3236. 'Abraham' here represents the Lord as regards Divine Spiritual Good, and his wife as regards Divine Truth allied to that Good. This becomes clear from what has been stated already about husbands and wives (maritus and uxor) - that 'the husband' represents good, and 'the wife' truth, as Abraham and Sarah did previously, 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065, 2172, 2173, 2198, 2904, and as Isaac and Rebekah did in the chapter before this, 3077. The reason why 'the husband' represents good and 'the wife' truth is that the Church is compared to a marriage, and also is a marriage of good and truth. Good is what the husband represents because this is primary, while truth is what the wife represents because that is secondary. This also is why in the Word the Lord is called bridegroom, man, and husband, while the Church is called bride, woman, and wife.

[2] What spiritual good is and spiritual truth allied to that good becomes clear from the places referred to immediately above in 3235. With the spiritual man good is in general that which is called the good of faith, which is nothing else than charity towards the neighbour. But to be charity it must come from the new will which the Lord confers on the spiritual man. Spiritual truth allied to that good is what is called the truth of faith, which initially does nothing else than see charity as the end in view for which it exists, and later on as the source of its own existence. To be the truth of faith, or to be faith, it must in the case of the spiritual man come from a new understanding which the Lord confers on him, and which must receive its light from the new will.

3040. 'And you shall take a wife for my son from there' means that the affection for truth came indeed from there, yet from a new source. This is clear from the meaning of 'a wife' as the affection for truth, dealt with above. For 'Rebekah' who is referred to in this present chapter represents Divine Truth that was to be joined to the Divine Good of the Rational, which is Isaac. That the affection for truth comes from there, that is to say, from the things meant by 'father's house' and 'land of nativity', yet from a new source, cannot as yet be fully explained, though the matter is dealt with extensively in what follows. Let just a brief explanation be given here. Every affection for truth in the natural man comes into being through an influx from the affection for good from the rational, that is, from the Divine by way of the rational. The affection for truth which through that influx comes into being in the natural man is at first not an affection for genuine truth, for genuine truth arrives gradually. It gradually takes the place of those things previously there which were not truths in themselves, but only means leading on to genuine truth. This brief explanation shows what is meant by the statement that the affection for truth comes indeed from there, yet from a new source.