Samaritan Woman

"And there came a woman." Figure of the Church not yet justified, but now about to be justified: for this is the subject of the discourse. She comes ignorant, she finds Him, and there is a dealing with her. Let us see what, and wherefore. "There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water." The Samaritans did not belong to the nation of the Jews: they were foreigners, though they inhabited neighboring lands. It would take a long time to relate the origin of the Samaritans; that we may not be detained by long discourse of this, and leave necessary matters unsaid, suffice to say, then, that we regard the Samaritans as aliens. And, lest you should think that I have said this with more boldness than truth, hear the Lord Jesus Himself, what He said of that Samaritan, one of the ten lepers whom He had cleansed, who alone returned to give thanks: "Were there not ten cleansed? And where are the nine? There was not another to give glory to God, save this stranger." It is pertinent to the image of the reality, that this woman, who bore the type of the Church, comes of strangers: for the Church was to come of the Gentiles, an alien from the race of the Jews. In that woman, then, let us hear ourselves, and in her acknowledge ourselves, and in her give thanks to God for ourselves. For she was the figure, not the reality; for she both first showed forth the figure and became the reality. For she believed on Him who, of her, set the figure before us. "She cometh, then, to draw water." Had simply come to draw water, as people are wont to do, be they men or women.

"Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the Samaritan woman unto Him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." You see that they were aliens: indeed, the Jews would not use their vessels. And as the woman brought with her a vessel with which to draw the water, it made her wonder that a Jew sought drink of her,-a thing which the Jews were not accustomed to do. But He who was asking drink was thirsting for the faith of the woman itself.

(Tract. xv. c. 10) The woman here is the type of the Church, not yet justified, but just about to be. And it is a part of the resemblance, that she comes from a foreign people. The Samaritans were foreigners, though they were neighbours; and in like manner the Church was to come from the Gentiles, and to be alien from the Jewish race.

(1. lxxxiii. Quaest. qu. 64) Jesus also thirsted after that woman's faith? He thirsteth for their faith, for whom He shed His blood.

Having determined the opportunity for preaching, here is determined the manifestation made through preaching. And because this manifestation was first made particularly, and secondly commonly: therefore first it treats of the preaching made to the woman; secondly, of the preaching made to the Samaritans, at the passage: "The woman therefore left her water jar." And because the preaching of faith is not efficacious except with the consent of free will, and free will does not consent unless it is aroused by God: therefore the Lord first arouses the woman; secondly, to her once aroused and consenting, He announces the truth of faith. The Lord therefore arouses the woman in this order, namely first by requesting a service; secondly, by promising or offering a benefit; thirdly, by explaining the benefit offered.

First He arouses her by requesting the service of a drink, which the woman was able to provide, because she had come to draw water. For this reason it says: "A woman of Samaria came to draw water:" and so she was able to give a drink, and Christ was in need and therefore asked. Therefore it follows: "Jesus says to her: Give me to drink." He was indeed in need of drink, because there was no one to serve Him.

It is asked: since the Jews regarded the Samaritans as unclean, and the Lord kept the Law: whence is it that he asked to drink from a Samaritan woman? Furthermore, he knew her response before he asked, and he knew that she would not give the drink: therefore he was asking in vain and foolishly. Chrysostom responds that the Lord regarded the keeping of such observances as indifferent, as is said in Matthew 15, that nothing external defiles a man: and therefore he did not refrain from asking from her, although she was a Samaritan. To the objection that he knew she would not give: it must be said that he knew she would respond to him prudently, and so that from her response he might have an occasion for teaching, therefore he asked.

Likewise, John 4: Give me to drink: Augustine in the original, Homily 15 on John: "In everything that Christ did as man, He was providing an example for those who would believe in Him"; and afterwards: "He asks to drink and promises to give drink, He is in need as one about to receive and promises as one about to satisfy." But it is certain that He was not in need of spiritual drink, because He was promising that: therefore He was in need of bodily drink and was requesting it. But you may object with the Gloss as though it were contrary, which says: "Although Jesus could thirst after His weariness, nevertheless He does not demand this drink"; but this is understood to mean that He was not principally seeking this drink, lest the Gloss contradict the deed.

Likewise, Jerome to Rusticus: "What is lowlier than the Samaritan woman? Yet she not only believes in the Messiah, whom she recognizes at the well, but also, while the Apostles were buying food, she refreshes the hungry one and sustains the weary one": therefore it appears that Christ was bodily sustained by her.

The Saviour was not ignorant of the woman's coming. For right well did He know being Very God, that she would forthwith be there to draw the cold stream from the fountain. But when she was now come, He began to get His prey within the toils, and straightway holding forth the word of teaching, made His discourse from what was before Him.

The Law appointed for the Jews that they must not be defiled in any way, and therefore ordered them to withdraw from every unclean thing, and not to mix themselves up with strangers, or uncircumcised. But they, carrying forward the force of the commandment to something more, and following most empty observances, rather than the exactness of the Law, nor venturing so much as to touch the flesh of any alien, used to think that they would incur all uncleanness, if they were found having to do with the Samaritans in anything. To so great an extent did their disagreement at length advance, that they recoiled from tasting water or food brought to them by the hand of aliens. In order then that the woman may exclaim, and that His unwonted conduct may invite her to ask Who He is, and whence, and how He despises the Jewish customs; and so at length the conversation may come to His aim, He makes as though thirsty, saying, Give Me to drink.

First, then, from the wind-that is, from the serpent-has resulted the originating principle of generation in the manner declared, all things having simultaneously received the principle of generation. After, then, the light and the spirit had been received, he says, into the polluted and baneful (and) disordered womb, the serpent-the wind of the darkness, the first-begotten of the waters-enters within and produces man, and the impure womb neither loves nor recognises any other form. The perfect Word of supernal light being therefore assimilated (in form) to the beast, (that is,) the serpent, entered into the defiled womb, having deceived (the womb) through the similitude of the beast itself, in order that (the Word) may loose the chains that encircle the perfect mind which has been begotten amidst impurity of womb by the primal offspring of water, (namely,) serpent, wind, (and) beast. This, he says, is the form of the servant, and this the necessity of the Word of God coming down into the womb of a virgin. But he says it is not sufficient that the Perfect Man, the Word, has entered into the womb of a virgin, and loosed the pangs which were in that darkness. Nay, more than this was requisite; for after his entrance into the foul mysteries of the womb, he was washed, and drank of the cup of life-giving bubbling water. And it was altogether needful that he should drink who was about to strip off the servile form, and assume celestial raiment.

"Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus by the well; and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink. For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat."

Hence we learn His activity in journeying, His carelessness about food, and how He treated it as a matter of minor importance. And so the disciples were taught to use the like disposition themselves; for they took with them no provisions for the road. And this another Evangelist declares, saying, that when He spake to them concerning "the leaven of the Pharisees," they thought that it was because they carried no bread; and when he introduces them plucking the ears of corn, and eating, and when he saith that Jesus came to the fig-tree by reason of hunger, it is for nothing else but only to instruct us by all these to despise the belly, and not to deem that its service is anxiously to be attended to.

"There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water."

Observe how he declareth that the woman came forth for another purpose, in every way silencing the shameless gainsaying of the Jews, that none might say that He acted in opposition to His own command, bidding His disciples not to enter into any city of the Samaritans, yet conversing with Samaritans. And therefore the Evangelist has put, "For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat." Bringing in many reasons for His conversation with her.

And in this place it is not His laboriousness alone that is shown, but also His freedom from pride; not merely by His being tired, nor by His sitting by the way-side, but by His having been left alone, and His disciples having been separated from Him. And yet it was in His power, if He had willed it, either not to have sent them all away, or when they departed to have had other ministers. But He would not; for so He accustomed His disciples to tread all pride beneath their feet.

Seest thou that His sitting was because of weariness? because of the heat? because of his waiting for His disciples? He knew, indeed, what should take place among the Samaritans, but it was not for this that He came principally; yet, though He came not for this, it behooved not to reject the woman who came to Him, when she manifested such a desire to learn. The Jews, when He was even coming to them, drove Him away; they of the Gentiles, when He was proceeding in another direction, drew Him to them. They envied, these believed on Him. They were angry with, these revered and worshiped Him. What then? Was He to overlook the salvation of so many, to send away such noble zeal? This would have been unworthy of His lovingkindness. Therefore He ordered all the matter in hand with the Wisdom which became Him. He sat resting His body and cooling It by the fountain; for it was the very middle of the day, as the Evangelist has declared, when he says, "It was about the sixth hour."

The Savior asks for water from the woman, then, and feigns thirst so that he might give eternal grace to the thirsty. For the source was not able to be thirsty, nor was he in whom there is living water able to draw water full of earthly sediment. Did Christ thirst, then? He thirsted, to be sure, but for salvation and not [merely] for human drink. He was thirsty not for the water of this world but for the redemption of the human race. In a wonderful way, therefore, the source sitting by the well produces streams of mercy in that very place, and with flowing, living water he purifies the woman who is fornicating with a sixth man, not her husband but an adulterer. And in a new kind of miracle the woman who had come to the well of Samaria as a prostitute returned chaste from the source of Christ. She who had come to look for water brought back chastity. As soon as the Lord points her sins out to her she acknowledges them, confesses Christ and announces the Savior. Abandoning her pitcher she brings not water but grace back to the city. She seems, indeed, to return without a burden, but she returns full of holiness. She returns full, I say, because she who had come as a sinner goes back as a proclaimer, and she who had left her pitcher behind brought back the fullness of Christ, without the slightest loss to her city. For even if she did not bring water to the townspeople, still she brought in the source of salvation. Sanctified, then, by faith in Christ, the woman goes back home.

And furthermore, lest anyone accuse the Lord of the fact that, having commanded His disciples not to go on the path to the Gentiles, He Himself comes to the Samaritans, for this reason he says that His sitting in this place was due to weariness, and that the conversation with the woman had a reasonable pretext — thirst. Since as a result of His human nature He thirsted, He also had need of drink. When He asks for a drink, a woman with an inquisitive soul enters into conversation with Him. What then was to be done? Should He have rejected a woman so inquisitive and thirsting to hear the resolution of her perplexities? But this is by no means characteristic of the love of God for mankind.

The argument with the woman arises naturally from the occasion: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. As man, the labour and heat He had undergone had made Him thirsty.

Next, we have a preliminary remark concerning the one who listens to Christ. First, we are introduced to the person who is taught. Secondly, we are given her preparation for his teaching.

The teaching is given to a Samaritan woman; so he says, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. This woman signifies the Church, not yet justified, of the Gentiles. It was then involved in idolatry, but was destined to be justified by Christ. She came from foreigners, i.e., from the Samaritans, who were foreigners, even though they lived in the neighboring territory: because the Church of the Gentiles, foreign to the Jewish race, would come to Christ: "Many will come from the East and the West, and will sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven," as we find in Matthew (8:11).

Christ prepares this woman for his teaching when he says, Give me a drink. First, we have the occasion for his asking her. Secondly, the Evangelist suggests why it was opportune to make this request (v 8).

The occasion and the preparation of the woman was the request of Christ; thus he says, Give me a drink. He asks for a drink both because he was thirsty for water on account of the heat of the day, and because he thirsted for the salvation of man on account of his love. Accordingly, while hanging on the cross he cried out: "I thirst."

Is it shown in the sacred books that the Holy Spirit is called the "gift of God"? If people look for this too, we have in the Gospel according to John the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink: he that believes on me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." And the Evangelist has gone on further to add, "And this he spoke of the Spirit, which they should receive who believe in him." And hence Paul the apostle also says, "And we have all been made to drink into one Spirit." The question then is whether that water is called the gift of God, which is the Holy Spirit. But as we find here that this water is the Holy Spirit, so we find elsewhere in the Gospel itself that this water is called the gift of God. For when the same Lord was talking with the woman of Samaria at the well, to whom he had said, "Give me to drink," and she had answered that the Jews "have no dealings" with the Samaritans, Jesus answered and said to her, "If you had known the gift of God and who it is that says to you, 'Give me to drink,' you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water." … Because this living water, then, as the Evangelist has explained to us, is the Holy Spirit, without doubt the Spirit is the gift of God, of which the Lord says here, "If you had known the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, 'Give me to drink,' you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water." For that which is in the one passage, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," is in the other, "shall be in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life."

At length, hear who it is that asketh drink: "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest, it may be, have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." He asks to drink, and promises to give drink. He longs as one about to receive; He abounds as one about to satisfy. "If thou knewest," saith He, "the gift of God." The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. But as yet He speaks to the woman guardedly, and enters into her heart by degrees. It may be He is now teaching her. For what can be sweeter and kinder than that exhortation? "If thou knewest the gift of God," etc.: thus far He keeps her in suspense. That is commonly called living water which issues from a spring: that which is collected from rain in pools and cisterns is not called living water. And it may have flowed from a spring; yet if it should stand collected in some place, not admitting to it that from which it flowed, but, with the course interrupted, separated, as it were, from the channel of the fountain, it is not called "living water:" but that is called living water which is taken as it flows. Such water there was in that fountain. Why, then, did He promise to give that which He was asking?

The woman, however, being in suspense, saith to Him, "Lord, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep." See how she understood the living water, simply the water which was in that fountain. "Thou wouldst give me living water, and I carry that with which to draw, and thou dost not. The living water is here; how art thou to give it me?" Understanding another thing, and taking it carnally, she does in a manner knock, that the Master may open up that which is closed. She was knocking in ignorance, not with earnest purpose; she is still an object of pity, not yet of instruction.

(Tract. xv) He who asked to drink, however, out of the woman's vessel, thirsted for the woman's faith: Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, or Who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.

(1. lxxxiii. Quaest. qu. 64) He lets her know that it was not the water, which she meant, that Ho asked for; but that knowing her faith, He wished to satisfy her thirst, by giving her the Holy Spirit. For so must we interpret the living water, which is the gift of God; as He saith, If thou knewest the gift of God.

(Tr. xv) Living water is that which comes out of a spring, in distinction to what is collected in ponds and cisterns from the rain. If spring water too becomes stagnant, i. e. collects into some spot, where it is quite separated from its fountain head, it ceases to be living water.

"Jesus answered and said to her: If you knew the gift of God." The gift of God is the Holy Spirit, concerning which Acts 2: "Repent, and let each one of you be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is called a gift, because it ought not to be sold: Acts 8: "May your money perish with you, because you thought the gift of God could be possessed with money."

If this, I say, you knew, "and who it is that says to you: Give Me to drink," namely that He Himself is the giver of the Holy Spirit, you would not have raised a question, but a petition for the gift. Therefore He says: "You perhaps would have asked of Him:" "perhaps" is not a mark of doubt, but of free will; and He would have satisfied your petition. Therefore He says: "And He would have given you living water:" "to you," asking, "He would have given;" Matthew 7: "Everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened." He calls living water the grace of faith, which makes one live: Habakkuk 2: "My just one lives by faith."

Not everyone knows the gift of God, because not all desire the living water, for if they did desire it they would never postpone the sacrament of baptism.… Do not delay the remedies of your salvation because you do not know when your soul may be demanded of you.

Enquiry is the beginning of learning, and to those who are ignorant upon any subject, doubt concerning it is the root of understanding. This commencement the discourse aims at: wherefore the Saviour wisely hints, that He accounts of no value the customs of the Jews.

Jesus calls the quickening gift of the Spirit "living water" because mere human nature is parched to its very roots, now rendered dry and barren of all virtue by the crimes of the devil. But now human nature runs back to its pristine beauty, and drinking in that which is life-giving, it is made beautiful with a variety of good things and, budding into a virtuous life, it sends out healthy shoots of love toward God.

If thou knewest the gift of God, and Who It is That saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto Him,

Not knowing the Essence of the Only Begotten, surpassing earth and heaven, yea rather being wholly ignorant of the Incarnate Word, the woman was calling Him a Jew. And profitably is He silent to this, that the foundation of His discourse with her may be kept. Yet does He uplift her to a higher conception of Himself, saying that she knows not Who It is Who asked drink, or how great grace Divine gifts have, insomuch that if she had had knowledge of it, she would not have endured to be behindhand, for she would have prevented the Lord in asking. He rouses her then by these things to a very earnest wish to learn. Observe how now too fashioning His discourse skillfully and free from boast, He says that He is God, even though the woman be slow to understand. For inducing her to marvel at the gift of God, He introduces Himself as the Giver of it. For if (says He,) thou knewest the gift of God and Who It is That saith to thee, thou wouldest have asked of Him. But whom would it befit to give the things of God? would it not Him Who is by Nature God?

But He calls the quickening gift of the Spirit living water, whereby alone human nature, albeit well nigh parched to its very roots, rendered now dry and barren of all virtue by the villainies of the devil, runneth back to its pristine beauty of nature, and drinking in the life-giving grace, is adorned with varied forms of good things, and shooting forth into a virtuous habit puts forth most thriving shoots of love towards God. Some such thing as this God says to us by the Prophet Isaiah also, The beast of the field shall honour Me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen, whom I have formed for Myself to declare Mine excellencies. And another of the Saints says that the soul of the righteous shall be as a fruitful tree, and shall spring up as grass among the waters, and shall appear as the willow by running water.

We might heap up, besides those already quoted, many other testimonies also from the Divine Scripture, whence it would be very easy to show, that under the name of water, the Divine Spirit is often named. But it is no time to linger here. Wherefore we will swim to other places, pressing on upon the great and wide sea of Divine meditations.

And in that day it says, "Living water shall come forth out of Jerusalem." This is that spiritual, sweet, life-giving and saving drink of the teaching of Christ. He speaks of it in the Gospel according to John, when instructing the Samaritan woman.… What was this drink, then, that came forth from Jerusalem? For it was there that its gospel went forth and its heralds filled the world. This is what is meant by the words "The living water shall go forth to the first sea and the last sea," by which is meant the bounds of the whole world. That which is toward the eastern ocean is called "the first sea," that toward the west is meant by "the last sea," which, indeed, the living water of the saving gospel teaching has filled. He also taught about this when he said, "Whosoever shall drink of the water, which I shall give him, shall never thirst."

And in them too the rest of the prophecy was fulfilled, when on the day of our Savior's coming living water came forth from Jerusalem. The fruitful living word of Jerusalem, yes, from Jerusalem itself, and was spread over all the earth, even to the utmost bounds of the world. The Lord and Savior himself speaks of this water to the Samaritan woman.… And he goes on to teach what advantage would accrue to everyone who tastes of the living spiritual spring. Those that drink of it, denying the many evil demons who ruled them of old, will confess their one Lord and King, and that the Lord, who once was known only to the Hebrews, will become King of all nations that believe in him from all the earth, and that his name will be one, encircling all the earth and the wilderness. And who is not struck at seeing this fulfilled? For the Christian name, derived from the name of Christ (and Christ was indeed the Lord) has encircled every place and city and land and the very nations that dwell in the wilderness and at the ends of the earth, as the prophecy foretold.

[Heracleon] is not wrong when he says that "the water that the Savior gives is of his spirit and power." And he has explained the statement "But he shall not thirst forever" as follows with these very words: "For the life he gives is eternal and never perishes, as, indeed, does the first life that comes from the well; the life he gives remains. For the grace and the gift of our Savior is not to be taken away, nor is it consumed, nor does it perish, when one partakes of it." … Now [Heracleon's] interpretation of the "leaping water" is not unconvincing. He takes it to refer "to those who partake of that which is richly supplied to them from above and who themselves cause what is supplied to them to gush out for the eternal life of others." But he also praises the Samaritan woman "because she demonstrated a faith that was unhesitating and appropriate to her nature, when she had no doubt about what he said to her."

They assert, however, that Edem is the brain, as it were, bound and tightly fastened in encircling robes, as if (in) heaven. But they suppose that man, as far as the head only, is Paradise, therefore that "this river, which proceeds out of Edem," that is, from the brain, "is divided into four heads, and that the name of the first river is called Phison; this is that which encompasseth all the land of Havilath: there is gold, and the gold of that land is excellent, and there is bdellium and the onyx stone." This, he says, is the eye, which, by its honour (among the rest of the bodily organs), and its colours, furnishes testimony to what is spoken. "But the name of the second river is Gihon: this is that which compasseth the land of Ethiopia." This, he says, is hearing, since Gihon is (a tortuous stream), resembling a sort of labyrinth. "And the name of the third is Tigris. This is that which floweth over against (the country of) the Assyrians." This, he says, is smelling, employing the exceedingly rapid current of the stream (as an analogy of this sense). But it flows over against (the country of) the Assyrians, because in every act of respiration following upon expiration, the breath drawn in from the external atmosphere enters with swifter motion and greater force. For this, he says, is the nature of respiration. "But the fourth river is Euphrates." This, they assert, is the mouth, through which are the passage outwards of prayer, and the passage inwards of nourishment. (The mouth) makes glad, and nurtures and fashions the Spiritual Perfect Man. This, he says, is "the water that is above the firmament," concerning which, he says, the Saviour has declared, "If thou knewest who it is that asks, thou wouldst have asked from Him, and He would have given you to drink living, bubbling water." Into this water, he says, every nature enters, choosing its own substances; and its peculiar quality comes to each nature from this water, he says, more than iron does to the magnet, and the gold to the backbone of the sea falcon, and the chaff to the amber.

And therefore He answered the woman, and said, "If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water."

First, He showeth that she is worthy to hear and not to be overlooked, and then He revealeth Himself. For she, as soon as she had learnt who He was, would straightway hearken and attend to Him; which none can say of the Jews, for they, when they had learned, asked nothing of Him, nor did they desire to be informed on any profitable matter, but insulted and drove Him away. But when the woman had heard these words, observe how gently she answers: "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence then hast thou that living water?"

Already He hath raised her from her low opinion of Him, and from deeming that He is a common man. For not without a reason doth she here call Him, "Lord"; but assigning to Him high honor. That she spake these words to honor Him, is plain from what is said afterwards, since she did not laugh nor mock, but doubted for a while.

And wonder not if she did not at once perceive all, for neither did Nicodemus. What saith he? "How can these things be?" and again, "How can a man be born when he is old?" and again, "Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" But this woman more reverently: "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence then hast thou that living water?" Christ said one thing, and she imagined another, hearing nothing beyond the words, and as yet unable to form any lofty thought. Yet, had she spoken hastily, she might have said, "If thou hadst had that living water, thou wouldest not have asked of me, but wouldest rather have provided for thyself. Thou art but a boaster." But she said nothing like this; she answers with much gentleness, both at first and afterwards.

For at first she saith, "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me?" she saith not, as though speaking to an alien and an enemy, "Far be it from me to give to thee, who art a foe and a stranger to our nation." And afterwards again, when she heard Him utter great words, a thing at which enemies are most annoyed, she did not mock nor deride; but what saith she? "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?"

Christ does not reveal Himself until the woman's virtue has been made manifest. But when the woman's virtue was revealed — her perceptiveness and exactness — then He begins to converse with her about higher matters. "If you," He says, "knew the gift of God," that is, if you knew what God grants, that He grants eternal and imperishable blessings, if you also knew Me, knew that I, as God, am able to give them to you — then you would have asked and would have received living water. He calls the grace of the Holy Spirit "water," because it cleanses those who receive it and imparts to them great refreshment — not stagnant water, such as is found in pits and wells, putrid and spoiled, but "living" water, that is, springing up, leaping forth, flowing swiftly. For the grace of the Spirit makes the soul always active toward good, always making ascents (Ps. 84:5). Such water, living and always active, Paul drank, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13–14).

The grace of the Holy Spirit then He calls living water; i. e. lifegiving, refreshing, stirring. For the grace of the Holy Spirit is ever stirring him who does good works, directing the risings of his heart.

Now (v 10), the Evangelist gives us Christ's spiritual teaching. First, he gives the teaching itself. Secondly, the effect it had (v 27). As to the first, he does two things. First, a summary of the entire instruction is given. Secondly, he unfolds it part by part (v 11).

He said therefore: You are amazed that I, a Jew, should ask you, a Samaritan woman, for water; but you should not be amazed, because I have come to give drink, even to the Gentiles. Thus he says: If you knew the gift of God, and realized who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you perhaps would have asked him.

