約伯倫理 第 184 章

Preface. The letter of Scripture sometimes seems to contradict itself. The meaning of Scripture is penetrated by the humble through diligent reading. — He who regards the text but is ignorant of the meaning of sacred speech instructs himself not so much with learning as he confounds himself with ambiguity; for sometimes the words of the letter contradict one another. Yet while by their apparent contrariety they seem at odds with themselves, they send the reader on to the understanding of the truth. For what is it that Solomon says: 'It is better to eat and drink' (Eccles. 2:24); and not long after he adds: 'It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting' (Eccles. 7:3)? Why did he prefer mourning to feasting, he who first praised eating and drinking?

For if by preference it is good to eat and drink, then beyond doubt it ought to be better to hasten to the house of joy than to the house of lamentation. Hence it is that he again says: 'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth' (Eccles. 11:9). And a little after he adds: 'For youth and pleasure are vain' (Eccles. 11:10). What is this, that either he commands beforehand what is to be reproved, or reproves after commanding, save that by the very words of the letter he intimates that he who suffers difficulty outwardly should consider the understanding of the truth, which he ought to follow? And this understanding of the truth, when it is sought through humility of heart, is penetrated by diligence in reading.

For just as we behold the faces of men unknown to us yet know not their hearts, but if we are joined to them in familiar converse, by the practice of conversation we trace out even their thoughts; so when in the sacred word only the history is regarded, nothing but the face is seen; but if we are joined to it by constant use, we penetrate, as it were, its mind through the familiarity of conversation. For while we gather one thing from another, we easily recognize in its words that one thing is what they intimate, another what they utter aloud. And the more anyone is bound to its mere surface, the more he is rendered a stranger to that inner knowledge.