaan, and the kingdoms on its borders, as Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Assyria, Chaldea, Egypt, Zidon, Tyre and Nineveh. All these kingdoms were in representative worship, and hence in the knowledge of correspondences. The wisdom of that time was from that knowledge; and by means of it, they had interior perception and communication with the heavens. But because that Word was full of correspondences that were significative of celestial and spiritual things in a remote manner, and hence began to be falsified by many, therefore, in the Lord's Divine Providence, it disappeared in process of time, and at length was lost."

Second: Moses quoted the first seven chapters of Genesis from this earlier Word. Other books of that Word are referred to in our Word and quotations are made from them. Such as, The Book of the Wars of Jehovah, The Ennunciators, and the Book of Jasher. These were books of the ancient Word. The accounts of Creation, Eden, and the Flood, were turned into fables by many nations, and in course of time these polytheistic conceptions of God arose among the nations.

Third: This Ancient Word was written according to the style of the ancient people, in which they embodied their religious and philosophical ideas in symbols and correspondences. This style of writing spread among many ancient nations; and with the Greeks, Romans and other nations, it took the form of fables. The mythologies of many nations originally were derived from the symbolism of the ancients. Natural things were used as symbols of corresponding spiritual things. This style not only was in the Ancient Word but is also embodied in our Word.

In writing on "The Allegories of Genesis' ' Dr. King is performing an important use to the Church and the World. In the dust of mere literal controversy the fact has been lost sight of, that the Word itself is spiritual and has a spiritual content. Dr. King is well known as an interesting expositor of the spiritual sense of the Word, we heartily recommend this new effort to the public, feeling confident that the publication will open the Word and bring to light the riches stored therein. "The opening of the Word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple."

John Whitehead.

7 Winter Street,

Arlington, Mass.