5934. 'Saying, Joseph's brothers have come' means [a perception] that the truths of the Church within the natural were present. This is clear from the meaning of 'having come as being present; and from the representation of the sons of Jacob or 'Joseph's brothers' as the truths of the Church within the natural, dealt with in 5403, 5419, 5458, 5512. Existing within the natural there is factual knowledge of various kinds. There is factual knowledge which has to do with earthly, bodily, and worldly matters; this occupies the lowest position since it consists of impressions received directly from the external or bodily senses. There is also factual knowledge which has to do with one's country, its system of government, and laws and statutes, which occupies a slightly more internal position. There is factual knowledge which has to do with matters of right conduct, which occupies a position still more internal. And there is knowledge which has to do with spiritual life occupying positions interior to them all; this consists of the truths known to the Church. To the extent that these truths exist with a person solely as a result of religious teaching they are no more than factual knowledge; but once they stem from the good of love in him they go onto a level above factual knowledge, for they now dwell in spiritual light, from which they can look at factual knowledge arrayed in proper order beneath them. By means of such rising degrees of factual knowledge a person attains intelligence; for factual knowledge at each level opens the mind so that light from the spiritual world may flow in. From all this one may now see what is meant by the truths of the Church within the natural being present.

5095. 'To the king of Egypt' means which were subordinate to the interior natural. This is clear from the representation of Pharaoh or 'the king of Egypt' in this chapter as a new state of the natural man, dealt with in 5079, 5080, consequently as the interior natural since this had been made new. As to what the interior natural is, and the exterior natural, see immediately above in 5094. The nature of the internal sense of the Word in the historical sections and in the prophetical parts must be stated briefly. When the historical sense mentions a number of persons - as when Joseph, Pharaoh, the chief of the attendants, the cupbearer, and the baker are mentioned here - various things are indeed meant by them in the internal sense, yet only as all these exist in one person. The reason for this is that names mean different spiritual things, as they do here: 'Joseph' represents the Lord as regards the celestial-spiritual from the rational and also within the natural, 'Pharaoh' represents Him as regards the new state of the natural man, that is, as regards the interior natural, 'the cupbearer and the baker' as regards the things that belong to the external natural. Such is the nature of the internal sense. The same is so in other places, for example when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned; in the sense of the letter they are three different persons, but in the highest sense all three represent the Lord - 'Abraham' the Divine itself, 'Isaac' His Divine Intellectual, ¹ and 'Jacob' His Divine Natural. The same may be seen in the Prophets where sometimes the text consists of mere names, either of persons or of kingdoms or of cities; yet all of them together present and describe a single entity in the internal sense. Anyone unaware of this may be easily misled by the sense of the letter into visualizing a variety of things, with the result that the idea of a single entity disappears.

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