Commentarii in Ecclesiasten

If, then, he says, while you are thinking on things above and journeying toward things above, the spirit of the one who has authority leaps up against you, wishing to drag down your mind from the journey toward things above, block it, shut against it the ascents, receiving it from nowhere, barring all your senses against it, and granting it no entrance either through eyes, or through ears, or through tongue, or through any other sense. For when the primary passions are removed, their effects are without substance. And if it suggests something to your mind, do not allow it a place, shutting out fornication through chastity, and repelling hatred through love; and in like manner securing each place of the virtues. For if, he says, you allow the spirit of the one who has authority to rest upon you—that is, to settle upon you—you will heap up many and great sins upon your soul. Otherwise, if you first heal your soul through the care of the virtues, you will put many sins to rest; this remedy does not permit the spirit of the one who has authority to ascend against you. "There is a wickedness which I saw under the sun, as though involuntary, it came forth from the face of the one who has authority. The fool was given great heights, and rich men sit in lowliness." With respect to the literal sense, he sees another wickedness in human affairs: rulers often, and involuntarily, giving judgments through fear of some greater power, and glorifying fools, while confiscating the substance of the rich through involuntary sentences. For often rulers have served royal commands involuntarily.

As for the meaning: humans, having willingly given themselves over to pleasure, are then compelled to do something unwilling, driven on by the one who has authority over the sons of disobedience, that is, the devil—so as to condemn as unjust the righteous providence of God, and to say, "Why do some foolish people become lofty and conspicuous, while others, perhaps from on high and even from a noble family, wealthy, are changed into poverty?" Since, then, we are in a sense willingly drunk with regard to him, the aforementioned one who has authority suggests even the unwilling acts—that the one darkened by drunkenness should commit fornication and strike. For we do not get drunk absolutely in order that we may do these things; but since we have become drunk, we are driven to them even unwillingly. So too, when we take pleasure in the unsearchable judgments of God, we are often scandalized. "I saw servants on horses, and rulers walking as servants on the earth." He taught the instability and sudden reversal of the changes of life, urging us toward the things that remain and stand firm. "The one who digs a pit will fall into it." The saying looks only to the meaning. For it does not altogether happen according to history. He says that the one who sins first punishes his own soul; for the one who loves injustice hates his own soul; by the very things through which one sins, through these one is punished. Moses the lawgiver says concerning the murderer, "Do to him as he did wickedly against his neighbor." "And the one who tears down a fence, a snake will bite him." The fence of the soul is the divine law and fear, and the true knowledge of the doctrines.

Therefore the one who has despised the divine fear and transgresses the commandments, or who has also fallen into falsely named knowledge under the influence of sin, while the serpent is at work in this, being unguarded and naked of divine grace, will be bitten. "He who removes stones will be distressed in them." The one who builds his house through the virtues gathers stones and builds well; but the one who tears down what has already been built, through ease and slackness removes stones, and labors, and is in danger. In another sense, holy stones are what the holy men are called in the prophet Zechariah. The one who removes these—that is, persecutes or even kills them—is distressed, which means he draws destruction upon himself, as Herod did when he murdered John. "He who splits wood will be in danger in them, if the iron falls out, and he himself has troubled his face, and he will strengthen powers, and abundance of the manly belongs to wisdom." Through symbols and through perceptible things he leads us by the hand to things understood. Therefore the one who uses the teaching word as it were an iron, and attempts to split the divine Scriptures, the fragrant wood, if he falls away from the aim of the Holy Spirit, and does not interpret according to the will of the lawgiver in an orthodox manner, but his word falls through,

