863. Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made symbolizes the second state, when religious truth appeared to them. This can be seen from the final words of the last verse (saying that the heads of the mountains appeared) and their meaning; from the symbolism of a window; and from the fact that this is the first moment of light. A window, dealt with above at §655, symbolizes the intellectual side of things and consequently religious truth, which is the same thing.

As for the intellectual realm or the religious truth that the window symbolizes, I must make the same remark as before [§§854, 859]: No religious truth is at all possible unless it develops out of the goodness that goes with love or with charity, just as nothing truly belongs to the intellect unless it rises out of something in the will. If you take away volition, there is no comprehension, as demonstrated several times already [§§112, 585, 590, 628]. So if you take away charity, there is no faith.

But since the human will is undiluted greed, the Lord made a miraculous provision to prevent us from plunging the contents of the intellect — religious truth — into our selfish desires. He divided what belongs to the intellect from our will by the specific means of conscience, which he infuses with charity. Without this miraculous act of providence, no one could ever have been saved.

628. The inner meaning here is that all people everywhere in the land — in the church's territory — had made their way corrupt, so that they did not comprehend truth, since all of them had turned their attention to the bodily plane. This included not only those mentioned in the last verse [Genesis 6:11] but also those referred to as "Noah," specifically discussed both here and in the next verse. Before being reborn, they had the same character as the others. These details come first because the story of their rebirth waits till later [Genesis 8:15-22]. And since little of the church remained, the name God rather than Jehovah is now being used.

The present verse signals the fact that nothing true had survived, and the next, that nothing good had. The only truth and goodness left was the remnant possessed by the people called "Noah," because without a remnant regeneration is impossible. The doctrinal concepts that they knew about also survived.

There was no comprehension of truth, however, because this is out of the question where no will to do good exists. When will is absent, so too is intellect, and the better or worse the will is, the better or worse the intellect. The earliest people had a will to do good because they loved the Lord, and from this they had a comprehension of truth. This ability to comprehend, though, was completely destroyed along with the will.

A glimmering of truth on the rational plane and a trace of goodness on the earthly plane did remain to the people called "Noah," and for this reason they were capable of rebirth.