It’s pretty straightforward to think of conception in the Bible as representing the very beginning point of new ideas and new desires, the first moment they pop into our heads and begin to grow. And that is true; when women conceive in the Bible – which they do many times – it represents the very beginning points of new states.
But think about the word “concept,” which is another form of “conceive.” When we understand a concept, it’s more than just following along as someone explains specific ideas; it means we “get” the big picture, the meaning and power and potential use of those ideas working together. It also means we see those ideas as a single thing unified around one use or goal, as one whole that may have many parts. There’s also a distinct moment when that concept clicks in our minds; there’s no gradual sense of building it up. We go from “not getting it” to “getting it” in a very sudden way.
Where does that “click” come from? It doesn’t feel like something that happens in the outer parts of our minds, the parts we control. It feels like it comes from deep inside, where stuff’s going on that we don’t understand. In fact, it almost feels like something that arrives from somewhere else.
That is a meaning of “conceive” that is almost never used directly in the Bible, but it illustrates a nuance that adds to the spiritual meaning of conceiving babies.
Swedenborg says that internal things flow into external things, so spiritual conception happens when our internal desires to be good implant ideas into our external minds. For example, say you’ve been thinking that you need to spend more time with your son, and suddenly it occurs to you that you could volunteer to coach his basketball team. The internal desire to be good (by spending more time with your son) implants an idea, whole and ready to grow (coaching his basketball team), in your external mind where it can be brought to life.
On a deeper level, consider the moment when the idea of “my boyfriend” or “my girlfriend” transforms into the idea of “my husband” or “my wife.” The internal desire for all the joy and possibility of marriage implants and launches you into a whole new state of life.
Obviously, this is something that happens at various levels and at various times throughout our lives. And it’s important to note that it can only happen in a state of “fertility” — our hearts have to be turned toward love to produce the idea, and our minds have to be pondering how to be love to receive it. So we have a crucial role to play.
And that role is most crucial in the most significant “conception” of all. This is the conception that comes from the Lord himself. If we have worked to learn from him and to be good people for his sake, he can implant a new heart in us, a heart that doesn’t want what is bad anymore, but one that takes true delight in love and kindness.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3967
3967. ‘And opened her womb’ means the ability to receive and acknowledge. This is clear from the meaning of ‘opening the womb’ as conferring the ability to conceive and bear, and so in the internal sense the ability to receive and acknowledge the goods of truth and the truths of good. For ‘conceiving and bearing’ means reception and acknowledgement, as shown in various places above.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10660
10660. ‘All that opens the womb is Mine’ means that all the good of innocence, charity, and faith is to be ascribed to the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘that which opens the womb’ as that which is born from the Lord; for a person is conceived and born from parents in a natural manner, but from the Lord in a spiritual one. This birth from Him is what should be understood in the internal sense by ‘that which opens the womb’. If such were not meant what would be the point of the law that the firstborn of cattle were to be Jehovah’s, that is, the Lord’s? Furthermore the person who is being regenerated is conceived, born, and brought up anew, and in this manner is led away from the evils of the natural condition which he acquired from his parents. The subject here is the firstborn of cattle; but by cattle the forms of good and the truths that reside with a person should be understood. For cattle of every kind correspond to affections such as exist in the human being, as becomes clear from the places referred to in 9280. From these it becomes clear that ‘that which opens the womb, which is Jehovah’s’ means the good of innocence, charity, and faith, which are imparted by the Lord to those who are born anew, that is, who are being regenerated. It is said that these are to be ascribed to the Lord, that is, it should be acknowledged that they come from Him; for unless people acknowledge and believe that they come from the Lord they are not forms of good. All good comes from Him, and what does not come from Him comes from man; and whatever comes from man, though it seems to outward appearance to be good, is nevertheless bad. For the human proprium is nothing but evil, and from what is bad no good can be brought forth.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 160
160. Verse 24 Therefore a man (vir) will leave his father and his mother and will cling to his wife, and they will be one flesh.