He risks falling into heresies, and he confuses the face of his own teaching, and the souls of those who hear. And he will strengthen powers, meaning: he makes those who contradict him stronger; for by the things in which someone misses the mark concerning the word, those who set themselves against his teaching become more prevailing. But the one who is courageous in word and deed, bringing forth the word with wisdom, has something more: not to be in danger when splitting wood. For the one who is powerful in word, and has a versatile tongue, but is sophistical, and has not been enriched with divine wisdom, when the iron slips out, will be in danger in the cutting of the said woods. "But if a serpent bites in no whispering, and there is no abundance for the charmer." The one who sins secretly and without any voice, that is, boldness, either in deeds, or embraces a doctrine of impiety, as one who has not shamelessly denied it openly, can obtain correction. And the teacher does not labor superfluously, charming him with the things of salvation. Or also thus: If the serpent of sin bites in no whispering, that is, when the one who sins does not wish to come to confession, he will profit nothing more, attempting to charm the one who does not wish to confess and repent. "The words of a wise mouth are grace; and the lips of a fool drown him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is folly, and his last circuit is evil; and the fool will multiply words." Paul, wishing those being instructed to be wise, said, Let your word always be in grace, seasoned with salt. For the word of the wise man is neither harsh and useless, nor slack and dissolute.

But he is also gracious, and he frowns upon them, and does not allow those being instructed to slip away. And the lips of the fool—instead of: his words become the agents of death for him. For he harms both his own soul and the souls of those who are persuaded by him. For being sunk down lies in the place of punishment, as in the passage: Sink them down, O Lord, and divide their tongues. And the fool, beginning from the words of his folly, and being carried about by his own folly, then has an evil word. But also the fool, he says, will multiply words—that is, he babbles in vain, whether he speaks many things or few. For the multitude here stands in place of babbling; and he babbles even if he says few things, the one who discourses on nothing good. And even if he seems to say something useful, having no deeds in agreement with his words, he even so babbles, knowing neither what he says nor about what things he makes confident assertions. For the one who speaks ought first to do, then to teach. Therefore, he will multiply words—instead of: whether he says many things or few, he is troublesome in his discourse. Man does not know what has been, and what will be, what is behind him, who will report it to him? The toil of fools will afflict them; he did not know how to go into a city. And yet we know many of the things that have happened, having heard from the God-bearing men, as in the passage: In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth; and very many other things; but we also have knowledge of things to come, concerning the righteous and the unrighteous, knowing that these will rise to eternal life, and these to eternal punishment; but even if we know certain things, we do not know all things. For in part, says Paul, we know, and in part we prophesy.

And who will report to us the things behind—instead of: the things to come? For instance, whether we shall beget children, whether we shall lose the children we have, whether we shall die in our homeland or in a foreign land, whether we shall live many years or few; so that those who busy themselves with these things, striving to learn through the ages and the casters of nativities and false diviners or others, since we have not received this knowledge, labor in vain and toil uselessly at things that cannot be accomplished. But the foolish suffer these things because they did not know how to journey to a city—that is, to take up the best citizenship and pursue the simple faith of the Church, and to travel to the fair city, the heavenly Jerusalem, whose craftsman and maker is God. "Woe to you, O city, whose king is younger, and whose princes eat in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, whose king is the son of free men, and whose princes shall eat in due season, in strength, and shall not be ashamed." As for the literal sense, he pronounces wretched the city whose king has an unstable character, and is younger; and whose rulers, having set aside political cares, from the first ray of dawn devote themselves to the belly. For those darkened by drunkenness and weighed down by surfeit, or even having an unstable character, are fit neither for kingship nor for any other rule. But he calls blessed that land whose king is the son of free men—that is, one brought up in a free manner and preserving a free spirit, possessing nothing base or illiberal or slavish; and whose rulers devote all their care to what is advantageous to the subject.

But they are fed in an orderly way and at the proper time, not with whatever flatters the belly, but with whatever sustains the body's strength—that is, with what is necessary. For such people, being living and righteous, and rightly pursuing righteousness, will not be put to shame. And with respect to the deeper meaning, the soul is figuratively a city; its king is the mind. If the character is rather youthful, and it has the impulses of its thoughts as it were as rulers, devoted to gluttony and pleasures, it will have the "woe" attached to it. But if the soul, and the mind within it, is nourished on divine teachings, it is a child of free people, and it has impulses of thoughts that do everything at the proper time—both the things that befit the body and all that is suited to the soul. And having been nourished in this way, and thus ruling itself, and being strengthened by its advances, such a soul, figuratively called earth and a city, will not be put to shame. "In perfections the imagination will be brought low, and in idleness of hands the house will drip; they make bread for laughter, and wine gladdens the living; and all things will hearken to the silver." By way of parable he teaches us not to be idle in the working of good things, so that the imagination of our intelligible house—that is, of the soul—namely the vigorous thoughts, may not be brought low, and the house may not drip, troubled by the streams of wickedness, so that we may not also lose the virtues we have acquired through neglect. It is necessary, then, continually to visit the house that has been mentioned, and not to look at what has already been accomplished, but to take care for the imagination—that is, for the end.

