Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1 part 9/10

Is it not for this reason — because the season no longer permits grinding? Insofar as it touched these, they were diminished;

understand the 'becoming few' here not as a diminution of number, but of their power and strength.

But has their strength come to pass in accordance with the season? For do you suppose that, as far as is possible, these grinding women do not grind, and thereafter for those able to be nourished by them?

They were made few because the greater part of those being nourished was diminished and came to be outside the seeking of such nourishment.

Do we not take this too in a manner corresponding to that saying, 'and the sun was darkened'? Concerning the light, then, and the sun we said that they seemed to be darkened with respect to those people, but were not actually darkened.

Again, then, I say, as with reference to these who are unworthy of the nourishment ...?

'And those who look through the openings shall be darkened.'

Those who look through the openings are these souls that make use of the senses.

For take the openings to be the senses.

'They shall be darkened, then, those who look through the openings.'

For when the sensible things pass away, then the darkness will prevail;

they no longer see sensible things as they ought; they have come to be outside from now on ...?

But it is possible to take it in this way also:

those who search the Scriptures and give heed to the reading of them find openings, through which they are able to be enlightened and to see the light that is within.

These, then — those who look through the openings — were darkened, since the grinding women were no longer present.

Take, corresponding to the splitting of the seeds, the opening to be the searching of the Scriptures, their clarification;

and this very thing is also their grinding.

'They seem,' he says, 'those who look through the openings, to see many things';

and there are some able to fix their gaze upon the light;

and according to the power or the weakness of the sight, the apprehension of the light comes about.

When, therefore, the light again becomes hidden, those who look through certain openings are darkened;

they cannot see the light, having those small openings.

When, however, their body is changed from the corruptible to the incorruptible, and from the natural to the spiritual, they no longer have senses that are darkened, but ones that shine forth and increase.

It does not, then, bring utter dishonor that those who look through the openings should be darkened;

for when they are darkened, according to the measure of the present sense they shall see things more greatly, as the partial is abolished, lest their partial opening too be abolished when a great opening comes to be.

It is possible also to take it in this way, because it is said in the plural, 'the openings.'

A praiseworthy opening is mentioned in the singular in the Mosaic writings, when he received a longing to see the face of God and to see him manifestly and knowingly.

God said to him that, being still a man, you cannot have the radiance;

'but I will place you in the opening of the rock' — he spoke of the opening of a single rock.

And the rock is Christ; from this rock and the ... of Christ here ...

For blameworthy rocks too are spoken of in the plural, and openings;

and it is said to the devil:

'The pride of your heart has lifted you up, you who dwell in the openings of the rocks' — not in the opening of the rock, for that is blessed — but since they give heed to antichrists and false teachers and false prophets, their opening is not one that grants vision but rather one that harms.

Clefts of rocks, at any rate, are in other passages called openings;

and the discord of teaching is a cleft and a multitude of openings.

It is not, then, those who look through the one opening who are darkened together, but rather they are enlightened;

but those who seem to see through the many openings are darkened.

But when the truth comes into the midst, every deception is dissolved;

and the many openings were in the deception.

And as I have often said the image of the reckoning: that those who fail in the reckoning speak of countless rocks.

If, then, the correct reckoning shines forth, the things that those who reckon spoke erroneously are dissolved.

So it is with those who hold false opinions when the truth is absent;

when it appears and shines forth, all those who hold false opinions are dissolved.

'And they shall shut the doors in the marketplace, in the weakness of the voice of her that grinds.'

..., I spoke concerning human affairs, both those that are seen and those that are temporary.

He teaches concerning the age to come and the end of the present age, and says that they shall shut the doors in the marketplace.

By 'marketplace' here he means the Church, as the orators speak.

As long as this life stands, the marketplaces exist — or the marketplace, the Church, in which those who address the assembly speak publicly.

But it shall be shut after these things, since teaching is no longer present at the time of the judgment.

I do not say this, that there will never at any time be instruction in the ages to come, but that at that very time in which those being judged stand before the tribunal of Christ;

for they render an account with respect to the things done, with a view to being instructed or taught.

But if ever the toil that comes from ... another word is not a teaching brought forth by men or angels ...

Concerning the ten virgins it is said in the parable that the five who had oil gathered together, harvested from the true olive tree — those who had the nourishing supply that was furnished, giving light and bearing torches — entered with the bridegroom into the bridal chamber, when at midnight a cry arose:

'The bridegroom has come, go out to meet him.'

For there was no longer a school then, no longer were there those who sell the divine words.

And for this reason they remained outside.

