4690. 'And his brothers said to him' means the adherents to faith separated from charity. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph's brothers' as the Church which turns aside from charity to faith and at length separates faith from charity, dealt with in 4665, 4671, 4679. The more internal members of that Church however were meant by the sheaves seen in the dream, 4686, 4688. The reason 'Joseph's brothers' represent that Church is that in the proximate sense they mean that which was a representative of the Church, that is, the semblance of religion established among the descendants of Jacob. They did not, it is true, know anything of faith such as the Christian Church knows of, but they knew of truth. Truth for them consisted in the same things as faith does for Christians. What is more, the same word is used in the original language for both faith and truth. But by truth the Jewish Church meant the Ten Commandments, and also the laws, judgements, testimonies, and statutes which were handed down to it through Moses. Interior aspects of truth they neither knew nor wished to know.

[2] The Christian Church however applies the term faith to matters of doctrine which constitute the more internal features of the Church and are called matters of belief. For by faith the ordinary people understand nothing other than that contained in the Creeds or that taught by books expounding the Creeds. But those who think that matters of doctrine concerning faith or knowledge of these cannot save anyone, and that few lead the life of faith, call faith confidence. But these are above the ordinary people and are more learned than others. From these considerations one may see that the subject at this point in the internal sense is not only that representative of the Church which had been established among the descendants of Jacob but also the Christian Church that followed it. For the Lord's Word is all-embracing and in general includes every Church. Indeed the Lord foresaw what the Christian Church would be like no less than what the Jewish Church would be like, though more immediately or proximately in the case of the Jewish. This is why this sense is called the proximate or internal historical sense, and the other the internal sense.

4686. 'Behold, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field' means that they were teaching from doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sheaf' as doctrine, and consequently of 'binding sheaves' as teaching from doctrine, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'a field' as the Church, dealt with in 2971, 3766, 4440, 4443. 'The middle of the field' means the more internal part of the Church and so those who are governed by faith that is grounded in some charity - 'the middle' meaning in the internal sense that which is more internal and that which is inmost, 1074, 2940, 2973. For every Church has members in the middle, that is, those who are its inmost ones. They consist of those governed by charity, or in this case by faith grounded in some charity. With these the Lord is present because the Lord is present within charity and through charity within faith, 4672. It is also evident that these people are meant from what follows - from the description that Joseph's sheaf arose and the remaining sheaves gathered around it. By 'Joseph's sheaf' is meant doctrine drawn from the Lord's Divine Truth.

[2] The reason 'a sheaf means doctrine is that 'a field' means the Church, as has just been stated, while the grain-crop in the field means truth present in the Church. Thus a sheaf of the crop means doctrine containing truth. 'Sheaves' has a similar meaning in David,

Those who sow in tears will reap with singing; he who indeed goes forth weeping, carrying a cast of seed, will indeed come with singing, carrying his sheaves. Psalms 126:5-6.

This refers to people who have been in spiritual captivity and then have been set free. 'Carrying a cast of seed' stands for instruction in truths, 'coming with singing' for the gladness that results from the affection for truth, 'carrying sheaves' for matters of doctrine belonging to that truth.