3776. 'My brothers, where are you from?' means, What is the origin of the charity there? This is clear from the meaning of 'brothers' as people governed by good, and consequently as good itself and therefore as charity, dealt with in 367, 2360, 3303, 3459, and from the meaning of 'Where are you from?' as, What is the origin? From these considerations it is also evident that the matters which in the sense of the letter are expressed as a question and have reference to persons fall in the internal sense into a mental image which has no reference to any person. For when the historical descriptions that belong to the letter leave man and pass into heaven they cease to be anything among the angels in heaven. From this it is clear that Jacob's question addressed to the men of Haran, 'My brothers, where are you from?' means, What is the origin of the charity there? The implications of this are that charity which looks like charity in outward appearance is not always charity inwardly. It is from the end in view that one recognizes which kind of charity it is and where it originates. Charity which springs from a selfish or a worldly end in view is not charity inwardly. Nor indeed ought it to be called charity. But charity which springs from the neighbour, the common good, heaven, and so the Lord, as the end in view is charity itself and contains the affection for doing good from the heart, and therefore contains the delight of life, which in the next life becomes a blessed delight. It is highly important for a person to know this if he is to know what the Lord's kingdom is within himself. Inquiry concerning this charity, or what amounts to the same, concerning this good, is the subject in the present verses. And the question is first put here, What is the origin of the charity there? meant by the question, 'My brothers, where are you from?'

1823. 'Take a three year old heifer, and a three year old she-goat, and a three year old ram' means things that are the representatives of the celestial things of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of these same animals in sacrifices. Nobody in his right mind can believe that the various animals that used to be sacrificed meant nothing but sacrifices, or that an ox and a young bull or a calf had the same meaning as a sheep, kid, and she-goat, and these the same as a lamb, and that a turtle dove and fledgling pigeons had similar meanings; for in fact each creature had its own specific meaning. This becomes quite clear from the fact that under no circumstances was one kind of animal offered instead of another, and from the fact that it was explicitly stated which creatures were to be used in the daily burnt-offerings and sacrifices, and which on the sabbath and at festivals; which creatures were to be used in free-will, votive, and communion offerings; which ones were to be used in expiations of guilt and sin; and which in purifications. This would never have been the case if some specific thing had not been represented and meant by each animal.

[2] But as to the specific meaning of each kind, this would take too long to explain here. Here it is enough if one knows that celestial things are meant by the animals and spiritual things by the birds, and that some specific celestial or spiritual thing is meant by each kind of animal or bird. The Church itself, and everything to do with the Jewish Church, was representative of such things as constitute the Lord's kingdom, where nothing but that which is celestial or spiritual exists, that is, nothing but that which belongs to love and faith, as also becomes quite clear from the meaning of clean and useful beasts, dealt with in 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 776. And because in the Most Ancient Churches beasts meant celestial goods, in the Church existing at a later time when purely external, though representative, worship was highly esteemed and approved of, those beasts became representatives.

[3] Because the state of the Church is the subject here and because the nature of its state in the future is foretold, Abram was shown the same visually by means of similar representatives, exactly as recorded here. Yet quite apart from this, such things are nevertheless meant in the internal sense, as anyone may know and contemplate. For what would have been the need to take a three year old heifer, a three year old she-goat, a three year old ram, a turtle dove and a fledgling, and to divide them in two parts and to lay them out so, unless each single thing had carried a spiritual meaning? But what these details mean becomes clear from what follows below.