Existe alguma diferença no significado entre "terra" e "solo"? No início não parece; ambos se referem ao solo que compõe a massa terrestre do planeta que habitamos.

Mas se pensarmos bem, os significados são sombreados em diferentes direcções. Nós tendemos a usar "terra" num sentido mais geral - significando todo o solo em toda a parte ou qualquer solo em qualquer lugar. "Terra" é mais específico, referindo-se à porção de terra em que nos encontramos, ou a alguma porção de terra que pretendemos cultivar ou usar de outra forma.

E assim está na Bíblia. "Terra" refere-se ao exterior de uma pessoa ou de uma comunidade - seus pensamentos e ações cotidianas - em um sentido amplo e geral. "Terra" refere-se às partes de nossas vidas externas que estão prontas para o cultivo, prontas para serem postas em uso.

O cultivo, claro, envolve afrouxar o solo (quebrando nossos hábitos e pensamentos distrativos) e plantar sementes (verdadeiros conceitos e idéias que brotam de um desejo de ser bom). À medida que essas sementes começam a crescer, nós começamos a ser verdadeiramente úteis.

Em resumo, então, "terra" na Bíblia pode significar uma pessoa ou comunidade que é receptiva aos ensinamentos do Senhor. Pode também significar uma pessoa ou igreja que tenha recebido o ensinamento do Senhor e o esteja pondo em uso.

(Reference: Arcanos Celestes 94, 268, 345, 377, 566, 1068, 2327, 6135 [1-2], 6154)

3671. 'You and your seed with you' means to the good and the truth born from this good. This is clear from the representation of Jacob, to whom 'you' refers here, as the good of truth, or good that is a product of truth, dealt with above, and from the meaning of 'seed' as the good and truth of faith, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 1610, 2848, 3373. 'With you' means that it was allied to the good of truth, represented by 'Jacob'. Good and truth are like seeds and the soil. Interior good is like seed that is productive, though not unless it is sown in good soil. Exterior good and truth are like the soil in which it is made productive. The former, that is to say, the seed, which is interior good and truth, cannot otherwise take root. This is why a person's rational is regenerated first of all, for the rational is where the seeds are; then after that the natural is regenerated to serve as the soil for them, 3286, 3288, 3321, 3368, 3493, 3576, 3620, 3623. And because the natural is like the soil, good and truth can be made fruitful and be multiplied within the rational, which could not take place if the soil where the seed has its root were anywhere else. From this comparison one may see as in a mirror what regeneration is like and the numerous arcana that go with it.

[2] Understanding good and truth and willing them is the function of the rational, and perceptions of good and truth resulting from this are like seeds; but knowing them and doing them is the function of the natural. Facts and deeds are like the soil. When a person has an affection for the facts that corroborate what is good and true, the more so when he experiences joy in acting them out, those facts are seeds that are present and growing in the natural as their own proper soil; and there they grow. As a consequence good is made fruitful and truth is multiplied, and they are constantly springing up out of that soil into the rational and perfecting it. The situation is different when a person understands what is good and true, and also interiorly perceives that he wills something, and yet does not desire to know these things, let alone do them. In that case good cannot be made fruitful nor truth be multiplied within the rational.