54. We can see from the following passages that circumcision represented purification from evils that are caused by strictly earthly love:

Circumcise your heart and take away the foreskin of your heart, so that my wrath will not break forth because of the ill will of your deeds. (Jeremiah 4:4)

Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and no longer stiffen your neck. (Deuteronomy 10:16)

To circumcise the heart or the foreskin of the heart is to purify ourselves from evils.

Conversely, then, being uncircumcised or having a foreskin refers to people who have not been purified from evils caused by strictly earthly love and who are therefore not devoted to caring, and since having a foreskin means being unclean at heart, it says that no one who is uncircumcised at heart or uncircumcised in the flesh is to enter the sanctuary (Ezekiel 44:9); that no uncircumcised person is to eat the Passover meal (Exodus 12:48); and that the uncircumcised are damned (Ezekiel 28:10; 31:18; 32:19).

770. 'Noah's wife' means the Church itself, and 'the three wives of his sons with them' the derivative Churches themselves. This is clear from what has been stated, that is to say, when the member of the Church is mentioned by name, the all of the Church is meant, or as it is called, the head of the Church. 'Wife' in that case is the Church, as shown already in 252, 253. It is different when 'man and wife' or 'male and female' are mentioned in the Word. In that case 'man' and 'male' mean things of the understanding, which are the truths of faith, while 'wife' and 'female' mean things of the will, which are the goods of faith.