Bowing in prayer is common in most religious practices, so it’s not surprising that Swedenborg says it represents humility and worship in a general sense when the term is used in the Bible.
But there are some interesting nuances. Swedenborg says that “bowing” on its own represents only external humility, and expresses the state of those motivated by truth – which tends to be rather rigid and unbending. To “bow down,” however, indicates a more internal humility, based on a desire to be good – a state which is much more flexible.
Swedenborg also says when the Bible mentions people bowing with their faces to the ground it has special significance. Our faces represent our interior spiritual states and the dust of the ground represents things that are profane and condemned – so bowing with our faces to the ground shows that we acknowledge the Lord’s influence, and that without him we would be as profane and condemned as that dust.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2153
- ‘And he bowed down towards the ground’ means the expression of humility from the resulting joy. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bowing down’ as expressing humility. Insofar as all interior affections have corresponding gestures within external or bodily activity – gestures which are expressions of affections as their own efficient causes, the affection belonging to humility has the corresponding gesture of bowing down* and also that of prostration. This gesture was clearly a product of joy, for as has been stated, He recognized the perception to be from the Divine. ‘The Lord’s state of humiliation when He was in the Human has been referred to in various places already, and in the Lord’s Divine mercy is to be referred to further in the present chapter.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2327
- ‘And bowed down with his face towards the ground’ means humiliation. This becomes clear without explanation. The reason why in the past, especially in the representative Churches, people would bow so far down that their faces touched the ground, was that ‘the face’ meant man’s interiors, 358, 1999. And they did so down ‘to the ground’ because ‘the dust of the ground’ meant that which is profane and condemned, 278. In doing this they represented the fact that of themselves they were profane and condemned. They therefore prostrated themselves face downwards on the ground, indeed they wallowed in dust and ashes, and also cast dust or ashes over their heads, as becomes clear from Lam. 2:10; Ezek. 27:30; Micah 1:10; Josh. 7:6; Rev. 18:19; and elsewhere.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4701
- ‘Shall we indeed come – I and your mother, and your brothers – to bow down to you to the earth?’ means, Will the Church come to worship? This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming to bow down’ as coming to worship, dealt with in 4689, 4698; and from the meaning of ‘father and mother’ (‘I’ being in this instance his father) and also of ‘brothers’ as the Church, in this case the Jewish Church, as immediately above.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5682
- ‘And they bowed, and bowed down’ means an expression of humility, exterior and interior. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bowing’ as an expression of exterior humility, and from the meaning of ‘bowing down’ as an expression of interior humility. For bowing is something less than bowing down and is therefore an expression of exterior humility, whereas bowing down is something more and is therefore an expression of interior humility. In addition to this, ‘bowing’ is the humility expressed by truth, that is, by those motivated by truth, and so is the humility of those who are spiritual; but ‘bowing down’ is the humility expressed by good, that is, by those motivated by good, and so is the humility of those who are celestial. Thus ‘bowing also means the expression of exterior humility, and ‘bowing down’ the expression of interior humility; for those motivated by good are people who are more interior than those motivated by truth. The explanation of the major part of the contents of the internal sense in this section has been confined simply to the meanings of the words that are used, for the reason that they are matters such as have appeared in explanations prior to this.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6266
- ‘And bowed down, his face to the earth’ means an expression of humility by them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bowing down, face to the earth’ as an expression of interior humility, dealt with in 5682. For that kind of bowing down is an action performed by the body corresponding to humility of mind; and it explains why people who worship God in their hearts bow down in that manner. It is said that Joseph ‘bowed down’ because he was acting in place of them; yet he did not bow down before Israel but before the Lord, from whom the blessing came through Israel.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7068
- ‘And they bowed, and bowed down’ means humility. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bowing, and bowing down as an expression of humility, dealt with in 2153, 6266. But ‘bowing’ is humility that is exterior and is present in those motivated by truth, whereas ‘bowing down’ humility that is interior and is present in those motivated by good, see 5682. The truth of this has often become apparent to me from those in the next life who are motivated by truth and those who are motivated by good. Those motivated by truth are so to speak rigid, standing upright as though they are stiff; and when they ought to humble themselves before the Divine they bend their body forwards only slightly. But those motivated by good are so to speak flexible; and when they humble themselves before the Divine they bow right down to the ground. For truth without good is utterly rigid; but when it regards good as the end in view that rigidity starts to change into flexibility. Good on the other hand is in itself flexible, and when it has truth introduced into it that truth too, because it develops into good there, becomes flexible. The reason why this happens is that truth cannot be set in its proper place in a heavenly form except by good, which means that in itself truth is inflexible. The form of heaven is utterly fluid and not at all resistant. As a consequence good, and truth with it set in its proper place, is of a similar nature, and is flexible, as has been stated.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7788
- ‘And bow down to me’ means respect for God’s truth generated by fear. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with often; and from the meaning of ‘bowing down’ as self-abasement, but at this point as respect generated by fear since it is said of those immersed in evil. The expression ‘respect generated by fear’ is used because the evil do not have any respect for God’s truth, not even for God Himself, other than that which is born in them out of fear. For those in hell love only themselves, and those who love only themselves have no respect for another. They focus onto themselves all respect due to others, even to God Himself. Where there is love there is respect; where there is no love there is no respect apart from that generated by fear. This explains why the evil in the next life suffer punishments, till eventually they do not dare to rise up against the good and molest them. For there are no other means that would deter them from doing evil than the fear of punishments.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9317
- ‘You shall not bow down to their gods’ means that falsities arising from evil must not be worshipped. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bowing down’ as adoration and worship, dealt with in 4689; and from the meaning of ‘the gods of the nations’ as falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 4544, 7873, 8867, 9283. Falsities arising from evil are worshipped when worship is performed in accord with teachings concocted out of falsified truths and adulterated forms of good. This happens when dominion and gain are thought of as the end in view, and truths from the Word as the means.