Swedenborg says marriages in the Bible represent the union we all can have between the desire for good and the understanding of truth (or an understanding of how to be good, to put it another way). When we want to do what the Lord wants and know what that is and how to do it, we can be truly human, truly happy, and a force for good.
Marriages tend to produce sons and daughters, and so does that marriage of good and truth in us. Swedenborg says that “daughters” represent affections for specific good things, for specific ways of serving others and being useful. “Sons” represent specific “truths,” or concepts of how to do specific good things.
This general representation is colored in by context. For instance: Swedenborg says Abraham represents the Lord‘s own desire for good, and Sarah represents that desire expressed as truth. So their son, Isaac, represents the specific ideas springing from that union, which Swedenborg calls the “Divine Rational.”
As with all things, “son” can also be used in the negative, meaning falsity that springs from evil.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1147
- ‘And sons were born to them’ means matters of doctrine deriving from those three. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sons’ in the internal sense as truths of faith, and also as falsities. Consequently matters of doctrine, both true and false, are meant, for such are the doctrines of Churches. That ‘sons’ has such a meaning, see above in 264, 489, 491, 533.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2066
- ‘And I will also give you a son by her’ means the Rational. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a son’ as truth, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147. And because the whole of the rational originates in truth, ‘a son’ here means the rational. The Lord’s first rational was represented and meant by Ishmael, born from the servant-girl Hagar. This was dealt with previously in Chapter 16. The second Rational, which is the subject here, is represented and meant by Isaac who was to be born from Sarah. The former, that represented by Ishmael, was the rational that was subsequently cast out of the house, but this latter Rational, which is represented by Isaac, is the one that remained in the house, because it was Divine. This rational is in the Lord’s Divine mercy to be described in the next chapter where Isaac is the subject.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2827
- ‘And have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me’ means the union of the Human to the Divine which was effected by means of the final degree of temptation. This becomes clear from the meaning of ‘your son’, that is to say, Isaac, as the Divine Rational, dealt with already, or the Divine Human since this has its beginnings in the Rational, 2106, 2194, the expression ‘only’ being used because it was the only begotten, see 2773; and from the meaning of ‘not withholding from Me’ as causing it to be united, namely to the Divine itself. As regards this union being effected by means of the final degree of temptation, this is evident from all that has gone before.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5912
- ‘You and your sons, and the sons of your sons’ means spiritual good, and all derivatives from it, and further derivatives from these. This is clear from the representation of Israel, to whom ‘you’ refers here, as spiritual good, dealt with above in 5906; from the meaning of ‘his sons’ as derivatives from that good, that is, the truths in the natural which are represented by ‘his sons’; and from the meaning of ‘the sons of his sons’ as derivatives from these, that is to say, further truths so born and derived. For when good occupies the first place and has dominion, it is constantly bringing forth truths. It then multiplies these around itself and also around each truth, making each truth like a star, the middle of which is shining brightly. But that good does not merely multiply the truths around itself; it also brings forth from those truths further truths by means of successive derivations, which are ‘the sons of sons’ or grandsons, and so on after them.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6366
- ‘Your father’s sons will bow down to you’ means that truths will submit themselves of their own accord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bowing down’ as submitting oneself, and from the meaning of ‘father’s sons’ as truths that spring from spiritual good; for ‘the sons of Israel’ are spiritual truths, 5414, 5879, 5951, and ‘Israel’ is spiritual good, 5801, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. The reason why those truths submit themselves of their own accord is that when celestial love, represented by ‘Judah’, flows into spiritual truths, represented by ‘the sons of Israel’, it rearranges them into order and submits them in that condition to the Lord.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8876
- ‘Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons’ means the consequent propagation of falsity from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘visiting the iniquity of the fathers’ as the propagation of evils, the reason why ‘visiting’ means propagating being that the subject is the state of those who completely reject the Divine, therefore who are receptive no longer of good but of evil, and constantly so since evil is constantly increasing with such people, which is the propagation of it (for the meaning of ‘father’ as good and in the contrary sense as evil, see 3703, 5902, 6050, 7833, 7834); and from the meaning of ‘the sons’ as truths, dealt with in 1147, 2623, 3373, and therefore in the contrary sense as falsities In the proximate sense ‘visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons’ does not mean that sons pay the penalty for the iniquity of their fathers, for that is contrary to the Divine, Deut. 24:16. Rather the meaning in that sense is that evil increases with the fathers and so is passed on by heredity to their children, and that consequently the evil mounts up over successive generations, 2910, 3701, 4317, 8550, 8551. In the spiritual sense however ‘the fathers’ does not mean fathers but evils, and ‘the sons’ does not mean sons but falsities; therefore those words mean the constant propagation of falsity from evil.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9295
[4] All this shows what ‘harvest’ means in the following places, as in Matthew,
He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the seed is the sons of the kingdom; the tares are the sons of the kingdom of the evil one;** the enemy who sows them is the devil; but the harvest is the close of the age, while the harvesters are the angels. Matt. 13:37-39.
‘The good seed’ is the truths of faith received from the Lord; ‘the Son of Man’ is the Lord in respect of the Church’s truths; ‘the world’ which ‘the field’ stands for is the entire human race; ‘the sons of the kingdom’ whom ‘the seed’ stands for are the Church’s truths of faith; ‘the sons of the kingdom of the evil one’ whom ‘the tares’ stand for are the Church’s falsities of faith; ‘the devil’ whom ‘the enemy’ stands for and who sows them is hell; ‘the close of the age’ which ‘the harvest’ stands for is the final state of the Church in respect of the reception of the truths of faith in good; and ‘the angels’ whom ‘the harvesters’ stand for are truths from the Lord. That such things are meant by those words spoken by the Lord may be recognized from their internal sense indicated throughout this explanation of them. All this also shows the manner in which the Lord spoke when He was in the world, namely by the use of images that carried a spiritual meaning, and the reason why He did so was in order that the Word might exist not only for the world but also for heaven.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 139
- “‘I will kill her sons with death.'” (2:23) This symbolically means that truths from the Word with them will all be turned into falsities.
Sons in the Word symbolize truths, and in an opposite sense falsities. To kill sons, therefore, symbolically means to turn truths into falsities, for thus the truths perish. Nothing else is meant by “the slain of Jehovah.”*
To kill her sons with death also means, symbolically, to condemn those people’s falsities.
Sons symbolize truths, and in an opposite sense falsities, because in the spiritual sense of the Word generations mean spiritual generations. The case is the same with blood relations and relations by marriage, and so with terms referring to these, such as father, mother, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, and the rest. No other sons or daughters are born of a spiritual generation than truths and goods (see nos. 542 and 543 below).
*�See Isaiah 66:16. Jeremiah 25:33.