For those who are lazy in matters of virtue, looking only to pleasure and to the so-called cheerfulness that people admire, devote themselves to leisure. And they say that one must have money, for all things will be subject to silver. Alternatively: the lazy, then, let their own house drip; but those who are led by the laws of the Church have a certain mystical bread and wine, so as to laugh at the demons through the power of the mystery, knowing that, since silver is thus the name of the divine Word who became flesh for our sake, all creation is subject to him. But one must know that, with respect to perceptible bread, Scripture in many places calls all dry food "bread," and "wine" or "water" liquid food. Moses, indicating this when he received the law, said, "For forty days I did not eat bread and did not drink water"—meaning, I partook of neither dry nor liquid food. "And even in your conscience do not curse a king, and in the inner chambers of your bedchamber do not curse a rich man; for a bird of heaven will carry off your voice, and he who has wings will report your word." Some have said that the "bird of heaven" is the soul itself, or the spirit that is with man; and "he who has wings," either the Holy Spirit who appeared in the form of a dove and fills all things and knows all things, or the holy angels. But others, on the contrary, have taken "he who has wings" to be the devil, and "birds of heaven" to be his aerial demons. And according to all these interpretations, the sense is this: Do not curse, he says, a king or a rich man, nor even in secret—

For the report, running through, brings to ears the abuse of the one who has been cursed—your abuse. And a curse is a request for evils, either for oneself or for one's neighbor. CHAPTER 11. "Send forth your bread upon the face of the water, for in the multitude of days you will find it." It is written, Break your bread to the hungry. And through "bread" he signified all almsgiving. He says, then, that with tears—that is, with a merciful and compassionate disposition—do almsgiving; for this abides with you forever. Otherwise: Scripture is often accustomed to call the assemblies of people "waters," according to, Rescue me from many waters, from the hand of foreign sons. Therefore, he says, O teacher of the divine teachings, always supply to those in need your nourishing word, which you have received from the gift of the Spirit, having as the wage of your labor to be with God the Word continually. "Give a portion to the seven, and indeed to the eight, for you do not know what evil will be upon the earth." He who accepts the Old Testament, because of the sabbath rest in it that is accomplished in the spirit—that is, the inactivity from evils—has given a portion to the seven. But he who accepts the New, according to which is the Lord's Day of the Savior's resurrection, the eighth and first, having the beginning of the age to come, has given a portion to the eight. Therefore, he says, receive both Testaments. Otherwise: the present life is divided into a week. For God, he says, rested from all his works which he made, on the seventh day. And the beginning of the age to come is the eighth, of which the Lord's resurrection is the symbol.

Live your life decently, then, he says, in the present world, and store up for yourself in the age to come through good works, giving a portion to the seven and to the eight. Otherwise: Isaiah knows seven energies of the Spirit. So the people of the Christians can also be called seven, by reversal, because they have been enriched with the energies of the Spirit. And the eight is the people of the Jews, because they are circumcised on the eighth day. Do almsgiving, then, he says, toward all people. And the phrase, that you do not know what evil will be upon the earth, you will understand according to all the interpretations. Accept the two Testaments, so that you may cast off the darkness of ignorance and wickedness. Do decently the things that are fitting in this life, placing the age to come also in your care; for you do not know what painful punishments are laid up for those who do not give a portion to the seven, and indeed to the eight. Do almsgiving toward all people with simplicity of heart; for you do not know who is truly in need, or who asks out of wickedness and greed. "If the clouds are filled with rain, they pour it out upon the earth; and if a tree falls in the south, and if in the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will be." As for the literal sense, the first phrase can also be understood about almsgiving: that just as the clouds by divine command sprinkle their rain upon all people, in the same way almsgiving ought also to be done. As for the deeper meaning, the holy men have been called clouds, of whom one was Moses, who says, Let my utterance be awaited as the rain.

