1432. And Abram took Sarai his wife. That this signifies good to which truth has been adjoined, is evident from that which is signified in the Word by a man and his wife (see n. 915); thus here, in the internal sense, by “Sarai” is signified nothing else than truth. In all things of man both in general and in particular there is an image of a marriage; nor can there possibly be anything so small as not to contain this image within it, whether it be in the external man and each and everything belonging to it, or in the internal man and each and everything belonging to it. The reason is that all things both in general and in particular come forth and subsist from the Lord, and from the unition of His Human Essence, as in a marriage, with His Divine Essence; and from the conjunction or heavenly marriage of both with His kingdom in the heavens and on earth. In the present case therefore, where there was to be represented the truth that is joined to the Lord’s good, and this by historic facts concerning Abram, it could be represented in no other way than by a “wife.” That there is an image of a marriage in all things both in general and in particular, may be seen above n. 54, 55, 718, 747, 917).

54. Male and female created He them. What is meant by “male and female” in the internal sense, was well known to the Most Ancient Church, but when the interior sense of the Word was lost among their posterity, this arcanum also perished. Their marriages were their chief sources of happiness and delight, and whatever admitted of the comparison they likened to marriage, in order that in this way they might perceive its felicity. Being also internal men, they were delighted only with internal things. External things they merely saw with the eyes, but thought of what was represented. So that outward things were nothing to them, save as these could in some measure be the means of causing them to turn their thoughts to internal things, and from these to celestial things, and so to the Lord who was their all, and consequently to the heavenly marriage, from which they perceived the happiness of their marriages to come. The understanding in the spiritual man they therefore called male, and the will female, and when these acted as a one they called it a marriage. From that church came the form of speech which became customary, whereby the church itself, from its affection of good, was called “daughter” and “virgin”—as the “virgin of Zion” the “virgin of Jerusalem”—and also “wife.” But on these subjects see the following chapter, at verse 23, and chapter 3, verse 15.