We may begin with what is last, and we should know first what is to be understood by water. And we should say that water signifies the grace of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes this grace is called fire, and at other times water, to show that it is neither one of these in its nature, but like them in the way it acts. It is called fire because it lifts up our hearts by its ardor and heat: "ardent in Spirit" (Rom 12:11), and because it burns up sins: "Its light is fire and flame" (Sg 8:6). Grace is called water because it cleanses: "I will pour clean water upon you, and you will be cleansed from all your uncleanness" (Ez 36:25), and because it brings a refreshing relief from the heat of temptations: "Water quenches a flaming fire" (Sir 3:33), and also because it satisfies our desires, in contrast to our thirst for earthly things and all temporal things whatever: "Come to the waters, all you who thirst" (Is 55:1).

Now water is of two kinds: living and non-living. Non-living water is water which is not connected or united with the source from which it springs, but is collected from the rain or in other ways into ponds and cisterns, and there it stands, separated from its source. But living water is connected with its source and flows from it. So according to this understanding, the grace of the Holy Spirit is correctly called living water, because the grace of the Holy Spirit is given to man in such a way that the source itself of the grace is also given, that is, the Holy Spirit. Indeed, grace is given by the Holy Spirit: "The love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). For the Holy Spirit is the unfailing fountain from whom all gifts of grace flow: "One and the same Spirit does all these things" (1 Cor 12:11). And so, if anyone has a gift of the Holy Spirit without having the Spirit, the water is not united with its source, and so is not living but dead: "Faith without works is dead" (Jas 2:20).

Then we are shown that in the case of adults, living water, i.e., grace, is obtained by desiring it, i.e., by asking. "The Lord has heard the desire of the poor" (Ps 9:17), for grace is not given to anyone without their asking and desiring it. Thus we say that in the justification of a sinner an act of free will is necessary to detest sin and to desire grace, according to Matthew (7:7): "Ask and you will receive." In fact, desire is so important that even the Son himself is told to ask: "Ask me, and I will give to you" (Ps 2:8). Therefore, no one who resists grace receives it, unless he first desires it; this is clear in the case of Paul who, before he received grace, desired it, saying: "Lord, what do you want me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Thus it is significant that he says, you perhaps would have asked him. He says perhaps on account of free will, with which a person sometimes desires and asks for grace, and sometimes does not.

There are two things which lead a person to desire and ask for grace: a knowledge of the good to be desired and a knowledge of the giver. So, Christ offers these two to her. First of all, a knowledge of the gift itself; hence he says, If you knew the gift of God, which is every desirable good which comes from the Holy Spirit: "I know that I cannot control myself unless God grants it to me" (Wis 8:21). And this is a gift of God, and so forth. Secondly, he mentions the giver; and he says, and realized who it is who says to you, i.e., if you knew the one who can give it, namely, that it is I: "When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth... he will bear witness to me" (below 15:26); "You have given gifts to men" (Ps 67:19).

Accordingly, this teaching concerns three things: the gift of living water, asking for this gift, and the giver himself.

But, my opponents ask, if Christ came as the Saviour of men, as you say, why does He not, with uniform benevolence, free all without exception? I reply, does not He free all alike who invites all alike? or does He thrust back or repel any one from the kindness of the Supreme who gives to all alike the power of coming to Him,-to men of high rank, to the meanest slaves, to women, to boys? To all, He says, the fountain of life is open, and no one is hindered or kept back from drinking. If you are so fastidious as to spurn the kindly offered gift, nay, more, if your wisdom is so great that you term those things which are offered by Christ ridiculous and absurd, why should He keep on inviting you, while His only duty is to make the enjoyment of His bounty depend upon your own free choice?

The Lord speaks somewhat more clearly of that living water. Now the woman had said, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, his children, and his cattle?" Thou canst not give me of the living water of this well, because thou hast nothing to draw with: perhaps thou promisest another fountain? Canst thou be better than our father, who dug this well, and used it himself, and his? Let the Lord, then, declare what He called living water. "Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst forever; but the water which I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life." The Lord has spoken more openly: "It shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. He that drinketh of this water shall not thirst forever." What more evident than that it was not visible, but invisible water, that He was promising? What more evident than that He was speaking, not in a carnal, but in a spiritual sense?

Nevertheless, let us not overlook the fact that it is something spiritual that the Lord was promising. What means, "Whoso shall drink of this water shall thirst again?" It is true as to this water; it is true as to what the water signified. Since the water in the well is the pleasure of the world in its dark depth: from this men draw it with the vessel of lusts. Stooping forward, they let down the lust to reach the pleasure fetched from the depth of the well, and enjoy the pleasure and the preceding lust let down to fetch it. For he who has not despatched his lust in advance cannot get to the pleasure. Consider lust, then, as the vessel; and pleasure as the water from the depth of the well: when one has got at the pleasure of this world, it is meat to him, it is drink, it is a bath, a show, an amour; can it be that he will not thirst again? Therefore, "Whoso shall drink of this water," saith He, "will thirst again;" but if he shall receive water of me, "he shall never thirst." "We shall be satisfied," it saith, "with the good things of Thy house." Of what water, then, is He to give, but of that of which it is said, "With Thee is the fountain of life"? For how shall they thirst, who "shall be drunk with the fatness of Thy house"?

(Tr. xv. c. 16) Which is true indeed both of material water, and of that of which it is the type. For the water in the well is the pleasure of the world, that abode of darkness. Men draw it with the waterpot of their lusts; pleasure is not relished, except it be preceded by lust. And when a man has enjoyed this pleasure, i. e. drunk of the water, he thirsts again; but if he have received water from Me, he shall never thirst. For how shall they thirst, who are drunken with the abundance of the house of God? (Ps. 36:8.) But He promised this fulness of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture enlightens from nearby by means of the gifts of graces which supplement what is lacking in human activity. For many scientists came as guests: they came to our house and to our activity. But in these matters, activity must reach a limit. Wherefore Scripture enlightens such matters from nearby. Hence it is not good to go far out for something that is close at hand. Indeed, Scripture describes the gifts of the Holy Spirit throughout. In John: Jesus therefore, wearied as He was from the journey, was sitting at the well. And there follows: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. He, however, who drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst." And so, two kinds of water are distinguished. For one knowledge is described as being external, and the more one drinks of it, the more he thirsts; the other, as being internal, of which it is said: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, 'From within Him there shall flow rivers of living water.'" He said this, however, of the Spirit whom they who believed in Him were to receive. And these are the waters from the fountain of salvation, that is, awareness of those graces that sustain souls.

"Jesus answered and said to her: Everyone who drinks of this water," namely visible and material, "shall thirst again:" and therefore it is no great thing to give this, nor do I promise this. "But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst:" below in the sixth chapter: "He who believes in me shall never thirst." And the reason is added why he shall not thirst.

But as often as water is named alone in the Holy Scriptures, baptism is referred to, as we see intimated in Isaiah: "Remember not," says he, "the former things, and consider not the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, which shall now spring forth; and ye shall know it. I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the dry place, to give drink to my elected people, my people whom I have purchased, that they might show forth my praise." There God foretold by the prophet, that among the nations, in places which previously had been dry, rivers should afterwards flow plenteously, and should provide water for the elected people of God, that is, for those who were made sons of God by the generation of baptism. Moreover, it is again predicted and foretold before, that the Jews, if they should thirst and seek after Christ, should drink with us, that is, should attain the grace of baptism. "If they shall thirst," he says, "He shall lead them through the deserts, shall bring forth water for them out of the rock; the rock shall be cloven, and the water shall flow, and my people shall drink; " which is fulfilled in the Gospel, when Christ, who is the Rock, is cloven by a stroke of the spear in His passion; who also, admonishing what was before announced by the prophet, cries and says, "If any man thirst, let him come and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." And that it might be more evident that the Lord is speaking there, not of the cup, but of baptism, the Scripture adds, saying, "But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." For by baptism the Holy Spirit is received; and thus by those who are baptized, and have attained to the Holy Spirit, is attained the drinking of the Lord's cup. And let it disturb no one, that when the divine Scrip-lure speaks of baptism, it says that we thirst and drink, since the Lord also in the Gospel says, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; " because what is received with a greedy and thirsting desire is drunk more fully and plentifully. As also, in another place, the Lord speaks to the Samaritan woman, saying, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst for ever." By which is also signified the very baptism of saving water, which indeed is once received, and is not again repeated. But the cup of the Lord is always both thirsted for and drunk in the Church.

Scripture calls the grace of the Spirit sometimes "Fire," sometimes "Water," showing that these names are not descriptive of its essence, but of its operation; for the Spirit, being Invisible and Simple, cannot be made up of different substances. Now the one John declares, speaking thus, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire" (Matt. iii. 11): the other, Christ, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John vii. 38.) "But this," saith John, "spake He of the Spirit, which they should receive." So also conversing with the woman, He calleth the Spirit water; for, "Whosoever shall drink of the water which I shall give him, shall never thirst." So also He calleth the Spirit by the name of "fire," alluding to the rousing and warming property of grace, and its power of destroying transgressions; but by that of "water," to declare the cleansing wrought by it, and the great refreshment which it affordeth to those minds which receive it. And with good reason; for it makes the willing soul like some garden thick with all manner of trees fruitful and ever-flourishing, allowing it neither to feel despondency nor the plots of Satan, and quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

Wherefore also He, having heard, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob," leaveth Jacob, and speaketh concerning the water, saying, "Whosoever shall drink of this water, shall thirst again"; and He maketh His comparison, not by depreciating one, but by showing the excellence of the other; for He saith not, that "this water is naught," nor "that it is inferior and contemptible," but what even nature testifies that He saith: "Whosoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever shall drink of the Water which I shall give him, shall never thirst." The woman before this had heard of "living Water" (v. 10), but had not known its meaning. Since because that water is called "living" which is perennial and bubbles up unceasingly from uninterrupted springs, she thought that this was the water meant. Wherefore He points out this more clearly by speaking thus, and establishing by a comparison the superiority (of the water which He would give). What then saith He? "Whosoever shall drink of the Water that I shall give him, shall never thirst." This and what was said next especially showed the superiority, for material water possesses none of these qualities. And what is it that follows? "It shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." For as one that hath a well within him could never be seized by thirst, so neither can he that hath this Water.

One must investigate what is meant by "will thirst" in the statement "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again." … What is meant in the first place would be something like this: he who partakes of supposedly profound thoughts, even if he is satisfied for a little while and accepts the ideas that are drawn out and that he thinks he has discovered to be most profound, will, however, when he has reconsidered them, raise new questions.… But [the Word] says, I have the teaching that becomes a fountain of living water in the one who has received what I have declared. And he who has received of my water will receive so great a benefit that a fountain capable of discovering everything that is investigated will gush forth within him. The waters will leap upward. His understanding also will spring up and fly as swiftly as possible in accordance with this briskly flowing water, the springing and leaping itself carrying him to that higher life that is eternal.

There is a great difference, he says, between that water [in the well] and the water I promise to give. That [water], after they have drunk it, extinguishes their thirst for a short time. But then, when it has been consumed according to its nature, it leaves the one who shortly before had drunk it thirsty again. The water that I give is such in its nature that not only is it not consumed and does not leave the one who drinks it oppressed by thirst, but on the contrary, it becomes in him like a spring gushing up forever. The water from a spring does not run out, nor does it need to be brought from another place or to be introduced, but it constantly offers perpetual nourishment to those who want it. In a similar way also the virtue of this water provides the one who receives it with perpetual help and will always preserve him and not allow him to perish. Therefore the one who receives this grace will never reach death. He said what he did for good reason, because this is what the virtue of the Spirit is. And so we also receive from him the firstfruits of the Spirit with the hope of the future resurrection. Since now this operation is performed symbolically, we hope then to receive the perfect grace when, through his participation, we will remain imperishable.

Then when he says, Jesus replied and said, he sets down the Lord's response, in which he explains the power of his doctrine. First, with respect to the fact that he had called it water. Secondly, with respect to the fact that he called it living water (v 14).

He shows that his doctrine is the best water because it has the effect of water, that is, it takes away thirst much more than does that natural water. He shows by this that he is greater than Jacob. So he says, Jesus replied and said, as if to say: You say that Jacob gave you a well; but I will give you better water, because whoever drinks this water, that is, natural water, or the water of sensual desire and concupiscence, although it may satisfy his appetite for a while, will be thirsty again, because the desire for pleasure is insatiable: "When will I wake up and find wine again?" (Prv 23:35). But whoever drinks the water, that is, spiritual water, that I give, will never be thirsty again. "My servants will drink, and you will be thirsty," as said in Isaiah (65:13).

Since we read in Sirach (24:29): "Those who drink me will still thirst," how is it possible that we will never be thirsty if we drink this water of divine wisdom, since this Wisdom itself says we will still thirst? I answer that both are true: because he who drinks the water that Christ gives still thirsts and does not thirst. But whoever drinks natural water will become thirsty again for two reasons. First, because material and natural water is not eternal, and it does not have an eternal cause, but an impermanent one; therefore its effects must also cease: "All these things have passed away like a shadow" (Wis 5:9). But spiritual water has an eternal cause, that is, the Holy Spirit, who is the unfailing fountain of life. Accordingly, he who drinks of this will never thirst; just as someone who had within himself a fountain of living water would never thirst.

The other reason is that there is a difference between a spiritual and a temporal thing. For although each produces a thirst, they do so in different ways. When a temporal thing is possessed it causes us to be thirsty, not for the thing itself, but for something else; while a spiritual thing when possessed takes away the thirst for other things, and causes us to thirst for it. The reason for this is that before temporal things are possessed, they are highly regarded and thought satisfying; but after they are possessed, they are found to be neither so great as thought nor sufficient to satisfy our desires, and so our desires are not satisfied but move on to something else. On the other hand, a spiritual thing is not known unless it is possessed: "No one knows but he who receives it" (Rv 2:17). So, when it is not possessed, it does not produce a desire; but once it is possessed and known, then it brings pleasure and produces desire, but not to possess something else. Yet, because it is imperfectly known on account of the deficiency of the one receiving it, it produces a desire in us to possess it perfectly. We read of this thirst: "My soul thirsted for God, the living fountain" (Ps 41:2). This thirst is not completely taken away in this world because in this life we cannot understand spiritual things; consequently, one who drinks this water will still thirst for its completion. But he will not always be thirsty, as though the water will run out, for we read (Ps 35:9): "They will be intoxicated from the richness of your house." In the life of glory, where the blessed drink perfectly the water of divine grace, they will never be thirsty again: "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for what is right," that is, in this world, "for they will be satisfied," in the life of glory (Mt 5:6).

He says that visible water can quench one's thirst for a little while, but the unseen water cures one of thirst altogether because there is no longer a thirst for life when immortality is gushing forth on you. What follows clearly demonstrates that the Holy Spirit is what is freely being promised here, as the spiritual water spoken of here corresponds with the physical water spoken of.… The Spirit of wisdom, whose presence is unceasing, gives of its abundance freely.

Unless man is trained in the gift of understanding, he cannot proceed to the drink of wisdom, which makes a river flow in the soul, a river which the soul itself drinks, that "shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto life everlasting."

Scripture enlightens from nearby by means of the gifts of graces which supplement what is lacking in human activity. For many scientists came as guests: they came to our house and to our activity. But in these matters, activity must reach a limit. Wherefore Scripture enlightens such matters from nearby. Hence it is not good to go far out for something that is close at hand. Indeed, Scripture describes the gifts of the Holy Spirit throughout. In John: Jesus therefore, wearied as He was from the journey, was sitting at the well. And there follows: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. He, however, who drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst." And so, two kinds of water are distinguished. For one knowledge is described as being external, and the more one drinks of it, the more he thirsts; the other, as being internal, of which it is said: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, 'From within Him there shall flow rivers of living water.'" He said this, however, of the Spirit whom they who believed in Him were to receive. And these are the waters from the fountain of salvation, that is, awareness of those graces that sustain souls.

"But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life: springing up," because it causes one to spring up to where the fountain is unfailing: Psalm: "With you is the fountain of life"; a fountain also perfectly refreshing: whence in the Psalm: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house, and you shall give them to drink of the torrent of your pleasure." To this water the Lord invites in Isaiah 55: "All you who thirst, come to the waters; and you who have no money," etc. Thus therefore he aroused the woman by asking a service, by offering a benefit, by explaining the gift offered.

It is asked about what he says: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." Either he means bodily thirst or spiritual thirst: if bodily, it is false, because those who have grace still thirst: if spiritual, it still seems false: Ecclesiasticus 24: "Those who drink will thirst still more."

It must be said that he speaks of spiritual thirst. For there is a certain thirst for what is not had, so that it may be had: a certain thirst for what is had, so that it may be had more fully: and a certain thirst for what is perfectly had, so that it may be continued. The first is in concupiscence: the second, in grace: the third, in glory. Here he speaks of the first thirst. For the thirst of grace is not for a thing not had: because, as Augustine says, whoever has the eternal gift, has it by loving, although not perfectly.

Sick, we truly stand in need of the Saviour; having wandered, of one to guide us; blind, of one to lead us to the light; thirsty, "of the fountain of life, of which whosoever partakes, shall no longer thirst;" dead, we need life; sheep, we need a shepherd; we who are children need a tutor, while universal humanity stands in need of Jesus; so that we may not continue intractable and sinners to the end, and thus fall into condemnation, but may be separated from the chaff, and stored up in the paternal garner.

The woman of Samaria proposing, as a hard question and difficult to cope with. Art Thou greater than our father Jacob; the Saviour most skilfully avoids all boasting, not saying clearly that He is greater, yet from the nature of the actions does He persuade her to approve Him who excels. Therefore He shows that incomparable is the difference between the spiritual waters, and the sensible and grosser ones, saying, Whosoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again, but he that is filled (saith He) with My water, shall not only be shown to be superior to thirst henceforth, but he shall have in him a well of water able to nourish him to eternal life. Therefore He that giveth the greater, is greater (saith He) than he that hath the less, and the worsted will not carry off the same glory as the conqueror.

We must know again, that the Saviour here calls the grace of the Holy Ghost water, whereof if any be partaker, he shall have the gift of the Divine teaching evermore flowing up within him, so as no more to be in need of admonition from others, yea rather, readily to suffice to exhort those who thirst after the Divine and heavenly Word, such as were some yet living in this present life and upon earth, the holy Prophets and Apostles, and the heirs of their ministrations, of whom it was written, And ye shall draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation.

We must know again that the Savior here calls the grace of the Holy Spirit water. If anyone drinks of this water, he will have the gift of the divine teaching constantly welling up from within him. He needs no admonition from others. Rather, it is enough to exhort those who thirst after the divine and heavenly Word that they are yet living in this present life and on earth along with the holy prophets and apostles. They are heirs of their ministrations of whom it was written, "And you shall draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation."

Hence also, in the first book inscribed "Baruch," has been written the oath which they compel those to swear who are about to hear these mysteries, and be initiated with the Good One. And this oath, (Justinus) says, our Father Elohim sware when He was beside the Good One, and having sworn He did not repent (of the oath), respecting which, he says, it has been written, "The Lord sware, and will not repent." Now the oath is couched in these terms: "I swear by that Good One who is above all, to guard these mysteries, and to divulge them to no one, and not to relapse from the Good One to the creature." And when he has sworn this oath, he goes on to the Good One, and beholds "whatever things eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man; " and he drinks from life-giving water, which is to them, as they suppose, a bath, a fountain of life-giving, bubbling water. For there has been a separation made between water and water; and there is water, that below the firmament of the wicked creation, in which earthly and animal men are washed; and there is life-giving water, (that) above the firmament, of the Good One, in which spiritual (and) living men are washed; and in this Elohim washed Himself. and having washed did not repent. And when, he says, the prophet affirms, "Take unto yourself a wife of whoredom, since the earth has abandoned itself to fornication, (departing) from (following) after the Lord; " that is, Edem (departs) from Elohim. (Now) in these words, he says, the prophet clearly declares the entire mystery, and is not hearkened unto by reason of the wicked machinations of Naas. According to that same manner, they deliver other prophetical passages in a similar spirit of interpretation throughout numerous books. The volume, however, inscribed "Baruch," is pre-eminently to them the one in which the reader will ascertain the entire explanation of their legendary system (to be contained). Beloved, though I have encountered many heresies, yet with no wicked (heresiarch) worse than this (Justinus) has it been my lot to meet. But, in truth, (the followers of Justinus) ought to imitate the example of his Hercules, and to cleanse, as the saying is, the cattle-shed of Augias, or rather I should say, a ditch, into which, as soon as the adherents of this (heresiarch) have fallen, they can never be cleansed; nay, they will not be able even to raise their heads.

For though I am alive while I write to you, yet I am eager to die for the sake of Christ. My love has been crucified, and there is no fire in me that loves anything; but there is living water springing up in me, and which says to me inwardly, Come to the Father. I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; and I desire the drink, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life.

The sacred books acknowledge with regard to Christ, that as He is the Son of man, so is the same Being not a [mere] man; and as He is flesh, so is He also spirit, and the Word of God, and God. And as He was born of Mary in the last times, so did He also proceed from God as the First-begotten of every creature; and as He hungered, so did He satisfy [others]; and as He thirsted, so did He of old cause the Jews to drink, for the "Rock was Christ" Himself: thus does Jesus now give to His believing people power to drink spiritual waters, which spring up to life eternal. And as He was the son of David, so was He also the Lord of David. And as He was from Abraham, so did He also exist before Abraham. And as He was the servant of God, so is He the Son of God, and Lord of the universe. And as He was spit upon ignominiously, so also did He breathe the Holy Spirit into His disciples. And as He was saddened, so also did He give joy to His people. And as He was capable of being handled and touched, so again did He, in a non-apprehensible form, pass through the midst of those who sought to injure Him, and entered without impediment through closed doors. And as He slept, so did He also rule the sea, the winds, and the storms. And as He suffered, so also is He alive, and life-giving, and healing all our infirmity. And as He died, so is He also the Resurrection of the dead. He suffered shame on earth, while He is higher than all glory and praise in heaven; who, "though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by divine power;" who "descended into the lower parts of the earth," and who "ascended up above the heavens;" for whom a manger sufficed, yet who filled all things; who was dead, yet who liveth for ever and ever. Amen.

Since the Son of God is always one and the same, He gives to those who believe on Him a well of water [springing up] to eternal life, but He causes the unfruitful fig-tree immediately to dry up; and in the days of Noah He justly brought on the deluge for the purpose of extinguishing that most infamous race of men then existent, who could not bring forth fruit to God, since the angels that sinned had commingled with them, and [acted as He did] in order that He might put a check upon the sins of these men, but [that at the same time] He might preserve the archetype, the formation of Adam. And it was He who rained fire and brimstone from heaven, in the days of Lot, upon Sodom and Gomorrah, "an example of the righteous judgment of God," that all may know, "that every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire." And it is He who uses [the words], that it will be more tolerable for Sodom in the general judgment than for those who beheld His wonders, and did not believe on Him, nor receive His doctrine. For as He gave by His advent a greater privilege to those who believed on Him, and who do His will, so also did He point out that those who did not believe on Him should have a more severe punishment in the judgment; thus extending equal justice to all, and being to exact more from those to whom He gives the more; the more, however, not because He reveals the knowledge of another Father, as I have shown so fully and so repeatedly, but because He has, by means of His advent, poured upon the human race the greater gift of paternal grace.

Frequently indeed we see that water poured out extinguishes a fire. But sometimes we see the opposite—that huge balls of fire consume streams of water and that the flames grow more vehement, drawing strength from the water as if from food, so that the water does not seem to put out the burning but to aggravate it. What, then, is that water that consumes flames but is not itself consumed? It is, I think, that which, flowing in the bath from the fountain of Christ is not consumed by sins but consumes the fires of Gehenna, and which, once poured out on people in baptism, itself both lives in them and puts out the fire of hell. It is clear that it lives in people from what the Lord says [here].… But in a wonderful way the water of Christ both vivifies and extinguishes by one and the same operation. For it vivifies souls and extinguishes sins. The souls are renewed by the refreshment of its bath; the sins are consumed by its surging stream. And as far as the higher grace of baptism is concerned, in the heavens a mystery is celebrated and in hell Gehenna is extinguished. In the one the waters flow; in the other the fire grows cold. In the one we are submerged in the bath; in the other we are set free from the underworld. Yet there is nothing astonishing if hell is opened by the sacrament of baptism since heaven is also unlocked. For these places are opened so that freedom and grace might come together in the bath of Christ—grace from heaven and freedom from hell.

