144. As to 'calling by name' meaning recognizing their nature, it must be realized that the ancients understood nothing else by 'a name than the essential nature of a real thing, and by 'seeing and calling them by name' recognizing the nature of such. This was why they gave their sons and daughters names in keeping with the things that were meant by them; for there was something unique to every name, as a means of knowing the origin and nature of those children, as will also be seen later on where, in the Lord's Divine mercy, the twelve sons of Jacob are dealt with. Since therefore a name embodied a person's origin and nature nothing else was meant by 'calling by name'. This manner of speaking was customary among them; but anyone who does not understand is sure to wonder whether they do have these meanings.

5331. 'And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath Paneah' means the essential nature of the celestial of the spiritual at this point. This is clear from the meaning of 'name' and 'calling the name' as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2628, 2724, 3006, 3237, 3421. In the original language Zaphenath Paneah means the revealer of things that are hidden and the discloser of things to come. In the heavenly sense these names mean the Divine within him, for the revelation of things that are hidden and the disclosure of things to come belong to God alone. This essential characteristic is what is embodied in the name Joseph was given; and that characteristic is the essential nature of the celestial of the spiritual. For the celestial of the spiritual is the good of truth that has the Divine within it; that is, it is what flows directly from the Divine. This - the celestial of the spiritual that had the Divine within it - was the Lord's alone when He was in the world. It was the Human in which the Divine itself could be present and which could be cast aside when the Lord made the entire Human within Himself Divine.