And here too, then, when the field has been drawn in, the marketplaces are shut; they no longer have those doors open concerning which the divine words write.

Immediately, at any rate, the Apostle says:

'A great and effectual door has been opened to me, and there are many adversaries.'

If the great door of the word be opened and made effectual, then the adversaries are many.

And it becomes effectual whenever the hearers turn the teachings into deeds.

And the adversaries become many.

Indeed, if we observe the Scriptures closely, false prophets are found at no other time than when there are prophets, and the false apostles exist at no other season than when there are apostles and teachers.

For out of envy they set themselves against the truth and attempt to gainsay it; they attempt to contradict those who teach rightly, and sometimes indeed they even plot against them and lead them to death.

A great and effectual door, then, has been opened to me.

But the marketplace was not shut up, nor were the doors of the marketplace opened.

And in another of his epistles he says:

When I came and a door was opened, I had no relief in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother.

Before the door was opened he had no relief, so as to bring forth the word, since he had not found his fellow-worker.

And in the Proverbs it is likewise said:

Blessed is the man who will hearken to me, and the person who shall keep my ways, keeping watch daily at my doors.

The doors of wisdom are the doors of the marketplace.

The doors in the marketplace are therefore shut whenever the school of instruction is disbanded.

And observe indeed that they shut the doors willingly.

The closing of the doors does not come about by force.

Perhaps this is because, since he commands men to knock that it may be opened, whenever people are slothful and do not knock at the doors, the doors are shut.

But when the doors of the marketplace have been shut, consider what comes to pass in the weakness of the voice of her that grinds.

It was said to us that there is a woman grinding who is well received, grinding out meal and fine flour that is profitable; but there is another who is dismissed, having sown things blighted by the wind.

And she has meal from which it is not possible to make bread.

The one, then, who is received has her voice in weakness.

But I wish to say something rather novel, which I urge should not be run down.

'In weakness,' he says, 'is the voice of her that grinds' — of her who is received, not of her who is dismissed.

Yet she does not altogether take on voicelessness;

for the soul is holy, or the Church is holy;

for even after these things she speaks, so far as is possible.

But the paradox which I said I would utter is this:

Concerning Moses we once said that it was not with the intent of an accuser that he spoke against the Jews.

For the Saviour said this: 'Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father;

there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you have set your hope.'

For if you believed Moses, you would have believed me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?' It was not, then, with the purpose of denouncing them that he accused them, seeing that even concerning those who had made the calf he made his plea, saying:

'If you will forgive them their sin, forgive it;

but if not, then blot me also out of your book which you have written.'

Since they did not believe even his writings, he makes his defence: that 'I kept silent nothing of the things declared to me, but when God said:

"Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, and shall proclaim to the sons of Israel" — I have spoken, and there is nothing of the things declared which I kept silent.'

The defence, then, which he made seemed to be an accusation of them, since, when he had spoken the things leading to faith and proof, they did not receive them.

So also here the voice of her that grinds is weak.

She does not speak with such confidence as when the hearers are being benefited and those who are nourished by the women that grind, but in a certain way she is making a defence.

And if it were possible, she would have wished, were it feasible, to conceal her defence, so that those men might not become footstools;

but she is constrained by the truth to speak the things that are natural.

Who, then, are those that shut the marketplace? — the teachers.

This is like that which is said in Isaiah with a different sense, or rather a different wording:

'I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it;'

for since, by receiving the rain, it changed the thorns and thistles into plants, whereas the intention of the clouds and the charge given to them was that the vineyard, being watered, might bring forth grapes;

but since instead of grapes it had brought forth thorns, and God, not wishing to increase their evil, out of forbearance and again out of goodness charged the clouds not to rain.

So also these men, since they no longer had those who ought to receive teaching, shut the doors in the marketplaces.

And here too this often happens; for whenever the teachers hear:

'Do not give what is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest they turn and rend you and trample you underfoot' —

for a good reason again it is not given to those men.

For they were about to commit greater impiety by trampling the divine words, which are pearls, an adornment of the inner man when it yields;

not even knowing their beauty or their preciousness, they were about to trample them, instead of merely despising them.

In a certain way, then, here too in the marketplace they shut the doors;

and if here, much more there, until the tribunal and the judgment seat be opened.

'And he shall rise up at the voice of the sparrow, and all the daughters of song shall be brought low.'

The marketplace shall rise up at the voice of the sparrow.

Those who know in part and prophesy in part shut the marketplace and its doors.

And these are the apostles, the prophets, the teachers among men.

Let us grant that even the spiritual things sent forth for ministry rise up at the voice of the sparrow.