These men, having been filled with the divine word that came to Hosea, pour out the fruitful rain also upon the rest of the saints—not upon Judea alone, but upon all the earth, into which their sound went forth. So much concerning the rain. But in Scripture both the saints and the sinners are called trees; and the south is understood as the place of light, and the true light itself, our Lord Jesus Christ; while the north is the murky devil, full of darkness. In whatever place, therefore—whether of light or of darkness, whether in the work of wickedness or in that of virtue—a man is found at his end, in that rank and order he remains: either in the light with the righteous and with Christ the King of all, or in the darkness with the unrighteous and with the ruler of this world. "He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who looks at the clouds will not reap. In those things where there is no one who knows what is the way of the spirit, as bones in the womb of her who is with child; so you will not know the works of God, all that he will do." Those who watch the winds do not sow. For often the one who blows today does not blow tomorrow, and the opposite; and often today it rains, but tomorrow God holds back the shower. So one must not keep watching, but sow in hope, trusting in the goodness of God. But if, by watching, we let the time of sowing pass, we do not reap. But to watch

We cannot accurately know the condition of the air, since we do not know the path of the wind, while God wisely and in manifold ways governs all our affairs. We are as ignorant of God's dispensations concerning us as we are of the bones being formed in the womb of a pregnant woman. For who knows whether the child being carried is male or female, or perfect or maimed in some part? And if we do not know what the formed creature is, much more do we not know how the embryo is constituted, how the bones are put together, how the harmony of the whole body is ordered aright. Therefore, he says, do not busy yourself and inquire into whom you ought to give to and whom not, and whether he is faithful or unfaithful, just or unjust, lest you lose the time for sowing and not find the time to reap; but without delay and in simplicity of heart practice almsgiving. For you do not know whether the one you consider unjust, the Spirit justifies. And the reverse. "In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening let not your hand be slack, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that; and if both together, it is good." He who has driven away the darkness of ignorance from his own mind, beginning the virtues, sows in the morning, according to the saying, "Work while it is day." And if he also continues to the end pursuing the practical virtue, until evening he has not let go, nor has his hand been idle in doing good. So, beginning in virtue, continue to the end; you do not know which of your good works will please the judge, those at the beginning or those at the end. But if both together should please, such work is full of goodness. Or also thus:

From your earliest age, work at virtue, and do not say, "Now, while I am younger, I will enjoy the pleasures of life, and in old age I will repent." You do not know what will follow you, or when the end will come upon you. So it is good always to work at virtue and to do all that lies in one's own power, and to entreat God that what is arranged by us may be shown acceptable to his goodness. "And sweet is the light, and good for the eyes to behold the sun; for even if a man lives many years, he will rejoice in them all, and he will remember the works of darkness, that they will be many; and everything that comes is vanity." He teaches what kind of morning he meant to sow—that is, the pleasant and sweet morning for the noetic eyes, which the sun of righteousness produces, illuminating our souls. For just as those who see the perceptible sun see through it also the things that are visible, and thus pursue perceptible activities, while those who do not see the sun are unable even to act, since they do not see the things illuminated by it—so too those who mirror the noetic sun are illuminated through it, so as to see and behold what they must do according to his will, and what they must abstain from. But the one who lives according to the will of the Word, even if he passes many years in this life that seems to be full of toil, is gladdened in soul, contemplating both the things to be done and the noetic beauties, shining brightly through the luminous gleams of the aforementioned sun. Such a person also reckons up the days of the darkness that is to come upon the impious, and remembering that they are endless—

