4831. 'And her name was Tamar' means the essential nature of the Church - a Church representative of spiritual and celestial things. This is clear from the meaning of 'name' as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, 3421, in this case the essential nature of the Church because Tamar in this chapter represents the Church, in particular the Church representative of spiritual and celestial things which was to be established among the descendants of Judah. Tamar's representation of that Church is evident from what follows. This whole chapter deals in the internal sense with the Jewish Church, with how it was intended to become a Church representative of the spiritual and celestial things of the Lord's kingdom, as the Ancient Church had been, and to become such not only in external form but also in internal. For a Church is not a Church by virtue of its externals, that is, of its religious observances, but by virtue of its internals; for these are the essential realities, the externals merely forms expressing those realities. But the descendants of Jacob were the kind of people who had no wish to receive internal things. Among them therefore the Ancient Church could not be raised up, only that which was a representative of that Church, 4307, 4444, 4500. The internal dimension of the Church is meant here by 'Tamar', and the external by 'Judah' together with his three sons by his Canaanite wife.

3421. 'And he called them names' means the essential nature of them. This is clear from the meaning of 'calling the names' as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, 3237. And since calling the names or the name means the essential nature, the expression calling without the addition of 'the name' therefore means in the internal sense of the Word to be of some such particular nature, as in Isaiah,

Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and who came out of the waters of Judah. For they are called after the city of holiness, and upon the God of Israel they place their reliance. Isaiah 48:1-2.

Here 'being called after the city of holiness' stands for being of some particular nature. And in Luke,

Behold, you will conceive in the womb and will bear a son, and you will call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. Luke 1:31-32.

'Being called Son of the Most High' stands for His Essential Being (Esse).