137. It says in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word: all things were made by means of him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of humankind. He was in the world, and the world was made by means of him. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory. (John 1:1, 3-4, 10, 14)

It is clear that the Lord is the one who is meant by "the Word," since it says that the Word was made flesh. Precisely what is meant by "the Word," though, is not yet known and must therefore be stated. The Word in this passage is the divine truth that is in the Lord and from the Lord, ¹ so here it is also called the light, which is divine truth, as has been shown earlier in this chapter. Now we need to explain the statement that all things were made and created by means of divine truth.

[2] In heaven, it is divine truth that possesses all power, and apart from it there is no power whatever. ² All angels are called "powers" because of divine truth, and are powers to the extent that they are recipients or vessels of it. Through it they prevail over the hells and over all who oppose them. A thousand enemies there cannot bear one ray of heavenly light, which is divine truth. Since angels are angels because of their acceptance of divine truth, it follows that all heaven is from this source and no other, since heaven is made up of angels.

[3] People cannot believe that this kind of power is inherent in divine truth if the only concept of truth they have has to do with thought or speech, which have no power in them except to the extent that other people concede it by being obedient. There is an intrinsic power within divine truth, though, power of such nature that by means of it heaven, the world, and everything in them was created.

We can illustrate the fact that this kind of power is inherent in divine truth by two comparisons - by the power of what is true and good in us, and by the power of light and warmth from the sun in our world.

By the power of what is true and good in us: Everything we do, we do out of our discernment and intent. Out of our intent, we act by means of what is good, and out of our discernment by means of what is true. In fact, all the elements of our volition are related to what is good, and all the elements of our discernment are related to what is true. ³ On this basis, then, we set our whole body in motion and a thousand things there rush to do our bidding of their own accord. We can see from this that our whole body is formed for obedience to what is good and true and therefore from what is good and true.

[4] By the power of light and warmth from the sun in our world: Everything that grows in our world - things like trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, fruits, and seeds - arises only by means of the warmth and light of the sun. So we can see what kind of productive power is inherent in that warmth and light. What about the divine light that is divine truth, then, and the divine warmth that is divine good, the source from which heaven comes into being and consequently the world as well, since as we have shown above, it is through heaven that the world comes into being?

This enables us to determine how to understand the statement that all things were made by means of the Word, and that without him nothing was made that was made, and further that the world was made by means of him, namely that this was accomplished by means of divine truth from the Lord. ⁴

This is also why in the book of creation it first mentions light and then the things that arise from light (Genesis 1:3-4). It is also why everything in all heaven and earth has to do with what is good and true and to their union if it is to be anything at all. ⁵

Фусноте:

2935. 'Let him give me the cave of Machpelah [which is his]' means the obscurity of faith [that was theirs]. This is clear from the meaning of 'a cave' as obscurity, dealt with in 2463, and from the meaning of 'Machpelah' as faith which is enveloped in obscurity. The reason 'a cave' means obscurity is that it is a place filled with darkness. When reference is made to a mountain cave - as in Genesis 19:30, where it is said that Lot lived in a mountain cave - obscurity as regards good is meant, but when reference is made to the cave in the field of Machpelah obscurity as regards truth is meant. Here, because the expression 'the cave of Machpelah' is used - Machpelah being the field at the end of which the cave was situated - an obscurity as regards truth, or what amounts to the same, as regards faith is meant. From this it is also evident that Machpelah is faith which is enveloped in obscurity.

[2] Those who are being regenerated and becoming spiritual are very much in obscurity as regards truth. With them good from the Lord is indeed flowing in, but truth less so. Consequently a parallelism and correspondence exists with man between the Lord and good, but not between Him and truth, see 1832. The chief reason for this is that men do not know what good is, and if they did know they would still not believe it at heart. And as long as their good is enveloped in obscurity, so too is their truth, for it is from good that all truth springs. Or to be more explicit, the idea that the Lord is Good itself, and that everything which in itself is a manifestation of love to Him and of charity towards the neighbour is good, and that everything which declares and confirms this is truth, they do not know except in an extremely obscure way. Indeed they even entertain doubts, and allow reasonings to enter in against those considerations. And as long as their state is such, the light of truth from the Lord cannot flow in. Indeed they think of the Lord as they do of another human being and not of Him as God; and they model their idea of love to Him on some worldly kind of love. What genuine affection that stems from charity towards the neighbour is they scarcely know at all, or even what charity is and what the neighbour is. Yet these are essentials. From this one may recognize the great obscurity in which spiritual people are and which is all the greater before regeneration has taken place, which state is the subject here.