1232. The symbolism of Aram, or Syria, as knowledge of what is good follows logically. It also follows from what the Word says. In Ezekiel:

Aram was your dealer for the abundance of your works in chrysoprase, red-violet fabric, and embroidery, and fine linen, and ramoth, and carnelian; ¹ they traded for your market goods. (Ezekiel 27:16)

This is about Tyre, or in other words, about acquiring knowledge. The works, chrysoprase, red-violet fabric, embroidery, fine linen, ramoth, and carnelian mean nothing else than a knowledge of goodness. In Hosea:

Jacob fled into the field of Aram and worked as a servant in exchange for a wife, and for a wife he guarded [sheep]. And through a prophet Jehovah brought Israel up out of Egypt, and through a prophet [Israel] was kept safe. Ephraim provoked [Jehovah] to bitter anger. (Hosea 12:12-13, 14)

Jacob stands for the outer church here, and Israel stands for the inner, spiritual church. Aram stands for a knowledge of goodness. Egypt stands for secular learning that corrupts. Ephraim stands for intelligence that has been corrupted. What they symbolize within the series could never be deduced from the literal meaning, only from the inner sense, in which names symbolize various phenomena in the church, as noted [§§64, 144-145, 339, 468:1, 1143, 1224]. In Isaiah:

Here now, Damascus has been rejected as a city and become a heap of ruin. The stronghold will disappear from Ephraim and the sovereignty from Damascus, ² and the remainder of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel. (Isaiah 17:1, 3)

The remainder of Aram stands for a knowledge of goodness, which is called Israel's glory. Aram (or Syria) in the opposite sense also stands for a knowledge of goodness that has been perverted, in Isaiah 7:4, 5, 6; 9:12; Deuteronomy 26:5. (In the Word it is common for a word to be used in both senses.)

Footnotes:

144. In regard to the idea that naming things means recognizing their nature, it needs to be realized that the ancients took a name to mean simply the essence of a thing, and seeing something and naming it to mean recognizing its nature. ¹ This was due to the fact that they gave their daughters and sons names with a relevant meaning. Every name had a unique element that indicated where people were from and what they were like. Explanations further on concerning Jacob's twelve sons will, by the Lord's divine mercy, demonstrate this. ²

Since names, then, told where people were from and what they were like, that is exactly what naming something meant to those ancient people. Such a manner of speaking was familiar to them, and anyone who fails to understand it will be puzzled by the symbolism.

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