The Saviour can here be called a sparrow, according to his manhood, according to that which is said:

'And I became as a sparrow upon a housetop.'

And each of the birds too, whenever, having heard the words of Jesus, he turns them into deeds and builds a house and completes the building and crowns the building, then at that moment upon the housetop he cries out watchfully, lifting up his voice.

The very preaching of the truth too can then be called a sparrow, becoming high-soaring at that time; for whereas before it was down below among the hearers,

yet since now the perfect hearers too have been lifted up and pursue the things above the world, there the sparrow cries out to them upon the housetop;

having come to be above the world, the perfect one has cried out, to set face to face against the truth.

Rising up at the voice of the sparrow — but since it is possible also for those concerning whom the discourse is to rise up, according to the awaited resurrection.

In manifold ways the preaching of the resurrection, though one, is signified.

For at one time it is compared to a trumpet — 'the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible' — this trumpeter and herald of the resurrection who cries out, so that all, having heard the signal, may rise;

for this reason it has been compared to a trumpet.

And this instrument is loud-voiced and resounds everywhere.

So here too by 'sparrow' he again meant the preaching of the resurrection, which seems to be no earth-bound, lowly thing.

Those who are raised are indeed raised, yet in place of corruptible they rise incorruptible, in place of dishonored and weak they rise strong and glorious, and in place of natural they rise spiritual.

He shall rise, then, at the voice of the sparrow.

Will that marketplace which was shut up rise again? — It will rise throughout the whole world.

This is what I mean: that this preaching which here is being made public and is at work will be transformed, so that prophecy or knowledge will no longer be in part, but face to face.

This is what the 'rising' means according to the former interpretation.

So that we may grasp what season? — That of the judgment.

At what season is it shut up? — When the present age reaches its end.

...the beginning and the end are one.

The end of this day brings the beginning of the next...

It is not possible to set one time apart from another.

As a point-like mark and boundary of time, it is at once the end of the past and the beginning of the present; and again the end of the present and the beginning of what is to come.

If, then, I say this, I am speaking of judgment and resurrection at once.

And the beginning of the judgment seems to be the end of the resurrection.

For we conceive of them first as being raised, not as being judged, even if the two occur simultaneously.

As I have often said, the body and its color exist together.

One cannot say that the one is prior to the other.

For the body is conceived first.

There must be a body, so that there may thus be color.

For I do not conceive of the color first, in order that the body may then exist.

'And all the daughters of song shall be brought low.'

In accordance with all the interpretations given for 'he shall rise at the voice of the sparrow,' I speak of the abasement of the daughters of song.

The false teachers are daughters of song; they are daughters of mere voice, not of mind, nor of wisdom, nor of knowledge, nor of light.

And because of their unmanliness, and because of their effeminate absorption in temporal things, they are called daughters.

These, then, shall be brought low.

And in the very way that darkness is dissolved when light is present, so, when he who rises at the voice of the sparrow — or of the marketplace, or of the Savior, or of the divine teachers — is present, they are convicted of being nothing.

It is shown that their teaching had its existence only for the present life; and — to put it in the rather poorer way often said by some — that human wisdom, which promises eloquence and a fine arrangement of words, has its existence only as far as voice.

But since this voice will pass away once the air is no longer being struck, when they come to be above the air, those of whom the discourse speaks are brought low.

The daughters of song are found to be nothing — whereas the wise teachers would not be called daughters, or daughters of song, but sons of light, sons of wisdom.

Can we speak in a censorious sense from another Scripture? — 'Remove from me the sound of thy songs, and the psalm of thy instruments I will not hear.'

He regards their song as a vexation.

And 'ode' and 'song' are one and the same thing.

'And moreover I will turn,' he says, 'their feasts into mourning and their songs into lamentations.'

And those who said, 'Sing us a hymn from the songs of Zion,' spoke it in mockery.

'...by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept.'

Having come to Babylon and its unstable currents, called rivers, we sat down.

We no longer wished to go any further, having taken to remembrance of our own homeland.

This came about in our remembering Zion.

We no longer wished to go beyond Babylon.

'Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung up our instruments' — the musical instruments, those of the new song.

The willow is a plant that renders men barren.

They say that if its blossom is ground into water and drunk, it makes those who have drunk it infertile.

For this reason the poet called the willows 'fruit-destroying,' because in a certain way it emasculates those who drink of it.

The instruments, then — that is, the bodies — they hung upon the willows, upon the branches of chastity.

Then those men, as if jeering, said:

'Sing us a hymn from the songs of Zion' — saying 'songs' in the plural, all the more insolently.

