These days we tend to think of "roads" as smooth swaths of pavement and judge them by how fast we can drive cars on them. A "path" is something different, suitable only for walking or maybe bicycles, and a "way" has more to do with giving directions than any physical reality. When we get "lost" it usually means we're in a car on an unfamiliar road -- a far cry from being in the middle of a trackless wilderness with no idea which direction to go. The ancient world was very different, with isolated towns and endless square miles of trackless wilderness. Then a "way" was a set of landmarks to follow to get from one place to another through the wilderness. A "path" was a way used enough to leave a visible trace on the ground, and a "road" was a heavily used path, easily followed and walkable. So it makes sense that when used in the Bible, all three terms represent guiding truth, ideas that lead us where we want to go. This is pictured in the modern use of "way" -- when we talk about the "way" to do something or the "way" to get somewhere. We're talking about the correct, best, most efficient method of doing something or getting somewhere. And it's good information -- truth -- that helps us find that best way.

10458. ‘Et factum quemadmodum appropinquavit ad castra’: quod significet ad infernum, in quo tunc illa gens, constat ex significatione ‘castrorum filiorum Israelis’ quod sint caelum et Ecclesia, de qua n. 4236, 10038; inde cum erant in cultu idololatrico, adorando vitulum pro Jehovah, per castra eorum significatur infernum, nam ¹ repraesentativum caeli et Ecclesiae ² vertitur in repraesentativum inferni, cum populus se a cultu Divino vertit in cultum diabolicum, qui erat cultus vituli. Simile per ‘castra’ ³ significatur apud Amos, Misi in vos pestem in via Aegypti, occidi gladio juvenes vestros, cum captivitate equorum vestrorum, adeo ut ascendere fecerim fetorem castrorum vestrorum etiam in nasum vestrum, 4:10; ⁴ agitur ibi de vastatione veri, quo vastato ‘castra’ significant infernum; quod de vastatione veri agatur, patet a singulis ibi in sensu interno spectatis, ‘pestis’ enim est vastatio, n. 7102, 7505, ⁵ ‘via’ est verum, ac in opposito sensu falsum, ⁶ n. 10422, ⁷ ‘Aegyptus’ est externum et quoque infernum, in locis citatis n. 10437, ⁸ ‘gladius’ est falsum pugnans contra vera, n. 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102, 8294, ⁹ ‘juvenes’ sunt vera Ecclesiae, n. 7668, ¹⁰ ‘occidi’ est spiritualiter perire, n. 6767, 8902, ¹¹ ‘captivitas’ est privatio veri, n. 7990, ¹² ‘equi’ sunt intellectuale quod illustratur, n. 2760-2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6534, ¹³ ‘fetor’ est abominabile quod ex inferno exhalat, n. 7161; inde patet quod ‘castra’ in eo sensu sint infernum. Infernum etiam significatur per castra hostium qui contra Hierosolymam, et in genere qui contra filios Israelis, in historicis Verbi.

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