4772. 'And brought it to their father' means comparison with the goods and truths of the Ancient Church and of the Primitive [Christian] one. This is clear from the representation of Jacob, to whom 'father' refers here, as the Ancient Church, dealt with in 4680, 4700, and also the Primitive Church, that is, the Christian Church when it first began, dealt with below. 'Bringing the tunic' in the condition in which it now was to the Church means in the internal sense bringing about a comparison of falsified goods and truths with the genuine goods and truths of the Church. ¹ The reason Jacob here represents not only the Ancient Church but also the Primitive one - that is, the Christian Church when it first began - is that the two are exactly alike so far as internal features are concerned and differ from each other only so far as external ones are concerned. The external features of the Ancient Church consisted of all the representatives of the Lord and of the celestial and spiritual realities of His kingdom, which are love and charity, and faith derived from these, and so the kinds of things that constitute the Christian Church. When therefore the external features of the Ancient Church, and also of the Jewish, are opened out and are so to speak stripped away from what is present within them, the Christian Church is laid bare. This was also meant by the veil in the Temple being torn apart, Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45. This explains why Jacob 'their father' represents not only the Ancient Church but also the Primitive Christian one.

Footnotes:

4700. 'And his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed?' means indignation. This is clear from the meaning of 'rebuking' as being indignant, in particular on account of the declaration of the truth concerning the Lord's Divine Human - that declaration being meant by 'dreaming a dream', dealt with in 4682, 4693, 4695. 'Joseph's father and brothers' at this point are the Jewish religion, an offspring of ancient religion. The external ceremony of that Jewish religion was for the most part like that of the Ancient Church. There was however an internal dimension to external rituals in the case of those who belonged to the Ancient Church, but not in the case of those who belonged to the Jewish semblance of religion. For the Jews did not acknowledge the existence of anything internal; nor do they at the present day. But though they failed to acknowledge it, something internal did exist. External ceremony together with the internal side of it is called 'father' here, but external ceremony devoid of any such internal is called 'brothers'. This accounts for the phrases which follow, stating that 'his brothers envied him' and 'his father kept the matter [in mind]'. The first phrase means the aversion of those whose external ceremony is devoid of anything internal, the second means that truth nevertheless remained within their kind of religion.

[2] It is much the same with the Christian Church. Those of its members among whom external ceremony is devoid of anything internal eat the bread and drink the wine in the Holy Supper; but their thought goes no further than the idea that they should do this because it has been commanded and the Church has complied. Some of these people also believe that the bread and the wine are holy, yet not that the bread and wine contain what is holy because the bread corresponds to the holiness of love and charity in heaven and the wine to the holiness of charity and faith there, 3464, 3735. But those members of the Church among whom external worship is at the same time internal do not venerate the bread and wine but the Lord whom these represent, and from whom springs the holiness of love, charity, and faith. They are led to do this not by doctrine but by love, charity, and faith which have been assimilated by them into their life.