To beget or to be begotten is very similar in meaning to birth: It represents one spiritual state leading to the next spiritual one. "Beget," however, is generally linked to fatherhood and the man's role in procreation, while bearing and giving birth is solely the woman's province. This leads to some shades of meaning: Since men typically represent true ideas and women good affections, "begetting" often illustrates how ideas can lead us to do what is good, while giving birth often illustrates how good affections lead us to true thoughts. But it's a blurry line, affected by context and sometimes affected by translation issues. In fact, the most famous "begetting" – Jesus's place as God's "only begotten son" – runs contrary to that pattern. God in His essence is perfect divine love, expressed in the form of perfect divine truth. In "begetting" Jesus He gave his own divine truth – His divine expression – a human form, of human flesh. So it was love begetting truth.

1524. A blazing flame streamed down unexpectedly in front of me, blinding with its power not only the sight of my eyes but also my interior sight. Shortly afterwards a kind of obscurity appeared like a dark cloud containing so to speak something earthy. While I wondered at this I was led to realize that the light among angels in heaven is, in contrast to the light in the world of spirits, so much greater. Although spirits do live in light it is nevertheless as different as that. And as is the case with the light, so too are the intelligence and wisdom of angels superior to the intelligence and wisdom of spirits; and not only their intelligence and wisdom, but also everything connected with these, such as speech, thought, joy, and forms of happiness, for these correspond to the light. From this it has also become clear to me how great angelic perfection is, and what its nature is in contrast to that of men whose obscurity is even greater than that of spirits.