For the song of Zion is one, and the hymn is one.

For this is said: 'O God, a new song will I sing to thee' — one song.

These men, then, since discord makes many songs, quietly say this:

It is said in a discordant sense: 'From your songs sing us a hymn.'

Then those others, recognizing that they had maliciously spoken of 'songs' in the plural, say:

'How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?' We are in a foreign land, one that is yours.

So there is a blameworthy song and a praiseworthy one.

And if it says, 'Do not keep constant company with a woman who sings,' it signifies a blameworthy song, a psalm not rightly uttered.

'And they shall also look down from on high, and terrors shall be in the way.'

'And the almond tree shall blossom, and the locust shall grow fat.'

...being such, he keeps his heart on high, his mind on high, and he sees that in the ways there are terrors, there are fears.

The things reported concerning what is to come confound the understanding.

And especially when it is believed to be near, it confounds the understanding, and terror arises.

They are terrified by the things spoken; and just as with things perceptible, if a lightning bolt is expected, all are afraid, and when thunder comes, all are in dread.

This indeed the psalmist too has said:

'At the voice of thy thunder they shall be afraid.'

And just as they take fright and are confounded by the perceptible voice, so also by the loud-voiced Word of God, of which it is spoken as of thunder:

'The God of glory thundered,' and again, 'And the Lord thundered from heaven.'

This thunder those around James and John heard:

For they were surnamed 'sons of thunder.'

And just as Peter was renamed 'Peter' because of the firmness of the faith he had, which was called a rock, so also these were surnamed 'sons of thunder' from their great-voicedness.

But perhaps someone will object to us: 'Yes, let John thunder great things, doing theology and saying, "In the beginning was the Word," and "there was the true light," and "the only-begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father";'

'but what thunder has James brought forth? For he was straightway taken away.'

We say that it can be spoken in a comprehensive manner; or that both indeed held, in their understanding, to loud-voiced things, but James was not permitted to write, being removed from life quickly, soon after the ascension of the Savior.

Just as, then, the perceptible thunder strikes those who hear it with amazement, and they are terrified by the expectation of it or of some other thunderbolt, so, when these heralds of the truth are exalted, amazement seizes those who are still on the way.

But it is necessary that they, having ascended to the height, should already be there.

Those who have written concerning the nature of plants say this about the almond tree:

Before all plants in the spring it puts forth leaves, and it sheds them after the shedding of all the other trees.

This, then, is enduring.

For this reason also the priestly rod is called 'of the almond.'

For it did not remain merely for a few days.

From Moses until the coming of the Saviour it was manifest.

But there had also arisen traditions of another teaching in place of the Jewish ones,

commandments of men ...

ministers of these traditions.

And they quickly blossomed and quickly withered away.

The priestly rod, however, being of almond wood, remained for a long time, until a succession should come from the greater and more spiritual priesthood.

And it blossomed before the others.

And this too must be said: that where there is true teaching, there will also be false and deceived teaching.

In the times of the prophets false prophets are found.

For evil is an imitation of what is true.

From the time that Christ was proclaimed at his coming, many false christs announced that they would come.

This, then, we say: that even if those were plants belonging to the other teachings, they too blossom afterward, after the right teaching, and cease before it.

For when it appears, they are extinguished.

This rod, then, dissolved the rods of the others — of the false apostles and the false prophets.

Will the almond then blossom? — This.

When the daughters of song are brought low — those that promise false teachings, false rods — then all the more will the almond blossom.

Concerning the apostolic saying we have said that then there will be a constitution of righteousness, when injustice prevails among men.

Dissolving the injustice and those who champion it, it is shown to be something great; but its greatness would not have been displayed unless there had first been established much injustice, which it dissolved.

And we said that the truth of God abounded in the midst of human falsehood.

And we were then asserting that precisely then the ...

... of the truth appeared, when many false sophists came forward into the midst, promising false and contentious arguments.

Let there be some king who is competent, possessing a large force, and experienced in war.

Should he go out against a band of thirty men banded together and prevail over them? And thus, by the Preacher — or rather by Ezra — problems were propounded concerning the king.

And the former two spoke well, but the second interpretation, that of the third, prevailed.

And it has been said that the truth conquers and prevails.

For even if women are strong, and such wine, and the king, and the other things, yet the truth prevails over all.

The superior strength of the truth appeared, since those things interpreted by the others were themselves strong.

† ... they were made contemptible, having called to mind ... but having called this one to mind † the greatness of the truth did not appear.

In the apostolic passage this too was said: that where law is, there also is transgression.

