According to Swedenborg, men in the Bible generally represent things of the intellect – facts, ideas, knowledge, everything from the deepest truths to the most pernicious falsities about life and the Lord. Women generally represents things of affection – desire, passion, caring, everything from the most exalted love for the Lord to the blackest hatred. When a man “knows” a woman in the Bible, then, it represents a joining together of those intellectual and affectionate faculties.
This can, of course, be a wonderful thing: It is essential for our journey to heaven, and is the reason for the holiness of marriage. But when the men represent falsity it can also be horrendously twisted, as in the attempted rape of the angels in Sodom (Gen. 19) and the rape of the concubine in Gibeah (Judges 19).
“Know” is also often used in connection with virginity. A women who has “not known a man” represents the affection for truth, unsullied by falsity.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2354
2354. ‘Bring them out to us and let us know them’ means their wish to show that it is false to acknowledge the existence of these, that is to say, of the Lord’s Divine Human and His Holy proceeding. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the two angels’, dealt with above in 2320, and also from the feeling of anger with which these words were uttered, and which carries an expression of denial within it.
[2] Being described here is the initial state of the Church that has been vastated, that is, when faith starts to be no more because charity is no more. This state, as has been said, is one in which, because they are opposed to the good of charity, no faith exists with them, in particular no acknowledgement of the Lord’s Divine Human and His Holy proceeding. All who lead a life of evil deny these at heart, that is to say, all who despise others in comparison with themselves, who hate all those who do not treat them with respect, who take delight in getting their revenge on such, and indeed in being cruel to them, and who think that acts of adultery do not matter. ‘The Pharisees who openly denied the Lord’s Divinity did better in their own day than such people today who, for the sake of the respect paid to them and for the sake of their own filthy gain, outwardly worship Him devoutly but inwardly conceal such unholiness. These, as they were progressively to become, are pictured in what follows as ‘the men of Sodom’, and after that in the overthrow of that city, verses 24, 25.
[3] As stated frequently already, man has evil spirits and at the same time angels present with him. Through the evil spirits he communicates with hell, and through the angels with heaven, 687, 697. To the extent therefore that his life moves towards evil, hell flows in; but to the extent his life moves towards good, heaven and so the Lord flows in. From this it is clear that people who lead lives of evil are incapable of acknowledging the Lord. Instead they invent countless arguments against Him, for the delusions of hell flow in which are received by them. But those who lead lives of good do acknowledge the Lord, for they have heaven flowing into them, where love and charity reign supreme since heaven is the Lord’s, who is the source from which everything of love and charity derives, see 537, 540, 547, 548, 551, 553, 685, 2130.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2362
2362. That ‘behold now, I have two daughters, who have not known a man’ means the affections for good and for truth is clear from the meaning of ‘daughters’ as affections, dealt with in 489-491. ‘They have not known a man’ means that they have not been defiled by falsity, for ‘a man’ means rational truth, and also in the contrary sense falsity, 265, 749, 1007.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3081
3081. The reason ‘no man had known her’ means pure from everything false is that ‘a man’ (vir) in the Word means not only rational truth but also in the contrary sense falsity, see 265, 749, 1007, so that ‘known by a man’ means defiled by falsity, and ‘not known by a man’ pure from falsity. The word ‘man’ (vir) is not used here in the sense of a husband.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3242
[4] The acts of whoredom committed by the sons of Israel with Midianite women which brought about the plague that Phinehas checked by running through with his spear the Midianite woman and the Israelite man in the brothel, Num. 25:6-8, and following verses, has a similar meaning, for acts of whoredom represented falsifications of truth, 2466, 2729. And because falsifications of truth are what are meant in the internal sense by acts of whoredom, therefore by command twelve thousand of the children of Israel assailed them, killed their kings, all the males, and the women they had taken captive who had had carnal knowledge of a man, and divided the booty among themselves, Num. 25:16, 17; 31:1-end. The reason why ‘twelve thousand’ were involved was that ‘twelve’ means all things of faith, 577, 2089, 2129 (end), 2130 (end), by means of which falsities are destroyed. ‘The kings’ they killed are falsities, as also are ‘the males’, ‘the women who had had carnal knowledge of a man’ are affections for falsity, and ‘the booty’ which consisted of gold, silver, and cattle, are truths that have been falsified. From this it is evident that every single thing mentioned there is representative of the punishment and destruction of falsity by means of truths.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4914
