1065. That 'these three were the sons of Noah' means these three kinds of doctrines which Churches in general possess has been stated just above. There are indeed countless less universal types of doctrines, but no further universal types exist. People who do not acknowledge charity, or faith, or external worship, are not part of any Church and are not therefore included since the Church is the subject here.

In general, trees represent the deepest and most significant intellectual concepts: the ones that come to us most directly from the Lord. This varies depending on us and our states: the people of the Most Ancient Church, who were in a state of loving the Lord, understood truth automatically and internally through what the Writings call "perception"; people in lower states (including most of us) have to work a little harder to learn it from the Word and by willing to follow the Lord. In other parts of the Bible, especially in the prophets and New Testament parables, the meaning of "tree" is broader, meaning not just a person's intellectual concepts but the whole person.

'Trees,' as in Joel 1:10-12, signify knowledges.