And that vanity awaits sinners, that is, punishment, he vigorously turns away from evil. "Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart blamelessly, and in the sight of your eyes." By saying, "And walk in the ways of your heart blamelessly," he showed that he exhorts the young man to rejoice with spiritual gladness. By "young man" he means the one who is in his prime in soul and able to strip for battle against the evil one, the one who has put off the old man and put on the new, the one according to the image of God. And such a person, walking blamelessly in the ways of his heart, that is, keeping his soul itself safe and being pure in mind, necessarily has the senses of the body pure as well. Moreover, he becomes clear-sighted and contemplates wondrous beauties, rejoicing in his own spiritual youth and in the contemplation of the eyes of the mind. But since Scripture continually makes mention of the name of the male where it gives exhortations common to all, it should be known that it makes its address from the more authoritative part (for the husband is the head of the wife). Since the essence of the soul is one, and we are all one in the Lord; for the difference between female and male is only of bodies. So even if you hear a young man being exhorted, understand men and women together. And if Paul says, "I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ," again understand men and women alike. And know, in addition to all these things, that God will bring you into judgment. Chapter 12.

And remove anger from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh, for youth and folly are vanity. And remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of evil come, and the years arrive in which you will say, 'I have no desire in them.'" Now he calls to mind the divine judgment, and says: Since you are free in will, remove anger from your heart; for you are able, by using your reason, to bridle your anger. And by "evil of the flesh" he means every sin. For the works of sin the Apostle calls works of the flesh. But fornication is distinctively the evil of the flesh; while the passions are the movements of a younger and unstable mind. And to this young mind folly is yoked, being nothing other than vanity. If, then, he says, you wish to cast out this mind and bind with a bridle the impulse of youthful understanding, keep the remembrance of God unforgotten. And by "days of youth" he means the present age, in comparison with the perfection of the age to come. For if in the present you cast out the remembrance of God and do things according to pleasure, the time of punishment stands at hand, which he also calls a day of evil, the punishment of sinners. And then you will say, "I have no desire in them." For no one who is in torments has a desire to be tormented. One must know, therefore, that the one who now follows his own desires out of folly and an imperfect mind, and not the commandments of the Lord, in the time of punishment is tormented against his will.

Until the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house are shaken, and the men of strength are bent, and the grinding women have ceased because they have become few, and those who look through the openings grow dark, and they shut the door in the marketplace because of the weakness of the voice of the grinder. I heard someone explaining the things pertaining to this passage with reference to the particular end of each person; and another with reference to the universal end; and another raising what is written to a higher contemplation. And I will set them all before you briefly. Take thought, he says, O you who are being admonished, while you have a self-determining will and are able to incline toward virtue for your own salvation. For after the present life you are punished not as you wish, but as you do not wish. Take thought, then, for yourself before your death, before the sun and the moon and the stars are darkened for you—which happens at each person's death, when he is held in blindness—and before you are dissolved into the kindred water and earth. For the body, which now lies upon the soul like a cloud, is dissolved into its kindred elements, earth and water. And in the day of death, the keepers of the house—that is, of the soul—are shaken, and the well-strung reasonings are bent, those called men of strength, as they are in anguish over the fearful departure from the body. But it is also possible to understand the keepers of the house as the perceptible eyes, which lay aside their power of sight at the time of death. Then also the grinding women cease—the teeth that grind down food.

Not that they are altogether reduced in number, but instead of that, they will cease their proper activity. And the pupils of the eyes, which see as through openings, are wrapped in darkness, since every path in this life is closed off, when he begins to speak weakly and faintly—through the voice that is sounded out through the teeth—he who breathes his last. Before, therefore, in the end these things overtake you, work at virtue. Otherwise: In the general consummation, just as through the word of God creation was established, so too through the divine command it is dissolved. For when the sensible world is consummated, the use of the luminaries is superfluous; then, then there is no need even of the rains that moisten the earth below; but in a certain manner the clouds turn back after the rain—instead of that, they neither bring forth rain nor drip down the rain, or they are dissolved together with the rain itself; for there is no need of rains or clouds. But if they serve the Creator for another use, perhaps becoming vehicles for the saints—then also the keepers of the house are shaken, holy men who were called of strength, being turned aside by the Antichrist, yet not growing slack or falling away. For these are the keepers of the Church and of this world, for whose sake it also holds together. Then also the grinding women are reduced—and by grinding women one must understand the Jews, who drag the heavy and laborious yoke of the law. They are reduced because all, except a few, have run to faith in Christ. For then all Israel will be saved—instead of that, the majority.

