3905. 'Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob [any children]' means that interior truth was not yet acknowledged. This is clear from the representation of 'Rachel' as the affection for interior truth, or as interior truth itself, dealt with in 3758, 3782, 3793, 3819; from the meaning of 'bearing' as acknowledging in action as well as in faith, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of natural truth, dealt with in 3669, 3677, 3829, and in the whole of the previous chapter. The reason why 'bearing' means acknowledging in action as well as in faith is that births in the Word mean spiritual births, 1145, 1255, 3860, 3868. Spiritual birth is the acknowledgement of and faith in truth and good, in this verse acknowledgement in action as well as in faith, that is to say, an acknowledgement of the interior truth represented by 'Rachel'. Since something is not acknowledged in faith until a person is living according to it the phrase 'acknowledgement in action as well as in faith' is therefore used. Truths of faith which are not learned for the sake of putting them into action but solely for the sake of knowing them attach themselves to affections for evil and falsity, and as a consequence are not the truths of faith with the person who learns them but within him go against faith.

3677. 'The brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother' means the relationship through the mother of the good of truth, represented by 'Jacob', with the truth of good, represented by 'Esau'. This is clear from the representation of 'Rebekah' as the Lord's Divine Rational as regards Divine Truth, often dealt with already, from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of truth, or good which springs from truth in the natural, and from the representation of 'Esau' as the truth of good, or good from which truth springs in the natural, dealt with above in 3669. And seeing that all goods and truths which exist in the natural or external man are conceived and born from the rational or internal man, that is to say, from the good of the rational as the father, and from the truth of the rational as the mother, 3314, 3573, 3616, those words therefore mean a relationship through the mother of the good of truth, represented by 'Jacob', with the truth of good, represented by 'Esau'. This is exactly how they are related to one another.

[2] But to explain these things intelligibly is extremely difficult, the reason being that the most general features of this matter are not known at the present day, such as what spiritual good is and what the truth that goes with it is, and that there are countless genera of good and accompanying truth, and still more countless species, and also that there are degrees of them which are interconnected like those of blood relationships and relationships by marriage. While these very general features remain unknown a description of degrees and relationships would not be at all clear to anyone, especially at the present day when the learned have no wish to know those things. For these do not like to go beneath the surface of these matters and discuss the nature of them, only whether they exist or not. And as long as that is their state they have no wish at all to know anything about those countless kinds of good and truth.