664. And after three days and a half.- That this signifies when completed, thus the end of the old church, and the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of three days and a half, as denoting fulness or completion at the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of a new church, concerning which see above (n. 658). The reason why it is said, after three days and a half, is, that days, in the Word, signify states, here, the last state of the church. For all times, in the Word, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ages, signify states in the Word, as in this case, the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith remaining. Because days signify states, and since in the first chapter of Genesis the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of which was accomplished successively from one state to another, therefore it is said there that there was evening and there was morning the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth days, unto the seventh, when it was completed (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and the days there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

3096. 'And ran again to the well' means a lower affection for truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a well' as truth, dealt with in 2702, but truth that is lower. And as the subject here is the introduction of truth, a lower affection for truth is meant, as stated just above in 3094. For the difference in meaning in the internal sense between 'a spring' and 'a well' see the paragraph just referred to, where it is explained that the expression 'a spring' is used in reference to purer and higher truth, but 'a well' in reference to truth that is not so pure and is lower, as in the present chapter also where 'a spring' is used at one point, 'a well' at another. Natural truth is a lower variety of truth, and the affection for natural truth a lower kind of affection for truth. This truth enables general facts to receive light most nearly, and that enlightenment penetrates further and affects more deeply, see 3094.