1242. 'Eber's two sons' means the two aspects of worship - internal and external - and these two sons were called Peleg and Joktan, 'Peleg' meaning the internal worship of that Church, and 'Joktan' the external worship of that Church. This is clear chiefly from the fact that 'Eber and the Hebrew nation' means in the internal sense this second Ancient Church, and also because every Church has an internal and an external, for without the internal it neither is nor can be called a Church, but idolatry. Since 'sons' has reference to aspects of the Church it is clear that one son means the internal aspect of the Church, the other the external. A similar duality frequently occurs elsewhere in the Word, for example, that meant previously by Lamech's wives, Adah and Zillah, 409, and that meant later on by Leah and Rachel, and by Jacob and Israel, and others like these. The descendants of Joktan are dealt with in this chapter, those of Peleg in the next.

409. The same applied to the heresy called Cain, which was vastated with the passage of time, for it did, it is true, acknowledge love, yet it made faith the chief thing and set it above love. The heresies descending from Cain however gradually strayed even from this, and Lamech, who was the sixth in the line, went so far as to reject faith altogether. At this point new light or the morning began to dawn, and a new Church came into being which is here called 'Adah and Zillah', the names of the wives of Lamech. They are called the wives of Lamech, who was devoid of any faith, just as the internal and external Church among the Jews, who were also devoid of any faith, are in the Word called wives. The same was also represented by Leah and Rachel, Jacob's two wives, Leah representing the external Church and Rachel the internal. These Churches, seemingly two, are nevertheless one, for a Church that is purely external or representative and lacks the internal is something completely idolatrous or dead, but the internal Church and the external together constitute one and the same Church, as Adah and Zillah do here. But because, like Lamech, Jacob, that is, the descendants of Jacob, were totally devoid of faith, the Church could not continue with them. Instead it was transferred to gentiles whose lives were not contrary to faith but were without knowledge. Rarely, if ever, does a Church remain with people who, once vastated, are in possession of truths. Instead it is transferred to those who know absolutely nothing about such truths, for such people embrace faith far more easily than the former do.