Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1 part 10/10

whether they be rightly understood by the orthodox or otherwise, in either case the silver cord is not overturned; it remains active.

But since one must speak to the text at hand, this may be said: that so long as the silver cord is active, not overturned, not cast out—for it will be cast out afterward, when that which is in part shall be done away—those in the marketplace, the mourners, go about in a circle, as long as they have the silver cord, as long as they plait the oracles of the Lord;

for at that time they also make public discourse.

'And the golden bowl is broken.'

The receptacle of the gold is so called, though perhaps also the whole—the gold—but rather the receptacle.

At any rate, those who guard treasuries [...] this one is instead of a guardian of gold.

'Gold,' then, in these passages is to be taken as the mind;

but if 'silver' denotes the uttered word, here you take 'gold' as the thought, and 'bowl' as the governing faculty [...] so as to be the receptacle and guardhouse of the gold.

But if 'silver' should signify the word and the Scripture of God, the plaiting consists in taking texts suited to texts, and in weaving together the understanding of these with those, and of those with these.

'As long as'—does he not mean the Church?—this is what he means:

In the marketplace the mourners mourn, they go about in a circle.

The 'marketplace' is the ecclesiastical teaching.

And by 'ecclesiastical' I do not mean entirely that of the Christians, but that of the gathered assembly.

This, then, is what he means: that for as long as the silver cord is active, they go about in a circle and mourn over those who are not persuaded.

[when that which is] in part [is done away], they no longer go about the marketplace in a circle mourning;

for their mourning will then no longer accomplish anything, since each one will [already] be about to hear.

Now you repent, when it is not the time. Yet I do not say this—that there will never be repentance—but rather that at that time, when the moment of judgement is active, when men stand before the judgement-seat of Christ, so that each may receive back the things which he did through the body.

'But if it be not overturned'—this is the meaning:

Then do the mourners go about in a circle in the marketplace, when the word of teaching is still active, though those men are not persuaded, not assenting, not bound by the silver cord;

for he who assents is bound.

It was said that Scripture signifies the thoughts by means of the gold;

the thoughts, then, that have been wrought and made ready in such a way as to become good oracles.

For indeed there appear plates that are cut in the garments of the high priest;

it is possible, then, for it to be broken [...]

to unite them and, as it were, to hammer them together.

'And the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel runs down at the cistern.'

It belongs to certain men to drink from the fountain itself, without the vessel.

Rebecca, the perseverance in good things, the perfect teaching, going down to the fountain, drew the drink with a pitcher, that she might give drink to the thirsting servant;

but from the fountain itself she herself drank, without a pitcher.

Thus you find it written also concerning the Samaritan woman, that she too left the pitcher with which she had come to draw water, and went away to say to her fellow-citizens, 'Come, see a man who told me all my sin.'

Rebecca, then, gives drink to Abraham's servant, and not to him alone, but also to all those with him,

and to the camels [...]

drinking—for she went down to the fountain—but even if she carries a pitcher of water [...]

That which is known in part and that which is prophesied in part is a pitcher filled from the fountain.

Whenever, then, that which is in part is done away, the pitcher is broken;

and it is not lost, but into the fountain [...]

And I recall another consideration, spoken through other utterances and [...] matters; we were saying that that which is in part is not made to vanish, but [remains] as being in part;

for an addition of the honour that was lacking having come to pass [...]

and that which is in part [subsists] in the whole.

So also here: when there is no longer need of the giving of drink from the pitcher—the Saviour having given drink and having made in the one who drinks streams of living water—he who has within himself the fountain of the living water has no need of a pitcher.

He breaks it, therefore, at the fountain itself.

And He does not break it somewhere outside; He does not break it by casting it somewhere outside, but [...]

...as a fountain, the part is poured out into the whole...

That is to say, its being brought to nought and the pitcher being shattered, so that it may no longer be a pitcher.

And in a manner fitting to the names and the things, they employ the words for the intelligible realities.

For since there is mention of a fountain... when that which is in part is shattered, and...

It was concerning perfect knowledge...

the shattering of the pitcher... but...

the doing away of that which is in part...

That which is in part and the pitcher are one and the same thing, as also are the fountain and the seeing face to face... and we here, many times... whose coming does away with that which is in part.

We were saying many times that there is...

the more superficial matters... for him to hear, from which to be profited...

If we should see him...

Since we behold greater things, we cast these away.

We do not set them aside, but we break them up into greater things.

And so the wheel will run down upon the cistern.

The cistern can be understood in a parallel sense.

Just as it is possible to draw water from a fountain with a pitcher, so also it is possible to draw up water from a cistern with a wheel.

When, therefore, there was no longer any need to draw up water in this way, then the wheel will run down upon the cistern...

For it is a passage composed of verses, and each verse has its own meaning.

We say, then, this: that in many places of Scripture Hades is called a cistern.

'You brought up my soul from Hades; you saved me from those who go down into the pit.'

And the Savior, having become man and having taken upon himself death on behalf of men, says:

'I was reckoned with those who go down into the pit; I became as a man without help.'

He was crucified, and his hands and his feet were as those of one without help.

'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter,' as one without help.

And he brought himself round into the condition of being without help.

'Free among the dead, and I was reckoned with those who go down into the pit': and I seemed to be a man without help, yet among the dead I am free.

...and it can be understood as 'free among the dead,' that is, without sin.