(t. xiii. 6) In the mystical sense, Jacob's well is the Scriptures. The learned then drink like Jacob and his sons; the simple and uneducated, like Jacob's cattle.

(tom. xiii. in Joan. c. 5, 6) May not Jacob's well signify mystically the letter of Scripture; the water of Jesus, that which is above the letter, which all are not allowed to penetrate into? That which is written was dictated by men, whereas the things which the eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, cannot be reduced to writing, but are from the fountain of water, that springeth up unto everlasting life, i. e. the Holy Ghost. These truths are unfolded to such as carrying no longer a human heart within them, are able to say with the Apostle, We have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 11:16) Human wisdom indeed discovers truths, which are handed down to posterity; but the teaching of the Spirit is a well of water which springeth up into everlasting life. The woman wished to attain, like the angels, to angelic and super-human truth without the use of Jacob's water. For the angels have a well of water within them, springing from the Word of God Himself. She says therefore, Sir, give me this water. But it is impossible here to have the water which is given by the Word, without that which is drawn from Jacob's well; and therefore Jesus seems to tell the woman that He cannot supply her with it from any other source than Jacob's well; If we are thirsty, we must first drink from Jacob's well. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. (Rom. 7:1) According to the Apostle, the Law is the husband of the soul.

When the woman said "are You greater than our father," the Lord, although He does not say directly that I am indeed greater, lest He appear vainglorious before having yet presented proof of His power, nevertheless prepares her for this with His words: "whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks My water will not thirst." That is, if you marvel at Jacob, who gave this water, then all the more should you marvel at Me, who gives far better water. For the water that I give becomes a source of water that constantly and unceasingly multiplies. For the saints not only preserve to the end what they receive from God, but through grace they receive the seeds and firstfruits of good, and themselves multiply and increase them. The Lord points to this with the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14–31) and of the innkeeper (Luke 10:35). He who received two talents through putting them to work acquired another two (Matt. 25:17). And to the innkeeper who took in the man wounded by robbers, the Lord promises: "whatever more you spend, I will repay you" (Luke 10:35). The Lord points to this here as well. I give water to the thirsty; but the water that I give does not remain in the same measure, but multiplies and becomes a source. Thus, in the instructions of Ananias, the Lord gave Paul a little water (Acts 9:17); but this small water of Ananias's teaching Paul showed to be a source, so that the streams of this source reached from Jerusalem to Illyricum.

For the water which I give him is ever multiplying. The saints receive through grace the seed and principle of good; but they themselves make it grow by their own cultivation.

Then when he says, The water that I give will become a fountain within him, leaping up to provide eternal life, he shows from the movement of the water that his doctrine is living water; thus he says that it is a leaping fountain: "The streams of the river bring joy to the city of God" (Ps 45:4).

The course of material water is downward, and this is different from the course of spiritual water, which is upward. Thus he says: I say that material water is such that it does not slake your thirst; but the water that I give not only quenches your thirst, but it is a living water because it is united with its source. Hence he says that this water will become a fountain within one: a fountain leading, through good works, to eternal life. So he says, leaping up, that is, making us leap up, to eternal life, where there is no thirst: "He who believes in me, out of his heart there will flow rivers," that is, of good desires, "of living water" (below 7:38); "With you is the fountain of life" (Ps 35:10).

At length, wishing her to understand, "Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither." What means this, "Call thy husband"? Was it through her husband that He wished to give her that water? Or, because she did not understand, did He wish to teach her through her husband? Perhaps it was as the apostle says concerning women, "If they wish to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home." But this the apostle says of that where there is no Jesus present to teach. It is said, in short, to women whom the apostle was forbidding to speak in the Church. But when the Lord Himself was at hand, and in person speaking to her, what need was there that He should speak to her by her husband? Was it through her husband that he spoke to Mary, while sitting at His feet and receiving His word; while Martha, wholly occupied with much serving, murmured at the happiness of her sister? Wherefore, my brethren, let us hear and understand what it is that the Lord says to the woman, "Call thy husband." For it may be that He is saying also to our soul, "Call thy husband." Let us inquire also concerning the soul's husband. Why, is not Jesus Himself already the soul's real husband? Let the understanding be present, since what we are about to say can hardly be apprehended but by attentive hearers: therefore let the understanding be present to apprehend, and perhaps that same understanding will be found to be the husband of the soul.

Now Jesus, seeing that the woman did not understand, and willing her to understand, says to her, "Call thy husband." "For the reason why thou knowest not what I say is, because thy understanding is not present: I am speaking after the Spirit, and thou art hearing after the flesh. The things which I speak relate neither to the pleasure of the ears, nor to the eyes, nor to the smell, nor to the taste, nor to the touch; by the mind alone are they received, by the understanding alone are they drawn up: that understanding is not with thee, how canst thou apprehend what I am saying? `Call thy husband,' bring thy understanding forward. What is it for thee to have a soul? It is not much, for a beast has a soul. Wherein art thou better than the beast? In having understanding, which the beast has not." Then what is "Call thy husband"? "Thou dost not apprehend me, thou dost not understand me: I am speaking to thee of the gift of God, and thy thought is of the flesh; thou wishest not to thirst in a carnal sense, I am addressing myself to the spirit: thy understanding is absent. `Call thy husband.' Be not as the horse and mule, which have no understanding." Therefore, my brethren, to have a soul, and not to have understanding, that is, not to use it, not to live according to it, is a beast's life. For we have somewhat in common with the beasts, that by which we live in the flesh, but it must be ruled by the understanding. For the motions of the soul, which moves after the flesh, and longs to run unrestrainedly loose after carnal delights, are ruled over by the understanding. Which is to be called the husband?-that which rules, or that which is ruled? Without doubt, when the life is well ordered the understanding rules the soul, for itself belongs to the soul. For the understanding is not something other than the soul, but a thing of the soul: as the eye is not something other than the flesh, but a thing of the flesh. But whilst the eye is a thing of the flesh, yet it alone enjoys the light; and the other fleshy members may be steeped in light, but they cannot feel the light: the eye alone is both bathed in it, and enjoys it. Thus in our soul there is a something called the understanding. This something of the soul, which is called understanding and mind, is enlightened by the higher light. Now that higher light, by which the human mind is enlightened, is God; for "that was the true light which enlighteneth every man coming into this world." Such a light was Christ, such a light was speaking with the woman yet she was not present with the understanding, to have it enlightened with that light; not merely to have it shed upon it, but to enjoy it. Therefore the Lord said, "Call thy husband," as if He were to say, I wish to enlighten, and yet there is not here whom I may enlighten: bring hither the understanding through which thou mayest be taught, by which thou mayest be ruled. Thus, put the soul without the understanding for the woman; and having the understanding as having the husband. But this husband does not rule the wife well, except when he is ruled by a higher. "For the head of the woman is the man, but the head of the man is Christ." The head of the man was talking with the woman, and the man was not present. And so the Lord, as if He said, Bring hither thy head, that he may receive his head, says, "Call thy husband, and come hither;" that is, Be here, be present: for thou art as absent, while thou understandest not the voice of the Truth here present; be thou present here, but not alone; be thou here with thy husband.

"Jesus says to her: Go, call your husband," not through marriage, but through misuse, "and come here." He was not saying this because he believed she had a husband, but so that he might reveal the secret about her husband to her as she responded.

Go call thy husband, and come hither.

Well and not untruly might one say, that the minds of woman are womanish, and that an effeminate soul is in them, never having the power of understanding readily. But the nature of man somehow is apter for learning, and far more ready for reasoning, having a mind awake to wisdom, and (so to say) warm, and of matured manhood. For this reason (I suppose) did He bid the woman call her husband, secretly convicting her as having a heart most slow to learn, not practised in the words of wisdom; yet He is at the same time contriving something else most beautiful.

"And what kind of connection," saith some one, "is there in the saying, `Go, call thy husband'?" The discourse was concerning a gift and grace surpassing mortal nature: the woman was urgent in seeking to receive it. Christ saith, "Call thy husband," showing that he also must share in these things; but she, eager to receive (the gift), and concealing the shamefulness of the circumstances, and supposing that she was conversing with a man, said, "I have no husband." Christ having heard this, now seasonably introduces His reproof, mentioning accurately both points; for He enumerated all her former husbands, and reproved her for him whom she now would hide.

(Hom. xxxii. 2) The woman then being urgent in asking for the promised water, Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband; to show that he too ought to have a share in these things.

She already had, as it were, something of the water that leaps into eternal life since she had said … "I have no husband," having condemned herself on the basis of her association with such a husband.

But further, if Christ reproves the scribes and Pharisees, sitting in the official chair of Moses, but not doing what they taught, what kind of (supposition). is it that He Himself withal should set upon His own official chair men who were mindful rather to enjoin-(but) not likewise to practise-sanctity of the flesh, which (sanctity) He had in all ways recommended to their teaching and practising?-first by His own example, then by all other arguments; while He tells (them) that "the kingdom of heavens" is "children's; " while He associates with these (children) others who, after marriage, remained (or became)virgins; " while He calls (them) to (copy) the simplicity of the dove, a bird not merely innocuous, but modest too, and whereof one male knows one female; while He denies the Samaritan woman's (partner to be) a husband, that He may show that manifold husbandry is adultery; while, in the revelation of His own glory, He prefers, from among so many saints and prophets, to have with him Moses and Elias -the one a monogamist, the other a voluntary celibate (for Elias was nothing else than John, who came "in the power and spirit of Elias" ); while that "man gluttonous and toping," the "frequenter of luncheons and suppers, in the company of publicans and sinners," sups once for all at a single marriage, though, of course, many were marrying (around Him); for He willed to attend (marriages) only so often as (He willed) them to be.

Seeing that she insists on receiving, and urges Him to give, He says: "Call your husband," as if showing that he too must share with you in this gift of Mine.

Then (v 16), the answer of Jesus is given. Here we should note that our Lord answered her in a spiritual way, but she understood in a sensual way. Accordingly, this can be explained in two ways. One way is that of Chrysostom, who says that our Lord intended to give the water of spiritual instruction not only to her, but especially to her husband, for as is said, "Man is the head of woman" (1 Cor 11:3), so that Christ wanted God's precepts to reach women through men, and "If the wife wishes to learn anything, let her ask her husband at home" (1 Cor 14:35). So he says, Go, call your husband, and then come back here; and then I will give it to you with him and through him.

Augustine explains it another way, mystically. For as Christ spoke symbolically of water, he did the same of her husband. Her husband, according to Augustine, is the intellect: for the will brings forth and conceives because of the cognitive power that moves it; thus the will is like a woman, while the reason, which moves the will, is like her husband. Here the woman, i.e., the will, was ready to receive, but was not moved by the intellect and reason to a correct understanding, but was still detained on the level of sense. For this reason the Lord said to her, Go, you who are still sensual, call your husband, call in the reasoning intellect so you can understand in a spiritual and intellectual way what you now perceive in a sensual way; and then come back here, by understanding under the guidance of reason.

And, the husband being not yet called, still she does not understand, still she minds the flesh; for the man is absent: "I have not," saith she, "a husband." And the Lord proceeds and utters mysteries. Thou mayest understand that woman really to have had at that time no husband; she was living with some man, not a lawful husband, rather a paramour than a husband. And the Lord said to her, "Thou hast well said, I have not a husband." How then didst Thou say, "Call thy husband"? Now hear how the Lord knew well that she had not a husband "He says to her," etc. In case the woman might suppose that the Lord had said, "Thou hast well said, I have not a husband," just because He had learned this fact of her, and not because he knew it by His own divinity, hear something which thou hast not said: "For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband; this thou hast said truly."

Once more He urges us to investigate the matter somewhat more exactly concerning these five husbands. Many have in fact understood, not indeed absurdly, nor so far improbably, the five husbands of this woman to mean the five books of Moses. For the Samaritans made use of these books, and were under the same law: for it was from it they had circumcision. But since we are hemmed in by what follows, "And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband," it appears to me that we can more easily take the five senses of the body to be the five former husbands of the soul. For when one is born, before he can make use of the mind and reason, he is ruled only by the senses of the flesh. In a little child, the soul seeks for or shuns what is heard, and seen, and smells, and tastes, and is perceived by the touch. It seeks for whatever soothes, and shuns whatever offends, those five senses. At first, the soul lives according to these five senses, as five husbands; because it is ruled by them. But why are they called husbands? Because they are lawful and right: made indeed by God, and are the gifts of God to the soul. The soul is still weak while ruled by these five husbands, and living under these five husbands; but when she comes to years of exercising reason, if she is taken in hand by the noble discipline and teaching of wisdom, these five men are succeeded in their rule by no other than the true and lawful husband, and one better than they, who both rules better and rules for eternity, who cultivates and instructs her for eternity. For the five senses rule us, not for eternity, but for those temporal things that are to be sought or shunned. But when the understanding, imbued by wisdom, begins to rule the soul, it knows now not only how to avoid a pit, and to walk on even ground-a thing which the eyes show to the soul even in its weakness; nor merely to be charmed with musical voices, and to repel harsh sounds; nor to delight in agreeable scents, and to refuse offensive smells; nor to be captivated by sweetness, and displeased with bitterness; nor to be soothed with what is soft, and hurt with what is rough. For all these things are necessary to the soul in its weakness. Then what rule is made use of by that understanding? Not one to discern between black and white, but between just and unjust, between good and evil, between the profitable and the unprofitable, between chastity and impurity, that it may love the one and avoid the other; between charity and hatred, to be in the one, not to be in the other.

This husband had not yet succeeded to those five husbands in that woman. And where he does not succeed, error sways. For when the soul has begun to be capable of reason, it is ruled either by the wise mind or by error: but yet error does not rule but destroys. Wherefore, after these five senses was that woman still wandering, and error was tossing her to and fro. And this error was not a lawful husband, but a paramour: for that reason the Lord saith to her, "Thou hast well said, I have not a husband. For thou hast had five husbands." The five senses of the flesh ruled thee at first; thou art come to the age of using reason, and yet thou art not come to wisdom, but art fallen into error. Therefore, after those five husbands, "this whom thou now hast is not thy husband." And if not a husband, what was he but a paramour? And so, "Call," not the paramour, but "thy husband," that thou mayest receive me with the understanding, and not by error have some false notion of me. For the woman was still in error, as she was thinking of that water; whilst the Lord was now speaking of the Holy Ghost. Why was she erring, but because she had a paramour, not a husband? Put away, therefore, that paramour who corrupts thee, and "go, call thy husband." Call, and come that thou mayest understand me.

"The woman answered and said: I have no husband." From this truthful response, the Lord, having taken the occasion, adds the revelation of the secret. Whence there also follows: "Jesus says to her: You have spoken well: I have no husband," because she confessed the truth.

To whom is it not now evident that the Saviour was not ignorant that she was bereft of any rightful husband and that He made the enquiry about her husband who was not, a plea for making known hidden things? For He was, He was thus with difficulty able to help her no longer marvelling at Him as one of us, but as now above man, by reason of His wondrous knowledge of her circumstances. And profitably does He approve her saying she has no husband, although she had had so many; for not the coming together out of pleasure, but the approval of the law and bond of pure love make marriage blameless.

The Savior was not ignorant that she had no lawful husband, and his inquiry about her husband was not the plea of one who needed hidden things revealed.… He had full knowledge of her circumstances and helpfully affirms her comment that she has no husband, although she had had so many. For it is not the union of pleasure but the approval of the law and the bond of pure love that makes marriage blameless.

O how great the wisdom of the woman! how meekly doth she receive the reproof! "How should she not," saith some one? Tell me, why should she? Did He not often reprove the Jews also, and with greater reproofs than these? (for it is not the same to bring forward the hidden thoughts of the heart, as to make manifest a thing that was done in secret; the first are known to God alone, and none other knoweth them but he who hath them in his heart; the second, all who were sharers in it know;) but still when reproved did not bear it patiently. When He said, "Why seek ye to kill me?" (c. vii. 19), they not only did not admire as the woman did but even mocked at and insulted Him; yet they had a demonstration from other miracles, she had only heard this speech. Still they not only did not admire, but even insulted Him, saying, "Thou hast a demon, who seeketh to kill thee?" While she not only doth not insult but admires, and is astonished at Him, and supposes Him to be a Prophet. Yet truly this rebuke touched the woman more than the other touched them; for her fault was hers alone, theirs was a general one; and we are not so much stung by what is general as by what is particular.

(Hom. xxxii. 2) But she was in a hurry to receive the gift, and wished to conceal her guilt, (for she still imagined she was speaking to a man:) The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Christ answers her with a seasonable reproof; exposing her as to former husbands, and as to her present one, whom she had concealed; Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband.

[Jesus says] "If you wish that I give you the streams of pure water, Go, and call your husband; I shall not imitate your reproach; I shall not say: 'You are a woman of Samaria, and how is it that you ask for water?' I do not increase your thirst; for I have brought you to thirst through thirst. I exaggerated being thirsty and I was tormented by thirst in order that I might reveal you as thirsty. Go, then, and call your husband and return." The woman said, "I think that I have no husband," and the Creator said to her: "Truly do you have none? You have five, the sixth you do not possess, So that you may receive Exceeding great joy and redemption."

O wise enigmas! O wise characteristics! In the faith of the holy woman is pictured All the features of the church in true colors which do not grow old; For the way in which the woman denied a husband when she had many, Is just the way the church denied many gods, like husbands, And left them and became betrothed to one Master in coming forth from the water. She had five husbands and the sixth she did not have; and leaving the five Husbands of impiety, she now takes Thee, as the sixth, as she comes From the water, Exceeding great joy and redemption.…

The espoused church of the nations, then, left these things, And she hurries here to the well of the baptismal font And denies the things of the past, just as the woman of Samaria did; For she did not conceal what had formerly been true from Him who knows all in advance, But she said, "… Even if I formerly had husbands, I do not now wish to have These husbands which I did have; for I now possess Thee who hast now taken me in Thy net; And I am by faith rescued from the filth of my sins That I may receive Exceeding great joy and redemption."

She, in order to more quickly conceal and at the same time obtain, says: "I have no husband." Now the Lord, through prophetic knowledge, reveals His power, enumerates her former husbands, and exposes the one whom she is now concealing.

Here (v 17), the woman is found guilty by Christ. First, her answer is set down. Secondly, the encounter in which she is found guilty by Christ.

As to the first, we should note that the woman, desiring to hide her wrongdoing, and regarding Christ as only a mere man, did answer Christ truthfully, although she kept silent about her sin, for as we read, "A fornicating woman will be walked on like dung in the road" (Sir 9:10). She said, I have no husband. This was true; for although she previously had a number of husbands, five of them, she did not now have a lawful husband, but was just living with a man; and it is for this that the Lord judges her.

Once more He urges us to investigate the matter somewhat more exactly concerning these five husbands. Many have in fact understood, not indeed absurdly, nor so far improbably, the five husbands of this woman to mean the five books of Moses. For the Samaritans made use of these books, and were under the same law: for it was from it they had circumcision. But since we are hemmed in by what follows, "And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband," it appears to me that we can more easily take the five senses of the body to be the five former husbands of the soul. For when one is born, before he can make use of the mind and reason, he is ruled only by the senses of the flesh. In a little child, the soul seeks for or shuns what is heard, and seen, and smells, and tastes, and is perceived by the touch. It seeks for whatever soothes, and shuns whatever offends, those five senses. At first, the soul lives according to these five senses, as five husbands; because it is ruled by them. But why are they called husbands? Because they are lawful and right: made indeed by God, and are the gifts of God to the soul. The soul is still weak while ruled by these five husbands, and living under these five husbands; but when she comes to years of exercising reason, if she is taken in hand by the noble discipline and teaching of wisdom, these five men are succeeded in their rule by no other than the true and lawful husband, and one better than they, who both rules better and rules for eternity, who cultivates and instructs her for eternity. For the five senses rule us, not for eternity, but for those temporal things that are to be sought or shunned. But when the understanding, imbued by wisdom, begins to rule the soul, it knows now not only how to avoid a pit, and to walk on even ground-a thing which the eyes show to the soul even in its weakness; nor merely to be charmed with musical voices, and to repel harsh sounds; nor to delight in agreeable scents, and to refuse offensive smells; nor to be captivated by sweetness, and displeased with bitterness; nor to be soothed with what is soft, and hurt with what is rough. For all these things are necessary to the soul in its weakness. Then what rule is made use of by that understanding? Not one to discern between black and white, but between just and unjust, between good and evil, between the profitable and the unprofitable, between chastity and impurity, that it may love the one and avoid the other; between charity and hatred, to be in the one, not to be in the other.

This husband had not yet succeeded to those five husbands in that woman. And where he does not succeed, error sways. For when the soul has begun to be capable of reason, it is ruled either by the wise mind or by error: but yet error does not rule but destroys. Wherefore, after these five senses was that woman still wandering, and error was tossing her to and fro. And this error was not a lawful husband, but a paramour: for that reason the Lord saith to her, "Thou hast well said, I have not a husband. For thou hast had five husbands." The five senses of the flesh ruled thee at first; thou art come to the age of using reason, and yet thou art not come to wisdom, but art fallen into error. Therefore, after those five husbands, "this whom thou now hast is not thy husband." And if not a husband, what was he but a paramour? And so, "Call," not the paramour, but "thy husband," that thou mayest receive me with the understanding, and not by error have some false notion of me. For the woman was still in error, as she was thinking of that water; whilst the Lord was now speaking of the Holy Ghost. Why was she erring, but because she had a paramour, not a husband? Put away, therefore, that paramour who corrupts thee, and "go, call thy husband." Call, and come that thou mayest understand me.

"For you have had five husbands," behold, he reveals things past, "and the one whom you now have is not your husband: this one," that is, "this one:" it is an antiptosis. He reveals things present, and so that she may not be indignant, he commends the truth: "This you have spoken truly." In this a pattern is handed down to preachers, that when they wish to say harsh things to their hearers, they should mix in sweet things as well; whence Paul kept this pattern in 1 Corinthians 11: "I praise you, he says? In this I do not praise"; for he was not reproving them entirely.

Mystically. The woman is the lower part of reason; her natural and legitimate husband is the higher part, judging rightly; 1 Corinthians 11: "The man is the image and glory of the Lord, but the woman is the glory of the man." This woman is reproved because she had five husbands, when she served the five senses of the flesh in infancy, which ruled over her as husbands. Children are those who follow youthful desires, on account of which the Apostle says in 2 Timothy 2: "Flee youthful desires." These youthful desires, even though they seem sweet, are nevertheless harsh; whence they are signified by the five yoke of oxen; Luke 14: "I have bought five yoke of oxen," namely the burdensome desires of the five senses.

The first husband is taste: the gluttonous serve this one, in whose person Ecclesiastes 2 says: "It is better to eat and drink and to show good things to one's soul;" Isaiah 22: "Let us eat and drink."

The second is touch: the lustful serve this one, in whose person Wisdom 2 says: "Let there be no meadow that our wantonness does not pass through. Let none of us be without a share in our revelry."

The third is smell: the pleasure-seekers serve this one, in whose person it is said in Wisdom 2: "Let us fill ourselves with costly ointments, and let not the flower of time pass us by; let us crown ourselves with roses."

The fourth is sight: the avaricious serve this one: Ecclesiasticus 14: "The eye of the covetous is insatiable in its share of iniquity; he will not be satisfied until it consumes, withering his own soul."

The fifth is hearing: the curious serve this one: Acts 17: "The Athenians spent their time in nothing else but either telling or hearing something new."

She is reproved concerning the sixth man who is not hers. This man is error, by which the soul is led astray and seduced. Therefore, this error having been cast aside, the Lord urges her to call her husband, that is, the natural judgment of reason, so that she might be able to perceive the sacraments of the faith, and not be "like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding." To such a soul the Lord gives water springing up into eternal life. This is the water of grace, which descends from God; therefore it makes one leap up to God, for it is the property of water that it rises as high as it descends.

(tom. xiii. c. 8) And what more proper place than Jacob's well, for exposing the unlawful husband, i. e. the perverse law? For the Samaritan woman is meant to figure to us a soul, that has subjected itself to a hind of law of its own, not the divine law. And our Saviour wishes to marry her to a lawful husband, i. e. Himself; the Word of truth which was to rise from the dead, and never again to die.

