When we have a desire to be good people and to do good things, the natural first questions are “What does that mean?” “What should I do?” “What can I do?” You look for ideas, concepts, direction. Once you determine something you want to do or a change you want to make in yourself, you seek specific knowledge. If you want to volunteer at a food pantry, say (to use a very obvious example), you’d need to know whom to call, when they need help, where to go, what to bring. Armed with that, you’re ready to get to work.
That process could be compared to food production. You start with a field – which is that desire to be good. Then you plant seeds – those ideas and concepts. Those seeds sprout into plants – the specific facts and knowledge needed for the task (easily seen in the food pantry example, but also true with deeper tasks like “being more tolerant of my co-workers” or “taking more time for prayer,” or “consciously being a more loving spouse”). Finally, those plants produce food – the actual good thing that you go and do.
Based on this concept, it follows that a “field” in the Bible usually represents the Lord’s church, and more specifically the desire for good within the church. It’s where good things start, take root, and grow.
Swedenborg also says that in a number of cases a “field” specifically represents the doctrine of the church, which sounds markedly different. The desire for good is emotional, a drive, a wanting; doctrine is a set of ideas, dry and intellectual. But Swedenborg says that for the church to be true, its doctrine must be centered on a desire for good and must lead people toward doing what is good. So despite how it sounds, the idea of doctrine is actually closely bound up with the desire for good.
And if you think about it, the church’s “doctrine” should be primarily focused on fundamental ideas about the Lord’s loving nature, and how we can accept and share that love. If someone tries to “plant” an unsuitable idea in that “field” — an idea that is not loving, not in harmony with the Lord’s nature — then it makes sense that it will not grow.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3766
3766. ‘In the field’ means provided for the Churches. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church as regards good, dealt with in 2971. In the Word the Church is meant by the expressions ‘land’, ‘ground’, and ‘the field’, though each has a different shade of meaning. The reason ‘the field’ means the Church is that like a fieldit receives the seeds of goodness and truth; for the Church has the Word, the source of those seeds. This also is why everything included in the field means some aspect of the Church, such as that which is sown, that which is harvested, standing grain, wheat, barley, and everything else. And each of these too has a different shade of meaning.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9138
9138. Verses 5, 6 When a man devastates a field or a vineyard, sending in his beast of burden and causing devastation* in another’sfield, he shall make repayment from the best of his own field or from the best of his own vineyard. When fire breaks out and catches hold of thorns, and a stack of grain is consumed, or standing grain, or a field, the one kindling what is kindled shall surely make repayment.
‘When a man devastates a field or a vineyard’ means a stripping away of the Church’s goodness and truth by evil desires. ‘Sending in his beast of burden’ means if he does it with little self-awareness. ‘And causing devastation in another’s field’ means consuming interconnected forms of good. ‘He shall make repayment from the best of his own field or from the best of his own vineyard’ means undertaking restoration with forms of good and with truths that are still intact. ‘When fire breaks out’ means anger arising from an affection for evil. ‘And catches hold of thorns’ means which spreads into falsities. ‘And a stack of grain is consumed’ means harm done to accepted truths and forms of the good of faith. ‘Or standing grain, or a field’ means or to truths and forms of the good of faith in the process of being conceived. ‘The one kindling what is kindled shall surely make repayment’ means undertaking restoration for the things taken away by the anger arising from an affection for evil.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3310
3310. ‘A man of the field’ means the good of life that has its origin in matters of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the field’. In the Word reference is made in many places to the earth (or the land), the ground, and the field. When used in a good sense ‘the earth’ means the Lord’s kingdom in heaven and on earth, and so the Church, which is the Lord’s kingdom on earth. ‘The ground’ is used in a similar though more limited sense, 566, 662, 1066-1068, 1262, 1413, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928; and the same things are also meant by ‘the field’, though in a more limited sense still, 368, 2971. And since the Church is not the Church by virtue of matters of doctrine except insofar as these have the good of life as the end in view, or what amounts to the same, unless matters of doctrine are joined to the good of life, ‘the field’ therefore means primarily the good of life. But in order that such good may be that of the Church, matters of doctrine from the Word which have been implanted within that good must be present. In the absence of matters of doctrine the good of life does indeed exist, but it is not as yet that of the Church, and so not as yet truly spiritual, except in the sense that it has the potentiality to become so, like the good of life as this exists with gentiles who do not possess the Word and therefore do not know the Lord.
[2] That ‘the field’ is the good of life in which the things of faith, that is, spiritual truths existing with the Church, are implanted, becomes quite clear from the Lord’s parable about the sower in Matthew,
A sower went out to sow, And as he sowed some fell on the pathway, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil,* and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil**, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them. But some fell on good soil** and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has an ear to hear let him hear. Matt. 13:4-9; Mark 4:3-9; Luke 8:5-8.
This describes four types of land or ground within the field, that is, within the Church. The fact that here ‘the seed’ is the Lord’s Word, and so the truth which is called the truth of faith, and that ‘the good soil’ is the good which is called the good of charity is evident to anyone, for it is the good in man that receives the Word. ‘The pathway’ is falsity, ‘rocky ground’ is truth which is not rooted in good, ‘thorns’ are evils.