Then those few themselves who have not run to the faith, who now see as through openings through the legal letter, are completely darkened, persuaded by the activity of error, and have shut for themselves in this life the door of salvation. For the present life has been called a marketplace. And they suffer this because they remain in the weakness of the voice of the one speaking truth, that is, of the legal letter. For the law is heavy and weak, able to perfect no one, as also the Apostle says: For the weakness of the law, in that it was weak through the flesh; and the rest. And he shall arise at the voice of the sparrow, and all the daughters of the song shall be brought low; and indeed from on high they shall look, and with amazement in the way. Here the wise man speaks concerning the general resurrection, when the dead arise at a command, at the voice of an archangel. By the command of the sparrow, of the Word who became man, who because of his solitude on the cross said, I have become like a sparrow solitary upon a housetop. Then the daughters of the song are brought low, the souls who lived in luxury in this life, and reveled and applauded at the voice of instruments and of songs, or also those of the false teachers, who by their fair speaking and deceit, using words in the manner of a song, produced a destructive pleasure for their hearers. And the souls of the Jews also, being daughters of the song, are brought low, because they did not listen to the prophets singing: I will sing now to my beloved a song of my beloved; and as many such things. But all these aforementioned souls of sinners, and perhaps those of the righteous, become amazed, when they are led away in the way.

and seeing the Son of Man coming on the clouds from on high in the glory of his Father. "The almond shall blossom, and the locust shall grow fat, and the caper shall be scattered." Solomon, having understood the present life, according to what is said in the Song: "The winter has passed." He called the spring, shining forth for the righteous, the life to come, in the words he adds: "The flowers appeared in our land." The same course, then, has been followed here as well, and he says that then the almond blossoms, and the locust grows fat, and the caper opens; for thus another of the interpreters rendered it. These things naturally happen in the spring. He says, then, that the life to come resembles spring. Otherwise: Those who have occupied themselves with these matters say that the almond blossoms before all trees, and sheds its leaves after all, so that the plant is in a manner evergreen. We know that this almond, that is, the nut, is threefold in nature; for then it has a husk on the outside, and after this the shell, and then within the edible part. Such also is man, composed of body, spirit, and soul. Then, he says, the righteous blossom, like almonds, preserving whole both soul, and body, and spirit. Otherwise: The rod of Aaron that budded was of nut-wood, and it bore nuts—the rod from the root

of Jesse, bearing the type of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, then, that in the age to come the priestly word blossoms, handing over the perfect teachings to those who are worthy. And while the righteous are in these things, he says, the locust grows fat; that is, punishment receives sinners as food, and in a certain way grows fat. For the locust bears the symbol of punishment; for through it God punished the Egyptians. And while these things are being done in this way, and the righteous are then blossoming, and sinners are being punished, the caper is scattered and disappears, being something bitter, and a symbol of painful sin. For evil, being nonexistent, will certainly proceed into nonexistence. "For man has gone to his eternal house." Woe is me, says David, that my sojourning has been prolonged; calling the present life not a dwelling but a sojourning. Then, he says, when man has departed from this sojourning, he journeys to his eternal house, the age to come. "And those who are being cut down have encircled in the marketplace." Then also the sinners in this life weep and are cut down. And this life was called a marketplace because of the transactions in it. "Until the silver cord is overturned." The word is addressed to the one being exhorted. Be diligent, he says, O young man, to appease the judge by good works, before wealth is overturned, and the cord of the love of money, which binds together all sins; for the love of money is the root of all evils. Before this life passes away, then, in which there is the deceit of money and the love of money, prepare your works for the departure.

