476. That 'male and female' means the marriage of faith and love has been stated and shown already. That is to say, 'male' or man (vir) means the understanding and what belongs to the understanding, and so what belongs to faith, while 'female' means the will, or what belongs to the will, and so what belongs to love. This also is why she was called Eve, from a word meaning life, which belongs to love alone. 'Female' therefore also means the Church, as also shown already, and 'male' the man (vir) of the Church. At present the subject is the state of the Church at the time it was spiritual and shortly to become celestial, which is why the word 'male' comes first, as it does also in 1:26-27. Furthermore the expression 'to create' has regard to the spiritual man. As soon however as that marriage has taken place, that is, the Church has become celestial, it is no longer called 'male and female' but 'Man' (Homo) who by virtue of the marriage means both. Consequently 'and He called their name Man', which means the Church, follows next.

4468. 'And we will be one people' means being joined together in doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'people' as the truth of the Church, and therefore doctrine, 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581. 'Being one people' accordingly means being joined together through doctrine. There are two things which join members of the Church together - life and doctrine. When life joins them together doctrine does not separate them, but if doctrine alone joins them together, as happens within the Church at the present day, they separate themselves from one another and form as many Churches as there are varieties of doctrine, even though doctrine exists for the sake of life, and life ensues from doctrine. Their separation from one another if doctrine alone joins them together is evident from the fact that a person who subscribes to one doctrine condemns him who subscribes to another, sometimes to hell. But doctrine does not separate people if life joins them together. This is evident from the fact that a person who leads a good life does not condemn another because he has a feeling about something different from his own but leaves it be as a matter of the other's faith and conscience. And this is an attitude which he adopts even towards those outside the Church, for he says in his heart that ignorance cannot condemn any of them, provided that they lead lives of innocence and mutual love, as young children do, who also, if they die, are in ignorance.