3466. 'Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba' means the essential nature of the doctrine resulting from that conjunction. This is clear from the meaning of 'the name' as the essential nature, dealt with immediately above in 3465, and from the meaning of 'the city' as doctrine, dealt with in 420, 2449, 2712, 2943, 3216. Consequently Beersheba, which in the original language means 'the well of the oath', accordingly means doctrine concerning confirmed truth. That 'Beersheba' means doctrine, see 2723, 2858, 2859. In Chapter 21:30, 31 above it is said,
Because you will take the seven ewe-lambs from my hand, that there may be a witness for me that I dug this well. Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.
'Beersheba' at that point meant the state and nature of the doctrine that came from the Divine and through which the conjunction was effected. And as the subject was the interior features of that Church it is said that 'that place' was called Beersheba, whereas here, the subject being the exterior features of that Church, it is said that 'the city' was so called. For in reference to its interior features the expression 'the place' - meaning its state, 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387 - is used; but in reference to its exterior features the expression 'the city', meaning doctrine, is used; for the state and the essential nature of doctrine are determined by the Church's interior qualities.
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