2686. The fact that a bow is true theology can be seen from its symbolism. Wherever the Word describes or mentions wars, the only kind of wars it symbolizes on an inner level are spiritual ones (§1664). The ancient church also had some books titled The Wars of Jehovah, as you can see in Moses (Numbers 21:14, 15, 16). Written in a prophetic mode, they had an inner meaning and focused on the struggles and trials of the Lord, of the church, and of the people in the church. This can be seen from the fact that Moses quoted from those books, and also from some other books of the same church called The Books of the Prophetic Utterances. These books are mentioned in Numbers 21:27, 28, 29, 30, which uses almost the same words as a passage in Jeremiah; compare Numbers 21:28 and Jeremiah 48:45. These facts lead to the conclusion that the ancient church had both narrative and prophetic writings that were divine and inspired. In an inner sense these writings dealt with the Lord and his kingdom, and they were his Word to those people, just as the narrative and prophetic books are to us, dealing as they do in a literal sense with Jews and Israelites but in an inner sense with the Lord and whatever is his.

[2] In the Word, as in the books of the ancient church, war symbolized spiritual war. Consequently, all weapons'sword, spear, shield, buckler, arrows, darts, and bow'symbolized particular tools of war understood in a spiritual sense. The specific symbolism of each weapon will be given elsewhere, by the Lord's divine mercy. Here that of a bow will be given. A bow symbolizes true theology, because of its arrows, which are the doctrines that form the instruments and tools of battle, especially in the hands of people who are spiritual. At one time such people were therefore called archers.

[3] The following passages show that a bow symbolizes true theology. In Isaiah:

Jehovah's arrows are sharp, and all his bows are bent; the hooves of his horses are considered to be like rock, and his wheels, like windstorms. (Isaiah 5:28)

This has to do with theological truth. The arrows are spiritual truth; the bow is theology; the horses' hooves are earthly truth; the wheels are theology based on that truth. They are said to be Jehovah's because they symbolize these things, although they can be described as his only in a spiritual sense. Otherwise the words would be meaningless and inappropriate. In Jeremiah:

The Lord bent his bow like an enemy. His right hand stood like a foe, and he killed everything that was desirable to the eye in the tent of Zion's daughter. He poured his anger out like fire. (Lamentations 2:4)

The bow stands for true theology, which seems inimical and foelike to people ruled by falsity. The Lord cannot be described as having any other kind of bow. In Habakkuk:

Jehovah, you ride on your horses; your chariots are salvation. Your bow will be completely bared. (Habakkuk 3:8, 9)

Here too the bow is theology that is good and true. In Moses:

They will vex him and shoot arrows; the archers will hate him. He will sit in the firmness of his bow, and his arms and hands will be strengthened by the hands of mighty Jacob, from whom comes the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. (Genesis 49:23, 24)

This is about Joseph. The bow stands for theology that is good and true.

[4] In John:

I looked, when there! A white horse! And one sitting on it, having a bow, who was given a crown. (Revelation 6:2)

The white horse stands for wisdom. The one sitting on it stands for the Word, as it says explicitly in Revelation 19:13, where the white horse appears again. Since the one sitting on the horse is the Word, clearly the bow is true theology. In Isaiah:

Who has stirred justice up from the east? Called that one to follow him? Yielded up the nations before him, and made him rule over monarchs? Made them like dust with his sword, like straw driven by his bow? (Isaiah 41:2)

This is speaking of the Lord. The sword stands for truth; the bow, for theology that comes from him. In the same author:

I will put a mark on them and send some of them–escapees–to the nations Tarshish, Pul and Lud (drawing the bow), Tubal and Javan. (Isaiah 66:19)

Those drawing the bow stand for people teaching theology. For the symbolism of Tarshish, see §1156. For that of Lud, 1195, 1231. For that of Tubal, 1151. For that of Javan, 1152, 1153, 1155.

[5] In Jeremiah:

Because of the sound of a rider and of one shooting a bow, the whole city is fleeing. They have entered fogs, and onto crags they have climbed. The whole city has been deserted. (Jeremiah 4:29)

The rider stands for people who say what is true. The bow stands for true doctrine, which people given to falsity flee from, or are afraid of. In the same author:

Draw up a battle line against Babylon all around. All you who bend the bow, shoot at [the city]; do not spare the arrow, because it has sinned against Jehovah. (Jeremiah 50:14, 29; 51:2, 3)

People shooting and bending the bow stand for people who speak and teach true theology.

[6] In Zechariah:

"I will cut the chariot off from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem,"" and the war bow will be cut off, and he will speak peace to the nations. (Zechariah 9:10)

Ephraim stands for the church's understanding of truth; the bow, for theology. In Samuel:

David lamented a lament over Saul and over Jonathan his son and said, "to teach the children of Judah the bow." (2 Samuel 1:17, 18)

This is not about a bow but about religious doctrine. In Ezekiel:

The Lord Jehovih has said, "This is the day of which I spoke, and the residents of Israel's cities will go out and kindle and burn weapons, and buckler and shield, bow and arrows, and handstaff and spear. And they will kindle them with fire for seven years." (Ezekiel 39[8,] 9)

The weapons named here are all weapons of spiritual war. The bow with its arrows stands for theology and its truth.

In the other world, truth itself, separated from anything good, also looks like arrows, when it is presented visually.

[7] Just as a bow symbolizes true theology, in a negative sense it symbolizes false theology. (In many places it has been said and shown that the same object in the Word usually has two opposite meanings.) In Jeremiah, for example:

Look: a people is coming from the north, and a large nation will be stirred up from the flanks of the land. Bow and spear they grasp. It is a cruel [nation], and they will not show mercy. Their voice will be boisterous like the sea; they will ride on horses. [Each] is equipped as a man for war against you, daughter of Zion. (Jeremiah 6:22, 23)

The bow stands for false theology. In the same author:

Look: a people coming from the north, and a large nation; and many monarchs will be stirred up from the flanks of the land. Bow and spear they hold; they are cruel and will not show mercy. (Jeremiah 50:41, 42)

Likewise. In the same author:

They bend their tongue; their bow is a lie and is not for truth. They are very strong in the land, because they have marched out from evil to evil; and they do not know me. (Jeremiah 9:2, 3)

[8] Obviously the bow is false theology, because it says that they bend their tongue and that their bow is a lie and is not for truth. In the same author:

Jehovah Sabaoth has said, "Here, now, I am breaking the bow of Elam, the beginning of its might." (Jeremiah 49:35)

In David:

Go observe the works of Jehovah, who makes barrens on the earth, stopping wars all the way to the end of the earth. The bow he breaks; he chops off the spear; wagons he burns with fire. (Psalms 46:8, 9)

In the same author:

God is known in Judah; in Israel his name is great, and his tabernacle will be in Salem, and his dwelling place, in Zion. There he broke the bow's flaming arrows, the shield, and the sword, and war. (Psalms 76:1, 2, 3)

In the same author:

Look: the ungodly bend the bow; they ready their arrows on the string, to shoot in darkness those who are upright in heart. (Psalms 11:2)

The bow and arrows clearly stand for false doctrines.