Now the Lord, through prophetic knowledge, reveals His power, enumerates her former husbands, and exposes the one whom she is now concealing. Some understand the "five" husbands of the Samaritan woman to mean the five books which alone the Samaritan woman accepted. "The one," He says, "whom you now have, that is, My teaching, which you now receive from Me, is not your husband; for you have not yet been joined to My teaching—that of Jesus." Another may say that the Samaritan woman serves as an image of human nature. Our nature formerly dwelt on a mountain, possessing a mind full of divine grace. For Adam, before he sinned, was adorned with all divine gifts. He was also a prophet. Having awakened from sleep, he spoke clearly about the creation of his wife and the relationship of a husband to her, for he said: "This is now bone of my bones" and "For this reason... a man shall leave his father and mother" (Gen. 2:23–24). On this mountain, this lofty mind, was our nature, but for offending God it was led away into captivity. And the devil, having taken us captive, carried off the holy seed, that is, every divine thought, into Babylon, that is, into the confusion of this present world. In place of holy thoughts he settled coarse thoughts: lions reigning in us devoured our good thoughts, until they were persuaded to accept the sayings of God. But they did not accept them wholly. For wickedness, having once settled on our mountain, that is, in the mind, although it accepted the books of Moses, nevertheless did not become wholly good, but was still under a curse. And so Jesus, having completed His journey, that is, having traversed the many paths of the dispensation and the means for our salvation, improving our life now by threats, now by the blows of calamities, now by benefactions, now by promises of good things, and laboring to correct us by such means, grew weary. But He found yet another dispensation, upon which, as satisfactory, He sat down and rested. What was it? The fountain of baptism, by which He bestowed grace upon our nature, as upon a certain Samaritan woman. This fountain of baptism may rightly be called the fountain of Jacob, that is, of the supplanter, for in this fountain everyone tramples upon the devil. In it the Lord also crushed the head of the dragon, whom He gave as food to the Ethiopian people (Ps. 73:14). For it is none other than people darkened and black in soul, having no share in the divine light, who delight in and feed upon this dragon. Five husbands entered into union with this nature of ours—the different laws given to it by God: the law in paradise, the law under Noah, the law under Abraham, the law under Moses, the law through the prophets. For Noah after the flood received a certain commandment (Gen. 9:1–17), and Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Gen. 17:1–14). Having been joined to these five laws, our nature afterwards also received the sixth law of the New Testament, which it had not had as a husband and with which it had not yet been united. Another person may understand the sixth husband, whom our nature did not have as a husband, as the law of idolatry. For this law was not given to it by God as a husband, but it mingled with it as an adulteress. Therefore the prophet also says: "and they committed fornication upon the wood" (Jer. 2:20), and again: "she committed fornication behind every tree" (Ezek. 16), speaking, evidently, of the fact that they worshipped idols and trees. For our nature descended to such madness that they even offered sacrifices to beautiful trees—cypresses, sycamores, and the like—on account of their beauty. So when man loved this sixth adulterer and fell into idolatry, then the Lord comes and frees us from him, and therefore He says: "the one whom you now have." For by the time of Christ's coming, indeed, even the wise men among the Jews had turned to paganism, as the heresy of the Pharisees shows, who believed in fate and astrology. The Samaritan woman is also every soul that has foolishly submitted itself to the five senses, and then accepted false teachings as well, as a sort of sixth adulterer, but upon which Jesus bestows His grace either through baptism or through a fountain of tears. Tears too can be called the well of Jacob, that is, of our mind that tramples upon evil. This water is drunk both by the mind itself, and by its children—the thoughts, and by its cattle—the irrational parts of the soul: anger and desire. For tears serve as refreshment for the mind, for the thoughts, and for the other powers of the soul.

Then the Evangelist reports that Jesus said to her: You are right in saying you have no husband, a legitimate husband; for you have had five, before this one, and the man you are living with now, using as a husband, is not your husband. What you said is true, because you do not have a husband. The reason our Lord spoke to her about these things he had not learned from her and which were her secrets, was to bring her to a spiritual understanding so that she might believe there was something divine about Christ.

In the mystical sense, her five husbands are the five books of Moses: for, as was said, the Samaritans accepted these. And so Christ says, you have had five, and then follows, and he whom you now have, i.e., he to whom you are now listening, i.e., Christ, is not your husband, because you do not believe.

This explanation, as Augustine says, is not very good. For this woman came to her present "husband" after having left the other five, whereas those who come to Christ do not put aside the five books of Moses. We should rather say, you have had five, i.e., the five senses, which you have used up to this time; but the man you are living with now, i.e., an erring reason, with which you still understand spiritual things in a sensual way, is not your lawful husband, but an adulterer who is corrupting you. Call your husband, i.e., your intellect, so that you may really understand me.

What, however, does the Lord teach the woman now, as one whose husband has begun to be present? "The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me." For the Church will come, as it is said in the Song of Songs, "will come, and will pass over from the beginning of faith." She will come in order to pass through; and pass through she cannot, except from the beginning of faith. Rightly she now hears, the husband being present: "Woman, believe me." For there is that in thee now which can believe, since thy husband is present. Thou hast begun to be present with the understanding when thou calledst me a prophet. Woman, believe me; for if ye believe not, ye will not understand. Therefore, "Woman, believe me, for the hour will come when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we worship what we know; for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour will come." When? "And now is." Well, what hour? "When the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth," not in this mountain, not in the temple, but in spirit and in truth. "For the Father seeketh such to worship Him." Why does the Father seek such to worship Him, not on a mountain, not in the temple, but in spirit and in truth? "God is Spirit." If God were body, it were right that He should be worshipped on a mountain, for a mountain is corporeal; it were right He should be worshipped in the temple, for a temple is corporeal. "God is Spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship in spirit and in truth."

(Tr. xv. c. 24) Believe Me, our Lord says with fitness, as the husband is now present. For now there is one in thee that believes, thou hast begun to be present in the understanding; but if ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. (Isa. 7:9)

"Jesus says to her: Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." This hour is the time of grace, in which the error of the gentiles and the shadow of the legal commandments must be abolished. Concerning this hour, Romans 13: "It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep: the night has passed, and the day has drawn near." This hour does not determine a place of prayer in any one location, but everywhere: 1 Timothy 2: "I will that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands." And although neither here nor in Jerusalem is worship now offered perfectly, nevertheless it is better in Jerusalem.

It is asked: since it is said "The hour comes when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father," if this is true, then temples ought not to be built for prayer. Likewise, if those who worship must worship in spirit, then those who make corporeal images for worship sin.

It must be said that certain conditions of prayer are essential, such as right intention and just petition; certain others are accidental, such as time and place. The Lord did not say that a determinate place is to be cut away from true prayer as superfluous, but rather that it should be recognized as not belonging to the essence of prayer, because true worshipers worship God everywhere. And although place is not necessary, it is nevertheless not superfluous: for it avails for maintaining memory, for arousing devotion, for preserving unity, for obtaining the fellowship of the Angels, because "the princes went before, joined with those singing psalms."

As to the objection concerning images, it must be said that now they do no harm, because it is not believed that anything divine is in them, nor that God is there corporally, but only significatively.

He condemns alike the folly of all, saying that the mode of worship of both shall be transformed to the more truthful. For no longer (saith He) shall a place be sought, wherein they shall deem that God properly dwells, but as filling and able to contain all things, shall they worship the Lord every one from his place, as one of the holy Prophets says. He says that His own sojourn in the world with a Body is the time and season for a change of such customs.

Observe how with most gentle leading of discourse, does He guide the mind of the woman to right conceptions respecting the Son, by calling God the Father. For how shall the Father at all be conceived of, if the Son be not?

Jesus equally condemns the foolishness of all, saying that the worship of both Jews and Samaritans shall be transformed to a truer worship. Jesus in effect says that people will no longer seek after a particular place where God properly dwells. Rather, Jesus is both able to fill and able to contain all things. And so, they shall worship the Lord "every one from his place," as one of the holy prophets says. Jesus implies that his own sojourn in the world with a body is the time and season for a change of such customs.

Everywhere, beloved, we have need of faith, faith the mother of blessings, the medicine of salvation; and without this it is impossible to possess any one of the great doctrines. Without this, men are like to those who attempt to cross the open sea without a ship, who for a little way hold out by swimming, using both hands and feet, but when they have advanced farther, are quickly swamped by the waves: in like manner they who use their own reasonings, before they have learnt anything, suffer shipwreck; as also Paul saith, "Who concerning faith have made shipwreck." (1 Tim. i. 19.) That this be not our case, let us hold fast the sacred anchor by which Christ bringeth over the Samaritan woman now.

An exceedingly great doctrine He revealed to her, and one which He did not mention either to Nicodemus or Nathanael. She was eager to prove her own privileges more honorable than those of the Jews; and this she subtly argued from the Fathers, but Christ met not this question. For it was for the time distracting to speak on the matter, and to show why the Fathers worshiped in the mountain, and why the Jews at Jerusalem. Wherefore on this point He was silent, and having taken away from both places priority in dignity, rouses her soul by showing that neither Jews nor Samaritans possessed anything great in comparison with that which was to be given; and then He introduceth the difference. Yet even thus He declared that the Jews were more honorable, not preferring place to place, but giving them the precedence because of their intention. As though He had said, "About the 'place' of worship ye have no need henceforth to dispute, but in the 'manner' the Jews have an advantage over you Samaritans, for 'ye,' He saith, 'worship ye know not what; we know what we worship.'"

How then did the Samaritans "know not" what they worshiped? Because they thought that God was local and partial; so at least they served Him, and so they sent to the Persians, and reported that "the God of this place is wroth with us" (2 Kings xxvi.), in this respect forming no higher opinion of Him than of their idols. Wherefore they continued to serve both Him and devils, joining things which ought not to be joined. The Jews, on the contrary, were free from this supposition, at least the greater part of them, and knew that He was God of the world. Therefore He saith, "Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship." Do not wonder that He numbereth Himself among Jews, for He speaketh to the woman's opinion of Him as though He were a Jewish Prophet, and therefore He putteth, "we worship." For that He is of the objects of worship is clear to every one, because to worship belongs to the creature, but to be worshiped to the Lord of the creature. But for a time He speaketh as a Jew; and the expression "we" in this place meaneth "we Jews." Having then exalted what was Jewish, He next maketh Himself credible, and persuadeth the woman to give the greater heed to His words, by rendering His discourse above suspicion, and showing that He doth not exalt what belongs to them by reason of relationship to those of His own tribe. For it is clear, that one who had made these declarations concerning the place on which the Jews most prided themselves, and thought that they were superior to all, and who had taken away their high claims, would not after this speak to get favor of any, but with truth and prophetic power. When therefore He had for a while removed her from such reasonings, saying, "Woman, believe Me," and what follows, then He addeth...

"For salvation is of the Jews." What He saith is of this kind: neither, that blessings to the world came from them, (for to know God and condemn idols had its beginning, from them, and with you the very act of worship, although ye do it not rightly, yet received its origin from them,) or else, He speaketh of His own Coming. Or rather, one would not be wrong in calling both these things "salvation" which He said was "of the Jews"; which Paul implied when he said, "Of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all." (Rom. ix. 5.) Seest thou how He commendeth the old Covenant, and showeth that it is the root of blessings, and that He is throughout not opposed to the Law, since He maketh the groundwork of all good things to come from the Jews?

The Jews stand for those who think intelligently and salvation is from them. The Samaritans represent the heterodox. So they deify Gerizim, which means "separation" or "division." The Jews, on the other hand, revere Zion, which signifies "watchtower." … Inasmuch, then, as the hour mentioned by the Lord has not yet come when they worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, one must flee the mountain of the Samaritans and worship God on Zion, where Jerusalem lies. Christ calls this Jerusalem the city of the great king. And what else would the city of the great king, the true Jerusalem, be than the church that is built of living stones? This is the place of the holy priesthood, the place where spiritual sacrifices are offered to God by people who are spiritual and who have understood the spiritual law. But when the fullness of time is imminent, when one is no longer in the flesh but is in the Spirit and everyone is no longer still in the type but is in truth, then one must no longer bring true worship and perfect piety to Jerusalem to be offered. Such a person has been prepared so that he is like those whom God seeks to worship him.

Therefore Christ too, seeing her understanding, although He does not resolve this perplexity of hers (for it was not of particular importance), reveals another, more important truth, which He had not revealed either to Nicodemus or to Nathanael. "The time is coming," He says, "when God will be worshipped neither in Jerusalem nor here." "You," He says, "are trying to prove that the Samaritan customs are worthier than the Jewish customs. But I tell you that neither the one nor the other have worth, but another certain order will come which is better than both of these. But even in this I declare that the Jews are worthier than the Samaritans."

Christ's answer is now set down (v 21). First he distinguishes three types of prayer. Secondly, he compares them to each other (v 22).

As to the first, he first of all gains the woman's attention, to indicate that he was about to say something important, saying, Believe me, and have faith, for faith is always necessary: "To come to God, one must believe" (Heb 11:6); "If you do not believe, you will not understand" (Is 7:9).

Secondly, he mentions the three kinds of worship: two of these were already being practiced, and the third was to come. Of the two that were current, one was practiced by the Samaritans, who worshiped on Mount Gerizim; he refers to this when he says, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, of Gerizim. The other way was that of the Jews, who prayed on Mount Zion; and he refers to this when he says, nor in Jerusalem.

The third type of worship was to come, and it was different from the other two. Christ alludes to this by excluding the other two: for if the hour is coming when they will no longer worship on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem, then clearly the third type to which Christ refers will be a worship that does away with the other two. For if someone wishes to unite two people, it is necessary to eliminate that over which they disagree, and give them something in common on which they will agree. And so Christ, wishing to unite the Jews and Gentiles, eliminated the observances of the Jews and the idolatry of the Gentiles; for these two were like a wall separating the peoples. And he made the two people one: "He is our peace, he who has made the two of us one" (Eph 2:14). Thus the ritual observances of the Jews and the idolatry of the Gentiles were abolished, and the true worship of God established by Christ.

As for the mystical sense, and according to Origen, the three types of worship are three kinds of participation in divine wisdom. Some participate in it under a dark cloud of error, and these adore on the mountain: for every error springs from pride: "I am against you, destroying mountain" (Jer 51:25). Others participate in divine wisdom without error, but in an imperfect way, because they see in a mirror and in an obscure way; and these worship in Jerusalem, which signifies the present Church: "The Lord is building Jerusalem" (Ps 146:2). But the blessed and the saints participate in divine wisdom without error in a perfect way, for they see God as he is, as said in 1 John (3:2). And so Christ says, the hour is coming, i.e., is waited for, when you will participate in divine wisdom neither in error nor in a mirror in an obscure way, but as it is.

Different walls came to the cornerstone, from there the Jews, from there the Gentiles; from different directions, but not to different ones. You have seen and known that the walls are as far apart from each other as they are distant from the corner. As they draw near to the corner, they draw near to each other: when they come to the corner, they cling to each other. Christ did this. The Jews and Gentiles, circumcision and uncircumcision, those with the Law and without the Law, worshippers of the one true God and of many false gods, were far from each other. How far? But He is our peace, who made both one. But those who came from the Jews are numbered in the good wall: for those who came, did not remain in ruin. They and we have been made one: but in one, not in us. Whence was Christ born? From the Jews. Thus you have written: "Salvation is from the Jews," but not for the Jews alone. For He did not say: "Salvation to the Jews"; but: "Salvation from the Jews." They comprehended, and they lost it; they bound him, and He fled from them; they saw Him, and they killed Him: we neither comprehended Him, and we hold Him; nor saw Him, and we believe; we are last, and precede. Those who preceded us lost the way: but we have found the way and, walking in it, we will come to the homeland.

"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. We worship that which we know: ye worship ye know not what; for salvation is of the Jews." A great thing has He attributed to the Jews; but do not understand Him to mean those spurious Jews. Understand that wall to which another is joined, that they may be joined together, resting on the corner-stone, which is Christ. For there is one wall from the Jews, another from the Gentiles; these walls are far apart, only until they are united in the Corner. Now the aliens were strangers and foreigners from the covenants of God. According to this, it is said, "We worship what we know." It is said, indeed, in the person of the Jews, but not of all Jews, not of reprobate Jews, but of such as were the apostles, as were the prophets, as were all those saints who sold all their goods, and laid the price of their goods at the apostles' feet. "For God hath not rejected His people which He foreknew."

(in Joan. Tr. xv. c. 26) It is saying much for the Jews, to declare in their name, We worship what we know. But He does not speak for the reprobate Jews, but for that party from whom the Apostles and the Prophets came. Such were all those saints who laid the prices of their possessions at the Apostle's feet.

"You worship what you do not know:" because you do not have the Law; likewise, you worship God and idols together and believe God to be local: in 4 Kings 17 it is said of the Samaritans that they served the God of the land and their own idols. "We worship what we know: we," namely the Jews: "because salvation is from the Jews," that is, Christ the Savior: Galatians 3: "To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed." Because therefore worship is not offered perfectly even in Jerusalem, he teaches the woman when and how worship is offered perfectly, lest he leave her in suspense.

It is asked concerning what the Lord says of Himself and of the Jews: "We adore what we know." To the contrary: Below in chapter 8: "You know neither me nor my Father," the Lord Jesus says to the Jews. It must be said that below He speaks of the unfaithful, who were Jews in name only; but here He speaks of true Jews, who are called Jews in reality and by merit.

CHAPTER V. That the Son is not in the number of worshippers, in that He is Word and God, but rather is worshipped with the Father.

He speaks again as a Jew and a man, since the economy of the matter in hand demands now too this mode of speaking (for Christ would not have missed meet opportunity): yet does He attribute something more in respect of understanding to the worship of the Jews. For the Samaritans worship God simply and without search, but the Jews having received through the Law and Prophets the knowledge of Him Who is, as far as they were able. Therefore He says that the Samaritans know not, but that the Jews have good knowledge, of whom He affirms, that salvation shall be revealed, that is Himself. For Christ was of the seed of David according to the flesh, David of the tribe of Judah. Amongst the worshippers again as Man does He class Himself, Who together with God the Father is worshipped both by us and the holy angels. For since He had put on the garb of a servant, He fulfilleth the ministry befitting a servant, having not lost the being God and Lord and to be worshipped. For He abideth the Same, even though He hath become Man, retaining throughout the plan of the dispensation after the Flesh.

And even though thou see an abasement great and supernatural, approach wondering, not accusing, not faultfinding, but rather imitating. For such Paul desireth to see us, saying, Let this mind be in each of you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the Form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself: taking upon Him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself. Seest thou how the Son became to us a Pattern of lowliness, being in Equality and Form of the Father as it is written: yet descended for our sakes to a voluntary obedience and lowliness? How then could the garb of obedience, how could that of lowliness appear, otherwise than through deeds and words beneath His God-befitting Dignity, and having a great inferiority to those wherein He was while yet bare Word with the Father, and not involved in the form of a servant? How shall we say that He has at all descended, if we allow Him nothing unworthy of Him? How was He made in the likeness of men, according to the voice of Paul, if He imitated not what befits man? But a thing most befitting men is worship, regarded in the light of a debt, and offered by us to God. Therefore He worshippeth as Man, when He became Man; He is worshipped ever with the Father, since He was and is and will be, God by Nature and Very.

But our opponent will not endure this, but will withstand us, saying: "Think it not strange when we say that the Son worships: for we do not suppose that the Son ought to worship the Father, in the same way as we or the angels, for example: but the worship of the Son is something special and far better than ours."

What then shall we reply to these things? Thou thinkest, fellow, to mislead us, by putting a most noble bondage about the Only-Begotten, and gilding over the dignity of a servant by certain words of deceit. Cease from glorifying the Son with dishonour, that thou mayest continue to honour the Father. For he that honoureth not the Son, neither doth he honour the Father, as it is written. For what (tell me) will it profit the Only-Begotten in respect of freedom, that His worship of the Father should be made more excellent than ours? For so long as He is found among worshippers, He will be altogether a bondman, and even though He be conceived of as a superior worshipper, yet will He by no means differ from creatures in respect of being originate, but only in the remaining excellencies, as to men is superior Michael or any other of the holy and reasonable powers, to whom superiority to those upon earth seems essentially to belong, either in respect of holiness or any superabundance of glory, it having been so decreed by the Chief Artificer of all things, God: but the being classed with things originate, as having been created, is common to them with the rest. The Word then Who is in the Father and of the Father by Nature will never escape being originate, even though He be said to worship in a more excellent way. Then how will that which is made be yet Son, or how will the bondman and worshipper be by Nature Lord? For I suppose that the royal and lordly dignity is pre-eminent in being worshipped: but the office of servant and slave is defined in his paying worship. We confess then by being subject that we hold ourselves bound to worship the Nature which is superior and above all. Wherefore it was proclaimed to the whole creation by the all-wise Moses, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. So that to whatsoever servitude belongs by nature, and whatever boweth under the yoke of the Godhead, this full surely must needs worship, and submit to the garb of adoration. For in saying Lord, he defines the bond, in saying God, the creature. For together are they conceived of, and contrasted, the bond with Him who is by Nature Lord, and that which is brought into being, with the Inoriginate Godhead.

But seeing the Son is eternally in the Father and is Lord as God, I am at a loss to show whence He can appear to owe worship. But let them proceed with their babbling: "The Only Begotten (says he) will worship the Father, neither as bond nor created, but as a Son the Father." We must therefore take adoration into the definition of Sonship, and say that it altogether behoves the Son to worship the Father, for that in this consists His being, even as does ours in being reasonable mortal creatures, recipient of mind and knowledge, rather than in committing ourselves to motions external and impulsive, and to the mere swayings of will. For if there have been implanted by Nature into the Only Begotten, the duty wholly and of necessity to worship, and they so hold and say, how will they not be caught in naked blasphemy against the Father Himself? For it is altogether necessary to conceive of Him too as such, since the Son is His Image and Impress, and whatever things are in exact likeness, these full surely will differ in nothing. But if they say that the Son pays worship to the Father in will alone, they are guessers, rather than knowers of the truth. For what would hinder others too from saying, fabricating a hazardous piety, that it was the will of the Father to worship the Son, though not a worshipper by Nature?

"But (says he) fitness itself will remove the Person of the Father, will subject the Son to this, His worship of the Father not unwilled."

What sayest thou, o sir? Dost thou again bring forth to us oracles as from shrines, or Greek tripods, or comest thou like that Shemaiah the Nehelamite, belching forth out of thine own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord? and dost thou not blush, opposing to us fitness, as though invincible in these matters? For dost thou not think it befits Him Who is by. Nature God, to have the Word begotten of Him God, and that He Whom the whole creation worships, should be called and be by Nature the Father of a Son Who is worshipped, rather than a worshipper? But I think I say nothing displeasing to the truly wise. But how shall we define that it also befits that the Father be worshipped by His Own offspring, when such a conception as to Both endures so great damage? For in the first place that which worships not will be neither in equality of dignity, nor in exact Image of nature with that which worships. For it worships as inferior, and that not measurable by quantity, in respect of any natural quality (for He That is God or Lord will not be lesser), but as differing in the definition of mode of being. Then how will He be shown to be true in saying, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father? how doth He say that He ought to be honoured in no less degree than the Father, if He be not His Equal in glory by reason of His worshipping? Then besides, the Father will Himself too appear to be in no slight unseemliness. For it is His glory to beget such as Himself is by Nature: on the other hand it is no slight disgrace, to have a son of another kind and alien, and to be in such case as even the very nature of things originate shrinks from. For they that have received power to bear, bear not worse than themselves, by the ordinance and will of the Artificer of all things. For, saith He, let the earth bring forth grass, the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind and after his likeness. The Godhead then will be in worse case than things originate, since they are thus, It not so, but that which was adjudged alike to befit and to have been well arranged for the successions of things which are, this It Alone will be found without.

Who then, most excellent sirs, will endure you saying, that it befits the Son to worship His Father? But when it has been added to those words of yours, that neither is this unwilled by the Only-Begotten, and this gratuitous argument of yours ye fortify merely by fitness; come, let us consider this too from the Divine Scriptures, whence I think one ought zealously to look for proof on every disputed point. The law therefore enjoined the half of a didrachm to be paid by every one of the Jews to Him Who is God over all, not as devising a way of getting wealth, nor contributions of money to no purpose, but imparting us instruction by clearest types: first, that no one is lord of his own head, but that we all have one Lord, enrolled unto servitude by the deposit of tribute; next, depicting the mental and spiritual fruits, as in a grosser representation and act. For (says he) Honour the Lord with thy righteous labours, and render Him the first fruits of thy fruits of righteousness, which came to pass through the Gospel teaching, the worship after the law being at last closed. For no longer do we think we ought to worship with external offerings the Lord of all, pressing to pay the didrachm of corruptible matter: but being true worshippers, we worship God the Father in Spirit and in. truth. This meaning we must suppose to lie hid in the letter of the law.

