In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, but the world knew Him not. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father John i 1-14.

He who understands these words as to their interior sense, and compares them at the same time with the things that have been written in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, as also with some things that have been written in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD, is able to see that the Divine Truth itself in the Word, which had been in this world before, of which n. it [treats], and which again is in the Word that exists at the present day, is understood by 'the Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God'. Yet it is not the Word viewed in the words and letters of languages, but viewed in its own essence and life, which is from the inmost in the meanings of its words and letters. Out of this life the Word enlivens the affections of the will of the man who reads it in a holy manner, and out of the light of that life it enlightens the thoughts of his understanding; and it is therefore said in John:-

In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men John i 4.

This [life and light] makes the Word, because the Word is out of the Lord, and concerning the Lord, and thus is the Lord. Every thought, speech and writing draws its essence and life from him who thinks, speaks and writes. Therein is the man with his own quality. But in the Word there is the Only Lord. No one, however, feels and perceives the Divine Life in the Word but he who, when reading it, is in a spiritual affection of truth, for he is in a conjunction with the Lord through the Word, there being something inmostly affecting the heart and spirit which inflows with light into the understanding, and bears witness. [2] Something similar to what is in John is signified by these words In the first chapter of Genesis:-

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the spirit of God moved upon the faces of the waters, and God said, Let it become light, and it became light Gen. i 1-3.

'The spirit of God' is Divine Truth, so equally is 'light'. Divine Truth is the Word, and therefore when the Lord calls Himself 'the Word' He calls Himself 'the Light' also (John i 4, 8, 9). A similar thing also is understood by these words in David:-

By the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breaths (spiritus) of His month Ps. xxxiii 6.

To sum up, without the Divine Truth of the Word, which in its own essence is the Lord's Divine Good of Divine Love and Divine Truth of Divine Wisdom, a man cannot have life. By means of the Word there is a conjunction of the Lord with the man, and of the man with the Lord, and by means of that conjunction there is life. There has to be something from the Lord which can be received by the man, through which there is a conjunction and eternal life therefrom. [3] From these considerations it can be established that by 'the Beginning of the work of God' is understood the Word; and, if you are willing to believe it, the Word such as it is in the sense of the letter, for this sense is the complex of its interior sanctities, as has been shown frequently in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE. And what is wonderful, the Word has been so written that it has communication with the entire heaven, and separately with each single society there, which has been granted me to know through living experience, of which elsewhere. That the Word is such in its own essence is still more plain from these words of the Lord:-

The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life John vi 63.