718. The symbolism of man and wife as truth united to goodness is established by the following considerations. A man symbolizes truth, which belongs to the intellect, while a wife symbolizes goodness, which is a matter of will, both of which were treated of earlier. ¹ And a person does not have the smallest particle of thought, the slightest stir of feeling or activity, that does not involve a kind of marriage between intellect and will. Without some kind of marriage, nothing at all is ever produced or comes into existence. The actual organic substances of which we are made, whether taken together or separately, even down to their simplest forms, have in them both a passive and an active nature. If the passive and active did not join together in something that resembles the marriage between a husband and wife, they could not possibly exist in those substances, much less produce anything. This is true throughout the world of nature. ²

These enduring unions trace their origin and source to the heavenly marriage, which stamps every entity in all of creation, animate or inanimate, with a picture of the Lord's kingdom.

Footnotes:

568. The symbolism of daughters as what resides in the will of such a person, and so as cravings, is clear from statements made about sons and daughters, and evidence offered, at verse 4 of the last chapter [§§489-491]. Sons were there shown to symbolize truth, and daughters goodness. Daughters, or goodness, belong to the will. But our character determines what our intellect and will are like and so what our "sons and daughters" are like. The current chapter is describing corrupted people, who have no will but raw desire instead, which they consider to be will, and which they also call will. Any feature attributed to a thing has its quality from that thing, and the people said to have these daughters were corrupt, as already shown [§§560, 562-563, 565].

[2] Daughters symbolize what is in the will, and when there is no will for good, they symbolize appetites; sons symbolize what is in the intellect, and when there is no comprehension of truth, they symbolize delusions. The reason for this lies in the nature of the sexes. The female sex is such by character and formation that the will or desire rules over the intellect. Every fiber in the female body is attuned to this, and it is the feminine nature. The male sex, on the other hand, is formed in such a way that intellect or reason reigns supreme. Every fiber in the male body is attuned to this, and it is the masculine nature. Marriage between the sexes results from these circumstances, as does a union between will and intellect in every individual. ¹

Today no will for good exists but desire instead — and yet a modicum of intellect or rationality is possible. This is why so many laws about men's privileges and wives' submission were laid down in the Jewish church. ²

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