Swedenborg tells us that shepherds in the Bible represent those who lead and teach others, using knowledge and true ideas to help people reach the goodness of life.
This makes sense if you think about what a shepherd does. He or she makes sure the flock has good grass to eat; plants in the Bible generally represent facts and knowledge. The shepherd makes sure the flock has good water to drink; water represents true thinking about the spiritual aspect of day-to-day life. He or she carries weapons (a true understanding of spiritual things) to ward off predators (desires for evil) and keep the flock safe. And the ultimate goal of the shepherd is for the flock to be useful, to provide good things, representing the good of life.
There are, of course, a few cases in which shepherds are the bad guys (for instance, a group of them in Midian habitually chased Jethro’s daughters away from a well so they could water their sheep first; Moses found favor by helping the daughters, and ended up marrying one of them). Swedenborg says in these cases shepherds represent those who lead and teach, but without the good of life as the goal. When goodness is not the goal, ideas and knowledge are twisted into falsity and the teaching and leading trend toward evil.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6044
- ‘And the men are shepherds of the flock’ means that they lead to good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘shepherds of the flock’ as those who lead to good, dealt with in 343, 3795, 5201; for a shepherd or pastor is one who teaches and leads, and the flock one who is taught or led; but in the internal sense truths that lead to good are meant since the sons of Israel, to whom ‘the men areshepherds of the flock’ refers here, represent spiritual truths, 6040, and also since truths present with those who teach are what do the leading. It has been shown previously that truths, which are the essence of faith, lead to good, which is the essence of charity. This is also evident from the consideration that every single thing is related to an end and has that end in view, and that things which do not have an end in view cannot remain in being.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6426
- ‘From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel’ means that from this springs all the goodness and truth which the spiritual kingdom possesses. This is clear from the meaning of ‘theshepherd’ as one who leads to the good of charity by means of the truth of faith, dealt with in 343, 3795, 6044 (here in the highest sense, since it has reference to the Lord, goodness and truth themselves are meant); from the meaning of ‘the stone’ as truth, dealt with in 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798; and from the representation of ‘Israel’ as the spiritual Church, dealt with in 3305, 4286, for ‘Israel’ is spiritual good or the good of truth, 4286, 4598, 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. And since the good of truth is the essential element of the spiritual Church, ‘Israel’ means the spiritual Church, and in the highest sense the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. From all this it is evident that ‘from there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel’ means that from this springs all the goodness and truth which the Lord’s spiritual kingdom possesses.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 544
- Who would shepherd all nations with a rod of iron. This symbolizes doctrine which by truths drawn from the literal sense of the Word, together with rational arguments in accord with people’s natural sight, will convince all those willing to be convinced whose worship is a lifeless worship owing to their divorcing faith from charity.
This refers to the doctrine of the New Church, because it is said about the male child, which symbolizes that doctrine (no. 543). Toshepherd means, symbolically, to teach and instruct (no. 383), here to convince those people who are willing to be convinced.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 343
- ‘A shepherd of the flock’ means someone who practises good flowing from charity. Anyone can know this, for it is a recurrent feature of the Old Testament and of the New. He who leads and teaches is called the Shepherd, those who are led and taught are called the flock. One who does not lead to good flowing from charity, and does not teach that good is not a true shepherd; and one who is not being led to good and learning it is not the flock. Really it is superfluous to confirm from the Word that this is the meaning of the Shepherd and flock; but even so let the following be referred to: In Isaiah,
The Lord will give rain for your seed with which you sow the ground, and bread of the produce of the ground. On that day, He will pasture your cattle in a broad grassland. Isa. 30:23.
Here ‘bread, the produce of the ground’ means charity. In the same the prophet, The Lord Jehovih will pasture His flock like ashepherd; He will gather the lambs into His arm, and will carry them in His bosom: He will gently lead those that are with young.* Isa. 40:11.
In David,
Harken, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock. You who are seated on the cherubim, shine forth. Ps 80:1.
In Jeremiah,
I have likened the daughter of Zion to one comely and delicately bred. Shepherds and their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents near her round about; they will pasture each in his own space. Jer. 6:2, 3.
In Ezekiel,
The Lord Jehovah has said, I will multiply them like the flock of mankind, like the flock of holy things, like the flock of Jerusalem, in her appointed seasons. Thus will the deserted cities be filled with the flock of mankind. Ezek. 36:37, 38.
In Isaiah,
The whole flock of Arabia will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will minister to you. Isa. 60:7
Those who lead the flock to the good of charity are those who ‘gather the flock together’, but those who do not lead to such good are those who scatter it, for all bringing together and unity is the product of charity, while all scattering and disunity result from the lack of it.