When then the Lord was in Jerusalem, the gatherers of the didrachm were asking of Peter, saying, Doth not your Master pay the didrachm? But when he was come into the house, as it is written, Jesus prevented him, saying, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own. children or of strangers? When he said, Of strangers, Jesus said, Then are the children free; yet lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a stater: that take and give unto them for Me and thee. Seest thou that the Son endured not to be under tribute, and as one of those under' the yoke of bondage, to undergo a servile thing? For knowing the free dignity of His Own Nature He affirms that He owes nothing servile to God the Father: for He says, The children are free. How then hath He the worship befitting a slave, and that of His own will? He who shrank at even the bare type of the thing, how could He accept the verity? For shall we not reckon worship as a tribute and spiritual fruit-bearing, and say that it is a kind of service? For why did the law join service to worship, saying, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve? For worship is so to say the gate and way to service in deed, being the beginning of servitude to God. Wherefore the Psalmist says to some, O come, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker. Seest thou how the duty of falling down follows upon, and is joined to, worshipping? than which what will be more befitting a servant, at least in the estimation of those who rightly weigh the qualities of things, I cannot say.

But if our opponents persist, bearing themselves haughtily in yet unbroken impudence, and cease not from their uninstructed reasonings on these subjects, let them going through the whole Holy Scripture, show us the Son worshipping God the Father, while He was yet bare Word, before the times of the Incarnation and the garb of servitude. For now as Man, He worships unblamed: but then, not yet so. But they will not be able to show this from the Divine and sacred Scriptures, but heaping up conjectures and surmisings of corrupt imaginations, will with reason hear. Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the glory of the Only Begotten. For that He does not worship in that He is Word and God, but having become as we, He undertook to endure this too as befits man, by reason of the dispensation of the Flesh----; the proof shall not be sought by us from without, but we shall know it from His own Words. For what is it that He is saying to the woman of Samaria? YE worship ye know not what, WE know what we worship. Is it not hence too clear to every body that in using the plural number and numbering Himself with those who worship of necessity and as bond, that it is as made in human nature which is bond that He is saying this? For what (tell me) would hinder His drawing the worship apart into His own Person, if He wished to be conceived of by us as a worshipper? for He should rather have said, I know what I worship, in order that, unclassed with the rest, He might appropriate the force of the utterance to Himself alone. But, now most excellently and with all security He says WE, as already ranked among the bond by reason of His Manhood, as numbered among the worshippers, as a Jew by country.

The "you" refers literally to the Samaritans but anagogically to all who are heterodox regarding the Scriptures. The "we" literally means the Jews, but allegorically it means, "I, the Word, and all who are changed by me receive salvation from the Jewish Scriptures." For the mystery now revealed was revealed both through the prophetic Scriptures and through the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(tom. xiii. c. 17) Ye, literally refers to the Samaritans, but mystically, to all who understand the Scriptures in an heretical sense. We again literally means the Jews, but mystically, I the Word, and all who conformed to My Image, obtain salvation from the Jewish Scriptures.

Accordingly, He who said, "Woe unto them that trust in the mountain of Samaria," vouchsafing now to restore that very region, purposely requests the men "to go and show themselves to the priests," because these were to be found only there where the temple was; submitting the Samaritan to the Jew, inasmuch as "salvation was of the Jews," whether to the Israelite or the Samaritan.

It is proper for Jesus to say now, "Believe me," after he had clearly demonstrated the truth of the words that he had spoken to her before. "The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." This, he says, is what you want to be instructed about. Know then that there will be a time when both places will end. However in order that it might not appear that Jews and Samaritans had to be considered equal (because he predicted the end of both their sanctuaries) he says, "You worship what you do not know," that is, you Samaritans; "We worship what we know," that is, we Jews. Then he adds, "For salvation is from the Jews." He did not say "in the Jews" but "from the Jews." In fact, salvation was not in them but from them because Christ in flesh came from them. Therefore, he says, the truth is by the Jews, but both sanctuaries will be emptied out.

"You," He says, "worship what you do not know, but we, the Jews, worship what we know." He numbers Himself among the Jews, because He speaks in accordance with the woman's understanding, and she regarded Him as a Jewish prophet. For this reason He also says: "we" worship. How then did the Samaritans not know what they worshipped? They thought that God was limited to a place. Therefore, when lions were devouring them, as was said above, they sent messengers to report to the king of the Assyrians that the God of that place did not tolerate them. However, even after that they long continued to serve idols, and not God Himself. But the Jews were free from such a notion and, though not all of them, acknowledged Him as the God of all. These words present to us a twofold meaning. Either that the blessings for the world came from the Jews, for the knowledge of God and the rejection of idols has its beginning from them, and all the other teachings (dogmas), and this very form of your Samaritan worship, although incorrect, received its beginning from the Jews as well. Or He calls His coming "salvation," which was from the Jews. One may also understand by "salvation" the Lord Himself, Who according to the flesh was from the Jews.

Then (v 22), he compares the different kinds of worship to each other. First, he compares the second to the first. Secondly, the third to the first and second (v 23). As to the first he does three things. First, he shows the shortcomings of the first type of worship. Secondly, the truth of the second. Thirdly, the reason for each statement.

As to the first he says, You people worship what you do not understand.

Some might think that the Lord should have explained the truth of the matter and solved the woman's problem. But the Lord does not bother to do so because each of these kinds of worship was due to end.

As to his saying, You people worship, and so on, it should be pointed out that, as the Philosopher says, knowledge of complex things is different than knowledge of simple things. For something can be known about complex things in such a way that something else about them remains unknown; thus there can be false knowledge about them. For example, if someone has true knowledge of an animal as to its substance, he might be in error touching the knowledge of one of its accidents, such as whether it is black or white; or of a difference, such as whether it has wings or is four-footed. But there cannot be false knowledge of simple things: because they are either perfectly known inasmuch as their quiddity is known; or they are not known at all, if one cannot attain to a knowledge of them. Therefore, since God is absolutely simple, there cannot be false knowledge of him in the sense that something might be known about him and something remain unknown, but only in the sense that knowledge of him is not attained. Accordingly, anyone who believes that God is something that he is not, for example, a body, or something like that, does not adore God but something else, because he does not know him, but something else.

Now the Samaritans had a false idea of God in two ways. First of all, because they thought he was corporeal, so that they believed that he should be adored in only one definite corporeal place. Further, because they did not believe that he transcended all things, but was equal to certain creatures, they adored along with him certain idols, as if they were equal to him. Consequently, they did not know him, because they did not attain to a true knowledge of him. So the Lord says, You people worship what you do not understand, i.e., you do not adore God because you do not know him, but only some imaginary being you think is God, "as the Gentiles do, with their foolish ideas" (Eph 4:17).

As to the second, i.e., the truth of the worship of the Jews, he says, we understand what we worship. He includes himself among the Jews, because he was a Jew by race, and because the woman thought he was a prophet and a Jew. We understand what we worship, because through the law and the prophets the Jews acquired a true knowledge or opinion of God, in that they did not believe that he was corporeal nor in one definite place, as though his greatness could be enclosed in a place: "If the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built" (1 Kgs 8:27). And neither did they worship idols: "God is known in Judah" (Ps 75:2).

He gives the reason for this when he says, since salvation is from the Jews. As if to say: The true knowledge of God was possessed exclusively by the Jews, for it had been determined that salvation would come from them. And as the source of health should itself be healthy, so the source of salvation, which is acquired by the true knowledge and the true worship of God, should possess the true knowledge of God. Thus, since the source of salvation and its cause, i.e., Christ, was to come from them, according to the promise in Genesis (22:18): "All the nations will be blessed in your descendants," it was fitting that God be known in Judah.

Salvation comes from the Jews in three ways. First in their teaching of the truth, for all other peoples were in error, while the Jews held fast to the truth, according to Romans (3:2): "What advantage do Jews have? First, they were entrusted with the words of God." Secondly, in their spiritual gifts: for prophecy and the other gifts of the Spirit were given to them first, and from them they reached others: "You," i.e., the Gentiles, "a wild olive branch, are ingrafted on them," i.e., on the Jews (Rom 11:17); "If the Gentiles have become sharers in their (i.e., the Jews') spiritual goods, they ought to help the Jews as to earthly goods" (Rom 15:27). Thirdly, since the very author of salvation is from the Jews, since "Christ came from them in the flesh" (Rom 9:5).

In saying, the hour cometh, He refers to the Gospel dispensation, which was now approaching; under which the shadows of types were to withdraw, and the pure light of truth was to enlighten the minds of believers.

In the mystical doctrine, we understand that this well is also referred to there, because there the Samaritan woman, that is, the guardian (the guardian, however, of heavenly precepts), drew divine mysteries from that well, knowing that God is spirit, and is not worshipped in a place but in spirit; and because he is the Messiah, Christ. And therefore, he who is still expected by the Jews has already come. Having heard these things, that woman who appears to be of the Church, recognized the sacraments of the law, and believed.

What does it mean, then, that the Father is worshiped in Christ, except that the Father is in Christ and the Father speaks in Christ and abides in Christ? He does not abide, indeed, as a body in a body, for God is not a body.… So not an engrafting of a body is meant, but unity of power. Therefore, by unity of power, Christ is jointly worshiped in the Father when God the Father is worshiped in Christ. In the same way then, by unity of the same power the Spirit is jointly worshiped in God when God is worshiped in the Spirit.… When God is said to be worshiped in truth (by the proper meaning of the word itself often expressed after the same manner), it ought to be understood that the Son too is worshiped. So, in the same way, the Spirit is also worshiped because God is worshiped in Spirit. Therefore the Father is worshiped both with the Son and with the Spirit, because the Trinity is worshiped.

We have heard, and it is manifest; we had gone out of doors, and we are sent inward. Would I could find, thou didst say, some high and lonely mountain! For I think that, because God is on high, He hears me the rather from a high place. Because thou art on a mountain, dost thou imagine thyself near to God. and that He will quickly hear thee, as if calling to Him from the nearest place? He dwells on high, but regards the lowly. "The Lord is near." To whom? To the high, perhaps? "To them who are contrite of heart." 'Tis a wonderful thing: He dwelleth on high, and yet is near to the lowly; "He hath regard to lowly things, but lofty things He knoweth from afar;" He seeth the proud afar off, and He is the less near to them the higher they appear to themselves to be. Didst thou seek a mountain, then? Come down, that thou mayest come near Him. But wouldest thou ascend? Ascend, but do not seek a mountain. "The ascents," it saith, "are in his heart, in the valley of weeping." The valley is humility. Therefore do all within. Even if perhaps thou seekest some lofty place, some holy place, make thyself a temple for God within time. "For the temple of God is holy, which temple are ye." Wouldest thou pray in a temple? Pray in thyself. But be thou first a temple of God, for He in His temple heareth him that prays.

(Tr. xv. c. 25) O for a mountain to pray on, thou criest, high and inaccessible, that I may be nearer to God, and God may hear me better, for He dwelleth on high. Yes, God dwelleth on high, but He hath respect unto the humble. Wherefore descend that thou mayest ascend. "Ways on high are in their heart," (Ps. 74:7.) it is said, "passing in the valley of tears," and in "tears" is humility. Wouldest thou pray in the temple? pray in thyself; but first do thou become the temple of God.

"But the hour is coming." I said that you do not worship perfectly, because you believe God to be local: nor do the Jews perfectly, because under figures. "But the hour is coming," namely of grace, "and now is," because Christ had already come: "when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: in spirit," against locality and corporeality: "in truth," the shadow having been cast aside: according to what the Apostle said in 2 Corinthians 3: "We, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image from glory," etc. That these are the true worshipers, he shows by saying: "For the Father also seeks such to worship him:" supply: as was said, in spirit and truth.

In the days when most people had a religion, what he meant by 'an interest in religion' could hardly have existed. For of course religious people — that is, people when they are being religious — are not 'interested in religion'. Men who have gods worship those gods; it is the spectators who describe this as 'religion'. The Maenads thought about Dionysus, not about religion. Mutatis mutandis this goes for Christians too. The moment a man seriously accepts a deity his interest in 'religion' is at an end. He's got something else to think about.

You may even encourage him to attach great importance to the correction and improvement of his composite object, and to keeping it steadily before his imagination during the whole prayer. For if he ever comes to make the distinction, if ever he consciously directs his prayers "Not to what I think thou art but to what thou knowest thyself to be", our situation is, for the moment, desperate. Once all his thoughts and images have been flung aside or, if retained, retained with a full recognition of their merely subjective nature, and the man trusts himself to the completely real, external, invisible Presence, there with him in the room and never knowable by him as he is known by it--why, then it is that the incalculable may occur. In avoiding this situation--this real nakedness of the soul in prayer--you will be helped by the fact that the humans themselves do not desire it as much as they suppose. There's such a thing as getting more than they bargained for!

Or go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is; for she, feeding on the whole meadow, produces one honey-comb. And if "thou prayest in the closet," as the Lord taught, "to worship in spirit," thy management will no longer be solely occupied about the house, but also about the soul, what must be bestowed on it, and how, and how much; and what must be laid aside and treasured up in it; and when it ought to be produced, and to whom.

He, among the rest of His salutary admonitions and divine precepts wherewith He counsels His people for their salvation, Himself also gave a form of praying-Himself advised and instructed us what we should pray for. He who made us to live, taught us also to pray, with that same benignity, to wit, wherewith He has condescended to give and confer all things else; in order that while we speak to the Father in that prayer and supplication which the Son has taught us, we may be the more easily heard. Already He had foretold that the hour was coming "when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth; " and He thus fulfilled what He before promised, so that we who by His sanctification have received the Spirit and truth, may also by His teaching worship truly and spiritually. For what can be a more spiritual prayer than that which was given to us by Christ, by whom also the Holy Spirit was given to us? What praying to the Father can be more truthful than that which was delivered to us by the Son who is the Truth, out of His own mouth? So that to pray otherwise than He taught is not ignorance alone, but also sin; since He Himself has established, and said, "Ye reject the commandments of God, that ye may keep your own traditions."

He is intimating the time now present of His Own Presence and says that the type shall be transferred to truth and the shadow of the Law to spiritual worship: He tells that through the Gospel teaching the true worshipper, that is, the spiritual man, shall be conducted to a polity well-pleasing unto the Father, hasting unto ownness with God. For God is conceived of as a Spirit, in reference to the embodied nature. Rightly therefore does He accept the spiritual worshipper, who does not in form and type carry in Jewish wise the form of godliness, but in Gospel manner resplendent in the achievements of virtue and in rightness of the Divine doctrines fulfilleth the really true worship.

The Phrygians, however, further assert that the father of the universe is "Amygdalus," not a tree, he says, but that he is "Amygdalus" who previously existed; and he having in himself the perfect fruit, as it were, throbbing and moving in the depth, rent his breasts, and produced his now invisible, and nameless, and ineffable child. respecting whom we shall speak. For the word "Amyxai" signifies, as it were, to burst and sever through, as he says (happens) in the case of inflamed bodies, and which have in themselves any tumour; and when doctors have cut this, they call it "Amychai." In this way, he says, the Phrygians call him "Amygdalus," from which proceeded and was born the Invisible (One), "by whom all things were made, and nothing was made without Him." And the Phrygians say that what has been thence produced is "Syrictas" (piper), because the Spirit that is born is harmonious. "For God," he says, "is Spirit; wherefore," he affirms, "neither in this mountain do the true worshippers worship, nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit. For the adoration of the perfect ones," he says, "is spiritual, not carnal." The Spirit, however, he says, is there where likewise the Father is named, and the Son is there born from this Father. This, he says, is the many-named, thousand-eyed Incomprehensible One, of whom every nature-each, however, differently-is desirous. This, he says, is the word of God, which, he says, is a word of revelation of the Great Power. Wherefore it will be sealed, and hid, and concealed, lying in the habitation where lies the basis of the root of the universe, viz. Aeons, Powers, Intelligences, Gods, Angels, delegated Spirits, Entities, Nonentities, Generables, Ingenerables, Incomprehensibles, Comprehensibles, Years, Months, Days, Hours, (and) Invisible Point from which what is least begins to increase gradually. That which is, he says, nothing, and which consists of nothing, inasmuch as it is indivisible-(I mean) a point-will become through its own reflective power a certain incomprehensible magnitude. This, he says, is the kingdom of heaven, the grain of mustard seed, the point which is indivisible in the body; and, he says, no one knows this (point) save the spiritual only. This, he says, is what has been spoken: "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard."

"We, O woman," He saith, "excel you in the manner of our worship, but even this shall henceforth have an end. Not the places only, but even the manner of serving God shall be changed. And this change is at your very doors. 'For the hour cometh, and now is.'"

For since what the Prophets said they said long before the event, to show that here it is not so, He saith, "And now is." Think not, He saith, that this is a prophecy of such a kind as shall be accomplished after a long time, the fulfillment is already at hand and at your very doors, "when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." In saying "true," He excludeth Jews as well as Samaritans; for although the Jews be better than the Samaritans, yet are they far inferior to those that shall come, as inferior as is the type to the reality. But He speaketh of the Church, that she is the "true" worship, and such as is meet for God.

"For the Father seeketh such to worship Him."

If then He in times past sought such as these, He allowed to those others their way of worship, not willingly, but from condescension, and for this reason, that He might bring them in also. Who then are "the true worshipers"? Those who confine not their service by place, and who serve God in spirit; as Paul saith, "Whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of His Son": and again, "I beseech you that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God, your reasonable service." (Rom. i. 9 and xii. 1.)

Twice it is written, "The hour is coming." The first time it is written without the addition of "and now is." I think the first alludes to that purely spiritual worship that will begin at the time of perfection. The second, however, means, I think, the worship of those being perfected in this life so far as it is possible for human nature to progress. It is possible, therefore, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth not only when "the hour comes" but also when it "now is." … For just as the angels do not worship the Father in Jerusalem because they worship the Father in a better way than those in Jerusalem, so those who can already be like the angels in their attitude will not worship the Father in Jerusalem but in a better way than those in Jerusalem.…When, however, someone worships neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, once the hour has come he worships the Father boldly because he has become a son. Therefore it is not said, "worship God" but "worship the Father." … True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth not only in the coming hour but also in the present. But those who worship in spirit, since they worship as they have received, worship at present in the pledge of the Spirit. But when they shall receive the Spirit in his fullness, they will worship the Father in spirit.

If the Father seeks true worshipers, he seeks them through the Son, "who came to seek and to save that which was lost," purifying and educating those whom he equips to be true worshipers through the Word and sound doctrine.…God is a Spirit.… God, who brings us into the true life, is called Spirit, and in the Scriptures, the Spirit is said to make us alive. It is clear from this that "making alive" refers not only to ordinary life but to what is more divine.

(tom. xiii. c. 14) Twice it is said, The hour cometh, and the first time without the addition, and now is. The first seems to allude to that purely spiritual worship which is suited only to a state of perfection; the second to earthly worship, perfected as far as is consistent with human nature. When that hour cometh, which our Lord speaks of, the mountain of the Samaritans must be avoided, and God must be worshipped in Sion, where is Jerusalem, which is called by Christ the city of the Great King. And this is the Church, where sacred oblations and spiritual victims are offered up by those who understand the spiritual law. So that when the fulness of time shall have come, the true worship, we must suppose, will no longer be attached to Jerusalem, i. e. to the present Church: for the Angels do not worship the Father at Jerusalem: and thus those who have obtained the likeness of the Jews, worship the Father better than they who are at Jerusalem. And when this hour is come, we shall be accounted by the Father as sons. Wherefore it is not said, Worship God, but, Worship the Father. But for the present the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

"An hour will come," saith He, "when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth. For God is a Spirit, and accordingly requires His adorers to be such." We are the true adorers and the true priests, who, praying in spirit, sacrifice, in spirit, prayer,-a victim proper and acceptable to God, which assuredly He has required, which He has looked forward to for Himself! This victim, devoted from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended by truth, entire in innocence, pure in chastity, garlanded with love, we ought to escort with the pomp of good works, amid psalms and hymns, unto God's altar, to obtain for us all things from God.

Although we Jews surpass you Samaritans in the form of worship, the form of Jewish worship will also eventually come to an end. And the change will occur not only in the place, but also in the manner of worship, and this change is very near and has already arrived. For these things will not hold significance for all time, as the sayings of the prophets do. He calls true worshippers those who live according to His law, who do not confine God to a place, as the Samaritans do, nor honor Him with bodily service, as the Jews do, but worship in spirit and truth, that is, with the soul, with purity of mind. Since God is spirit, that is, incorporeal, one must also worship Him incorporeally, that is, with the soul. This is what is meant by the words "in spirit." For the soul is a spirit and an incorporeal being. And since many apparently worship Him with the soul but do not have a true conception of Him — for example, heretics — He therefore added: "and in truth." For one must worship God with the mind, but one must also have a true conception of Him. Another might say that here by these two words "in spirit and truth" are hinted the two parts of our philosophy: the practical and the contemplative. By the word "in spirit" the practical is hinted at. For, according to the words of the divine apostle, all who are led by the Spirit of God put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:13–14). And again: "the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh" (Gal. 5:17). Thus, by the word "in spirit" the practical is hinted at, while by the word "in truth" the contemplative. So also Paul (1 Cor. 5:8) understands it, when he says "with the unleavened bread of sincerity," that is, purity of life, or what is the same, the practical, "and truth," that is, the contemplative, for contemplation is occupied with the truth of dogmatic teaching. And in another sense: since the Samaritans confined God to a place and said that one must worship in this place, while among the Jews everything was performed in types and shadows, against the distinction of the Samaritans He uses the word "in spirit," so that the meaning is as follows: you Samaritans perform some local worship of God, but the true worshippers will perform not a local one, for they will worship "in spirit," that is, with the mind and soul. They will not worship under a type and shadow, as the Jews, but "in truth," since the customs and rites of the Jews will be abolished. Since the Jewish law, understood literally, was a type and shadow, perhaps the word "in spirit" is used to distinguish from the letter; for in us the law that operates is no longer the law of the letter, but of the spirit, for "the letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6). To distinguish from the type and shadow, the word "in truth" is used. "The time is coming," He says, "and has already come," namely: the time of My manifestation in the flesh, when true worshippers will worship not in one place, as the Samaritans, but in every place "in spirit," performing worship that is not merely bodily, as Paul also says (Whom (God) I serve "in my spirit" (Rom. 1:9)), they will perform a service that is not figurative, shadowy, and pointing to the future, as the Jews did, but a service that is true and has no shadows whatsoever. For God seeks such worshippers for Himself: as Spirit — spiritual ones, as Truth — true ones.

Or, because many think that they worship God in the spirit, i. e. with the mind, who yet held heretical doctrines concerning Him, for this reason He adds, and in truth. May not the words too refer to the two kinds of philosophy among us, i. e. active and contemplative; the spirit standing for action, according to the Apostle, As many as are led by the Spirit of God; (Rom. 8:14) truth, on the other hand, for contemplation. Or, (to take another view,) as the Samaritans thought that God was confined to a certain place, and ought to be worshipped in that place; in opposition to this notion, our Lord may mean to teach them here, that the true worshippers worship not locally, but spiritually. Or again, all being a type and shadow in the Jewish system, the meaning may be that the true worshippers will worship not in type, but in truth. God being a Spirit, seeketh for spiritual worshippers; being the truth, for true ones.

Now (v 23), he compares the third kind of worship to the first two. First, he mentions its superiority to the others. Secondly, how appropriate this kind of worship is (v 23b).

As to the first point, we should note, as Origen says, that when speaking above of the third kind of worship, the Lord said, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem; but he did not then add, and is now here. But now, in speaking of it, he does say, the hour is coming, and is now here. The reason is because the first time he was speaking of the worship found in heaven, when we will participate in the perfect knowledge of God, which is not possessed by those still living in this mortal life. But now he is speaking of the worship of this life, and which has now come through Christ.

