5287. A man intelligent and wise. That this signifies about the inflowing truth and good, is evident from the signification of an "intelligent man," as being truth, and of a "wise man," as being the good of truth. Be it known that in the internal sense by a "man intelligent and wise" is not meant any such man, but abstractedly from person that which belongs to one who is intelligent and wise, thus truth and good. In the other life, especially in the heavens, all thought, and hence all speech, are carried on by means of what is abstracted from persons, and therefore thought and speech there are universal, and are relatively without limit; for so far as thought and speech are determined to persons and their specific qualities, and to names, and also to words, so far they become less universal, and are determined to the actual thing, and there abide. On the other hand, insofar as they are not determined to persons and what is connected with them, but to realities abstracted from them, so far they are determined away from the actual thing, and are extended beyond self, and the mental view becomes higher and consequently more universal.
[2] This is very apparent from man's thought, which insofar as it regards the words of one speaking, so far it does not regard his meaning; and which insofar as it regards the particular things of the memory, and dwells on them, so far it does not perceive the nature of the real things; and, still more important, insofar as it regards itself in everything, so far it narrows the thoughts and removes itself from viewing a subject in a universal manner. Hence it is that in proportion as anyone loves himself more than others, in the same proportion he is less wise. From this it is now plain why things abstracted from persons are signified in the internal sense by the things which in the sense of the letter are determined to persons (see also n. 5225). In the Word a distinction is occasionally made between "wisdom," "intelligence," and "knowledge;" and by "wisdom" is meant what is from good, by "intelligence" what is from truth, and by "knowledge" both of these in man's natural; as in Moses:
I have filled Bezaleel with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in intelligence, and in knowledge, and in all work (Exod. 31:2-3; 35:30-31);
and again:
Give you men, wise and understanding, and knowing, according to your tribes; that I may set them for your heads (Deut. 1:13).