And the flower of the gold shall be crushed. The flower, either the bloom and the beauty of the gold, or also the receptacle in which we are accustomed to store the gold. Before, then, he says, the things here pass away, pursue virtue. Otherwise: the divine word is called silver in many places of Scripture; but we understand gold as the mind; and the flower of the gold as the ruling principle within us. Before, then, he says, the teaching word ceases—the word that, like a three-stranded cord, that is, a scourge, drives out the passions within us, through which you are able to purify the ruling principle within you—that is to say, while you are in this life, take great care of yourself. And the pitcher shall be crushed at the spring. Here he philosophizes about the human mixture. For lest anyone think that the body, when dissolved, passes into non-existence, he teaches its permanence through a symbol. For just as when a pitcher is crushed at the spring, the water is not lost, but goes to its own spring; and again, whenever one wishes, he draws it out; so too the body, when dissolved, returns to its own spring (the earth), ready to be constituted again whenever the one who formed it in the beginning wishes. Otherwise: the water of the pitcher poured out into the spring is not lost, but is together with the fullness that is in the spring. When, then, that which is in part is done away, according to the Apostle, then the perfect comes. The partial knowledge, then, that is now in us, then receiving perfection, is like the water of a pitcher in the whole spring, having received the part, that is, perfection. And the wheel shall run together upon the cistern. By a variation of wording he has stated the same meaning.

For to run down the wheel to the pit means that the wheel is broken and falls into the pit, together with the pitcher of water. And he calls "wheel" that which is placed over the pit, through which they draw up the water. And similarly here the water is poured out over the pit. Otherwise: this life is called a wheel, because it is moved and rolled, according to the text: The voice of your thunder was in the wheel. Before, then, he says, this wheel—that is, this life—rolling, rolls us down into the pit, let us take thought for our own salvation. And the pit has been named Hades, according to the text: You saved me from the lowest pit, and from those who go down into the pit. And the dust shall return to the earth, as it was. For the body is dissolved into its kindred element, according to the text: You are earth, and to earth you shall go. And the spirit shall return to God, who gave it. If the spirit is spoken of together with the soul, we understand the spirit that is yoked together with the soul; but if simply as now, we understand the spirit to be the soul itself. When, then, he says, the body is dissolved into the earth, the soul returns to God, to render an account of the things lived, to him who made it. For the soul of man is not from the earth; but as he alone who is its Maker knows, it both comes into being and is bound to this earthy body, just as it is also led out by him alone who bound it. Vanity of vanities, said the Ecclesiast, all things are vanity; and moreover, that the Ecclesiast became wise, and that he taught knowledge along with the man.

And ears he will trace out the ordered things of parables. He takes up again the statement made often above, and declares that all things in the world are vanity; and he says that the Ecclesiast had this as something superfluous, in the sense of pre-eminent and peculiar, a possession of wisdom; for wisdom is truly the possession of the wise man alone. And that, having possessed it, he did not begrudge it to the rest of men; but what he learned from it, these things he handed on to men: namely, the knowledge both of things perceptible and of things intelligible. Then he says, And he who has a purified ear—clearly such as was the one who said, He added to me an ear to hear—is able to trace out the things of the world spoken in parables. Or also thus: He who has an ordered ear, gilded by the Word, such as was Rebecca's, which received the earrings of the servant of Abraham, is able to hear the things spoken parabolically. The Ecclesiast sought many things, to find words of will, and words of truth written in uprightness. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails made fiery, which were given by the collections, from one shepherd; and there is something superfluous from them. He calls words of will those of the will of God, by which a man living his life attains eternal life; or also the mysterious words, concerning which the Savior said in the Psalms, To do, O God, your will I desired. And the will of the Father was the becoming man of the Only-begotten. Therefore the words of the divine will, and of wisdom itself, which is called uprightness and truth, from the things written among the prophets, they were seeking, he says; for it is not necessary merely to will, but also to seek earnestly.

For the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Seeking these things, then, the Ecclesiast knew that the words of the God-fearing resemble ox-goads. For just as ox-goads strike the oxen, so that the furrow may be cut with the plow, so too the words of God-wise men stir us up who plow in hope, to cut open the furrow of the soul, and to cleanse it thoroughly, and to plant the noble slips of virtue. They resemble also red-hot nails, which are driven into the wood more deeply and more easily; so too their words are planted deep into our understanding. And these words, he says, were given from the compilations; but other books they have from the compositions. Understand compilations, or compositions, as the works of God, which are ordered supremely and composed harmoniously, from which we apprehend their Creator by analogy; and compilations as the two Testaments, Old and New. But whence was the knowledge given to us of the contemplation of things perceptible, and of the comprehension of things intelligible? From one shepherd. What shepherd? The one who shepherds both the rational beings in heaven and those on earth, the one who said: I am the good shepherd. But, he says, and something more from them. What is the more? From the knowledge of these things, that we inherit eternal life, that we are deemed worthy to have the good Shepherd himself as teacher, and that those deemed worthy of this knowledge in this life are also deemed worthy of perfect knowledge in the life to come, being illuminated purely by the holy and consubstantial Trinity.

