1045. This discussion has dealt with the spiritual person (or the spiritual church) who has been reborn. The discussion that follows focuses on all people in general and then on those who can be reborn in particular.
Secrets of Heaven #566
566. The symbolism of the face of the ground as that whole area where the church existed can be seen from the symbolism of the ground, since the Word carefully distinguishes ground from the earth or the land. Wherever it appears, ground symbolizes the church, or some aspect of the church. This is the origin of the human's name — Adam, which means ground. 1 Often when the earth or the land is mentioned in the Word, it means the absence of the church or of anything having to do with the church. The first chapter is an example. In it, only the earth or land is mentioned, 2 since the church — the regenerate person — did not yet exist. The ground is first mentioned in the second chapter, because by then the church did exist. Something similar occurs here and in the next chapter:
All substance would be destroyed from the face of the ground. (Genesis 7:4, 23)
This means in the territory where the church was. In the same chapter:
... to keep their seed alive on the face of the earth. (Genesis 7:3)
This is about a church yet to be created. The same holds true everywhere in the Word, as in Isaiah:
Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel and will put them on their ground; and the peoples will take them and lead them to their place, and the house of Israel will inherit them upon the ground of Jehovah. (Isaiah 14:1-2)
This is about a church that has been formed; but a place where there was no church is called the earth in verses 9, 12, 16, 20-21, 25, and 26 of the same chapter.
[2] In the same author:
And the ground of Judah will make Egypt quake. On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the tongue of Canaan. (Isaiah 19:17-18)
The ground is where the church is and the land is where the church is not. In the same author:
The earth will wander, wander, like a drunkard. Jehovah will punish the army of the heights on high, and the monarchs of the ground down on the ground. (Isaiah 24:20-21)
The meaning is similar. In Jeremiah:
Because of the chastened ground, since there was no rain on the land, the farmers were put to shame, they covered their head; for even the doe in the field gave birth. (Jeremiah 14:4-5)
The land means the area surrounding the ground, and the ground means the area surrounding the field.
[3] In the same author:
He brought the seed of the house of Israel out from the north land and from all the lands to which I drove them, and they will live on their ground. (Jeremiah 23:8)
The land and lands are where there are no churches; the ground is where the church or true worship is. In the same author:
I will make the survivors of Jerusalem — those left in this land and those living in the land of Egypt — I will make them a disturbance, an evil to all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will send against them sword, famine, and contagion to the point of devouring them off the ground that I gave to them and their ancestors. (Jeremiah 24:8-9, 10)
The ground stands for theology and for the worship it gives rise to. The same holds true for Jeremiah 25:5. 3
[4] In Ezekiel:
I will gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered, and you will acknowledge that I am Jehovah, when I have returned you onto Israel's ground, onto the land in which I lifted my hand to give it to your ancestors. (Ezekiel 20:41-42)
The ground stands for inner worship; it is called land when there is no inner worship. In Malachi:
I will harangue against the devouring pest for you, and it will not spoil the fruit of the ground for you; and the grapevine in the field will not be bereft for you. And all nations will call you fortunate, because you will be a land of pleasure. (Malachi 3:11-12)
The land stands for the whole surrounding area and so, quite obviously, for a person, who is called "a land." The ground surrounded by that land stands for the church, or theology.
[5] In Moses:
Sing, you nations, his people. He will expiate the guilt incurred by his ground, his people. (Deuteronomy 32:43)
Clearly this stands for the church among non-Jewish nations, which is called the "ground." 4 In Isaiah:
Before the child knew to spurn evil and choose good, the ground that you despise in the presence of its two monarchs would be deserted. (Isaiah 7:16)
This speaks of the Lord's Coming, saying that the ground prepared for the church — the true doctrine concerning faith — would be deserted. It is clear that the words ground and field are used in connection with planting, as in Isaiah:
He will give rain for the seed with which you would sow the ground. Oxen and young donkeys are working the ground. (Isaiah 30:23-24)
And in Joel:
The field was devastated and the ground mourned, because the grain was devastated. (Joel 1:10)
From this it can now be seen that the human — called adam in Hebrew, from the word for ground — symbolizes the church.
Footnotes:
1. On the apparent derivation of the name Adam from the Hebrew word for "ground," see note 2 in §313. For more on the name, see note 1 in §475. [RS]
2. On the translation of the single Latin word terra with the two English words "earth" and "land," see note 1 in §31. Contrary to the observation Swedenborg makes here, the Latin word rendered by the word "ground" (humus) does in fact appear once in the first chapter, near the end of verse 25, as does the Hebrew word underlying it (אֲדָמָה ['ăḏāmā]). (On this Hebrew word, see also note 2 in §313.) Swedenborg elsewhere reiterates the importance of the distinction between "earth" or "land" and "ground" (see §§90, 268, 620, 662, 872, 895), but assigns a wide and varied range of meanings to each term, depending on context. At times the meanings even overlap. For example, "earth" is here said to mean "the absence of the church or of anything having to do with the church" and "ground" is said to mean "the church." In §662 "earth" is said to mean "a person in the church" and "ground" is said to mean "the church itself." In §872 "earth" is said to refer to people before "the seed of faith's truth and goodness can be sown in them" and "ground" is said to mean "people in the church." Nevertheless in each context the distinction between the two terms is emphasized as important. [LHC, SS]
3. Jeremiah 25:5 reads, "Turn, please, each of you from your evil and from the wickedness of your deeds, and live on the ground that Jehovah gave you and your ancestors from age to age." [LHC]
4. For more about the "church among non-Jewish nations," see note 1 in §231. [LHC]
