Like most meanings in the Bible this can change depending on context to a meaning perverted into the opposite. Instead of a mind full of knowledge and love of the neighbor, the love can be twisted around to pride in one's own self-intelligence and lead toward evil instead of good. The elders and chief priests who sat in judgment on Jesus in Caiaphas' house show the other side of the representation. Elders are mentioned in the Bible mainly in two ways: First the elders of Israel: and second the 24 elders seated about the throne of God in Revelation. In both cases, they mean wisdom, which comes from using the truths we've learned to do what's right in our everyday lives. The elders of Israel mean the chief things of wisdom in the church called Israel. The elders mentioned in Revelation 4 mean the wisdom of the highest heavens, and by extension the whole of the heavens.

93. Those who are spiritually adulterous are distinguished from those who are naturally adulterous. The latter, if they have taken pleasure in adulteries and no pleasure in marriages are shut out of heaven and are sent to hells. But the spiritually adulterous, although they feel there is nothing in adulteries which is not allowed, are all the same examined, and some are reformed; others are given places in accordance with their lives.