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.

2065. That 'I will bless her' means the multiplication of truth is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed' as being enriched with everything good and true, dealt with in Volume One, in 981, 1096, 1420, 1422. Since here it is Sarah to whom the statement that God would bless her refers, the enrichment or multiplication of truth is meant, for, as shown already, 'Sarah' represents and means truth that is joined to good, which is intellectual truth. Such truth, and the multiplication of it, is the subject here. As to what intellectual truth is, see what has been said already in 1904.