Like so many common verbs, the meaning of "know" in the Bible is varied and dependent on context. And in some cases -- when it is connected to ideas or objects -- its spiritual meaning and natural meaning are essentially the same. When the Bible talks about people knowing each other and especially when it talks about the Lord knowing people, the meaning has more to do with the states of love within people than it does with any factual knowledge. This makes sense if you think about it. When we really "know" somebody, what we mean is that we know what kind of person they are, what their motivations are, what they love, what they hate, what makes them tick. Those things are far more important than knowing their parents' names, where they were born or what year they graduated from school. Most often then, especially applied to people, "knowing" has to do with the perceptions we have about other people's loves and the conjunction that can exist between those with similar loves, not just a collection of facts.

4612. 'Jacob came to Isaac his father' means that at this point the Divine Rational was joined to the Divine Natural. This is clear from the representation of 'Jacob' as the Divine Natural during the state dealt with just above in 4604-4610, and from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Divine Rational, dealt with in 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210. A joining together is meant by these words stating that he came to him. In all that follows to the end of the chapter the subject is the joining of the natural to the rational, and therefore what has gone immediately before has contained a description of the essential nature of that natural. That is to say, it has described how all aspects of good and truth were now present within it, the essential nature of it being meant by the twelve sons of Jacob; for as has been shown, each of his sons represents some general aspect of truth or good.

[2] As regards the joining of the natural to the rational, the subject in what follows below, it should be remembered that the rational receives truths and goods before the natural does, and in a more perfect way, 3286, 3288, 3321, 3368, 3498, 3513. For the rational is purer and more perfect than the natural because it is more internal or higher, and regarded essentially dwells in the light of heaven to which it is suited. This is why the rational receives things belonging to that light - that is to say, truths and goods, or what amounts to the same, the things that constitute intelligence and wisdom - before the natural does, and in a more perfect way. The natural, on the other hand, is grosser and less perfect because it is more external or lower, and regarded essentially dwells in the light of the world, a light which holds no intelligence or wisdom within itself, except insofar as it receives these from the light of heaven shining through the rational. Influx, which the learned talk about at the present day, is nothing other than this.

[3] With the natural however the position is that from earliest infancy and childhood it receives its essential nature from impressions gained from the world which come through the external senses; and a person uses and draws on these impressions to develop his understanding. But because the delights of self-love and love of the world reign in him at that time of life, and consequently selfish desires, which are the product of both his heredity and his own actions, the understanding so developed is filled with those desires. And all that accords with his delights he sees as goods and truths. Consequently the way these are ordered in the natural is the reverse or opposite of a heavenly ordering. When this is a person's state the light of heaven is, it is true, flowing in through the rational, for it is this that gives him the ability to think, to reason, to speak, and in outward appearance to act decently and politely. But things belonging to the light of heaven which contribute to such a person's eternal happiness are not present in the natural, since the delights which reign there are antagonistic towards them; for the delights of self-love and love of the world are by nature utterly opposed to the delights that go with love of the neighbour and consequently with love to the Lord. That person is able, it is true, to have a knowledge of the things belonging to light or heaven, but he cannot have any affection for them, except insofar as they are conducive to the acquisition of important positions and material gain, thus insofar as they accord with the delights of self-love and love of the world.

[4] From this it may be seen that order within the natural is the complete reverse or opposite of heavenly order. This being so, when the light of heaven flows in by way of the rational into the natural it is inevitably turned back, or smothered, or perverted. This is why the natural must be regenerated before it can be joined to the rational. Once the natural has been regenerated the things which flow in from the Lord by way of heaven, and so through the rational into the natural, are received there because they accord with it. For the natural is nothing else than the receptacle of good and truth coming from the rational, that is, from the Lord by way of the rational. By the natural is meant the external man, also called the natural man, and by the rational the internal man. These preliminary remarks have been made to enable one to see the implications of what follows below, for there the joining of the natural to the rational is the subject.