* i.e. those ewes that are in milk
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6779
- ‘And the shepherds came and drove them away’ means that teachers steeped in evils set themselves against them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the shepherds’ as those who teach and lead to the good of charity, dealt with in 343, 3795, 6044, here those who teach but, being steeped in evils, do not lead to the good of charity, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘driving away’ as setting themselves against; and from the meaning of the daughters, the ones whom they drove away, as things belonging to the Church, dealt with above in 6775. Here ‘shepherds’ does indeed mean those who teach, but they are those who do not lead to the good of charity because they are steeped in evils. For those steeped in evils never acknowledge that charity and its works contribute to salvation, because they are incapable of acknowledging things contrary to the life they lead. To do so would be to go against themselves. Being steeped in evils they are not even aware of what charity is, or thus of what the works of charity are. Faith is what they teach, saying that faith is what makes people righteous and what holds the promise of heaven. These are the ones who set themselves against the teachings about charity drawn from the Word, and therefore against people guided by the truth that goes with simple good – the people meant by the daughters of the priest of Midian who, after they had drawn water and filled the troughs to water the flock, were driven away by the shepherds from the well.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 383
- “For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherdthem.” (7:17) This symbolically means that the Lord alone will teach them.
The Lamb in the midst of the throne symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity in the inmost of heaven and thus in everything connected with it (no. 44). The throne is heaven (no. 14), and the Lamb is the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity (nos. 269, 291). And He who is in the inmost of heaven and thus in everything connected with it is the only one who shepherds all people, that is, who teaches them.
If a question is raised as to how He alone can shepherd all, be it known that it is because He is God, and because He is present in the whole of heaven like the soul in its body; for heaven, arising from Him, is like a single person.
To shepherd means to teach because in the Word the church is called a flock, and the people in the church are called sheep and lambs. Therefore to shepherd means, symbolically, to teach, and the shepherd one who teaches, and this in many places, as for example:
On that day your flocks will graze in a broad meadow. (Isaiah 33:23)
He will feed His flock like a shepherd. (Isaiah 40:11)
They shall graze along the roads, and have their pasture on all the hillsides. (Isaiah 49:9)
(Israel) shall graze on Carmel and Bashan. (Jeremiah 50:19)
…I will seek out My sheep…. I will feed them in good pasture, and…in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. (Ezekiel 34:12-14)
You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, it is a small thing that you are among the thousands of Judah. Out of you shall come forth to Me One who will be Ruler in Israel…. He shall stand and graze in the strength of Jehovah…. (Micah 5:2, 4)
Feed Your people…. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead…. (Micah 7:14)
The remnant of Israel…shall graze and lie down…. (Zephaniah 3:13)
Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in pastures of tender grass. (Psalm 23:1, 2)
(The Lord) chose David…to shepherd Jacob…and Israel…and heshepherded them…. (Psalm 78:70-72)
Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My lambs.” And a second and third time He said, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17)
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3795
- ‘For she was a shepherdess’ or one who feeds the flock means that the affection for interior truth contained in the Word is that which teaches. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a shepherd’ or one who feeds the flock* as one who leads and teaches, dealt with in 343, and from the representation of Rachel, to whom ‘she’ refers here, as the affection for interior truth, dealt with just above in 3793. The reason why interior truth is said to come from the Word is that it was the well to which Rachel came with the flock – ‘a well’ meaning the Word, see 3765. What is more, it is the affection for interior truth that teaches, for it is by virtue of that affection that the Church is the Church and a shepherd or pastor is a pastor. The reason ‘a shepherd’ and one who feeds the flock means in the Word those who lead and teach is that ‘the flock’ means those who are led and taught, and therefore means Churches and also the doctrines which a Church teaches, 3767, 3768, 3783. The fact that shepherdor pastor and flock have these meanings is very well known in the Christian world, for these are the terms used for those who teach and those who learn. It is therefore superfluous to confirm these points from the Word.
* The Latin word pastor, translated shepherdess above, is used of anyone – male or female – who tends a flock or herd. But in the original Hebrew the word is taken to be feminine.
AE 388 [3]
In Jeremiah:
“Go, assemble every wild beast of the field; come to devour. Manyshepherds have destroyed my vineyards; they have trodden my field under foot, they have reduced the field of desire into a desert of solitude” (xii. 9-11).
The subject here treated of is the vastation of the church as to its truths and as to its goods. Vastation is described by the shepherdsdestroying the Lord’s vineyard, and treading His field under foot. By shepherds are meant those who teach truths, and thereby lead to the good of life; in the present case, those who teach falsities, and thereby lead to evil of life. By the vineyard is meant the church as to truths; and by the field, the church as to good. The vastation thereof is meant by destroying and by treading them under foot, also by reducing the field into a desert of solitude. And because lusts and falsities arising from the love of self and the world, devastate it, it is said, “Go, assemble every wild beast of the field; come to devour”; every wild beast of the field signifying falsities and the lusts thence arising, and to devour signifying to devastate and consume. That by the wild beast of the field is not meant the wild beast of the field, is evident, for it is said that the shepherdshave destroyed the vineyard, and trodden the field under foot; and by shepherds are meant pastors of the church, and not shepherds of the flock.