So he says, But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

We can understand this, as Chrysostom does, as showing the superiority of this worship to that of the Jews. So that the sense is: Just as the worship of the Jews is superior to that of the Samaritans, so the worship of the Christians is superior to that of the Jews. It is superior in two respects. First, because the worship of the Jews is in bodily rites: "Rites for the body, imposed only until the time they are reformed" (Heb 9:10); while the worship of the Christians is in spirit. Secondly, because the worship of the Jews is in symbols: for the Lord was not pleased with their sacrificial victims insofar as they were things; so we read, "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" (Ps 49:13), and again, "You would not be pleased with a holocaust" (Ps 50:18), that is, as a particular thing; but such a sacrificial victim would be pleasing to the Lord as a symbol of the true victim and of the true sacrifice: "The law has only a shadow of the good things to come" (Heb 10:1). But the worship of the Christians is in truth, because it is pleasing to God in itself: "grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ," as we saw above (1:17). So he is saying here that true worshipers will worship in spirit, not in bodily rites, and in truth, not in symbols.

This passage can be interpreted in a second way, by saying that when our Lord says, in spirit and in truth, he wants to show the difference between the third kind of worship and not just that of the Jews, but also that of the Samaritans. In this case, in truth, refers to the Jews: for the Samaritans, as was said, were in error, because they worshiped what they did not understand. But the Jews worshiped with a true knowledge of God.

In spirit and in truth can be understood in a third way, as indicating the characteristics of true worship. For two things are necessary for a true worship: one is that the worship be spiritual; so he says, in spirit, i.e., with fervor of spirit: "I will pray with spirit, and I will pray with my mind" (1 Cor 14:15); "Singing to the Lord in your hearts" (Eph 5:19). Secondly, the worship should be in truth. First, in the truth of faith, because no fervent spiritual desire is meritorious unless united to the truth of faith, "Ask with faith, without any doubting" (Jas 1:6). Secondly, in truth, i.e., without pretense or hypocrisy; against such attitudes we read: "They like to pray at street corners, so people can see them" (Mt 6:5).

This prayer, then, requires three things: first, the fervor of love; secondly, the truth of faith; and thirdly, a correct intention.

He says, the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, because under the law, worship was not given to the Father, but to the Lord. We worship in love, as sons; whereas they worshiped in fear, as slaves.

He says true worshipers, in opposition to three things mentioned in the above interpretations. First, in opposition to the false worship of the Samaritans: "Put aside what is not true, and speak the truth" (Eph 4:25). Secondly, in opposition to the fruitless and transitory character of bodily rites: "Why do you love what is without profit, and seek after lies" (Ps 4:3). Thirdly, it is opposed to what is symbolic: "Grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ" (above 1:17).

Then when he says, Indeed, it is just such worshipers the Father seeks, he shows that this third kind of worship is appropriate for two reasons. First, because the One worshiped wills and accepts this worship. Secondly, because of the nature of the One worshiped (v 24).

Concerning the first, we should note that for a man to merit receiving what he asks, he should ask for things which are not in opposition to the will of the giver, and also ask for them in a way which is acceptable to the giver. And so when we pray to God, we ought to be such as God seeks. But God seeks those who will worship him in spirit and in truth, in the fervor of love and in the truth of faith; "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God want from you, but that you fear the Lord your God, and walk in his ways, and love him, and serve the Lord your God with all your heart" (Dt 10:12); and in Micah (6:8): "I will show you, man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: to do what is right, and to love mercy, and to walk attentively with your God."

Do not imagine, my beloved, that prayer consists solely of words or that it can be learned by means of words. No, listen to the truth of the matter from our Lord: spiritual prayer is not learned and does not reach fullness as a result of either learning or the repetition of words. For it is not to a man that you are praying, before whom you can repeat a well-composed speech. It is to him who is Spirit that you are directing the movements of prayer. You should pray, therefore, in spirit, seeing that he is spirit. He shows that no special place or vocal utterance is required for someone who prays in fullness to God.

To worship in the Spirit implies that our intelligence has been enlightened. Consider the words spoken to the Samaritan woman. She was deceived by local custom into believing that worship could only be offered in a specific place. But the Lord, attempting to correct her, said that worship ought to be offered in Spirit and in truth. By truth he clearly meant himself. If we say that worship offered in the Son (the truth) is worship offered in the Father's image, we can say the same about worship offered in the Spirit since the Spirit in himself reveals the divinity of the Lord. The Holy Spirit cannot be divided from the Father and the Son in worship. If you remain outside the Spirit, you cannot worship at all, and if you are in him you cannot separate him from God. Light cannot be separated from what it makes visible, and it is impossible for you to recognize Christ, the image of the invisible God, unless the Spirit enlightens you. Once you see the image, you cannot ignore the light; you see the light and the image simultaneously. It is fitting that when we see Christ, the brightness of God's glory, it is always through the illumination of the Spirit. Through Christ the image, may we be led to the Father, for he bears the seal of the Father's very likeness.

"God is Spirit," not a body, as you believe: Isaiah 40: "To whom have you likened God? Or what image will you set up for him?" "And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth:" so that they may be conformed to him, that they may be in spirit, not in the flesh: Romans 8: "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God": that they may be in truth, not in pretense: Wisdom 1: "The Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful."

Since God cannot be seen, his incorporeal nature follows directly on his invisibility. For if God is unseen, then he must be incorporeal. And if this is the case, then the Spirit spoken of here cannot be air that has been set in motion. For among people a body reveals its spirit; however, we cannot say the same about God. Just as the Light spoken of here is not a physical light, but an intellectual light since it illuminates the mind, not the face, and just as he who is called Love is not a disposition but rather a Being who loves what he has made and takes care of it, so he does not address the Spirit as a blast of wind, but rather presents him as an incorporeal and life-giving Being. Everyone who has learned that "God is spirit" worships him spiritually "in spirit and truth" and no longer worships the God of all under the shadows of types. He makes a distinction between the letter and the spirit and distinguishes between the type and the truth. The letter and the type were useful for a time, but when the truth came, that is, when Christ arrived, all these things came to an end.

Since, therefore, the Father is eternal, the Son also is eternal, Light of Light. For where there is the begetter, there is also the offspring. And if there is no offspring, how and of what can He be the begetter? But both are, and always are. Since, then, God is the Light, Christ is the Brightness. And since He is a Spirit-for says He, "God is a Spirit"-fittingly again is Christ called Breath; for "He," saith He, "is the breath of God's power."

If you wish to pray, you have need of God, "who gives prayer to him who prays." Invoke him, then, saying, "Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come"49—that is, the Holy Spirit and your only begotten Son. For this is what he taught us, saying, "Worship the Father in spirit and in truth." He who prays in spirit and in truth is no longer dependent on created things when honoring the Creator but praises him for and in himself. If you are a theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly, you are a theologian.

We see that the woman, her mind full of inherited tradition, thought that God must be worshiped either on a mountain, as at Samaria, or in a temple, as at Jerusalem.… The prejudices of both confined the all-embracing and illimitable God to the crest of a hill or the vault of a building. God is invisible, incomprehensible, immeasurable. The Lord said that the time had come when God should be worshiped neither on mountain nor in temple. For the Spirit cannot be shut up, as if in a cabin, or confined. It is omnipresent in space and time, and under all conditions it is present in its fullness. Therefore he said that they are the true worshipers who shall worship in the Spirit and in truth. And these who are to worship God the Spirit in the Spirit shall have the One for the means, the Other for the object, of their reverence. For each of the two stand in a different relation to the worshiper. The words "God is Spirit" do not alter the fact that the Holy Spirit has a name of his own and that he is the gift to us.… The imparted gift and the object of reverence were clearly shown when Christ taught that God, being Spirit, must be worshiped in the Spirit, and revealed what freedom and knowledge, what boundless scope for adoration, lay in this worship of God the Spirit, in the Spirit.

(ii. de Trin. c. 31) Or, by saying that God being a Spirit ought to be worshipped in spirit, He indicates the freedom and knowledge of the worshippers, and the uncircumscribed nature of the worship: according to the saying of the Apostle, Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Cor. 3:17)

Those who have become acquainted with the secondary (i.e., under Christ) constitutions of the apostles, are aware that the Lord instituted a new oblation in the new covenant, according to [the declaration of] Malachi the prophet. For, "from the rising of the sun even to the setting my name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice;" as John also declares in the Apocalypse: "The incense is the prayers of the saints." Then again, Paul exhorts us "to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." And again, "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of the lips." Now those oblations are not according to the law, the handwriting of which the Lord took away from the midst by cancelling it; but they are according to the Spirit, for we must worship God "in spirit and in truth." And therefore the oblation of the Eucharist is not a carnal one, but a spiritual; and in this respect it is pure. For we make an oblation to God of the bread and the cup of blessing, giving Him thanks in that He has commanded the earth to bring forth these fruits for our nourishment. And then, when we have perfected the oblation, we invoke the Holy Spirit, that He may exhibit this sacrifice, both the bread the body of Christ, and the cup the blood of Christ, in order that the receivers of these antitypes may obtain remission of sins and life eternal. Those persons, then, who perform these oblations in remembrance of the Lord, do not fall in with Jewish views, but, performing the service after a spiritual manner, they shall be called sons of wisdom.

"God is a Spirit." He declareth nothing else than His incorporeal Nature. Now the service of that which is incorporeal must needs be of the same character, and must be offered by that in us which is incorporeal, to wit, the soul, and purity of mind. Wherefore He saith, "they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth." For because both Samaritans and Jews were careless about the soul, but took great pains about the body, cleansing it in divers ways, it is not, He saith, by purity of body, but by that which is incorporeal in us, namely the mind, that the incorporeal One is served. Sacrifice then not sheep and calves, but dedicate thyself to the Lord; make thyself a holocaust, this is to offer a living sacrifice. Ye must worship "in truth"; as former things were types, such as circumcision, and whole burnt offerings, and victims, and incense, they now no longer exist, but all is "truth." For a man must now circumcise not his flesh, but his evil thoughts, and crucify himself, and remove and slay his unreasonable desires.

In the language of the Gospel itself, it is declared that "God is a Spirit." … To the opinion of the woman that God is rightly worshiped according to the privileges of the different localities … the Savior answered that anyone who would follow the Lord must lay aside all preference for particular places. He expressed himself as follows: "The hour is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain shall the true worshipers worship the Father. God is a Spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Observe how logically he has joined together the spirit and the truth. He called God a Spirit so that he might distinguish him from bodies; and he named him the truth in order to distinguish him from a shadow or an image. For they who worshiped in Jerusalem worshiped God neither in truth nor in spirit, being in subjection to the shadow or image of heavenly things. And such also was the case with those who worshiped on Mount Gerizim. Having refuted, then, as well as we could, every notion that might suggest that we were to think of God as in any degree corporeal, we go on to say that, according to strict truth, God is incomprehensible and incapable of being measured.

Since we are made alive by the spirit as far as ordinary life is concerned—and what we usually mean by the term "life" concerns when the spirit that is in us draws, what is called, in the literal sense, the breath of life37—I suppose it has been understood from this that God, who brings us to true life, is called spirit. In the scriptures, the spirit is said to make alive. It is clear that this "making alive" refers not to the ordinary life, but to the more divine life. For the letter also kills and produces death, but it is not death in the sense of separation of the soul from the body, but death in the sense of the separation of the soul from God, and from the Lord himself, and from the Holy Spirit.

In the [First] Book of Kings, the Spirit of the Lord, who came to Elijah, makes the following suggestions concerning God: "For he said, you shall go out tomorrow and stand before the Lord on the mountain. Beyond, the Lord will pass by as a great and strong wind destroying mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord. The Lord is not in the wind (but in other texts we find: "in the spirit of the Lord"). After the wind, an earthquake; the Lord is not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire; the Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a gentle breeze." Perhaps, indeed, these words reveal how many must experience the fire of the direct apprehension of the Lord.… But who could more properly tell us about whom God is than the Son? "For no one has known the Father except the Son." We too aspire to know how God is spirit as the Son reveals it, and to worship God in the spirit that gives life and not in the letter that kills. We want to honor God in truth and no longer in types, shadows and examples even as the angels do not serve God in examples and the shadow of heavenly realities but in realities that belong to the spiritual and heavenly order.

If there are many who profess to worship the Creator, there are some who are no longer in the flesh but in the spirit, because they walk in the spirit and do not fulfill the desire of the flesh. And there are others who are not in the spirit but in the flesh and wage war according to the flesh. If this is so, then one must say that those who worship the Father in spirit and not in flesh, in truth and not in types, are the true worshipers, and that those who do not so worship are not true worshipers.

(tom. xiii. c. 20) But if the Father seeks, He seeks through Jesus, Who came to seek and to save that which was lost, and to teach men what true worship was. God is a Spirit; i. e. He constitutes our real life, just as our breath (spirit) constitutes our bodily life.

And all his life is like unto theirs, and like unto them he crieth "Holy" in the spirit, and he singeth in the spirit, and he serveth God in spirit and in truth, even as it hath been said by the word of God concerning the perfect, "God is a Spirit, and those who serve Him in spirit and in truth serve Him." Behold, then, they serve in a divine manner, and they are also exalted by the degree of spiritual beings, that, in the likeness of God, they also may serve in power and in the freedom which is not made subject, and which is above laws and commandments even as is God.

Our God did not begin to be in time: He alone is without beginning, and He Himself is the beginning of all things. God is a Spirit, not pervading matter, but the Maker of material spirits, and of the forms that are in matter; He is invisible, impalpable, being Himself the Father of both sensible and invisible things. Him we know from His creation, and apprehend His invisible power by His works. I refuse to adore that workmanship which He has made for our sakes. The sun and moon were made for us: how, then, can I adore my own servants? How can I speak of stocks and stones as gods? For the Spirit that pervades matter is inferior to the more divine spirit; and this, even when assimilated to the soul, is not to be honoured equally with the perfect God. Nor even ought the ineffable God to be presented with gifts; for He who is in want of nothing is not to be misrepresented by us as though He were indigent.

Of the wind also Amos says, "He that strengtheneth the thunder , and createth the wind, and declareth His Christ unto men; " thus showing that that wind was created which was reckoned with the formation of the earth, which was wafted over the waters, balancing and refreshing and animating all things: not (as some suppose) meaning God Himself by the spirit, on the ground that "God is a Spirit," because the waters would not be able to bear up their Lord; but He speaks of that spirit of which the winds consist, as He says by Isaiah, "Because my spirit went forth from me, and I made every blast.

It is, However, more credible that the soul has service rendered to it, and has the mastery, as being more proximate in character to God. This circumstance even redounds to the glory of the flesh, inasmuch as it both contains an essence nearest to God's, and renders itself a partake of (the soul's) actual sovereignty.

In what form of God? Of course he means in some form, not in none. For who will deny that God is a body, although "God is a Spirit? " For Spirit has a bodily substance of its own kind, in its own form.

God is of an incorporeal nature and cannot be circumscribed into any one place. Rather, he is everywhere, and it is necessary that he be worshiped according to this understanding. The true worshiper is the one who honors him with the right intention and believes with a pure conscience that everywhere he can speak with the one who is incomprehensible.

Then he shows that the third type of worship is appropriate from the very nature of God, saying, God is spirit. As is said in Sirach (13:19), "Every animal loves its like"; and so God loves us insofar as we are like him. But we are not like him by our body, because he is incorporeal, but in what is spiritual in us, for God is spirit: "Be renewed in the spirit," of your mind (Eph 4:23).

In saying, God is spirit, he means that God is incorporeal: "A spirit does not have flesh and bones" (Lk 24:39); and also that he is a life-giver, because our entire life is from God, as its creative source. God is also truth: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (below 14:6). Therefore, we should worship him in spirit and in truth.

Then, "The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messias will come, who is called Christ: when He then is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak with thee am He." She called her husband; he is made the head of the woman, and Christ is made the head of the man. Now is the woman constituted in faith, and ruled, as about to live rightly. After she heard this, "I that speak with thee am He," what further could she say, when the Lord Jesus willed to manifest Himself to the woman, to whom He had said, "Believe me?"

"Jesus says to her: I am he, who speaks with you." Similarly the Lord responded to the blind man below in chapter 9, when the blind man asked who the Son of God was in whom he ought to believe; the Lord responded: "You have seen him, and it is he who speaks with you." Now that faith has been declared, the preaching and conversation are concluded, because the disciples return.

It is asked: since "the Lord made a shortened word upon the earth," whence is it that He drew out the Samaritan woman through so many words? Chrysostom responds that if He had immediately said to the woman, "I am the Christ," He would have seemed to be raving; and therefore He advanced gradually as a good teacher and gave us an example, that we should not disdain to preach to few hearers, since He Himself made so long a discourse to one old woman.

Not to untutored or wholly ignorant souls doth Christ reveal Himself, bat shines upon and appears the rather to those who are more ready to desire to learn, and travailing with the beginning of the faith in simple words, press forward to the knowledge of what is more perfect. Such an one as this was the woman of Samaria also shown to us, giving her mind more grossly than she ought to the truly Divine ideas, but not entirely removed from the desire of understanding somewhat. For first, on Christ asking for drink, she does not readily give it: but beholding Him breaking (as far as one can speak humanly) the national customs of the Jews, she begins to seek first the reason of this, all but, by her mentioning it, inviting the Lord to an explanation: How is it (says she) that THOU being a Jew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria? But when during the progress of questioning, she at length begun to confess that He was a Prophet, having received His reproof a medicine unto salvation, she added another inquiry saying with zeal for learning: Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and YE say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. But He was teaching this again, that the time shall come, yea, is already present, when the true worshippers, rejecting worship on the mountains of earth, shall offer the higher and spiritual worship to God the Father. She attributing the best of all as the due of the Christ alone, and keeping the more perfect knowledge for those times, says, We know that Messias cometh Which is called Christ; when He is come, He will tell us all things. Seest thou how ready to believe the woman was already getting, and as though ascending a staircase, springs up from little questions to a higher condition? It was right then to lay open to her with now clearer voice what she longed for, telling her that that which was preserved in good hope is at length set before her in sight, I that speak unto thee am He.

Let them therefore who have the care of teaching in the Churches commit to the new-born disciples, the word of teaching to be digested, and so at length let them show them Jesus, bringing them up from slight instruction to the more perfect knowledge of the faith. But let them who, taking hold of the alien and so proselyte, and bringing him within the inner veil, suffer him to offer the Lamb with hands yet unwashen, and crown with the dignity of the Priesthood him who is not yet instructed, prepare for a mighty account in the day of judgment. It is sufficient for me only to say this.

"And if you are a king, how is it that you are asking me for water?" It was not in this way that he first made reference about himself to her, but rather first as a Jew, and then as a prophet, and thereafter as the Messiah. Step by step he brought and placed her at the highest level. At first, she saw him as a thirsty person, then as a Jew, then a prophet, and afterwards as God. As he was thirsting, she was persuading him; as he was a Jew, she loathed him; as he was a person of learning, she made enquiry of him; in his being a prophet, she was rebuked by him; as he was the Messiah, she worshiped him.

When, thus, the very course of the conversation demanded it, the Lord already reveals Himself to her (the Samaritan woman). If He had said from the very beginning that Christ is I, He would not have convinced the woman, and might even have appeared somewhat arrogant and proud. But now, having little by little caused her to recall the promise concerning Christ, He already reveals Himself as well. Why then does He tell the woman that He is the Messiah, but does not reveal Himself to the Jews, who often asked: "Tell us, are You the Christ?" He said nothing to them because they asked not in order to learn the truth, but in order to slander Him all the more; but to her He clearly reveals Himself, because she is well-intentioned. She asked sincerely and with a desire to learn the truth. This is evident also from what follows. Having heard the revelation, she not only believed herself, but also drew others to the faith, and in everything she shows herself to be a woman of substance and of faith.

And so Jesus says: I who speak to you am he, i.e., I am the Christ: "Wisdom goes to meet those who desire her, so she may first reveal herself to them" (Wis 6:14), and below (14:21): "I will love him, and reveal myself to him."

Our Lord did not reveal himself to this woman at once because it might have seemed to her that he was speaking out of vainglory. But now, having brought her step by step to a knowledge of himself, Christ revealed himself at the appropriate time: "Words appropriately spoken are like apples of gold on beds of silver" (Prv 25:11). In contrast, when he was asked by the Pharisees whether he was the Christ, "If you are the Christ, tell us clearly" (below 10:24), he did not reveal himself to them clearly, because they did not ask to learn but to test him. But this woman is speaking in all simplicity.

(Tr. xv. c. 31) What wonder that the woman did not understand about the water? Lo, the disciples do not understand about the meat.

"But he said to them: I have food to eat which you do not know:" that food I prefer to this. The disciples did not know that food, because it was spiritual, since they themselves were carnal: 1 Corinthians 2: "The natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God." Therefore it is clear that they did not know, because they understood carnally.

"I," says the Lord, "have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." You see another kind of food which, similarly with milk, represents figuratively the will of God. Besides, also, the completion of His own passion He called catachrestically "a cup," when He alone had to drink and drain it. Thus to Christ the fulfilling of His Father's will was food; and to us infants, who drink the milk of the word of the heavens, Christ Himself is food.

That too great lust of food is not to be desired. In Isaiah: "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die. This sin shall not be remitted to you even until ye die." Also in Exodus: "And the people sate down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Paul, in the first to the Corinthians: "Meat commendeth us not to God; neither if we eat shall we abound, nor if we eat not shall we want." . And again: "When ye come together to eat, wait one for another. If any is hungry, let him eat at home, that ye may not come together for judgment." Also to the Romans: "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." In the Gospel according to John: "I have meat which ye know not of. My meat is, that I should do His will who sent me, and should finish His work."

Skilfully does the Saviour fashion His answer from what was before Him. He all but says darkly, that if they knew that the conversion of the Samaritans was at the doors, they would have persuaded Him rather to cling to that as a delicacy than to nourish the flesh. From this again we may learn how great love for man the Divine Nature hath: for It considereth the return of the lost unto salvation as both meat and treat.

"I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore" (saith the Evangelist) "said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought Him aught to eat?"

Why now wonderest thou that the woman when she heard of "water," still imagined mere water to be meant, when even the disciples are in the same case, and as yet suppose nothing spiritual, but are perplexed? though they still show their accustomed modesty and reverence toward their Master, conversing one with the other, but not daring to put any question to Him. And this they do in other places, desiring to ask Him, but not asking. What then saith Christ?

And it is not out of place to say that not only do people and angels need spiritual food, but so too does the Christ of God. For, if I may put it this way, he is always replenishing himself from the Father, who alone is without need and sufficient in himself. Now the common person who is being taught receives his foods from the disciples of Jesus who are commanded to distribute food to the crowds, and Jesus' disciples receive their food from Jesus himself.… The Son of God, however, receives his food from the Father alone, without the intervention of any other being.

(tom. xiii. c. 31) The matter of spiritual drink and living water being explained, the subject of meat follows. Jesus had asked the woman of Samaria, and she could give Him none good enough. Then came the disciples, having procured some humble food among the people of the country, and offered it Him, beseeching Him to eat. They fear perhaps lest the Word of God, deprived of His own proper nourishment, fail within them; and therefore with such as they have found, immediately propose to feed Him, that being confirmed and strengthened, He may abide with His nourishers. Souls require food as well as bodies. And as bodies require different kinds of it, and in different quantities, so is it in things which are above the body. (Heb. 5:12) Souls differ in capacity, and one needs more nourishment, another less. So too in point of quality, the same nourishment of words and thoughts does not suit all. Infants just born need the milk of the word; the grown up, solid meat. Our Lord says, I have meat to eat. For one who is over the weak who cannot behold the same things with the stronger, may always speak thusb.

But the Lord, knowing that the Samaritan woman would draw almost the entire city to Him and that the Samaritans would believe in Him, says: "I have something to eat, namely, the salvation of people, because I desire this salvation as none of you desire physical food. The food that I have to eat, you, My disciples, do not know. You are still carnal and cannot understand what I say in a veiled manner, and therefore you do not know that by food I mean the salvation of people." And in another sense: "You do not know this food, for you do not know that the Samaritans will believe in Me and be saved." Calling the salvation of people His food, the Lord teaches the disciples so that they too, when they are ordained as teachers of the universe, would not concern themselves much with bodily food, but would devote all their zeal to the salvation of people.

