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])

641. Since this member of the Church needed to be reformed as to that part of the man which is called the understanding before he could be reformed as to the other part referred to as the will, it is described here how those things belonging to the will were separated from those belonging to the understanding, and how the will was so to speak protected and held back to prevent anything coming in contact with it. For if things belonging to the will, that is, to evil desires, had been aroused, he would have perished, as in the Lord's Divine mercy will be made clear later on. With man nothing could be more distinct and separate one from the other than those two parts, the will and the understanding. This I have been given to know plainly, especially from the fact that among spirits and angels things of the understanding flow into the left side of the head or brain, while things of the will flow into the right. The same applies to the face. When angelic spirits flow in they do so as softly as gentlest breezes. But when evil spirits do so it is like a deluge entering with dreadful delusions and persuasions into the left side of the brain, and with desires into the right. The influx of them is so to speak a deluge of delusions and desires.