543. She bore a male Child. (12:5) This symbolizes the doctrine of the New Church.

A son in the Word symbolizes doctrinal truth, and also an understanding of and consequent thought about truth and goodness. A daughter, on the other hand, symbolizes the goodness taught by doctrine, and also a willing of and consequent affection for truth and goodness. A male child, moreover, symbolizes truth conceived in the spiritual self and born in the natural one.

The reason for this is that generations and births in the Word symbolize spiritual generations and births, all of which relate in general to goodness and truth (no. 535). For nothing else is begotten and born of the Lord as husband and of the church as wife.

Now because the woman who bore the child symbolizes the New Church (no. 533), it is apparent that the male child symbolizes that church's doctrine.

The doctrine meant here is The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758), and also The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, and The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem in Accordance With the Ten Commandments (Amsterdam, 1763). For doctrine means all the truths of doctrine, since doctrine embraces them all. When I was writing these doctrines, followers of the dragon stood about me and with all their fury endeavored to devour them, that is, to extinguish them.

I am permitted to report this new information, because of a truth it happened as I have said. The followers of the dragon who stood about me came from all over the Protestant Reformed Christian world.

[2] Since these and no other are the offspring born of the spiritual marriage, and male offspring are truth and good in the intellect and consequent thought, while female offspring are truth and good in the will and consequent affection, therefore a son in the Word symbolizes truth. To confirm this we will cite some passages from which it can in some measure be seen:

Behold, sons are a heritage from Jehovah, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of one's youth. (Psalms 127:3-5)

Make yourself bald and shave yourself, because of your delightful sons..., for they are gone from you. (Micah 1:16)

(I saw two olive trees beside the lampstand,) and he said, "These are the two sons of the olive tree, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:11, 14)

My tent is destroyed...; my sons have gone from me, and they are no more. (Jeremiah 10:20)

My sons are made desolate because the enemy prevailed. (Lamentations 1:16)

Your sons, (O Jerusalem,) have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets... (Isaiah 51:17-18, 20)

...fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers..., and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds. (Ezekiel 5:10)

Son will be divided against father, and father against son... (Luke 12:53, cf. Matthew 10:21, Mark 13:12)

You have also taken your beautiful vessels of My gold... and made for yourself male images with which you played the harlot. (Ezekiel 16:17)

(Jesus said,) ...the... seeds are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of evil. (Matthew 13:38)

[3] That the Son of Man is the Divine truth in the Word, thus the Lord, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 19-28.

In the passages cited, sons mean people who possess doctrinal truths drawn from the Word, and abstractly, those truths themselves. So, too, elsewhere, as in Isaiah 13:17-18; 14:21-23; 43:6; 49:17, 22; 51:17-18; 60:9; Deuteronomy 32:8.

That daughters symbolize an affection for the church's truth, thus the church in relation to that affection, follows from so many passages in the Word that if I were to quote them, they would fill many pages. Nothing else is meant by daughter of Zion, daughter of Jerusalem, daughter of Judah, and daughter of Israel. See some passages cited in no. 612[1-4] regarding the daughter of Zion. Who cannot see that no actual daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem, of Judah or of Israel, so often mentioned in the Word, can be meant?

19. In Relation to His Divine Humanity the Lord Is Called the Son of God, and in Relation to the Word the Son of Man

People in the church know no other than that the Son of God is the second person in the Godhead, distinct from the person of the Father. This has led to the belief that the Son of God was born from eternity.

Because this notion has been universally accepted and has to do with God, no opportunity or consent has been granted for thinking about it with any understanding, not even about what being born from eternity implies. For someone who thinks about this intellectually inevitably says to himself, “This surpasses understanding. But still I say it because others say it, and I believe it because others believe it.”

Be it known, however, that there is no Son from eternity, but that there is a Lord from eternity. When people know who the Lord is, and what the Son is, they may also be able to think intellectually about a triune God, and not before.

[2] The Lord’s humanity, conceived of Jehovah as the Father and born of the virgin Mary , is the Son of God, and this is clearly apparent from the following verses.

In Luke:

...the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. Having come in, the angel said to her, “Hail, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

When she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered how great a greeting this was.

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, ...you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest....

However, Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, the Holy One who is born (of you) will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:26-35)

It says here “you will conceive and bear a Son;” “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest.” And furthermore, “The Holy One who is born (of you) will be called the Son of God.” This makes apparent that the humanity conceived of God and born of the virgin Mary is what is called the Son of God.

[3] In Isaiah:

...the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name God-With-Us. (Isaiah 7:14)

It is apparent that the Son born of the virgin and conceived of God is the one who is called “God-With-Us, ” thus who is the Son of God. The reality of this is confirmed in Matthew 1:22-23.

[4] Again in Isaiah:

...unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; the government will be upon His shoulder. And He will call His name Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

So, too, here, for He is called a Child born to us, a Son given to us, who is not a Son from eternity, but a Son born in the world. This is apparent as well from the prophet’s declarations in verse 7 of the same chapter, and from the declaration of the angel Gabriel to Mary (Luke 1:32-33), where similar words are found.

[5] In Psalms:

I will declare a decree, “Jehovah has said..., ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You....” ...Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way....” (Psalms 2:7, 12)

Neither is a Son from eternity meant here, but a Son born in the world, for it is prophetic of the Lord to come. That is why it is called a decree which Jehovah declared to David. “Today” does not mean from eternity, but in time.

[6] Again in Psalms:

I will set His hand on the sea.... He shall cry to Me, “You are my Father.... ...I will make him My firstborn....” (Psalms 89:25-27)

The subject of this Psalm throughout is the Lord to come. Therefore it is He who will call Jehovah His Father and who will be His firstborn, thus who is the Son of God.

[7] It is the same elsewhere, as where the Lord is called a rod from the stem of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1), an offshoot of David (Jeremiah 23:5-6), the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), the only begotten (John 1:18), a priest forever and the Lord (Psalms 110:4-5).

[8] People in the Jewish Church interpreted the Son of God to be the Messiah they were waiting for, whom they knew would be born in Bethlehem.

That they interpreted the Son of God to be the Messiah is apparent from the following passages.

In John:

(Peter said:) “We believe and acknowledge that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (John 6:69)

Again in John:

“...You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” (John 11:27)

In Matthew, the chief priest asked Jesus if He were the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said, “I am.” (Matthew 26:63-64, Mark 14:62)

In John:

These have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.... (John 20:31)

See also Mark 1:1.

[9] “Christ” is a Greek word and means “anointed, ” as does “Messiah” in Hebrew. John says, therefore, “We have found the Messiah, which means, if you translate it, the Christ.” (John 1:42) And in another place, “The woman said..., ‘I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ.’ ” (John 4:25)

The Law and the Prophets, or in other words the entire Word of the Old Testament, has as its subject the Lord, as we showed in the first section, and consequently the Son of God to come can only mean the humanity that the Lord took on in the world.

[10] It follows from this that that humanity was meant by the Son when the Lord was baptized and Jehovah from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22); for it was His humanity that was baptized. And when He was transfigured, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:35)

See also elsewhere, as Matthew 8:29, 14:33, 27:43, 54; Mark 3:11, 15:39; John 1:34, 49, 3:18, 5:25, 10:36, 11:4.