Our Lord, knowing that the woman of Samaria was bringing the whole town out to Him, tells His disciples, I have meat that ye know not of.

That ye know not of, i. e. know not that I call the salvation of men food; or, know not that the Samaritans are about to believe and be saved. The disciples however were in perplexity: Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought Him ought to eat?

After presenting the situation, he gives its fruit. First, it is given in figurative language. Secondly, we see the disciples are slow in understanding this. Thirdly, the Lord explains what he meant (v 34).

The fruit of his spiritual teaching is proposed under the symbols of food and nourishment, so the Lord says, I have food to eat. We should note that just as bodily nourishment is incomplete unless there is both food and drink, so also both should be found in spiritual nourishment: "The Lord fed him with the bread of life and understanding," this is the food, "and gave him a drink of the water of saving wisdom," and this is the drink (Sir 15:3). So it was appropriate for Christ to speak of food after having given drink to the Samaritan woman. And just as water is a symbol for saving wisdom, so food is a symbol of good works.

The food that Christ had to eat is the salvation of men; this was what he desired. When he says that he has food to eat, he shows how great a desire he has for our salvation. For just as we desire to eat when we are hungry, so he desires to save us: "My delight is to be with the children of men" (Prv 8:31). So he says, I have food to eat, i.e., the conversion of the nations, of which you do not know; for they had no way of knowing beforehand about this conversion of the nations.

Origen explains this in a different way, as follows. Spiritual food is like bodily food. The same amount of bodily food is not enough for everyone; some need more, others less. Again, what is good for one is harmful to another. The same thing happens in spiritual nourishment: for the same kind and amount should not be given to everyone, but adjusted to what is appropriate to the disposition and capacity of each. "Like newborn babes, desire spiritual milk" (1 Pt 2:2). Solid food is for the perfect; thus Origen says that the man who understands the loftier doctrine, and who has charge of others in spiritual matters, can teach this doctrine to those who are weaker and have less understanding. Accordingly, the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians (3:2): "Being little ones in Christ, I gave you milk, not solid food." And Jesus could say this with much more truth: I have food to eat; and "I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now" (below 16:12).

The food of a priest is the remission of sins. Therefore, the Prince of priests, Christ, says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me." What is the will of God but this: "When you turn and groan, then shall you be saved"?

But as Christ is not yet made subject [to the Father], so also is the work of God not yet perfected. For the Son of God said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work." How can anyone doubt that the subjection of the Son in me is still in the future when the work of the Father is still unfinished [in me] because I myself am not yet perfect?

(Tr. xv. c. 31) Our Lord heard His doubting disciples, and answered them as disciples, i. e. plainly and expressly, not circuitously, as He answered the women; Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.

"Jesus says to them: My food is," which indeed you do not know, "to do the will of him who sent me." The will of God is our salvation; below in chapter 6: "This is the will of my Father who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life." The Lord wished to consummate this will through the work of redemption; therefore he says: "That I may accomplish his work." The work of God is called par excellence the work of most merciful reconciliation; whence in the Psalm: "His mercies are above all his works." The work therefore of God is our conversion to God through faith; below in chapter 6: "The work of God is that you believe in him whom he has sent."

It is asked concerning the fact that the Lord calls our salvation His food, and similarly above He called our faith His drink. This does not seem properly said. For food sustains the one who is nourished, but Christ sustains us, not we Christ; therefore we are not the food of Christ. It must be said that there is a threefold property in food. The first is that it is vehemently desired; the second is that through it the one who is nourished is refreshed; the third is that food is taken into the body. By reason of the first property, Christ is our food, because we desire him, and we are his, because he himself desires our salvation. By reason of the second property, because it nourishes and restores, Christ is our food, not the reverse. By reason of the third, we are the food of Christ, because he himself draws us into his body: whence Augustine says that on the cross he consumed the thief.

Having wholly torn away the veil from His speech, He showed them in full translucence the truth, and forthwith introduces Himself as a type unto future teachers of the world, of steadfast and most exceeding excellent zeal, to wit in respect of the duty of teaching, and on this account fitly keeping thought for the needful care of the body secondary. For in saying that it was to Himself most pleasant meat, to do the Will of Him that sent Him and to finish His Work, He limns the office of the Apostolic ministry and clearly shows, what manner of men they ought to be in habit. For it was necessary (as it seems) that they should be strung to taking thought for teaching only, and it behoved them to be so far removed from the pleasure of the body, as at times not even to desire the service necessary for the mere accomplishing its preservation from death.

And let this be said for the present, as tending to the type and pattern of Apostolic polity. But if we must in addition to what has been said, apply ourselves to speak more doctrinally, He says that He was sent, clearly by God the Father, either in respect of the Incarnation, wherein He beamed on the world with Flesh, by the good Pleasure and Approbation of the Father; or as the Word proceeding in some way from the begetting Mind, and sent and fulfilling His decree, not as though taken as a minister of others' wills, but Himself being alike both the Living Word and the most evident Will of the Father, readily saving those that were lost. Therefore in saying that it is the work of Him That hath sent Him, Himself is shown as its Fulfiller: for all things are by the Father through the Son in the Spirit. For that the Son is the Word and Counsel and Will and Power of the Father is, I suppose, evident to all: but it is no trouble to prove it from the Divine Scripture also. Therefore let any one see that Ho is the Word in this, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God: let him see Counsel, in that the Psalmist says, as to God the Father, In Thy Counsel Thou guidedst me and with glory didst Thou receive me: let him see Will again in his saying, Lord in Thy Will give strength to my beauty. For He strengthened the beauty of His saints, that is, their vigour unto every virtue, He, the Living and Hypostatic Will of the Father, that is the SON. That He is Power also, thou shalt again understand hence, Command, O God (he says) Thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which Thou wroughtest for us. Thou seest clearly herein, that by the good Pleasure of God the Father, His Power, that is, the Son, was Incarnate, that He might strengthen this body, which He perfected for us. For if He had not tabernacled among us, neither would the nature of the flesh at all have put off the infirmity of corruption. The Son then being Himself the good Will of the Father, perfects His Work, being shown forth salvation to them that believe on Him.

But some one will say to this: "If the Son is Himself the Will of the Father, what will was He sent to fulfil? for the fulfilled must needs be other than the fulfiller." What therefore do we say to this? The giving of names indeed demands difference in the things signified, but often there is no difference in respect of God, and word regarding the supreme Nature rejects accuracy herein. For Its Properties are spoken of, not altogether as they are in truth, but as tongue can express, and ear of man hear. For he that seeth darkly, darkly also he speaketh. For what wilt thou do when He Who is by Nature Simple introduceth Himself to us as compound, in that He saith of them of Israel, And their children they made pass through the fire, which I commanded not, neither came it into My heart? for must not the heart needs be other than he in whom it is? and how then shall God be yet conceived of as Simple? The things therefore about God, are spoken of after the manner of men: they are so conceived of, as befits God, and the measure of our tongue will not wrong the Nature That is above all. And therefore even though the Son be found speaking of the Will of the Father, as of something other than He, you will make no difference, attributing fitly to the weakness of our words their not being able to say any thing greater, nor to signify their meaning in any other way.

And let these things bo said in proof of the Son being conceived of as also the Will of the Father; but in the passage before us, no reason will compel us to conceive that the Will of the Father means the Son, but rather we may well receive it as His good Will to the lost.

"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work."

He here calleth the salvation of men "meat," showing what an earnest desire He hath of providing for us; for as we long for food, so He that we may be saved. And hear how in all places He revealeth not all off-hand, but first throweth the hearer into perplexity, in order that having begun to seek the meaning of what has been said, and then being perplexed and in difficulty, he may when what he sought appears, receive it the more readily, and be made more attentive to listening. For wherefore said He not at once, "My meat is to do the will of My Father?" (though not even this would have been clear, yet clearer than the other.) But what saith He? "I have meat to eat that ye know not of"; for He desireth, as I said, first to make them more attentive through their uncertainty, and by dark sayings like these to accustom them to listen to His words.

It is proper food for the Son of God when he becomes a doer of the Father's will, that is, when he wills in himself what was also the Father's will, so that the will of God is in the will of the Son, and the will of the Son has become indistinguishable from the will of the Father, and there are no longer two wills but one. It is because of this one will that the Son said, "I and the Father are one." And because of this will, he who has seen him has seen the Son, and has seen also the one who sent him. … Only the Son has comprehended the complete will of God and does it.

Perhaps the Savior was sent for the following reasons. First, that he might do the will of the one who sent him, having become his worker here, too, and second, that he might perfect the work of God, so that each one who has been perfected might be made fit for solid food and be present with wisdom. "Solid food is for the perfect, the mature, who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil." … And when each of us, a work of God, has been perfected by Jesus, he will say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."

Whom, indeed, did He reveal to the woman of Samaria? Was it not "the Messias which is called Christ? " And so lie showed, of course, that He was not the Father, but the Son; and elsewhere He is expressly called "the Christ, the Son of God," and not the Father. He says, therefore," My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work; " whilst to the Jews He remarks respecting the cure of the impotent man, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

What is this work? It is the conversion of the human race. And quite appropriately, by speaking like a human being, he said that that work was more important than any corporeal food. He also said that he did the will of him who sent him because he had been entrusted with that work.

However, He, although they did not ask, explains what was said cryptically and says: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me (for the salvation of people is the will of God) and to finish His work." The prophets and the law could not finish the work of God, because, being types and shadows of future blessings, they themselves were imperfect. But the Lord finished the work of God, that is, our salvation and renewal. By the work of God, understand, perhaps, man, whom only the Son of God perfected, since He in Himself showed our nature to be sinless and, through the divine life in the flesh, perfected in every good deed, showed it to be complete and conquered the world to the end. And the law is a work of God, since it was written by the finger of God (Deut. 9:10). The Lord fulfilled this law, because Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4). He brought to an end everything that was performed under the law and elevated its service from the bodily to the spiritual. The Lord often speaks in a veiled manner in order to make His listeners more attentive, to arouse them to investigate and understand what is said in a hidden way.

He finished the work of God, i. e. man, He, the Son of God, finished it by exhibiting our nature in Himself without sin, perfect and uncorrupt. He finished also the work of God, i. e. the Law, (Rom. 10:4) (for Christ is the end of the Law,) by abolishing it, when every thing in it had been fulfilled, and changing a carnal into a spiritual worship.

Since the disciples were slow to understand the Lord's figure of speech, the Lord now explains it. First, we have its explanation; secondly, its application (v 35).

As to the first, we should note that just as Christ explained to the Samaritan woman what he had told her in figurative language about water, so he explains to his apostles what he told them in figurative language about food. But he does not do so in the same way in both cases. Since the apostles were able to understand these matters more easily, he explains to them at once and in few words; but to the Samaritan woman, since she could not understand as well, our Lord leads her to the truth with a longer explanation.

It is perfectly reasonable for Christ to say, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, to accomplish his work. For as bodily food sustains a man and brings him to perfection, the spiritual food of the soul and of the rational creature is that by which he is sustained and perfected; and this consists in being joined to his end and following a higher rule. David, understanding this, said: "For me, to adhere to God is good" (Ps 72:28). Accordingly, Christ, as man, fittingly says that his food is to do the will of God, to accomplish his work.

These two expressions can be understood as meaning the same thing, in the sense that the second is explaining the first. Or, they can be understood in different ways.

If we understand them as meaning the same, the sense is this: My food is, i.e., in this is my strength and nourishment, to do the will of him who sent me; according to, "My God, I desired to do your will, and your law is in my heart" (Ps 39:9), and, "I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (below 6:38). But because "to do the will" of another can be understood in two ways—one, by making him will it, and second, by fulfilling what I know he wills—therefore, explaining what it means to do the will of him who sent him, the Lord says, to accomplish his work, that is, that I might complete the work I know he wants: "I must do the works of him who sent me while it is day" (below 9:4).

If these two expressions are understood as different, then we should point out that Christ did two things in this world. First, he taught the truth, in inviting and calling us to the faith; and by this he fulfilled the will of the Father: "This is the will of my Father, who sent me: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life" (below 6:40). Secondly, he accomplished the truth by opening in us, by his passion, the gate of life, and by giving us the power to arrive at complete truth: "I have accomplished the work which you gave me to do" (below 17:4). Thus he is saying: My food is to do the will of him who sent me, by calling men to the faith, to accomplish his work, by leading them to what is perfect.

Another interpretation, given by Origen, is that every man who does good works should direct his intention to two things: the honor of God and the good of his neighbor: for as it is said: "The end of the commandment is love" (1 Tim 1:5), and this love embraces both God and our neighbor. And so, when we do something for God's sake, the end of the commandment is God; but when it is for our neighbor's good, the end of the commandment is our neighbor. With this in mind, Christ is saying, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, God, i.e., to direct and regulate my intention to those matters that concern the honor of God, to accomplish his work, i.e., to do things for the benefit and perfection of man.

On the other hand, since the works of God are perfect, it does not seem proper to speak of accomplishing or completing them. I answer that among lower creatures, man is the special work of God, who made him to his own image and likeness (Gn 1:26). And in the beginning God made this a perfect work, because as we read in Ecclesiastes (7:30): "God made man upright." But later, man lost this perfection by sin, and abandoned what was right. And so, this work of the Lord needed to be repaired in order to become right again; and this was accomplished by Christ, for "Just as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man, many will be made just" (Rom 5:19). Thus Christ says, to accomplish his work, i.e., to bring man back to what is perfect.

"Say ye not, that there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?" He was aglow for the work, and was arranging to send forth laborers. You count four months to the harvest; I show you another harvest, white and ready. Behold, I say unto you, "Lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are already white for the harvest." Therefore He is going to send forth the reapers. "For in this is the saying true, that one reapeth, another soweth: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not labored: others have labored, and ye are entered into their labor." What then? He sent reapers; sent He not the sowers? Whither the reapers? Where others labored already. For where labor had already been bestowed, surely there had been sowing; and what had been sown had now become ripe, and required the sickle and the threshing. Whither, then, were the reapers to be sent? Where the prophets had already preached before; for they were the sowers. For had they not been the sowers, whence had this come to the woman, "I know that Messias will come"? That woman was now ripened fruit, and the harvest fields were white, and sought the sickle. "I sent you," then. Whither? "To reap what ye have not sown: others sowed, and ye are entered into their labors." Who labored? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Read their labors; in all their labors there is a prophecy of Christ, and for that reason they were sowers. Moses, and all the other patriarchs, and all the prophets, how much they suffered in that cold season when they sowed! Therefore was the harvest now ready in Judea. Justly was the corn there said to be as it were ripe, when so many thousands of men brought the price of their goods, and, laying them at the apostles' feet, having eased their shoulders of this worldly baggage, began to follow the Lord Christ. Verily the harvest was ripe. What was made of it? Of that harvest a few grains were thrown out, and sowed the whole world; and another harvest is rising which is to be reaped in the end of the world. Of that harvest it is said, "They that sow in tears shall reap with joy." But to that harvest not apostles, but angels, shall be sent forth. "The reapers," saith He, "are the angels." That harvest, then, is growing among tares, and is awaiting to be purged in the end of the world. But that harvest to which the disciples were sent first, where the prophets labored, was already ripe. But yet, brethren, observe what was said: "may rejoice together, both he that soweth and he that reapeth." They had dissimilar labors in time, but the rejoicing they shall enjoy alike equally; they shall receive for their wages together eternal life.

But hear her preparer himself, as it were pointing her out with his finger to the watchmen, but under another figure. "Lift up your eyes," he says, "and see the fields, that they are white already," that is, prepared, "for harvest" (Jn 4:35). From this the householder invites laborers to the work, when he has now perceived that all things are so prepared that without much labor of their own they can glory and say, "we are God's co-workers" (1 Cor 3:9). For what are they going to do? Namely, seek the bride, and announce to her whom they have found concerning the beloved. For they will not seek their own glory, but the glory of the bridegroom, since they are friends of the bridegroom. And for this they will not labor much with her: she is at hand, and already with all devotion she seeks him; so greatly has her will been prepared by the Lord.

Here is touched upon the encouragement of the disciples to preach on account of the salvation of the Samaritans. And he encourages them to this both from consideration of their readiness to believe, and from consideration of the reward of preachers.

He urges them to consider the readiness of believers under a parable, saying: "Do you not say that there are yet four months, and the harvest comes?" Literally, summer was near; and indeed people say this when they see the time of reaping approaching, which they await throughout the whole year. "Behold, I say to you: Lift up your eyes," that is, your consideration, "and see the regions," that is, the multitudes of the Gentiles; "for they are white for the harvest," that is, near to faith, because they are ready to believe, if there is someone to announce it; Matthew 9: "The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest." Thus he encourages them from consideration of the readiness to believe; he also encourages them from consideration of the fruit of the reapers.

It is asked: since the evangelical law is not one of shadow or figure, but rather of open truth, why is it that the Lord speaks to His disciples in parables? It seems that He ought not to speak in this way, but openly. It must be said that to speak in figures is twofold: either such that the truth is enclosed therein and is not unfolded to the hearers — and this denotes shadow and obscurity, and this pertains to the old law, not to the new. In another way, to speak in similitudes is such that the similitude is unfolded and made manifest — and then it is not to speak in shadow, but rather in light; and in this way the Lord speaks, so that the matter obscurely proposed in figure may be clearly understood through exposition, and the human mind may be humbled, and the truth may be more ardently loved and more firmly held. For truth that is somewhat hidden becomes more pleasing when it is opened up.

Behold I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.

That is, raising up the eye of your understanding a little from the affairs of the earth, consider ye the spiritual sowing, that it hath progressed already and whitened unto the floor, and at length calls for the reaper's sickle unto itself. But from the similarity to things in actual life, you will see what is meant. For you will conceive that the spiritual sowing and multitude of spiritual ears, are they who, tilled beforehand by the voice of the Prophets, are brought to the faith that should be shown through Christ. But it is white, as being already ripe and ready to the faith, and confirmed unto piety. But the sickle of the reaper is the glittering and most sharp word of the Apostle, cutting away the hearers from the worship according to the law, transferring them to the floor, that is, to the Church of God: there they bruised and pressed by good toils shall be set forth pure wheat worthy of the garner of Him Who gathereth it.

Say not YE, There are yet four months and the harvest cometh?

He again taketh occasions of His Discourse from the time and event, and from the grosser things of sense He fashioneth His declaration of spiritual ideas. For it was yet winter at that time, and the tender sprouting and fresh stalk of the seed was scarce bristling forth from the soil: but after the expiration of four months, it was awaiting its fall into the hand of the reaper. Do not therefore YE men say (saith He) that there are yet four months, and the harvest cometh?

For which reason the Lord declared to the disciples: "Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look upon the districts (regiones), for they are white [already] to harvest. For the harvest-man receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For in this is the saying true, that one soweth and another reapeth. For I have sent you forward to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour; other men have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours." Who, then, are they that have laboured, and have helped forward the dispensations of God? It is clear that they are the patriarchs and prophets, who even prefigured our faith, and disseminated through the earth the advent of the Son of God, who and what He should be: so that posterity, possessing the fear of God, might easily accept the advent of Christ, having been instructed by the prophets.

"Say ye not, that there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look upon the fields, for they are white already to harvest."

Behold, He again by familiar words leadeth them up to the consideration of greater matters; for when He spoke of "meat," He signified nothing else than the salvation of the men who should come to Him; and again, the "field" and the "harvest" signify the very same thing, the multitude of souls prepared for the reception of the preaching; and the "eyes" of which He speaketh are those both of the mind and of the body; (for they now beheld the crowd of Samaritans advancing;) and the readiness of their will He calleth, "fields already white." For as the ears of corn, when they have become white, and are ready for reaping, so these, He saith, are prepared and fitted for salvation.

And wherefore instead of calling them "fields" and "harvest," did He not plainly say, that "the men were coming to believe and were ready to receive the Word, having been instructed by the Prophets; and now bringing forth fruit"? What mean these figures used by Him? for this He doth not here only, but through all the Gospel; and the Prophets also employ the same method, saying many things in a metaphorical manner. What then may be the cause of this? for the grace of the Spirit did not ordain it to be so without a reason, but why and wherefore? On two accounts; one, that the discourse may be more vivid, and bring what is said more clearly before our eyes. For the mind when it has laid hold on a familiar image of the matters in hand, is more aroused, and beholding them as it were in a picture, is occupied by them to a greater degree. This is one reason; the other is, that the statement may be sweetened, and that the memory of what is said may be more lasting. For assertion does not subdue and bring in an ordinary hearer so much as narration by objects, and the representation of experience.

(tom. xv. in Joan. c. 39-49) How can we consistently give an allegorical meaning to the words, Lift up your eyes, &c. and only a literal one to the words, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? The same principle of interpretation surely must be applied to the latter, that is to the former. The four months represent the four elements, i. e. our natural life; the harvest, the end of the world, when all conflict shall have ceased, and truth shall prevail. The disciples then regard the truth as incomprehensible in our natural state, and look forward to the end of the world for attaining the knowledge of it. But this idea our Lord condemns: Say not ye, there are four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes. In many places of Holy Scripture, we are commanded in the same way to raise the thoughts of our minds, which cling so obstinately to earth. A difficult task this for one who indulges his passions, and lives carnally. Such an one will not see if the fields be white to the harvest. For when are the fields white to the harvest? When the Word of God comes to light up and make fruitful the fields of Scripture. Indeed, all sensible things are as it were fields made white for the harvest, if only reason be at hand to interpret them. We lift up our eyes, and behold the whole universe overspread with the brightness of truth. And he that reapeth those harvests, has a double reward of his reaping; first, his wages; And he that reapeth receiveth wages; meaning his reward in the life to come; secondly, a certain good state of the understanding, which is the fruit of contemplation, And gathereth fruit unto life eternal. The man who thinks out the first principles of any science, is as it were the sower in that science; others taking them up, pursuing them to their results, and engrafting fresh matter upon them, strike out new discoveries, from which posterity reaps a plentiful harvest. And how much more may we perceive this in the art of arts? The seed there is the whole dispensation of the mystery, now revealed, but formerly hidden in darkness; for while men were unfit for the advent of the Word, the fields were not yet white to their eyes, i. e. the legal and prophetical Scriptures were shut up. Moses and the Prophets, who preceded the coming of Christ, were the sowers of this seed; the Apostles who came after Christ and saw His glory were the reapers. They reaped and gathered into barns the deep meaning which lay hid under the prophetic writings; and did in short what those do who succeed to a scientific system which others have discovered, and who with less trouble attain to clearer results than they who originally sowed the seed. But they that sowed and they that reaped shall rejoice together in another world, in which all sorrow and mourning shall be done away. Nay, and have they not rejoiced already? Did not Moses and Elias, the sowers, rejoice with the reapers Peter, James, and John, when they saw the glory of the Son of God at the Transfiguration? Perhaps in, one soweth and another reapeth, one and another may refer simply to those who live under the Law, and those who live under the Gospel. For these may both rejoice together, inasmuch as the same end is laid up for them by one God, through one Christ, in one Holy Spirit.

The Lord now begins to reveal more clearly to the disciples what He had previously said in a veiled manner. He says: "You say, that is, you think, that in four months the harvest will come, that is, the physical harvest; but I say to you that the spiritual harvest has already arrived." He said this about the Samaritans, who were already coming to Him. "Lift up your eyes," both intellectual and sensory, and look at the multitude of Samaritans coming here, and at their souls, disposed and ready for faith, which, like whitened fields, are in need of harvest. For just as ears of grain, when they turn white, are ready for harvest, so too are they ready for salvation. Some apply the words "look at the fields, how they are white and ready for harvest" to the elderly, on account of their gray hair and their being reaped by death.

Now ye are expecting a material harvest. But I say unto you, that a spiritual harvest is at hand: Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. He alludes to the Samaritans who are approaching.

Then when he says, Do you not have a saying: There are still four months, and it will be harvest time? he makes use of a simile. Note that when Christ asked the Samaritan woman for a drink, "Give me a drink," he made use of a simile concerning water. But here, the disciples are urging the Lord to eat, and now he makes use of a simile concerning spiritual food.

There are some persons whom God asks for a drink, as this Samaritan woman; and there are some who offer a drink to God. But no one offers food to God unless God first asks him for it: for we offer spiritual food to God when we ask him for our salvation, that is, when we ask, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt 6:10). We cannot obtain salvation of ourselves, unless we are pre-moved by "prevenient grace," according to the statement in Lamentations (5:21): "Make us come back to you, O Lord, and we will come back." The Lord himself, therefore, first asks for that which makes us ask through "prevenient grace."

