3264. 'Whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's servant-girl, bore to Abraham' means the birth of the spiritual man brought about by Divine influx into the affection for knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'bearing' as coming into being, dealt with in 2621, 2629, from the representation of 'Hagar the Egyptian' as the life of the exterior man', dealt with in 1896, 1909, and from the meaning of 'servant-girl' as the affection for knowledge and cognitions which belong in the exterior man, dealt with in 1895, 2691. She is called 'Sarah's servant-girl' because 'Sarah' represents the Lord's Divine Truth to which the affection for knowledge and cognitions of truth was subordinate. Since Ishmael represents the spiritual man it is evident that the words 'Whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's servant-girl, bore to Abraham' mean the birth of the spiritual man brought about by Divine influx into the affection for knowledge. This is the way in which man's rational is born, see 1895, 1896, 1902, 1910, 2094, 2557, 3030, 3074, and therefore the way in which his spiritual is born, seeing that this has no existence except within the rational.

[2] Consequently the spiritual man and the rational man are practically the same. The difference between one spiritual person and another lies solely in what each person's reason and his life resulting from this are like. Their birth or regeneration is brought about by Divine influx into the affection for cognitions, see 1555, 1904, 2046, 2063, 2189, 2657, 2675, 2691 (end), 2697, 2979. See what has been stated and shown already about Ishmael - that he represented the Lord's first rational which was not as yet Divine, 1893, and that later on he represented those who are truly rational, or who are spiritual, 2078, 2691, and so represented the Lord's spiritual Church, 2699.

2078. 'O that Ishmael might live before You!' means that others who are rational from truth should not perish. This is clear from the representation and consequent meaning of 'Ishmael' as the rational, dealt with in the previous chapter, where Ishmael was the subject. Inside the Church there are two types of people, namely spiritual and celestial. The former - the spiritual - become rational from truth, but the latter - the celestial - do so from good. For what distinguishes spiritual people from celestial, see 2069 above, and in many places in Volume One. The former, namely spiritual people who become rational through truth, are here meant by 'Ishmael', for the name 'Ishmael' in its genuine sense means rational truth, as shown already in 1839, 1949 1951. When this rational truth is adopted and desired by good, as it is here by the Lord (meant by Abraham), it means that which is spiritual, and so the spiritual man. Or what amounts to the same, it means the spiritual Church, the salvation of which the Lord, out of the Divine love referred to immediately above in 2077, earnestly desired. That desire is expressed by the words, O that Ishmael might live before You!