4. QUESTION 4.

Does not the Son, by whom Jehovah is said to have created the worlds Hebrews 1 and 11, mean the same thing as the Divine Wisdom in Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15, so that the essential Wisdom or Logos of God in first principles has now become the Truth or Logos of God in ultimates?

ANSWER

It does follow that the Lord, that is, the Word or Divine Truth by which all things were made which were made, and by which the world was created, John 1:3, was the Divine Wisdom which together with the Divine Love constitutes one Divine Essence, thus one and the same God; for the Divine Wisdom is also the Divine Truth, since all the parts of Wisdom are truths. Being their very containant, Wisdom brings forth nothing but truths, and so this is entirely in keeping with Jeremiah 10:12; 2:15. This is also how the passage in David, Psalms 33:6, should be understood. The 'breath of His mouth' is also wisdom, and 'the Word' there is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom together, for it is said, 'And the Word was God', John 1:1.

The Hebrew of the Old Testament has six different common words which are generally translated as "wife," which largely overlap but have different nuances. Swedenborg uses two different Latin words, which largely overlap but have different nuances. Meanwhile, "wife" is often paired with "man" or "husband," which are also catch-all translations for a basket of Hebrew and Latin terms. So it's hard to pin down one universal meaning for "wife"; context and subject matter have a large effect.

In general, though, marriage in the Bible represents the union we all seek between our hearts and our minds. If we know what is right and pursue it faithfully, the Lord will ultimately help us love doing what is good, and the two aspects of ourselves will be unified. On a higher level, marriage represents the union we can have with the Lord, both individually and collectively as a church. As an intrinsic part of the marriage, the wife plays a key role in that meaning. But that meaning is different depending on what is being described.

If the marriage is describing a person who is spiritual in nature – "spiritual" being the second degree of heavenly life, in which people are led by intellect and knowledge with the desire for good following – the wife represents the desire for good, the affections that drive the person. If the marriage is describing someone who is celestial in nature – "celestial" being the highest degree of heavenly life, in which people are led from love, with the intellect and ideas following – the wife represents the true ideas held by the person or church. If the marriage is describing the union between the Lord and the church, the wife represents the church.

In a way, these are symbolic meanings that actually have little to do with gender. When "wife" describes a church, obviously that church can include both male and female people. When "wife" describes an aspect of a person, that person can obviously be either male or female.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 915, 1468, 1904 [1-2], 3246 [3-4], 3398, 4823 [2])