True Christianity # 467
467. In the Word the Garden of Eden does not mean some garden but a state of understanding; and a tree does not mean some tree but a human being. You can see that the Garden of Eden means understanding and wisdom from the following passages: "With your understanding and wisdom you had made wealth for yourself"; and in the following verses there: "Full of wisdom, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering" (Ezekiel 28:4, 12-13). These things are said of the prince and of the king of Tyre. The king is said to possess wisdom because Tyre in the Word means the church's concepts of truth and goodness, which lead to wisdom. The precious stones that cover him also mean these concepts of truth and goodness. The prince and the king of Tyre were not in the Garden of Eden.
[2] Elsewhere in Ezekiel: "Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. No tree in the garden of God was equal to it in beauty. All the trees of Eden in the garden of God were jealous of it" (Ezekiel 31:3, 8-9). And again: "To which among the trees of Eden did you become comparable in glory and size?" (Ezekiel 31:18). This is said of Assyria, because in the Word Assyria means rationality and understanding.
[3] In Isaiah: "Jehovah will comfort Zion and turn her wilderness into Eden, and her desert into the garden of Jehovah" (Isaiah 51:3). Zion here means the church; Eden and the garden of Jehovah mean wisdom and understanding. In the Book of Revelation: "To those who overcome I will give [food] to eat from the tree of life, which is in the middle of the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7). "In the middle of the street [and] of the river, on this side and that, will be the tree of life" (Revelation 22:2).
[4] From these verses it is very clear that the garden in Eden in which Adam was placed means understanding and wisdom, because similar things are said about Tyre, Assyria, and Zion.
Elsewhere in the Word as well, a garden means understanding; for example, in Isaiah 58:11; 61:11; Jeremiah 31:12; Amos 9:14; Numbers 24:6. A garden has this spiritual meaning because of symbolic representations in the spiritual world. In that world, garden paradises appear wherever there are angels who have understanding and wisdom; the understanding and wisdom they have from the Lord causes such things to appear around them. This occurs because of correspondence, for all things that exist in the spiritual world are correspondences.
Exodus 33:7-11
7
Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it "The tent of Meeting." It happened that everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.
8
It happened that when Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their Tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent.
9
It happened, when Moses entered into the Tent, that the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and spoke with Moses.
10
All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshiped, everyone at their Tent door.
11
Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn't depart out of the Tent.