4914. ‘And he did not know her ever again’ means that there was no further joining together. This is clear from the meaning of ‘knowing’ as being joined to and from the meaning of ‘not ever again’ as no further. The meaning is therefore that there was no further joining to the internal aspect of the Church – for ‘Tamar’ represents that internal aspect. For this reason also Judah did not have any more sons.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 555
[15] Since by man and woman is signified the conjunction of truth and good, therefore Moses, when he saw that the sons of Israel took to themselves the female captives of the Midianites their enemies, commanded that they should kill every woman that had known man (vir) by lying with him, but that they should keep alive the women that had not known [man] (Num. xxx. 16-18). These things were commanded because a woman (femina) not conjoined to a man signified the church as to the affection for truth, or for conjunction with truth; but a woman (mulier) conjoined to a Midianitish man, signified good adulterated. For the Midianites represented, and thence signified, the truth which is not truth because not from good, consequently falsity; and hence it was that the women were to be slain who had known man, and that those who had not known man were to be preserved alive. That the Midianitish women signified the defilement of good by falsities, and thence good adulterated and profaned, which is foul adultery, is evident from the circumstances related concerning the whoredom of the sons of Israel with the women of the Midianites (Numbers xxv.).
[16] He who does not know that a woman signifies the spiritual affection for truth, and he who does not know that the evils and falsities which are present in every one are in the natural man, and not any in the spiritual man, cannot know the signification of that which is written concerning a female captive, in Moses:
“If thou seest in captivity a beautiful woman,” from thine enemies, “and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife; thou shalt bring her into the midst of thy house, where she shall shave her head and pare her nails; then she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and bewail her father and her mother a month of days, afterwards thou shalt go in unto her, and know her, and she shall be thy wife” (Deut. xxi. 11-13).
By a woman, is signified the church as to the spiritual affection for truth, or the spiritual affection for truth pertaining to the man of the church, but by a beautiful captive woman is signified the religion of the Gentiles in whom is the desire or affection for truth. By her being brought into the midst of the house, and there shaving her head, paring her nails, and afterwards putting the raiment of her captivity from off her, is signified being led into the interior or spiritual things of the church, and by means of them rejecting the evils and falsities of the natural and sensual man. The midst of the house signifies things interior, which are spiritual things; the hair of the head, that was to be shaved, signifies the falsities and evils of the natural man; the nails, that were to be pared, signify the falsities and evils of the sensual man; and the raiment of captivity signifies the falsity of the religion in which he who desires truth from affection is, as it were, held captive. The latter and the former things therefore he will reject, because they are in the natural and sensual man, as was said above. That she should bewail her father and mother a month of days, signifies that the evils and falsities of his religion should be buried in oblivion; that the man should afterwards go in unto her, and know her, and that she should be his wife, signifies that thus truth, which is the man (vir), should be conjoined with its affection, which is the wife (uxor).
No one can know why this statute was given, unless he understand, from the spiritual sense, what is signified by a woman taken captive from the enemy, what by the midst or inmost of the house, what by hair, nails, and the raiment of captivity, and unless he know something concerning the conjunction of truth and good, for on this conjunction are founded all the precepts in the Word concerning marriages. The church as to the affection for truth is also signified by the woman clothed with the sun, labouring to bring forth, before whom stood the dragon when she brought forth the man-child; and who afterwards fled into the wilderness (Rev. xii. 1 to end). That the woman here signifies the church, and the man-child whom she brought forth, the doctrine of truth, will be seen in the explanation below.