737. 'Noah was a son of six hundred years' means his initial state of temptation. This is clear from the fact from here down to Eber in Chapter 11 nothing else is meant by numbers, years of age, or names than real things, as was the case also with the ages and names of all those mentioned in Chapter 5. Here 'six hundred years' means the initial state of temptation. This becomes clear from its prime factors which are ten and six multiplied again by ten. When the same factors are involved it makes no difference whether the number arrived at is large or small. As for ten, this has been shown already at 6:3 to mean remnants, while the meaning of six here as labour and conflict is clear from places throughout the Word. For the situation is this: What has gone before dealt with man's preparation for temptation, that is to say, he was supplied by the Lord with truths of the understanding and with goods of the will. These truths and goods are remnants, but they are not brought forth so as to be acknowledged until man is being regenerated. In the case of those who are being regenerated by means of temptations the remnants existing with any man are for the angels present with him. From these remnants they draw out those things with which they protect him against the evil spirits who activate falsities with him and in this way attack him. It is because remnants are meant by 'ten' and conflict by 'six' that six hundred years are spoken of, a number in which ten and six are the prime factors and which means a state of temptation.

[2] As regards conflict being the particular meaning of 'six', this is clear from Genesis 1, which describes the six days of man's regeneration prior to his becoming celestial. During those six days there was constant conflict, but on the seventh day came rest. Consequently there are six days of labour, and the seventh is the sabbath, a word which means rest. This also is why a Hebrew slave was to serve for six years and in the seventh was to go free, Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12; Jeremiah 34:14, and why for six years they were to sow the land and gather in the produce, but in the seventh they were to leave it alone, Exodus 23:10-12. The same applied to a vineyard. It is also the reason why in the seventh year the land was to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to Jehovah, Leviticus 25:3-4. Because 'six' means labour and conflict it also means the dispersion of falsity, as in Ezekiel,

Behold, six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which looks towards the north, every man with a weapon of dispersion in his hand. Ezekiel 9:2.

And in the same prophet, against Gog,

I will cause you to turn about, and I will split you into six, and cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north. Ezekiel 39:2.

Here 'six' and 'splitting into six' stand for dispersion, 'the north' for falsities, and 'Gog' for people who seize on doctrinal matters based on things of an external nature with which they destroy internal worship. From Job,

He will deliver you in six troubles, and in a seventh no evil will touch you. Job 5:19.

This stands for the conflict that constitutes temptations.

[3] 'Six' occurs in other parts of the Word where it does not mean labour, conflict, or the dispersion of falsity, but the holiness of faith. In these instances it is related to twelve, which means faith and all things of faith in their entirety, and to three which means that which is holy. Consequently there is also a genuine derivative meaning to the number six, as in Ezekiel 40:5, where the man's measuring rod with which he measured the holy city of Israel was six cubits long; and in other places. The reason for this derivative is that in the conflict of temptation the holiness of faith is present, and also that six days of labour and conflict look forward to the holy seventh day.

935. Yielding its fruit according to the month. This symbolically means that the Lord produces the goods in a person in accordance with every state of truth in him.

A month symbolizes a person's state of life in respect to truth, as will be seen below. To yield fruit means, symbolically, to produce goods. That fruits are goods of love and charity is something we just showed in no. 934 above. Moreover, because it is the Lord who essentially produces these in a person - even though the person does them as though of himself, thus apparently, as we said in no. 934 above - it follows that the symbolic meaning here is that the Lord produces them inmostly when He is present there.

But we must say how one is to understand the Lord's producing goods of charity in a person in accordance with every state of truth in him.

Someone who believes that a person does good acceptable to the Lord, good that is called spiritual good, without possessing in him truths from the Word, is much mistaken. Goods without truths are not good, and truths without goods are not true in the person, even though they are true in themselves. For good without truth is like something a person wills without understanding, a volition that is not human, but one like that of an animal, or like that of a robot that an operator causes to function.

On the other hand, volition together with comprehension becomes human in accordance with the state of the intellect by which it finds expression. For the condition of everyone's life is such that a person's will can do nothing without the instrumentality of the intellect, nor can the intellect entertain any thought without doing so from the will. The case is the same with goodness and truth, since goodness has to do with the will, and truth with the intellect.

[2] It is apparent from this that the good that the Lord produces in a person accords with the state of truth in him that forms his understanding.

This is what the tree of life yielding its fruit every month symbolizes, because a month symbolizes the state of truth in a person.

All periods of time, such as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and centuries, symbolize states of life, as may be seen in nos. 476, 562. Months symbolize states of life in respect to truths, because months mean times determined by the moon, and the moon symbolizes the truth of the intellect and of faith (nos. 332, 413, 414, 919).

Months have the same meaning in the following:

Blessed of Jehovah is (Joseph's) land..., with the precious fruits of the sun, and with the precious produce of the months... (Deuteronomy 33:13-14)

It shall come to pass that from month to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to bow down before (Jehovah).... (Isaiah 66:23)

Because of the symbolic meaning of a month, which is the same as that of the moon, sacrifices were made at the beginnings of each month or new moon (Numbers 29:1-6, Isaiah 1:14). The Israelites also sounded the trumpets then (Numbers 10:10, Psalms 81:3). And they were commanded to observe the month of Abib, in which they celebrated Passover (Exodus 12:2, Deuteronomy 16:1).

Months symbolize states of truth in a person, and in an opposite sense states of falsity in him, as may also be seen above in Revelation 9:5, 10, 15; 11:2, and 13:5.

A month has the same symbolic meaning here as in Ezekiel 47:12.