If the gospel had not come into the midst, there would not have been great punishment against those who do not receive it.

Immediately, therefore, he says that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, so that no one may take the pretext of not having heard.

When, then, the aforesaid almond blossoms, the locust grows fat.

And the locust is taken to signify chastisement.

'What the caterpillar left, the locust devoured.'

And it grows fat then, receiving much nourishment.

And its nourishment is the men handed over to it.

It is possible also to take 'the almond will blossom' in a moral sense.

The almond, outside of the edible part, has two coverings.

A shell-like one, and then a bitter one — the outer rind.

The outer rind can be the body.

For it is bitter, being inclined toward pleasures.

But that shell-like covering is the soul, for it is firm and great.

And within is the edible part — the spirit.

When, therefore, that of the apostle's prayer is fulfilled, where he writes:

'May the God of peace sanctify you, and may your whole spirit and soul and body' — the almond has blossomed.

For in blossoming it has these three.

The man blossoms, then, when he advances in virtue, when he has his body transformed so as to become conformed to the body of Christ.

'And the caper is dispersed, because the man has gone to his eternal home.'

The eternal home of the man is the life that comes after these things.

All the things spoken of come to pass.

'And the doors in the street are shut, and they rise up at the voice of the sparrow — those called for this purpose — and the daughters of song are brought low.'

Those who are in the eternal home are the men.

And this place around the earth is the house of this present evil age.

All the things spoken of come to pass.

Since, then, he has journeyed into another age, leaving the age of his own house, into the one that comes after these things, all that had reached its end here is dissolved.

It is possible also to understand it thus, since the man ...

... is according to the soul ...?

When all the things that have accrued to the man are dissolved — the blameworthy, the base — he journeys henceforth into his own home, leaving that of this present age.

And the age and home suited to the man, who has come into being according to the image and likeness of God, is the divine state into which he has journeyed from this present age.

Those things are dissolved, as if one should say that fornication will cease.

For the man has journeyed into the region of incorruption.

'And those who mourn go about in the street.'

For the rest, when the caper has been dispersed and the locust is multiplying, those who of old used to plead on behalf of the salvation of men lament them, as it were.

Furthermore, in the marketplace the mourners went about in a circle.

You have also what is said in the Gospel by the Saviour:

'To what shall I liken this generation?' And He says:

'It is like children sitting in the marketplace, who call out to one another, saying:'

'We piped to you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge to you, and you did not mourn.'

'John came neither eating nor drinking.'

the body of the Church, the apostolic and evangelical choir

He says, then, that the children pipe, since those who hear the pipe ought to dance.

But the dance signifies an imitation of words carried out by means of the hands.

Whenever, therefore, men hear those who are wise unto salvation and who set forth the word of godliness, and are conformed in their works and in their mind to the things proclaimed, they dance in a praiseworthy manner, according to that dance which David danced before the ark.

For whenever they sing a dirge, calling men to repentance and rousing them to awareness, they beat their breasts, because this rouses awareness.

When one man sins and another laments and beats his breast, the sinner straightway says: 'Inasmuch as this man reproaches himself on my behalf, I too ought to do the same.'

These too, then, hearing the dirge, if they carry their hands against their breast in mourning, rouse an awareness of themselves.

These, then, who of old made public discourse and said much concerning those who would not hear, beat their breasts in grief.

Thus indeed Jeremiah too, after Israel had been led captive and Jerusalem laid desolate, sat down weeping and lamented his lamentation.

'Lament to me more than a bride girded with sackcloth over her virgin husband.'

The mourners, then, went about in a circle in the marketplace.

Teachers rejoice when their hearers walk uprightly;

they grieve whenever the divine oracles are disregarded.

Since, therefore, even after the hearers have sinned the teachers still spare them in proclaiming the divine things, they go about in a circle mourning, not seeing those men do what they are commanded to do.

The New Testament also knows the Church as a 'marketplace,' as do the Greeks.

In the Acts of the Apostles, at any rate, it says that they have some matter of inquiry, and 'marketplace men' are brought in—that is to say, orators.

'You are able,' he says, 'to bring a suit concerning this, having those who plead in the marketplace, those who practise oratory.'

Mourning, then, those who speak in the marketplace went about in a circle;

they would have gone about rejoicing and dancing, if the things spoken by them were being transformed into the works of the ages.

'Before the silver cord is overturned and the golden bowl is broken.'

The 'silver cord' may be the giving and receiving that pertains to transactions.

Since the word of the Lord is silver, and His oracles are silver refined by fire, cords are plaited out of these;