435. As regards 'the man and his wife' here being used to mean the new Church which earlier on was meant by 'Adah and Zillah', this nobody can know or deduce from the sense of the letter, for previously 'the man (homo) and his wife' meant the Most Ancient Church and its descendants. The point is clear however from the internal sense, and also from the fact that a little further on, in verses 3-4 of the next chapter, reference is again made, though the wording is entirely different, to the man and his wife begetting Seth. At that point the first generation of the descendants of the Most Ancient Church is meant. Unless something different were meant at this point there would be no need to say the same thing again. A parallel to this exists in Chapter 1, where the subject is the creation of man, and also of the fruits of the earth, and of beasts; followed by Chapter 2, where similar events are described, the reason for the similarity being, as has been stated, that Chapter 1 deals with the creation of the spiritual man, Chapter 2 with the creation of the celestial man. When this kind of repetition of one and the same person or thing occurs, something different is meant on the first occasion from the second. But the exact meaning cannot possibly be known except from the internal sense. The actual train of thought in like manner establishes the meaning here. And there is the added consideration that 'man and wife' is a general expression meaning that Church, which is the subject here and from which the new Church was born.

10557. 'And his minister Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not move away from the midst of the tent' means Divine Truth ministering meantime in the holy things of the Church and worship in place of Moses. This is clear from the representation of 'Joshua, minister of Moses' as Divine Truth ministering in place of Moses (he is called 'the son of Nun' by virtue of what is true, and 'a young man' by virtue of what is good); and from the meaning of 'did not move away from the midst of the tent' as not ceasing meantime to minister in the holy things of the Church and worship. 'Not moving away' means not ceasing meantime, and 'the tent' means the holiness of the Word, the Church, and worship, dealt with above in 10545. In paragraph 10556 immediately above it has been stated that Moses now comes to represent the head of the Israelite nation. Consequently in order that the train of thought in the internal sense might not be broken, it happened that Joshua remained in the tent during Moses' absence. For 'Joshua' represents Divine Truth in respect of some function performed by it, such as Divine Truth engaged in conflict, 8595; Divine Truth engaged in contemplation and discernment, 10454; but here Divine Truth engaged in ministering, in the absence of Moses, which is why he is called Moses' 'minister'.