There is a long history of using travel to round out an education, from the 19th-century “world tours” taken by Oxford and Cambridge graduates to the exchange programs and semesters abroad offered in modern school programs. The idea is pretty straightforward: By immersing ourselves in other cultures we can both learn about them and also deepen our minds, opening up our thinking to be more accepting of a variety of ideas.
It is fitting, then, that to “sojourn” in the Bible – to live in a foreign land – represents (according to Swedenborg) instruction, learning the things represented by that area. This is used quite a bit in the early parts of the Bible, when Abraham and his immediate descendants sojourned in a variety of foreign places. It arises also later in the Old Testament, with the Israelites given rules on how to treat sojourners in their midst.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1463
1463. That ‘sojourning’ means receiving instruction becomes clear from the meaning in the Word of ‘sojourning’ as receiving instruction, and it has this meaning because sojourning and passing on, or moving from one place to another, is in heaven nothing else than a change of state, as shown already in 1376, 1379. Therefore every time travelling, sojourning, or transferring from one place to another occurs in the Word nothing else suggests itself to angels than a change of state such as takes place with them. There are changes of state both of thoughts and of affections. Changes of the state of thoughts are cognitions, which in the world of spirits are represented by means of forms of instruction. This also explains why members of the Most Ancient Church, having communication with the angelic heaven, did not perceive anything else by ‘sojourning’. Thus the statement here that ‘Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn’ does not mean anything other than the Lord’s being instructed.
[2] Something similar is meant by Jacob and his sons going down into Egypt, as in Isaiah,
Thus said the Lord Jehovih, My people went down to Egypt at first to sojourn there, and Asshur oppressed them without cause. Isa. 52:4.
Here ‘Asshur’ stands for reasonings. This is also why in the Jewish Church people who were receiving instruction were called ‘sojourners, sojourning in their midst’ who, it was commanded, were to receive the same treatment as the native-born, Exod. 12:48, 49; Lev. 24:22; Num. 15:13-16, 26, 29; 19:10. Regarding sojourners it is said in Ezekiel,
You shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. You shall divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves and for sojourners, sojourning in your midst. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel, they shall cast lots with you for an inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel. In the tribe with which the sojourner has sojourned, there shall you give him his inheritance. Ezek. 47:21-23.
This refers to the new Jerusalem, or the Lord’s kingdom. ‘Sojourners sojourning’ is used to mean people who allow themselves to receive instruction, consequently the gentiles. That ‘sojourners’ stands for people who are receiving instruction is clear from the fact that it is said ‘in the tribe with which he has sojourned, there shall an inheritance be given him’. ‘Tribes’ stands for the things that constitute faith.
[3] ‘Sojourning’ is also similar in meaning to travelling and dwelling. ‘Travelling’ means the established patterns and order of life, while ‘dwelling’ means living, both dealt with already in 1293. For the same reasons the land of Canaan is also called ‘the land of the sojournings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’, in Gen. 28:4; 36:7; 37:1; Exod 6:4. And Jacob said to Pharaoh,
The days of the years of my sojournings; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojournings. Gen. 47:9.
Here ‘sojourning’ stands for life and for forms of instruction.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1896
1896. ‘Her name was Hagar’ means the life of the exterior or natural man. This becomes clear from what has been stated already, and also from the meaning of Hagar’ as a foreign woman or one living in foreign parts. ‘Foreigners’ represented people who were to receive instruction, and living in foreign parts represented instruction, and also rules of life, as shown already in 1463. When it is stated in the Word what a person’s name is, as here, that ‘her name was Hagar’, it means that the name embodies something to which attention should be paid, for ‘calling by name’ is knowing a person’s character, as shown already in 144, 145, 340. Not one particle exists in the Word without a reason and without meaning some real thing in the internal sense.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2371
2371. ‘And they said, Did not this one come to sojourn’ means people with different teaching and a different life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sojourning’ as receiving instruction and living, and so as doctrine and life, dealt with in 1463, 2025. Here the nature of the state of the Church around the last times is described, when faith is no more because charity is no more, that is to say, when the good of charity is rejected on doctrinal grounds as well, because it has severed all connection with life.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2496
2496. CONTENTS
In Chapter 12 above the subject was Abraham’s sojourn in Egypt, which meant the instruction that the Lord received in factual knowledge when He was still a boy. In the present chapter the subject is Abraham’s sojourn in Gerar, where Abimelech was. This sojourning in a similar way means instruction received by the Lord, but now it is in matters of doctrine regarding charity and faith. Dealt with in particular here is the origin of the doctrine of charity and faith; that is to say, that this doctrine is spiritual deriving from a celestial origin but is not from the rational.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4444
[5] But they were in no way forbidden to contract marriages with nations who willingly adopted their worship and who, after being circumcised, acknowledged Jehovah. These they called sojourners sojourning with them, of whom the following is said in Moses,
If a sojourner sojourns with you and wishes to keep the Passover to Jehovah, every male he has shall be circumcised, and then he shall come near and keep it; and he will be as an inhabitant of the land. There shall be one law for the inhabitant and for the sojourner who sojourns in the midst of you. Exod. 12:48, 49.
And elsewhere,
When the sojourner has sojourned with you, he shall keep the Passover to Jehovah according to the statute for the Passover, and according to the regulations* for it. There shall be one statute for you, both for the sojourner and for the native of the land. Num. 9:14.
The reason why they were called sojourners sojourning in the midst of them and with them was that ‘sojourning’ meant receiving instruction, and so ‘a sojourner’ those who allowed themselves to receive instruction in statutes and matters of doctrine, see 1463, 2025, 3672. In the same author,
If a sojourner should sojourn with you who would make a fire-offering of an odour of rest to Jehovah, he shall do as you do. As for the assembly, one statute shall there be for you and for the sojourner who sojourns, an eternal statute throughout your generations. As you are, so shall the sojourner be before Jehovah. There shall be one law and one judgement for you and for the sojourner sojourning with you. Num. 15:14-16.
And elsewhere,
As the native among you shall the sojourner sojourning with you be to you.
Lev. 19:34.
One judgement shall there be for you; it shall be for the sojourner as for the native. Lev. 24:22.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8007
8007. ‘And when a sojourner sojourns with you’ means those who have received instruction in the Church’s truth and good, and have accepted them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a sojourner’ as those who received instruction in and accepted the statutes and laws of the Church, dealt with in 2025, 4444, 7908. The words ‘when he sojourns with you’ are used because ‘sojourning’ means receiving instruction and living, 1463, 3672, so that’ sojourners sojourning with them’ means not only those who received instruction in the Church’s truth and good and accepted them, but also those who led lives in keeping with them.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9196
9196. ‘And a sojourner you shall not afflict and shall not oppress’ means that those who wish to receive instruction in the truths and forms of the good of faith must not be molested with falsities of faith or evils of life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a sojourner’ as one who wishes to receive instruction in things of the Church, thus who wishes to receive instruction in truths and forms of the good of faith, and who receives them and lives in accordance with them, dealt with in 1463, 8007, 8013 (‘a sojourner’ has this meaning because ‘sojourning’ means receiving instruction as well as living, 2025, 3672, 6095); and from the meaning of ‘[not] afflicting’, when it refers to those who wish to receive instruction in the truths and forms of the good of faith, as not molesting with falsities of faith; and from the meaning of ‘[not] oppressing’, when it refers to these same people, as not molesting with evils of life. For those who molest such people with falsities afflict them, and those who molest them with evils oppress them.