[3] With regard to the good of life which has its origin in matters of doctrine being meant by ‘a man of the field’, the position is that those who are being regenerated first of all do good as matters of doctrine direct them, for they do not of themselves know what good is. They learn to do good from matters of doctrine concerning love and charity; from these they know who the Lord is, who the neighbour is, what love is, and what charity is, and so what good is. Those who have come into this stage are stirred by the affection for truth and are called ‘men (vir) of the field’. But after that, once they have been regenerated they do good not from matters of doctrine but from love and charity, for the good itself which they have learned about through matters of doctrine exists with them, and they are in that case called ‘men (homo) of the field’. It is like someone who is by nature inclined to commit adultery, steal, and murder but who learns from the Ten Commandments that such practices belong to hell and so refrains from them. In this state he is influenced by the Commandments, for he fears hell and learns from those Commandments and similarly from much else in the Word how he ought to conduct his life. In his case when he does what is good he does it from the Commandments. But when good exists with him he starts to loathe adultery, theft, and murder to which he was previously inclined. In this state he no longer does what is good from the Commandments but from the good which by now resides with him. In the first state the truth he learns directs him to good, but in the second state good is the source of truth taught by him.
[4] The same also applies to spiritual truths which are called doctrinal and are more interior Commandments still. For matters of doctrine are interior truths which the natural man possesses, the first truths there being sensory ones, the second truths being factual, and interior truths matters of doctrine. The latter are based on factual truths inasmuch as a person can have and retain no idea, notion, or concept of them except from factual truths. But the foundations on which factual truths are based are sensory truths, for without sensory truths nobody is able to possess factual ones. Such truths, that is to say, factual and sensory, are meant by ‘a man skilled in hunting’, but matters of doctrine are meant by ‘a man of the field’. Such is the order in which those kinds of truths stand in relation to one another in man. Until a person has become adult therefore, and through sensory and factual truths possesses matters of doctrine, he is incapable of being regenerated, for he cannot be confirmed in the truths contained in matters of doctrine except through ideas based on factual and sensory truths – for nothing is ever present in a person’s thought, not even the deepest arcanum of faith there, which does not involve some natural or sensory idea, though generally a person is not aware of the essential nature of such ideas. But in the next life the nature of them is revealed before his understanding, if he so desires, and also a visual representation before his sight, if he wants it; for in the next life such things can be presented before one’s eyes in a visual form. This seems unbelievable but it is nevertheless what happens there.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9141
9141. ‘And causing devastation in another’s field’ means consuming interconnected forms of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘devastating’ as a stripping away, thus a consuming, by evil desires, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘in another’s field’ as interconnected forms of good. ‘Field’ means the Church, and the crop in the field means forms of good, 9139, so that the crop ‘in another’s field’ means forms of good which are adjacent and interconnected with one another. For the forms of good present with a person are like generations on earth, and therefore stand at different distances from one another and vary in their interconnections, 9079. Those that are not in the same household or together in the same family, but are nevertheless related, are what ‘being in another’s field’ is used to mean.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 368
368. ‘A field’ means doctrine, and so everything constituting doctrine concerning faith and charity. This is clear from the Word. In Jeremiah,
O My mountain in the field, I will give for spoil your resources, all your treasures. Jer. 17:3.
Here ‘field’ stands for doctrine, ‘resources and treasures’ for the spiritual riches of faith, that is, the things that constitute the doctrine of faith. In the same prophet,
Surely the snow of Lebanon will not leave the rock of My field? Jer. 18:14.
In reference to Zion it is said, in Jer. 26:18; Micah 3:12, that ‘it will be ploughed up like a field’ when the doctrine of faith does not exist. In Ezekiel,
He took from the seed of the land and planted it in a seed field. Ezek. 17:5.
This refers to the Church and her faith, for doctrine is called ‘afield’ because of the seed it has in it. In the same prophet,
And let all the trees of the field know that I, Jehovah, will bring low the high tree. Ezek. 17:24.
In Joel,
The field has been laid waste, the ground has been mourning because the corn has been laid waste, the new wine has failed, the oil has fallen off. Farmers have been put to shame, the harvest of the field has perished, all the trees of the field have withered. Joel 1:10-12.
Here ‘field’ stands for doctrine, ‘trees’ for cognitions, ‘farmers’ for people who cultivate them. In David,
The field will be exultant and everything in it; then all the trees of the wood will sing. Ps. 96:12.
Here it cannot be a field that is exultant nor trees of the wood that sing, but things residing with man, namely cognitions of faith. In Jeremiah,
How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? Jer. 12:4.
Here similarly it cannot be the land nor the grass of the field that mourns but something with man that has been laid waste. Similarly in Isaiah,
The mountains and hills will resound before you with song, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isa. 55:12.
The Lord too, when foretelling the close of the age, also calls the doctrine of faith ‘a field’,
Two will be in the field, one will be taken, the other left. Matt. 24:40; Luke 17:36.
‘Field’ is used to mean the doctrine of faith, false doctrine as well as true, as in the present verse in Genesis. Because ‘field’ means doctrine anyone receiving any seed of faith, whether the individual, the Church, or the world, is called a field.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2971
2971. ‘The field and the cave which was in it’ means as regards the good and truth of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church and also good itself which constitutes the Church (that which is celestial – or good that stems from love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour – is compared to ‘the ground’ as well as to the field, and is actually called these, because that which is celestial – or good – is the recipient of the truths of faith; and these truths are compared to and are also actually called ‘seeds’); and from the meaning of ‘a cave’ as the truth of faith which is enveloped in obscurity, dealt with in 2935. It is said to be in obscurity because it is with spiritual people, see 1043, 2708, 2715.