Is there any difference in meaning between “earth” and “ground”? At first it doesn’t seem so; both refer to the soil making up the land mass of the planet we inhabit.
But if you think about it, the meanings are shaded in different directions. We tend to use “earth” in a more general sense – meaning all soil everywhere or any soil anywhere. “Ground” is more specific, referring to the portion of earth we happen to be standing on, or to some portion of earth that we intend to cultivate or otherwise use.
And so it is in the Bible. “Earth,” according to Swedenborg, refers to the externals of a person or a community – their everyday thoughts and actions — in a broad, general sense. “Ground” refers to the parts of our external lives that are ready for cultivation, ready to be put to use.
Cultivation, of course, involves loosening up the soil (breaking down our distracting habits and thoughts) and planting seeds (true concepts and ideas that spring from a desire to be good). As those seeds start growing, we begin to be truly useful.
In short, then, “ground” in the Bible can mean a person or community that is receptive to the Lord’s teaching. It can also mean a person or church that has received the Lord’s teaching and is putting it to use.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 94
94. Verse 7 And Jehovah God formed the man, dust from the ground; and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;* and man became a living soul. ‘To form the man, dust from the ground’ is to form his external man, which had not previously been man, for it was said in verse 5 that there was no man to till the ground. ‘Breathing into his nostrils the breath of life’* means giving him the life that is inherent in faith and love. By ‘man became a living soul’ is meant that the external man as well became living.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 268
268. That ‘the ground’ means the external man becomes clear from what has been stated already about earth, ground, and field. When a person has become regenerate he is no longer called the earth but the ground, the reason being that celestial seeds have been planted within him. Various other statements in the Word compare him to the ground and actually call him the ground. It is the external man, that is, his affection and memory, in which the seeds of good and truth are planted, not his internal man, for the internal does not have within it anything that is man’s own, but only the external. Within the internal there are goods and truths, and when these are seemingly present no longer, he is in that case an external, that is, a bodily-minded person. In actual fact they have been stored away by the Lord within the internal man without his knowing it; for they do not emerge until the external man so to speak dies, which normally happens in times of temptation, misfortune, sickness, and the hour of death. The rational too belongs to the external man, see 118, and in itself is a kind of go-between for the internal man and the external, for the internal man operates byway of the rational into the bodily external. But once the rational concedes, it separates the external man from the internal, so that neither the existence of the internal man is known any longer, nor consequently what intelligence and wisdom are, which belong to the internal man.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 345
345. ‘A tiller of the ground’ means someone who, devoid of charity, acts from faith separated from love, which is not faith at all. This becomes clear from the statements made further on, ‘Jehovah had no respect for his gift’, and ‘he killed his brother’, that is, he destroyed charity meant by Abel. People who look to bodily and earthly interests are said to be ’tilling the ground’, as is clear from what has been stated at Chapter 3:19, 23, where it is said that ‘the man was sent out of the garden of Eden to till the ground’.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 377
377. ‘The ground’ here means schism or heresy. This is clear from the fact that ‘a field’ means doctrine, and therefore ‘the ground’ of which the field is a part is schism. Man himself is meant by ‘the ground’ as well as by ‘the field’ because these things are sown within him. Indeed it is by virtue of what is sown within that anyone is man. Anyone who is good and true is so by virtue of goods and truths; anyone evil and false is so by virtue of evils and falsities. Anyone who subscribes to a particular system of doctrine is referred to by the name of that system, as is anyone who subscribes to a particular schism or heresy; and so ‘ground’ at this point stands for schism or heresy within man.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 566
