2513. That 'God came to Abimelech' means the Lord's perception regarding the doctrine of faith is clear from the meaning of 'God's coming' and from the meaning of 'Abimelech'; for 'God's coming' plainly means perceiving, since perception is nothing else than a Divine coming or influx into man's ability to understand, and 'Abimelech' means the doctrine of faith, as shown above in 2504, 2509, 2510.

2510. That 'Abimelech' is the doctrine of faith which has regard to rational things becomes clear from the fact that he regarded Sarah not as Abraham's wife but as his sister, and 'Sarah when a sister' means rational truth, 2508. The same is also evident from the verses that follow below, for there the question whether the doctrine of faith has its origin in the rational or in the celestial is the subject. 'Abimelech' therefore means the doctrine of faith which has regard to rational things. Doctrine is said to regard rational things when nothing is acknowledged as the truth of doctrine except that which can be grasped by reason, so that when anything that is a matter of doctrine is looked at it is seen from the rational. But the fact that the doctrine of faith does not have a rational but a celestial origin is, in what follows, the teaching of the internal sense.