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to her, but from the things that are apparent he makes the matter clear and irrefutable. For what does he say to her? Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. There was a comparison of persons between Jacob and Christ; but he left aside the contest concerning persons, and comes to the contest of the visible waters and the invisible gifts. For if he had said, "Yes, I am greater than Jacob," she would have immediately shunned him and fled to the city, and would have leapt away before the response, and reached the city before his word, saying: "This man is raving, he is some demoniac, frenzied, stricken with madness; being some stranger, and easily despised, he calls himself greater than our father, or rather than the one who became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, who received blessings from God, who departed poor, but returned rich because of the economy of God towards him;" but Christ condescended to the woman, and yielded to the woman's weakness so that she might be raised little by little to the height of better things. For just as the fishers of fish (for what do they do, listen with understanding) cast a hook into the sea, and when they sense that a fish has been caught, they do not immediately pull it up, but give it slack little by little, so that it may completely and without concern swallow the bait, and when they perceive that it has received the hook into the depth of its heart and in its inwards, then those who had previously condescended to it pull up the fish with more force; so also did Christ with the woman. He did not from the beginning reveal to her the beauty of his divinity, nor did he give her promises of great goods, nor did he declare himself as the one who made Jacob; but he stirred up the appetite of her soul to desire, saying to her: Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

He left the contest of persons, and then came to the abundance of gifts, or rather he shows his superiority over them from the thing itself. What then of the woman? Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty, nor come here to draw. Do you see how quickly she believed that the water given by Christ no longer causes thirst? Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty, nor come here to draw. Christ little by little stirred her up to a desire for his spiritual streams. She believed that there is a water that is drunk and does not cause thirst; that is partaken of, and that erases the handwriting 59.539 of sins. Sir, give me the water, so that I may not be thirsty, nor come here to draw. Jesus says to her: Go, call your husband, and come here. "If you have," he says, "a partner in union, let him also become a partner in faith; do not receive the gift of these spiritual graces alone." Go, call your husband, and come here. For this is why I have come, not to save Eve alone through the ever-virgin Mary and mother of God, but that I might also through myself call the man back again to paradise. Go, call your husband, and come here. Well, beloved, did Paul, the teacher of the world, also writing to the Corinthians with the same rule, say: For what do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? But for now let us take up the matters before us. Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman says to him, "I have no husband." And then the woman began to uncover her own sins; she began then to confess, and to say, "I have no husband." "For I have since been plunged into the abyss of fornication and of debauchery, and I have no husband." Jesus says to her: "You have well said, 'I have no husband;' for you have had five husbands,"

