Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1242

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1242. 'Eber's two sons' means the two aspects of worship - internal and external - and these two sons were called Peleg and Joktan, 'Peleg' meaning the internal worship of that Church, and 'Joktan' the external worship of that Church. This is clear chiefly from the fact that 'Eber and the Hebrew nation' means in the internal sense this second Ancient Church, and also because every Church has an internal and an external, for without the internal it neither is nor can be called a Church, but idolatry. Since 'sons' has reference to aspects of the Church it is clear that one son means the internal aspect of the Church, the other the external. A similar duality frequently occurs elsewhere in the Word, for example, that meant previously by Lamech's wives, Adah and Zillah, 409, and that meant later on by Leah and Rachel, and by Jacob and Israel, and others like these. The descendants of Joktan are dealt with in this chapter, those of Peleg in the next.


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