‘Leaving father and mother’ is leaving the internal man, for the internal is that which conceives and gives birth to the external. ‘Clinging to his wife’ is in order that the internal man may be within the external. ‘Being one flesh’ means that they are there together. Previously the internal man, and the external man deriving from the internal, were spirit, but now they have become flesh. In this way celestial and spiritual life was joined on to the proprium in order that they might seemingly be one.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1910
1910. ‘And she conceived’ means the initial life of the rational. This is clear from the meaning of ‘conception’ as initial life. As regards the rational, this receives its life, as has been stated, from the life that belongs to the internal man, and is life flowing into the life of the exterior man’s affection for cognitions and knowledge. The life of the affection for cognitions and knowledge provides the rational so to speak, with a body, that is, it clothes the life of the internal man as the body does the soul. So it is exactly with cognitions and knowledge. The idea or image of soul and body exists with a human being in every part of him, in every part of his affection, and in every part of his thinking, for there is nothing, however simple it may appear to be, that does not have constituent parts and does not arise from that which is prior to itself.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3860
3860. ‘Leah conceived and bore a son’ means spiritual conception and birth from what is external to what is internal. This is clear from the meaning of ‘conceiving and bearing’ in the internal sense as being regenerated, for a person who is being regenerated is conceived and born anew. Regeneration is for’ this reason called rebirth, but that rebirth is spiritual. A person is indeed born a human being from his parents, but he does not become truly human until he is born again from the Lord. Spiritual and celestial life is what makes a person truly human, for that life distinguishes him from animals. This conception and birth is what is meant in the Word by the conceptions and births of all who are mentioned there, and by the words used here, ‘Leah conceived and bore a son’. As to its being the generations and births of faith and love that are meant, see 613, 1145, 1255, 2020, 2584, 3856. Those conceptions and births take place from what is external to what is internal, and this is meant by ‘Leah conceived and bore’, for ‘Leah’ represents the affection for external truth, 3793, 3819, and ‘Reuben’ the truth of faith, which is the first stage of regeneration and the external from which it begins. The implications of all this will be evident from all that follows regarding Jacob’s children by Leah and by Rachel.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2586
2586. ‘For Jehovah had completely closed every womb of Abimelech’s house’ means sterility, that is to say, of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘completely closing the womb’ as preventing conception itself, and from the meaning of ‘Abimelech’s house’ as the good that belongs to the doctrine of faith, from which it is evident that sterility is meant. The reason why in this chapter the name ‘God’ is used up to this point, and ‘Jehovah’ for the first time now, is that ‘God’ is used when truth is the subject but ‘Jehovah’ when good is the subject. Doctrine is conceived wholly from good as the father, but birth is given to it through truth as the mother, as stated several times already. Here it is the conception of it that is dealt with, and because it is conceived from good the name ‘Jehovah’ is used; but above it is the birth of it that is dealt with, and because it is given birth through truth the name ‘God’ is used, as in the previous verse, ‘God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his women servants, and they gave birth’.
[2] Similarly in other places in the Word where conception is referred to, as in Isaiah,
Jehovah has called me from the womb. Jehovah who formed me from the womb has said…. I will at that time be precious to Jehovah, and my God will be my strength. Isa. 49:1, 5.
‘Strength’ has reference to truth and therefore ‘God’ is used. In the same prophet,
Thus said Jehovah, your Maker, and He who formed you from the womb. Isa. 44:2, 24.
And elsewhere. For the same reason also the phrase ‘Abimelech’s house’ is used, which means the good that belongs to the doctrine of faith. As regards ‘a house’ meaning good, see 2048, 2233, and ‘Abimelech’ the doctrine of faith, 2509, 2510. The statements that ‘they gave birth’ and ‘the wombs of Abimelech’s house were closed on account of Sarah’, it is evident, hold a Divine arcanum within them, but this arcanum cannot possibly be disclosed except by means of the internal sense.