In this simile, we have first, the harvest. Secondly, those who reap the harvest (v 36). He does two things concerning the first. First, he states the simile concerning the natural harvest; secondly, concerning the spiritual harvest (v 35b).

Do you not have a saying: There are still four months, and it will be harvest time? We can see from this that, as stated in Matthew (4:12), Christ left Judea and traveled through Samaria right after John was arrested, and that all this happened during the winter. So, because the harvests ripen there more according to the season, there were four months from that time till the harvest. Thus he says, Do you not have a saying, about the natural harvest, There are still four months that must pass, and it will be harvest time? i.e., the time for gathering up the harvest. So I say to you, speaking of the spiritual harvest, Lift up your eyes, look at the fields, because they are already white for the harvest.

Here we should point out that harvest time is the time when the fruit is gathered; and so whenever fruit is gathered can be regarded as a harvest time. Now fruit is gathered at two times: for both in temporal and in spiritual matters there is nothing to prevent what is fruit in relation to an earlier state from being seed in relation to something later. For example, good works are the fruit of spiritual instruction, as is faith and other such things; but these in turn are seeds of eternal life, because eternal life is acquired through them. So Sirach (24:23) says: "My blossoms," in relation to the fruit to follow, "bear the fruit of honor and riches," in relation to what preceded.

With this in mind, there is a certain gathering of a spiritual harvest; and this concerns an eternal fruit, i.e., the gathering of the faithful into eternal life, of which we read: "The harvest is the end of the world" (Mt 13:39). We are not here concerned with this harvest. Another spiritual harvest is gathered in the present; and this is understood in two ways. In the first, the gathering of the fruit is the converting of the faithful to be assembled in the Church; in the second, the gathering is the very knowing of the truth, by which a person gathers the fruit of truth into his soul. And we are concerned with these two gatherings of the harvest, depending on the different expositions.

Augustine and Chrysostom understand the gathering of the harvest in the first way, as follows. You say that it is not yet the time for the natural harvest; but this is not true of the spiritual harvest. Indeed, I say to you: Lift up your eyes, i.e., the eyes of your mind, by thinking, or even your physical eyes, look at the fields, because they are already white for the harvest: because the entire countryside was full of Samaritans coming to Christ.

The statement that the fields are already white is metaphorical: for when sown fields are white, it is a sign that they are ready for harvest. And so he only means to say by this that the people were ready for salvation and to hear the word. He says, look at the fields, because not only the Jews, but the Gentiles as well, were ready for the faith: "The harvest is great, but the workers are few" (Mt 9:37). And just as harvests are made white by the presence of the burning heat of the summer sun, so by the coming of the Sun of justice, i.e., Christ, and his preaching and power, men are made ready for salvation. Malachi (4:2) says: "The sun of justice will rise on you who fear my name." Thus it is that the time of Christ's coming is called the time of plenitude or fulness: "When the fulness of time had come, God sent his Son" (Gal 4:4).

Origen deals with the second gathering of the harvest, i.e., the gathering of truth in the soul. He says that one gathers as much of the fruit of truth in the harvest as the truths he knows. And he says that everything said here (v 35) was presented as a parable. In this interpretation, the Lord does two things. First, he mentions a false doctrine held by some. Secondly, he rejects it, I say to you.

Some thought that man could not acquire any truth about anything. This opinion gave rise to the heresy of the Academicians, who maintained that nothing can be known as certain in this life; about which we read: "I tested all things by wisdom. I said: 'I will acquire wisdom,' and it became further from me" (Ecc 7:24). Our Lord mentions this opinion when he says, Do you not have a saying: There are still four months and it will be harvest time? i.e., this whole present life, in which man serves under the four elements, must end, so that after it truth may be gathered in another life.

Our Lord rejects this opinion when he says: This is not true, I say to you: Lift up your eyes. Sacred Scripture usually uses this expression when something subtle and profound is being presented; as, "Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things" (Is 40:26). For when our eyes are not lifted away from earthly things or from the desires of the flesh, they are not fit to know spiritual fruit. For sometimes they are prevented from considering divine things because they have stooped to earthly things: "They have fixed their eyes on the earth" (Ps 16:11); sometimes they are blinded by concupiscence: "They have averted their eyes so as not to look at heaven or remember the judgments of God" (Dn 13:9).

So he says, Lift up your eyes, look at the fields, because they are already white for the harvest, i.e., they are such that the truth can be learned from them: for by the "fields" we specifically understand all those things from which truth can be acquired, especially the Scriptures: "Search the Scriptures... they bear witness to me" (below 5:39). Indeed, these fields existed in the Old Testament, but they were not white for the harvest because men were not able to pick spiritual fruit from them until Christ came, who made them white by opening their understanding: "He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45). Again, creatures are harvests from which the fruit of truth is gathered: "The invisible things of God are clearly known by the things that have been made" (Rom 1:20). Nonetheless, the Gentiles who pursued a knowledge of these things gathered the fruits of error rather than of truth from them, because as we read, "they served the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom 1:25). So the harvests were not yet white; but they were made white for the harvest when Christ came.

(Tr. xv. c. 32) He was intent now on beginning the work, and hastened to send labourers: And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

(Tr. xv. c. 32) The Apostles and Prophets had different labours, corresponding to the difference of times; but both will attain to like joy, and receive together their wages, even eternal life.

"And he who reaps receives a reward," not temporal, but eternal. Whence he says: "And gathers fruit unto eternal life," "where neither rust nor moth destroys, nor do thieves dig through nor steal," Matthew 6. Of this reward it is said in Luke 6: "Rejoice and exult, for behold, your reward is great in heaven." And this reward is common both to reapers and to sowers. Therefore he says: "That both he who sows," etc. I say rightly that he who reaps gathers fruit not for the sower only, but also for himself; "that both he who sows may rejoice together, and he who reaps;" the Psalm: "Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming, they shall come with exultation." And he gives the reason why both reapers and sowers ought to rejoice: because according to the proverb, the ones and the others are different.

It is the time (saith He) of the Word calling to the Faith, and showing to the hearers the arrival at its consummation of the legal and Prophetic preachings. For the law by typical services, as in shadows did foreshew Him That should come, that is, Christ: the Prophets after it, interpreting the words of the Spirit, Yet a little while, were fore-signifying that He was even now at hand and coming. But since He hath stepped within the doors, the word of the Apostles will not remove to far distant hope that which was expected, but will reveal it already present: and will reap from legal worship those who are yet in bondage to the law and who rest in the letter only, and will transfer them as sheaves into the Evangelic habit and polity; and will likewise cut off from polytheistic straying the worshipper of idols, and will transfer him to the knowledge of Him That is in truth God, and, to speak all in brief and succinctly; will transform them who mind things on the earth unto the life of the Angels through faith to Christ-ward.

This (saith He) the word of the reapers will effect, yet shall it not be without an hire: for it shall surely gather for them fruit which nourisheth unto life eternal: nor shall they who receive rejoice in themselves alone but as having entered into the labours of the Prophets, and having reaped the seed fore-tilled by them, shall fill up one company with them. But I suppose that the most wise Paul, having throughly learnt the types of things to come, hence says of the holy fathers and Prophets that, These all, perfected through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. For the Saviour thought good, that the reaper should rejoice together with him who before had sown.

The spiritual sowing indicates those who tilled beforehand by the voice of the prophets. The multitude of spiritual ears is those brought to the faith that is shown through Christ. But the harvest is white, in other words, already ripe for faith, and confirmed toward a godly life. But the sickle of the reaper is the glittering and sharp word of the apostle, cutting away the hearers from the worship according to the law and transferring them to the floor, that is, to the church of God. There, they are bruised and pressed by good works and shall be set forth as pure wheat worthy of the divine harvest.

"And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal."

For the fruit of an earthly harvest profiteth not to life eternal, but to this which is for a time; but the spiritual fruit to that which hath neither age nor death. Seest thou that the expressions are of sense, but the thoughts spiritual, and that by the very words themselves He divideth things earthly from heavenly? For when in discoursing of water He made this the peculiar property of the heavenly Water, that "he who drinketh it shall never thirst," so He doth here also when He saith, "that this fruit is gathered unto eternal life."

"That both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."

Who is "he that soweth"? Who "he that reapeth"? The Prophets are they that sowed but they reaped not, but the Apostles. "Yet not on this account are they deprived of the pleasure and recompense of their labors, but they rejoice and are glad with us, although they reap not with us. For harvest is not such work as sowing. I therefore have kept you for that in which the toil is less and the pleasure greater, and not for sowing because in that there is much hardship and toil. In harvest the return is large, the labor not so great; nay there is much facility." By these arguments He here desireth to prove, that "the wish of the Prophets is, that all men should come to Me." This also the Law was engaged in effecting; and for this they sowed, that they might produce this fruit. He showeth moreover that He sent them also, and that there was a very intimate connection between the New Covenant and the Old, and all this He effecteth at once by this parable.

"Herein," He saith, "is that saying true, One soweth and another reapeth."

These words the many used whenever one party had supplied toil and another had reaped the fruits; and He saith, "that the proverb is in this instance especially true, for the Prophets labored, and ye reap the fruits of their labors." He said not "the rewards," (for neither did their great labor go unrewarded,) but "the fruits." Therefore He said beforehand, "that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." For since He was about to declare, that "one hath sowed and another reapeth," lest any one should deem that the Prophets were deprived of their reward, He asserteth something strange and paradoxical, such as never chanceth in sensual things, but is peculiar to spiritual only. For in things of sense, if it chance that one sow and another reap, they do not "rejoice together," but those who sowed are sad, as having labored for others, and those who reap alone rejoice. But here it is not so, but those who reap not what they sowed rejoice alike with those who reap; whence it is clear that they too share the reward.

It is my opinion that in the case of every art and science of the more important subjects of investigation, the one who discovers the first principle is the sower. Others receive and elaborate on these principles. They then hand on to others of a later time what they have discovered … who then take this up as if it were a harvest of the full fruit of the art or science they have received that has now reached maturity. But if this is true in the case of certain arts and sciences, how much more is it evident in the case of the art of arts and the science of sciences?…Consider the possibility that those who "sow" are Moses and the prophets, since they wrote "for our admonition on whom the ends of the world have come," and proclaimed the sojourn of Christ. And consider if those who "reaped" were the apostles who received the Christ and beheld the glory which agreed with the intellectual seeds of the prophets about him. These were reaped by the elaboration and grasping of "the mystery that has been hidden from the ages, but that is manifested in these last times," and "in other generations was not known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets."38 The seed [that is being sown] in this case is the whole plan related to the revelation of the mystery that has been kept silent for eternity and now has been made known through the prophetic Scriptures and the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. At that time the true light made the fields white already for harvest by shining upon them. According to this explanation then, the fields in which the seeds had been sown are the writings of the law and prophets that were not white to those who had not received the presence of the Word. They became such, however, to those who become disciples of the Son of God—those who obey him when he says, "Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are white for harvest." As genuine disciples of Jesus, therefore, let us also lift up our eyes and see the fields that have been sown by Moses and the prophets, that we may see their whiteness and how it is possible to reap their fruit to eternal life.

Jesus calls himself a sower because he has begun to teach and preach. He calls the apostles reapers because they have taken their start from him and have thus been able to offer men and women as fruits to God. Therefore he adds … "and the reaper is already receiving wages," that is, not because the impetus and start of the work comes from me or because your labor will be without reward—which is not the case—but because you will also receive your wages according to your labor. So the benefit is held in common: it is mine because I sowed, but it is also yours because you reap. You rejoice in gathering the fruits, and I rejoice in seeing the seed grow. The truth of grace is revealed more clearly in this as well because, through the seeds sown by me, such a great power has been given to you that you will be enabled to lead many to faith because of the help you derive from me. And the fact that, empowered by me, you are able to do these things again confirms the excellence of my virtue.

The meaning of these words is as follows: the prophets sowed, but did not reap. Nevertheless, through this they were not deprived of enjoyment, but rejoice together with us, even though they do not reap together with us. In material harvests this does not happen. There, if it happens that one sows and another reaps, the one who does not reap grieves. But in spiritual harvests it is not so. Rather, even the prophets, who preached and predisposed the minds of people, rejoice together with us who have drawn people to salvation.

Next (v 36), he deals with the reapers. First, he gives their reward. Secondly, he mentions a proverb. And thirdly, he explains it, i.e., applies it (v 38).

Concerning the first, we should note that when the Lord was explaining earlier about spiritual water, he mentioned the way in which spiritual water differs from natural water: a person who drinks natural water will become thirsty again, but one who drinks spiritual water will never be thirsty again. Here, too, in explaining about the harvest, he points out the difference between a natural and a spiritual harvest. Three things are mentioned.

First, the way in which the two harvests are similar: namely, in that the person who reaps either harvest receives a wage. But the one who reaps spiritually is the one who gathers the faithful into the Church, or who gathers the fruit of truth into his soul. Each of these will receive a wage, according to: "Each one will receive his own wage according to his work" (1 Cor 3:8).

The two other points he mentions concern the ways the two harvests are unlike each other. First, the fruit gathered from a natural harvest concerns the life of the body; but the fruit gathered by one who reaps a spiritual harvest concerns eternal life. So he says, he who reaps, i.e., he who reaps spiritually, gathers fruit for eternal life, that is, the faithful, who will obtain eternal life: "Your fruit is sanctification, your end is eternal life" (Rom 6:22). Or, this fruit is the very knowing and explaining of the truth by which man acquires eternal life: "Those who explain me will have eternal life," as we read in Sirach (24:31). Secondly, the two harvests are unlike because in a natural harvest it is considered a misfortune that one should sow and another reap; hence he who sows is saddened when another reaps. But it is not this way when the seed is spiritual, for the sower can rejoice at the same time as the reaper.

According to Chrysostom and Augustine, the ones who sow spiritual seed are the fathers and prophets of the Old Testament, for "The seed is the word of God" (Lk 8:11), which Moses and the prophets sowed in the land of Judah. But the apostles were the reapers, because the former were not able to accomplish what they wanted to do, i.e., to bring men to Christ; this was done by the apostles. And so both the apostles and the prophets rejoice together, in one mansion of glory, over the conversion of the faithful: "Joy and gladness will be found there, thanksgiving and the voice of praise" (Is 51:3). This refutes the heresy of the Manicheans who condemn the fathers of the Old Testament; for as the Lord says here, they will rejoice with the apostles.

According to Origen, however, the "sowers" in any faculty of the soul are those who confer the very first principles of that faculty; but the reapers are those who proceed from these principles to further truths. And this is all the more true of the science of all the sciences. The prophets are sowers, because they handed down many things concerning divine matters; but the apostles are the reapers, because in preaching and teaching they revealed many things which the prophets did not make known: "which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles" (Eph 3:5).

(Tr. xv. c. 32) So then He sent reapers, no sowers. The reapers went where the Prophets had preached. Read the account of their labours: they all contain prophecy of Christ. And the harvest was gathered on that occasion when so many thousands brought the prices of their possessions, and laid them at the Apostles' feet; relieving their shoulders from earthly burdens, that they might follow Christ. Yea verily, and from that harvest were a few grains scattered, which filled the whole world. And now ariseth another harvest, which will be reaped at the end of the world, not by Apostles, but by Angels. The reapers, He says, are the Angels. (Mat. 13)

"In this the saying is true," namely what is customarily said: that "one is he who sows, and another who reaps;" for the Prophets sowed, but afterward the Apostles reaped, and this indeed by the Lord's beneficence and command, whose harvest it was.

It is asked about what the Lord says to his disciples: "One is he who sows, another who reaps;" whence he calls the Apostles reapers, not sowers. But to the contrary: The Word of God is the seed: therefore he who preaches sows: but the Apostles were preachers. Likewise, 2 Corinthians 9: "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly:" therefore he who sows nothing will reap nothing. Likewise, it seems that the Apostles are not reapers, but the Angels: whence Matthew 13: "The harvest is the consummation of the age, the reapers are the Angels:" therefore not the Apostles.

It must be said that these three times have an order: the time of the Mosaic law, of grace, and of glory. The time of grace is as fruit with respect to the time of the Mosaic law: the time of glory is as fruit with respect to the time of grace. Accordingly, because harvest denotes the gathering of fruit, the harvest is twofold: the first in the time of grace: and of this the reapers are the Apostles, but the sowers are the Prophets, who foretold this grace and caused the people to await it. The other is in the time of glory: and of this the reapers are the Angels, and the sowers are the Apostles with respect to some, but all with respect to themselves. And the arguments proceed along different lines, because the Lord speaks of the harvest of grace.

For although Abraham was one, he did in himself prefigure the two covenants, in which some indeed have sown, while others have reaped; for it is said, "In this is the saying true, that it is one `people' who sows, but another who shall reap; " but it is one God who bestows things suitable upon both-seed to the sower, but bread for the reaper to eat. Just as it is one that planteth, and another who watereth, but one God who giveth the increase. For the patriarchs and prophets sowed the word [concerning] Christ, but the Church reaped, that is, received the fruit. For this reason, too, do these very men (the prophets) also pray to have a dwelling-place in it, as Jeremiah says, "Who will give me in the desert the last dwelling-place? " in order that both the sower and the reaper may rejoice together in the kingdom of Christ, who is present with all those who were from the beginning approved by God, who granted them His Word to be present with them.

A true saying he calls the proverb that was in common use among the people: "One sows, and another reaps." For the prophets sowed, but did not reap; nevertheless, through this they were not deprived of enjoyment, but rejoice together with us, even though they do not reap together with us. In material harvests this does not happen. There, if it happens that one sows and another reaps, the one who does not reap grieves. But in spiritual harvests it is not so. Rather, even the prophets, who preached and predisposed the minds of people, rejoice together with us who have drawn people to salvation.

Then when he says, For here the saying is verified, we are given a proverb. As if to say: For here, i.e., in this fact, the saying is verified, i.e., the proverb in current use among the Jews is fulfilled: One man sows, another reaps. This proverb seems to have grown out of a statement in Leviticus (26:16): "You will sow your seed in vain for it will be devoured by your enemies." As a result, the Jews used this proverb when one person labored on something, but another received the pleasure from it. This then is what our Lord says: The proverb is verified here because it was the prophets who sowed and labored, while you are the ones to reap and rejoice.

Another interpretation would be this. For here the saying is verified, i.e. what I am saying to you, One man sows, another reaps, because you will reap the fruits of the labor of the prophets. Now the prophets and the apostles are different, but not in faith, for they both had faith: "But now the justice of God has been manifested outside the law; the law and the prophets bore witness to it" (Rom 3:21). They are different in their manner of life, for the prophets lived under the ceremonies of the law, from which the apostles and Christians have been freed: "When we were children, we were slaves under the elements of this world. But when the fulness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we could receive adoption as sons" (Gal 4:3). And although the apostles and prophets labor at different times, nevertheless they will rejoice equally and receive wages for eternal life, so that the sower can rejoice at the same time as the reaper. This was prefigured in the transfiguration of Christ, where all had their own glory, both the fathers of the Old Testament, that is, Moses and Elijah, and the fathers of the New Testament, that is, Peter, John and James. We see from this that the just of the New and of the Old Testaments will rejoice together in the glory to come.

"I sent you to reap that upon which you have not labored." Concerning this harvest and mission, Matthew 9: "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send laborers into his harvest." "Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors:" because you gather the fruits of their preaching: 1 Peter 1: "It was revealed" to the Prophets "that not to themselves" they were prophesying, "but to you they ministered those things which are now declared to you."

He at length unveils to them the whole mystery, and having removed the dark cloak of words, renders most clear the understanding of His meaning. For the Saviour being a Lover of the Prophets, and a Lover of the Apostles, makes neither the labour of those to be apart from the hand of the Apostles, nor does He allot entirely to the holy Apostles the glorying in respect of those who should be saved through faith in Him: but having mingled as it were the toil of each with their mutual co-work, He says (and with great reason) that one shall be the honour to both. He affirms that the Apostles had entered into the labours of the holy Prophets, not suffering them to spring upon the good fame of those who proceded them, but persuading them rather to honour them, as having gone before them in labour and time. That this will be to us too a most beautiful lesson, who will refuse to admit?

"I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labors; other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors."

By this He the more encourageth them; for when it seemed a very hard matter to go through all the world and preach the Gospel, He showeth them that it is even most easy. The very difficult work was that other, which required great labor, the putting in the seed, and introducing the uninitiated soul to the knowledge of God. But wherefore uttereth He these sayings? It is that when He sendeth them to preach they may not be confounded, as though sent on a difficult task. "For that of the Prophets," He saith, "was the more difficult, and the fact witnesseth to My word, that ye are come to what is easy; because as in harvest time the fruits are collected with ease, and in one moment the floor is filled with sheaves, which await not the revolutions of the seasons, and winter, and spring, and rain, so it is now. The facts proclaim it aloud." While He was in the midst of saying these things, the Samaritans came forth, and the fruit was at once gathered together. On this account He said, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white." Thus He spake, and the fact was clear, and the words seen true by the event.

Even though he called himself the sower of the faith, the teaching of the faith nonetheless had its beginning before his coming in the flesh. It is obvious that it had already had a beginning through the prophets and the righteous ones who followed them. He also clearly shows that this beginning had been given by him as well. "I sent you, he says, to reap and enjoy the labor of others." After they worked hard to enable the seed of faith to remain among men and women, you came, and from this crop you gather them and lead them to faith. I would have not invited you to reap and enjoy the work of others if that cultivation was not mine from the beginning. Some I entrusted with sowing, others with reaping. I did so according to time and the different phases of cultivation.

"I sent you to reap that on which you did not labor." The Lord says this so that, when He sends the disciples to preach, they would not be troubled by the fact that they are being sent to a difficult task. "The most difficult part," He says, "the prophets took upon themselves, but I am sending you to what is already prepared." See how He says everything with authority and command: "I sent you to reap." Let the disciples of the accursed Marcion hear this, and of Manes, and of those like them, who alienate the Old Testament from the New. They are refuted here as well. For if the Old Testament were foreign to the New, how would the apostles have reaped what was sown by the prophets? But if the apostles reaped what was sown in the Old Testament, then it is not foreign to the New Testament, but both are one Testament. Let the Arians also hear that Christ sends His disciples as Lord and Master. He sends them so that they might reap and cut away from earthly things the Gentiles and Jews who had become attached to them, and carry them to the threshing floor, that is, to the Church. In it, through the threshing by oxen, that is, by teachers, and through submission to them, they are ground down and, being freed from all chaff, from everything carnal and consumed by fire, are stored as pure grain in the heavenly granary, and then become food for God, who rejoices in their salvation. Thus Paul reaped, cutting us away from the earth and teaching that our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).

Then (v 38), he applies the proverb. First, he calls the apostles reapers. Secondly, he says they are laborers.

He says concerning the first: I say that it is one who reaps, because you are reapers, and another who sows, for I have sent you to reap what you have not worked for. He does not say, "I will send you," but I have sent you. He says this because he sent them twice. One time was before his passion, when he sent them to the Jews, saying: "Do not go on the roads of the Gentiles... but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:5). In this case, they were sent to reap that on which they did not work, that is, to convert the Jews, among whom the prophets worked. After the resurrection, Christ sent them to the Gentiles, saying: "Go to the whole world, and preach the good news to every creature," as we find in Mark (16:15). This time they were sent to sow for the first time; for as the Apostle says: "I have preached the good news, but not where Christ was already known, so as not to build on another's foundation. But as it is written: 'They to whom he was not proclaimed will see, and they who have not heard will understand'" (Rom 15:20). And so Christ says, I have sent you, referring to the first time they were sent. This is the way, then, the apostles are reapers, and others, the prophets, are the sowers.

Accordingly, he says, Others have done the work, by sowing the beginnings of the doctrine of Christ, and you have entered into their labors, to collect the fruit: "The fruit of good labors is glorious" (Wis 3:15). The prophets labored, I say, to bring men to Christ: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me, for he wrote of me" (below 5:46). If you do not believe his written words, how will you believe my spoken words? But the prophets did not reap the fruit; so Isaiah said with this in mind: "I have labored for nothing and without reason; in vain I have exhausted my strength" (Is 49:4).