3270. 'In their villages' means the external aspects of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'villages' as those things which constitute the external aspects of faith, and so of the Church. The external aspects of the Church are its religious observances, its internal aspects matters of doctrine when the latter are not matters of knowledge but of life. External aspects were represented by 'villages' because these lay outside cities, whereas internal aspects were represented by the cities themselves - 'cities' meaning matters of doctrine, see 402, 2268, 2449, 2712, 2943, 3216.

2145. 'He was sitting at the tent door' means the holiness which existed with Him at that time, namely the holiness of love, which is meant by 'as the day was getting warmer', dealt with in what follows next. This is clear from the meaning of 'a tent' as holiness, dealt with in 414, 1102, 1566. And for the reason why 'tents' meant forms of holiness, see the same paragraphs. Since the Lord at this time had the perception meant by the oak-groves of Mamre, which is a lower rational perception, yet more interior than that meant by the oak-grove of Moreh, dealt with in 1442, 1443, it is here represented and so is meant by his sitting at the tent door, that is, at the entrance to holiness. As regards perceptions being more interior or less interior, this may be illustrated from the perceptions which the most ancient people had. From these people I have heard that the more they were immersed in mere facts acquired from the objects of hearing and sight the lower their perceptions became; but the more they were raised up from them towards the celestial things of charity and love the more interior these perceptions became, as they were then closer to the Lord.