Son, beware of making many books, for there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." Many books, and many words that do not tend toward the same goal—such words are also troublesome. For whenever someone sets forth a word about true godliness, even if he converses for a long time, as the holy apostle taught in the school of Tyrannus for three nights the things concerning the Lord—this man neither says many things nor is he troublesome, but is even insatiable to his hearers. So too the books of the divine Scriptures, though they are many-lined, are not called many, but the law of the Lord; since the lawgiver of both Testaments is one, and all things look toward one goal, as our Lord himself taught, the great Ecclesiast, the wisdom of the Father, saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself." For in these two commandments the whole law and the prophets hang. Do you see how in one word the many-faceted books are summed up, and for this reason are not many? Which books, then, does the Ecclesiast dissuade us from making? Those of the Greeks, who overturn one another's opinions and hold an unproclaimed war against each other; those of the heretics, who fight against one another; the endless and mythical second traditions of the Jews. For pretending to interpret the Scriptures, they turned aside into myths and genealogies, and certain traditions not according to the will of the lawgiver. The much study in such books is a weariness of the flesh, afflicting only the body and bearing no fruit.

But the study of the divine books, in which the holy David enjoins us to be occupied day and night, saying, "And in his law shall he meditate day and night"—this is not a weariness of the flesh, but a rejoicing of the soul. For even if we sow in sweat and tears, laboring diligently for the good, we shall reap in rejoicing the glorious fruit of virtue. For the fruit of good labors is glorious. And the Preacher calls the one being admonished his son; therefore it is fitting that we keep the paternal dignity, not transgressing the paternal commandments. And the phrase "There is no end" stands for "there is no limit to labors spent on vain things"; or that no fruit can be found from some of them; or that countless are the myriads of books that are borne about in the world. "The end of the word, hear the whole: fear God, and keep his commandments, because this is every man; because God will bring every work into judgment, with every thing that has been overlooked, whether it be good or whether it be evil." But I, he says, show you the summary and most concise way of salvation: Fear God, and keep his commandments—not the introductory and passionate fear that comes from punishments, but the pure and purifying fear, the fear owed out of affection for the Father who commanded. For if we refrain from fornication because of the dread of punishment, it is evident that if the penalties were not set before us, we would have committed fornication, having a fornicating disposition. And understand it thus in the case of each of the forbidden things.

But if we abstain from these things not because of the threat of punishment, but because we hate the evils themselves, then by our friendship toward the one who legislated this, we work out the commandments, and we fear lest we slip away. For in fearing, there is the working, and in the working, the fearing lest we overlook any of the things that have been enjoined. This fear is pure, coming to be for the sake of the good itself, and it purges our souls, being equal in power to love. And the one who has this fear, and keeps the commandments—this is every wise man, that is, the perfect and complete man. And these things, he says, do securely, knowing that every rational creature, honored also with free will and choice, God will bring into judgment, requiring from us an account of the things done, or even overlooked, whether good or whether evil. And things overlooked are often both voluntary and often also involuntary. Sometimes, being able to do good, I overlook it and postpone it; and yet this overlooking is voluntary, in full knowledge of the good. But if, being able to do good, I did not do it through ignorance, this is involuntary. Sometimes we do good unwillingly, and often also willingly, and again from the opposite; sometimes we do something base with full knowledge, rejecting

our own conscience; this is a voluntary oversight. Sometimes we also commit something forbidden through ignorance; this is an involuntary oversight. Concerning such things the blessed David also prayed, saying: Who will understand his transgressions? Cleanse me from my hidden faults— clearly, from those committed through ignorance. Having known these things, then, let us fear God and keep his commandments according to our own ability. For our salvation lies wholly in his mercies and in the loving-kindness of the judge; through him, and with him, be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.