1. The Holy Scripture Throughout Has the Lord As Its Subject, and the Lord Embodies the Word

We read in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of people. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.... And the Word moreover became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as though of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 14)

Again in the same Gospel:

...the light came into the world, but people loved darkness more than light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

And elsewhere in it:

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be children of light.... I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:36, 46)

It is apparent from this that the Lord is, from eternity, God, and that God Himself is the Lord who was born in the world. For we are told that the Word was with God, and that the Word was God. Also that without Him nothing was made that was made. And later we are told that the Word became flesh, and people beheld Him.

[2] Why the Lord is called the Word is little understood in the church. However, He is called the Word because the term “Word” symbolizes Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself, and the Lord embodies Divine truth itself or Divine wisdom itself. That, too, is why He is called the light, which is also said to have come into the world.

Because Divine wisdom and Divine love are united, and were united in the Lord from eternity, therefore we are told as well that “In Him was life, and the life was the light of people.” Life means Divine love, and light Divine wisdom.

This is the union meant by the statement that the Word was in the beginning with God and that God was the Word. With God means in God, for wisdom is present in love, and love in wisdom.

So, too, we find elsewhere in John:

...Father, glorify Me with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. (John 17:5)

“With Yourself” means in Yourself. That, too, is why we are told, “And God was the Word.” And elsewhere that the Lord is in the Father, and the Father in Him, and that He and the Father are one.

Now because the Word is the Divine wisdom accompanying Divine love, it follows that it is Jehovah Himself, thus the Lord, by whom all things were made that were made, inasmuch as they were all created out of Divine love by means of Divine wisdom.

1005. That 'requiring your blood with your souls' means that violence done to charity will punish itself, 'blood' meaning violence, and 'souls' people who do violence, is clear from what comes before and after, and also from the meaning of 'blood' in the contrary sense, as well as from the meaning of 'soul' in the contrary sense. First from what comes before in the previous verse referring to the eating of blood, which, as shown, meant profanation, and from what comes after in the next verse referring to the shedding of blood, it is consequently clear that the subject here is the state and the punishment of one who mixes holy things with unholy. It is further clear from the meaning of 'blood' in the contrary sense, in that 'blood' in the genuine sense means that which is celestial and in reference to a regenerate spiritual person means charity - which constitutes the celestial in his case - but in the contrary sense means violence done to charity, and therefore that which is contrary to charity, namely all hatred, all revenge, all cruelty, and especially profanation, as becomes clear from the places in the Word that are quoted in 374, 376. Finally it is clear from the meaning of 'soul' in the contrary sense, in that in the Word 'soul' means life, in general, and so everybody who lives, but also means, since a person's life is by nature what he himself is, any individual who does violence. This may be confirmed from many parts of the Word, but for the moment let solely the following from Moses do so,

He who eats blood, I will set My face ¹ against the soul eating blood, and I will cut him off from among his people, for the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls, for the blood itself will make atonement by reason of the soul. Leviticus 17:10-11, 14.

Here 'soul' stands for life in three different senses, as it does many times elsewhere. The fact that violence done to charity will punish itself will be clear from what follows.

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