The Urantia Book

Settings

Reading
Theme
Text size
Line spacing

Typeface

Width
Alignment
Show
Listening

Kept in this browser only.

Paper 27

Ministry of the Primary Supernaphim

Perfector of Wisdom

5. The Custodians of Knowledge

27:5.1The super­aphic cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge are the higher “liv­ing epis­tles” known and read by all who dwell on Par­a­dise. They are the di­vine rec­ords of truth, the liv­ing books of real knowl­edge. You have heard about rec­ords in the “book of life.” The cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge are just such liv­ing books, rec­ords of per­fec­tion im­printed upon the eter­nal tablets of di­vine life and su­preme surety. They are in re­al­ity liv­ing, au­to­matic li­braries. The facts of the uni­verses are in­her­ent in these pri­mary super­na­phim, ac­tu­ally re­corded in these an­gels; and it is also in­her­ently im­pos­si­ble for an un­truth to gain lodg­ment in the minds of these per­fect and re­plete repos­i­to­ries of the truth of eter­nity and the in­tel­li­gence of time.

27:5.2These cus­to­di­ans con­duct in­for­mal courses of in­struc­tion for the res­i­dents of the eter­nal Isle, but their chief func­tion is that of ref­er­ence and ver­i­fi­ca­tion. Any so­journer on Par­a­dise may at will have by his side the liv­ing re­pos­i­tory of the par­tic­u­lar fact or truth he may wish to know. At the north­ern ex­trem­ity of the Isle there are avail­able the liv­ing find­ers of knowl­edge, who will des­ig­nate the di­rec­tor of the group hold­ing the in­for­ma­tion sought, and forth­with will ap­pear the bril­liant be­ings who are the very thing you wish to know. No longer must you seek en­light­en­ment from en­grossed pages; you now com­mune with liv­ing in­tel­li­gence face to face. Su­preme knowl­edge you thus ob­tain from the liv­ing be­ings who are its fi­nal cus­to­di­ans.

27:5.3When you lo­cate that super­na­phim who is ex­actly what you de­sire to ver­ify, you will find avail­able all the known facts of all uni­verses, for these cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge are the fi­nal and liv­ing sum­maries of the vast net­work of the record­ing an­gels, rang­ing from the ser­a­phim and se­con­a­phim of the lo­cal and super­uni­verses to the chief re­cord­ers of the ter­tiary super­na­phim in Ha­vona. And this liv­ing ac­cu­mu­la­tion of knowl­edge is dis­tinct from the for­mal rec­ords of Par­a­dise, the cu­mu­la­tive sum­mary of uni­ver­sal his­tory.

27:5.4The wis­dom of truth takes ori­gin in the di­vin­ity of the cen­tral uni­verse, but knowl­edge, ex­pe­ri­en­tial knowl­edge, largely has its be­gin­nings in the do­mains of time and space—there­fore the ne­ces­sity for the main­te­nance of the far-flung super­uni­verse or­ga­ni­za­tions of the record­ing ser­a­phim and super­na­phim spon­sored by the Ce­les­tial Re­cord­ers.

27:5.5These pri­mary super­na­phim who are in­her­ently in pos­ses­sion of uni­verse knowl­edge are also re­spon­si­ble for its or­ga­ni­za­tion and clas­si­fi­ca­tion. In con­sti­tut­ing them­selves the liv­ing ref­er­ence li­brary of the uni­verse of uni­verses, they have clas­si­fied knowl­edge into seven grand or­ders, each hav­ing about one mil­lion sub­di­vi­sions. The fa­cil­ity with which the res­i­dents of Par­a­dise can con­sult this vast store of knowl­edge is solely due to the vol­un­tary and wise ef­forts of the cus­to­di­ans of knowl­edge. The cus­to­di­ans are also the ex­alted teach­ers of the cen­tral uni­verse, freely giv­ing out their liv­ing trea­sures to all be­ings on any of the Ha­vona cir­cuits, and they are ex­ten­sively, though in­di­rectly, uti­lized by the courts of the An­cients of Days. But this liv­ing li­brary, which is avail­able to the cen­tral and super­uni­verses, is not ac­ces­si­ble to the lo­cal cre­ations. Only by in­di­rec­tion and re­flec­tively are the ben­e­fits of Par­a­dise knowl­edge se­cured in the lo­cal uni­verses.