2510. That 'Abimelech' is the doctrine of faith which has regard to rational things becomes clear from the fact that he regarded Sarah not as Abraham's wife but as his sister, and 'Sarah when a sister' means rational truth, 2508. The same is also evident from the verses that follow below, for there the question whether the doctrine of faith has its origin in the rational or in the celestial is the subject. 'Abimelech' therefore means the doctrine of faith which has regard to rational things. Doctrine is said to regard rational things when nothing is acknowledged as the truth of doctrine except that which can be grasped by reason, so that when anything that is a matter of doctrine is looked at it is seen from the rational. But the fact that the doctrine of faith does not have a rational but a celestial origin is, in what follows, the teaching of the internal sense.

3364. 'There was a famine in the land, in addition to the previous famine that occurred in the days of Abraham' means an absence of cognitions of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'a famine' as an absence of cognitions, dealt with in 1460; and that an absence of cognitions of faith is meant is evident from what follows next - from the representation of 'Abimelech' and from the meaning of 'Gerar' as the things that belong to faith. 'The famine in the days of Abraham', which is mentioned in Chapter 12:10, and is dealt with in 1460, was an absence of cognitions that belong to the natural man, whereas the famine referred to here is an absence of cognitions that belong to the rational man. This is why it is said that 'there was a famine in the land, in addition to the previous famine that occurred in the days of Abraham'.

[2] The subject here in the internal sense is that the Lord received all matters of doctrine concerning faith from His own Divine; for no matter of doctrine exists, not even the smallest, that does not come from the Lord, for the Lord is doctrine itself. This is why the Lord is called the Word, for the Word is doctrine. But because everything in the Lord is Divine, and the Divine cannot be comprehended by any created being, matters of doctrine which come from the Lord, in that they present themselves before created beings, are not therefore wholly Divine truths but appearances of truth. All the same, appearances do include Divine truths within them, and because they include them, appearances also are called truths. These appearances are the subject in this chapter.