119. That the church is called mother is apparent from the following passages:

(Jehovah said,) "Contend with your mother...; ...she is not My wife, and I am not her Husband." (Hosea 2:2)

"You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her Husband...." (Ezekiel 16:45)

"Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, whom I have put away?" (Isaiah 50:1)

Your mother was like a vine..., planted by the waters, fruitful.... (Ezekiel 19:10)

"Mother" in those places refers to the Jewish Church.

(Jesus, stretching out His hand toward His disciples, said,) "My mother and My brothers are they who hear the word of God and do it." (Luke 8:21, cf. Matthew 12:48-50, Mark 3:33-35)

The church is meant by the Lord's disciples.

By the cross of Jesus stood His mother.... (And) Jesus...seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, (also) said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!" And He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (Therefore) from that hour the disciple took her into his own [home]. (John 19:25-27)

The meaning here is that the Lord did not acknowledge Mary but the church as His mother. That is why He calls her "woman" and names her the mother of the disciple. He named her the mother of this disciple, John, because John represented the church in respect to its good acts of charity. These good acts are the church in actual practice. Therefore it is said that the disciple took Mary into his own [home].

(We explained in The Apocalypse Revealed that Peter represented truth and faith, James charity, and John works of charity - see nos. 5, 6, 790, 798, 879 - and that the twelve disciples together represented the church in all its elements - see nos. 233, 790 [798?], 903, 915.)

1672. 'And the kings who were with him' means the apparent truth that goes with that good. This is clear from the meaning of 'kings' in the Word. Kings, kingdoms, and peoples in the historical and prophetical sections of the Word mean truths and the things that belong to truths, as may be confirmed from many places. In the Word a careful distinction is made between people and nation, 'people' meaning truths, 'nation' goods, as shown already in 1259, 1260. Kings have reference to peoples, and not so much to nations. The children of Israel, before they sought to have kings, were 'a nation' and represented good, or that which is celestial; but after they desired a king and received one, they became 'a people' and represented not good or that which is celestial, but truth or that which is spiritual, and this was the reason why this was ascribed to them as a fault in 1 Samuel 8:7-end. This, in the Lord's Divine mercy, will be explained elsewhere. In the present verse, since 'Chedorlaomer' is referred to, and then the phrase 'the kings who were with him' is added, both good and truth are meant - good by 'Chedorlaomer' and truth by 'the kings'. But what kind of good and truth it was when the Lord's temptations first began has been stated above.