1238. In regard to the fact that Eber too means a nation — one whose ancestor was Eber, an individual called by that name — the case is this: The names mentioned so far were nations among whom the ancient church was present. All of them were called children of Shem, Ham, Japheth, or Canaan because Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Canaan symbolized dissimilar cultures in the church. Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Canaan themselves never existed. But the ancient church in particular (like every religion in general) by its very nature had genuine depths, corrupt depths, genuine externals, and corrupt externals. That is why these names came into being: so that all the different general types could be categorized under the headings represented by these individuals and their offspring.

At their outset, the nations named here also practiced the kind of worship [symbolized by each]. That is why they are called the children of one of Noah's sons, and it is why the names of these nations in the Word symbolize the different cultures themselves.

[2] This first ancient church — the one that Noah and his sons symbolize — did not exist among only a few people but spread out through many countries. One indication is the number of nations mentioned: Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Ethiopia, Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Philistia as far as Tyre and Sidon, and the whole land of Canaan on both the far and the near sides of the Jordan.

Afterward, though, a certain shallow kind of worship took hold in Syria, and it eventually spread far and wide through many lands (especially in Canaan). It was at variance with the worship of the ancient church, and since its existence constituted the start of something like a church distinct and separate from the ancient church, a seemingly new church now arose, which can therefore be called the second ancient church. The founder was Eber, so the religion was named after him.

At that period people were all divided into households, clans, and nations, as already noted [§§470-471, 483:2, 1159:3]. Each nation acknowledged one father, for whom it was named, as the Word demonstrates throughout. So the nation that acknowledged Eber as its father was called the Hebrew nation.

483. The names that follow — Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah — symbolize so many churches, of which the first and most important was the one called the human.

For these churches, the most important attribute was perception, so the main distinctions among them in that era were differences in perception.

Concerning perception, let me mention that throughout heaven the perception of goodness and truth alone holds sway. Its nature is such that it can never be described, and it comes in so many different varieties that not one community has the same kind as another. There are general categories and specific kinds of perception in heaven, and the number of general categories cannot be counted; likewise the specific kinds within each category. Both will be discussed later [§§1383-1400, 1504-1520], with the Lord's divine mercy.

In the face of countless general categories, countless specific kinds within each category, and still more uncountable varieties within each kind, it is evident how little the world today knows about heavenly and spiritual matters. Its knowledge is so scant as to amount to almost nothing, since it does not even know what perception is and, if told, does not believe that such a thing exists. It is equally ignorant in other areas.

[2] The earliest church represented the Lord's heavenly kingdom in respect to the various genera and species of perception. But in view of today's thorough ignorance of what perception is, even in its broadest outlines, to recount the categories and types of perception in those churches would be to purvey nothing but the strange and unheard-of.

The people of those churches were divided into households, clans, and nations and contracted marriage within the household or clan for a reason. The reason was to preserve the different categories and types of perception and to transmit them exclusively by reproducing the character of the parents in their children. As a result, those who were part of the earliest church also live together in heaven.