Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6880

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6880. 'I Am Who I Am' means the Being and the Coming-into-Being of all things throughout creation. This is clear from the fact that 'I Am' means to have Being, and since He alone is Being 'I Am' is used as a name. The reason why 'I Am' occurs twice - that is to say, in 'I Am Who I Am' - is that in one place it means the Being and in the other the Coming-into-Being, Thus one means the Divine itself, which is called the Father, and the other means the Divine Human, which is called the Son; for the Divine Human comes into being from the Divine itself. But now that the Lord has become Divine Being, which is Jehovah, in respect of His Human too, Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord's Divine Human is the Divine Coming-into-Being arising from the Divine Being. From this it may be seen that the Divine Being cannot make contact with anyone except through the Divine Coming-into-Being; that is, the Divine itself cannot make contact except through the Divine Human, and the Divine Human cannot do so except through Divine Truth, which is the holy emanation of the spirit. This is implied by the words in John 1:7, 'all things were made through the Word'. The appearance to man is that Divine Truth is not the kind of thing that can bring something into being; for it is thought to be like an utterance which is discharged from the mouth and scattered to the winds. But the reality is altogether different. Divine Truth emanating from the Lord is something very real indeed. Its nature is such that it is the source from which all things come into being and from which all things are kept in being; for what emanates from the Lord is the most real thing in the whole of creation. Such is the nature of Divine Truth, which is called 'the Word through which all things were made'.


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