894. 'At the beginning, on the first of the month' means a starting point. This is now clear from what has been said above. Everything that this statement embodies is an arcanum so deep that it cannot be described, except for just the point that no definite period of time ever exists when anyone is regenerate enough to be able to say, 'Now I am perfect'. In fact an unlimited number of states of evil and falsity exist with everyone, not only simple states but also varied and complex ones which, as has been stated, have to be disposed of in such a way that they do not recur. In some states a person can be called fairly perfect, but in countless others he cannot. People who have been regenerated during their lifetime, and in whose lives faith in the Lord and charity towards the neighbour have been present, are in the next life being perfected all the time.

4615. 'Where Abraham and Isaac sojourned' means Divine life together with it. This is clear from the meaning of 'sojourning' as life, dealt with in 1463, 2025; from the representation of 'Abraham' as the Lord's Divine itself, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3251, 3439, 3703, 4206, 4207; and from the representation of 'Isaac' as His Divine Rational, 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 2774, 3012, 3194, 3210, 4180. It is because the joining together of the Divine Natural and the Divine Rational is the subject here that Abraham and Isaac are mentioned at this point and are said to have sojourned there [in Hebron], so as to mean Divine life together with it, that is to say, together with the Divine Natural meant by 'Jacob'. And because the Divine itself, the Divine Rational, and the Divine Natural are one within the Lord, the verb used in the phrase 'where Abraham and Isaac sojourned' is singular, not plural.