'A handmaid', as mentioned in Genesis 33:2, signifies the affection of sciences and knowledges and means serviceable to the conjunction of the external and internal self.

In Genesis 33:7, this signifies knowledge of external things derived from the world, which are the most common or general of all. This also signifies the affection of rational and scientific things.

In Genesis 30:3, this signifies the affirming medium of conjoining inner truths with natural or external truths.

(Референце: Arcana Coelestia 2567, 2657, Genesis 2)

491. The same things are meant by 'sons and daughters' in verses 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 26, 30, of this chapter, but the character of a Church determines that of its 'sons and daughters', or goods and truths. Here they are truths and goods that men perceived most clearly, for they have regard to the Most Ancient Church, the head and forefather of all other Churches that followed after it.