566. ‘The face* of the ground’ means the whole of that area where the Church was. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the ground’, for in the Word a careful distinction is made between ground (humus) and land or earth (terra). Whenever ‘ground’ is used it means the Church or some aspect of the Church. This too is the derivation of the name Man or Adam, which means ground. But when ‘land’ or earth’ occurs in the Word it frequently means where the Church or some aspect of the Church does not exist, as in Chapter 1 where the word ‘land’ alone is used, because the Church or regenerate person did not as yet exist. Not until Chapter 2 is the word ‘ground’ used because the Church has by now come into being. The same applies in the present verse and in verses 4, 23, of the next chapter, where it is said that every being was to be wiped off the face* of the ground, meaning within that area where the Church was; and in verse 7 of the next chapter, where the subject is the Church that is to be created, ‘to keep their seed alive on the face* of the ground’.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 872
872. ‘The face* of the ground’ means those things that reside with the member of the Church, and the expression ‘the ground’ is used because it is the first stage at which man comes to be the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the ground’, dealt with already, as the member of the Church who is at that point called ‘the ground’ when the goods and truths of faith can be sown within him. Previously he is called ‘the land’, as in Genesis 1 where ‘the land’ refers to man prior to his becoming celestial, while Chapter 2, when he has become celestial, refers to him as ‘theground’ and ‘the field’. It is similar in the present chapter. The expression ‘the land’ and the expression ‘the ground’ are sufficient by themselves to enable someone to recognize what is meant in the internal sense, not only here but also anywhere else in the Word. ‘The ground’ in the universal sense means the Church, and as the Church is meant so too is the member of the Church for, as stated already, every member of the Church is the Church.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1068
1068. That ‘Noah began to be a man of the ground’ means in general a person who has been instructed from matters of doctrine concerning faith is clear from the meaning of ‘the ground’, dealt with already in 268, 566, as the member of the Church, or what amounts to the same, the Church. For if the Church is to exist at all the individual must be the Church. The Church is called ‘the ground’ from the fact that it receives the seeds of faith, which are the truths and goods of faith. ‘Theground’ is distinguished from ‘the earth’ or ‘the land’ – which, as has been shown, also means the Church – as faith is from charity. As charity includes faith within itself so does earth or land include the ground. Consequently when the Church is dealt with in general it is called ‘the earth’ or ‘the land’, and when dealt with specifically it is called ‘the ground’, as here. For that which is general is a complex whole consisting of the things deriving from it. The matters of doctrine which the members of the Ancient Church possessed had come down, as stated already, from revelations and perceptions of the Most Ancient Church which had been preserved, and in which they had faith, such as those we have today in the Word. Those matters of doctrine were their Word. ‘Noah began to be a man of the ground’ therefore means a person who has been instructed from matters of doctrine concerning faith.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2327
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. 6135
6135. ‘Nothing is left before [my] lord apart from our bodies and our ground’ means that the receptacles of goodness and truth have been made completely desolate. This is clear from the meaning of body’ as the receptacle of good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ground’ as the receptacle of truth. The reason why ‘ground’ is the receptacle of truth is that it receives seeds, and seeds sown in it mean in a specific sense matters of faith derived from charity, thus of truth derived from good, 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3038, 3310, 3373; consequently ‘theground’ means the receptacle of truth. See also what has been stated and shown previously regarding the ground in 566, 1068, 3671. The fact that such receptacles have been made desolate is meant by ‘nothing is left before [my] lord apart from’.
[2] In the genuine sense ‘body’ means the good of love and ‘ground’ the truth of faith. When truths and forms of the good of truth, meant by ‘the silver’ and ‘the livestock’, can be seen no longer on account of the desolation, ‘body’ means merely the receptacle for good and ‘ground’ the receptacle for truth.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6154
6154. ‘Look, here is seed for you, and you may sow the ground’ means the good of charity and the truth of faith that are to be implanted. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seed’ as truth derived from good, or faith from charity, thus both of them, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3038, 3310, 3373, 3671; from the meaning of ‘sowing’ as implanting; and from the meaning of ‘ground’ as receptacles, dealt with in 6135-6137. But once the truth and good have been implanted, ‘the ground’ no longer means a receptacle of them but that which actually constitutes the Church, as with ‘the field’, 566.