Dictionary of Correspondences: The Key to Biblical Interpretation

Interwoven with Emanuel Swedenborg’s commentary on the Bible is his system of correspondences, which describes the relationship between the spiritual and the physical worlds in symbolic terms. For Swedenborg, specific people, places, animals, and objects represented spiritual principles or ideas–for example, light corresponds to truth, and darkness to ignorance. Using this system, he interpreted the Bible in a radically new way, using it to illuminate the path to spiritual growth.

First compiled in the decades following Swedenborg’s death, the Dictionary of Correspondences has been continually revised and reprinted for over two hundred years. It provides an essential reference to Swedenborg’s complex thought that can be used by students, scholars, and the curious alike.