1904. Sarai, Abram’s wife, took. That this signifies the affection of truth, which in the genuine sense is “Sarai the wife,” is evident from the signification of “Sarai,” as being truth adjoined to good, and from the signification of a “wife,” as being affection (explained above, n. 915, 1468). There are two affections distinct from each other,—affection of good, and affection of truth. When a man is being regenerated the affection of truth has the lead, for he is affected with truth for the sake of good; but when he has been regenerated the affection of good has the lead, and from good he is affected with truth. The affection of good is of the will; the affection of truth is of the understanding. Between these two affections the most ancient people instituted as it were a marriage. Good, or the love of good, they called man as a husband; truth, or the love of truth, they called man as a wife. The comparison of good and truth with marriage has its origin in the heavenly marriage.

[2] Regarded in themselves, good and truth have no life, but they derive their life from love or affection. They are only instrumentalities of life; and such as is the love that affects the good and truth, such is the life; for the whole of life is of love, or affection. Hence it is that “Sarai the wife,” in the genuine sense, signifies the affection of truth. And because in the case before us the intellectual desired the rational as an offspring, and because that which she speaks is of this desire or affection, it is therefore expressly said in this verse, “Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave to Abram, her man,” which there would have been no need of repeating if it did not involve such things in the internal sense, for in themselves these words would be superfluous.

[3] Intellectual truth is distinguished from rational truth, and this from truth in the form of memory-knowledge, as are what is internal, what is intermediate, and what is external. Intellectual truth is internal, rational truth is intermediate, truth of memory-knowledge is external. These are most distinct from each other, because one is more internal than another. With any man whatever, intellectual truth, which is internal, or in his inmost, is not the man’s, but is the Lord’s with the man. From this the Lord flows into the rational, where truth first appears as belonging to man; and through the rational into the memory-knowledge; from which it is evident that man cannot possibly think as of himself from intellectual truth, but only from rational truth and truth of memory-knowledge, because these appear as if they were his.

[4] The Lord alone, when He lived in the world, thought from intellectual truth, for this was His Divine truth in conjunction with Good, or the Divine spiritual in conjunction with the Divine celestial, and herein was the Lord distinguished from every other man. To think from what is Divine as from himself is never possible to man, nor in man, but only in Him who was conceived of Jehovah. Because He thought from intellectual truth, that is, from the love or affection of intellectual truth, from it also He desired the rational, and this is why it is here said that “Sarai, Abram’s wife” (by whom is meant the affection of intellectual truth) “took Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to Abram her husband, for a woman to him.”

[5] The rest of the arcana that are herein cannot be unfolded and explained to the apprehension, because man is in the greatest obscurity, and in fact has no idea at all of the internal things within him, for he makes both the rational and the intellectual to consist in memory-knowledge, and is not aware that these are distinct from each other, so distinct indeed that the intellectual can exist apart from the rational, and also the rational that is derived from the intellectual, apart from the memory-knowledge. This cannot but seem a paradox to those who are in memory-knowledges, but still it is the truth. It is however impossible for anyone to be in the truth that is in the form of memory-knowledge (that is, in the affection of this and the belief in it), unless he is in rational truth, into which and through which the Lord inflows from the intellectual. These arcana do not open to man except in the other life.

915. That by his “going forth” is signified that it was so done; that by “Noah and his sons” is signified the man of the Ancient Church; and that by “his wife and his sons’ wives” is signified that church itself, is evident from the series of the things, which involves that thus was the Ancient Church formed, for these are the last or closing statements to what has gone before. When the church is described in the Word, it is described either by “man [vir] and wife” or by “man [homo] and wife;” when by “man [vir] and wife” by “man” is signified what is of the understanding, or truth, and by “wife” what is of the will, or good; when by “man [homo] and wife” by “man” is signified the good of love, or love, and by “wife” the truth of faith, or faith, thus by “man [homo]” is signified what is essential of the church, and by “wife” the church itself. It is so throughout the Word. In this place, because up to this point the formation of a new church has been treated of, on the perishing of the Most Ancient Church, by “Noah and his sons” is signified the man [homo] of the Ancient Church, and by his “wife and his sons’ wives with him” that church itself. Here therefore they are named in an order different from that in the previous verse 16, where it is said: “Go forth from the ark, thou and thy wife, and thy sons and thy sons’ wives with thee” where “thou” and “thy wife” are joined together, and “thy sons” and “thy sons’ wives” and thus by “thou” and “sons” is signified truth, and by “wife” and “sons’ wives” good. But in the verse we are now considering the order is different, for the reason, as we have said, that by “thou and thy sons” is signified the man of the church, and by “his wife and his sons’ wives” the church itself, since it is the conclusion to what goes before. Noah did not constitute the Ancient Church, but his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, as said before. For three churches, so to speak, formed this Ancient Church, concerning which, of the Lord’s Divine mercy hereafter. And these churches came forth as the offspring of one, which is called “Noah;” hence it is here said, “thou and thy sons” and also “thy wife and thy sons’ wives.”