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αὐτῇ, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν φαινομένων τὸ πρᾶγμα σαφὲς καὶ ἄμαχον ποιεῖ. Τί γὰρ πρὸς αὐτήν; Πᾶς ὁ πίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδα τος τούτου, διψήσει πάλιν· ὃς δ' ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴ διψήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα· ἀλλὰ τὸ ὕδωρ, ὃ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, γενήσεται ἐν αὐτῷ πηγὴ ὕδατος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Πρόσωπον ἦν ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ· ἀλλ' ἀφῆκε τὴν πάλην τὴν περὶ τῶν προσώπων, καὶ ἔρχεται πρὸς τὴν πάλην τῶν φαινομένων ὑδάτων, καὶ τῶν μὴ φαινομένων χαρισμάτων. Εἰ γὰρ εἶπε, Ναὶ μείζων εἰμὶ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ, εὐθὺς ἐκείνη ἂν ἀποφυγοῦσα, εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἐφυγαδεύετο, καὶ ἀπεπήδα πρὸ τῆς ἀποκρίσεως, καὶ πρὸ τοῦ λόγου τὴν πόλιν κατελάμβανε, λέγουσα· Οὗτος παραπαίει, δαιμονιῶν τίς ἐστι, κορυβαντιῶν, φρε νίτιδι βέβληται· ξένος τις ὢν, καὶ εὐκαταφρόνητος, μείζονα ἑαυτὸν λέγει τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦ πατρὸς γενομένου τῶν δώδεκα φυλῶν τῶν Ἰσραὴλ, τοῦ τὰς εὐλογίας ὑποδεξαμένου παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ πτωχοῦ μὲν ἀποδημήσαντος, πλουσίου δὲ διὰ τὴν οἰκονομίαν τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ γενομένην ἐπανελθόντος· ἀλλὰ συγκατέβαινε τῇ γυναικὶ ὁ Χριστὸς, καὶ ἐνεδίδου τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ τῆς γυναικὸς πρὸς τὸ κατὰ μικρὸν εἰς τὸ ὕψος τῶν κρειττόνων αὐτὴν ἀναφέρεσθαι. Καθάπερ γὰρ οἱ τῶν ἰχθύων θηρευταὶ (τί γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι ποιοῦσιν, ἄκουε συνετῶς) βάλλουσιν ἄγκιστρον εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, καὶ ὅταν αἴσθωνται ὅτι ἰχθὺς ἐζωγρήθη, οὐκ εὐθὺς ἀνασπῶ σιν αὐτὸν, ἀλλ' ἐνδιδόασι κατὰ μικρὸν, ἵνα ἐκεῖνος τελείως καταπίῃ καὶ ἀμερίμνως τὸ δέλεαρ, καὶ ὅταν αἴσθησιν λάβωσιν, ὅτι εἰς τὸ βάθος τῆς καρδίας καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐγκάτοις ἐδέξατο τὸ ἄγκιστρον, τότε μᾶλλον μετὰ ἐπιτάσεως τὸν ἰχθὺν ἀνασπῶσιν οἱ πρότερον αὐτῷ συγ καταβεβηκότες· οὕτω καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς τῇ γυναικὶ πε ποίηκεν. Οὐκ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἀπεκάλυψεν αὐτῇ τῆς θεότητος τὸ κάλλος, οὐδὲ μεγάλων ἀγαθῶν ἐπαγγελίας αὐτῇ δέ δωκε, οὐδὲ τὸν Ἰακὼβ ὡς ποιήσας αὐτὸν ἐξήγγειλεν· ἀλλὰ τὴν ὄρεξιν τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῆς εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν διεγεί ρει, λέγων πρὸς αὐτήν· Πᾶς ὁ πίνων ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος τούτου διψήσει πάλιν· ὃς δ' ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος, οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, οὐ μὴ διψήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα· ἀλλὰ τὸ ὕδωρ, ὃ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, γενήσεται ἐν αὐτῷ πηγὴ ὕδατος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

Κατέλιπε τῶν προσώπων τὴν πάλην, καὶ λοιπὸν εἰς τὴν τῶν χα ρισμάτων ἀφθονίαν ἦλθε, μᾶλλον δὲ ὑπὲρ ἐκείνων ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ πράγματος τὴν ὑπεροχὴν δείκνυσι. Τί οὖν ἡ γυνή; Κύριε, δός μοι τοῦτο τὸ ὕδωρ, ἵνα μὴ διψῶ, μηδὲ ἔρχομαι ἐνθάδε ἀντλεῖν. Εἶδες, πῶς ἐπίστευσε ταχέως, ὅτι τὸ παρὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ διδόμενον ὕδωρ δίψαν οὐκ ἔτι ἐργάζεται; Κύριε, δός μοι τοῦτο τὸ ὕδωρ, ἵνα μὴ διψῶ, μηδὲ ἔρχωμαι ἐνθάδε ἀντλεῖν. ∆ιήγειρεν αὐτὴν κατ' ὀλίγον εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν τῶν πνευματικῶν αὐ τοῦ ὁ Χριστὸς ναμάτων. Ἐπίστευσεν, ὅτι ἔστιν ὕδωρ πινόμενον, καὶ δίψαν οὐκ ἐργαζόμενον· μεταλαμ βανόμενον, καὶ ἁμαρτημάτων ἐξαφανίζον τὸ χειρόγρα 59.539 φον. Κύριε, δός μοι τὸ ὕδωρ, ἵνα μὴ διψῶ, μηδὲ ἔρ χωμαι ἐνθάδε ἀντλεῖν. Λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ὕπαγε, φώνησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου, καὶ ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε. Εἰ κοινω νὸν, φησὶν, ἔχεις τῆς μίξεως, κοινωνὸς γενέσθω καὶ τῆς πίστεως· μὴ μόνη λάμβανε τὴν δωρεὰν τῶνδε τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρισμάτων. Ὕπαγε, φώνησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου, καὶ ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο παρεγενόμην, οὐχ ἵνα μόνην τὴν Εὔαν σώσω διὰ τῆς ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας καὶ θεοτόκου, ἀλλ' ἵνα καὶ τὸν ἄνδρα δι' ἐμοῦ εἰς τὸν παράδεισον πάλιν ἀνακαλέσωμαι. Ὕπαγε, φώ νησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου, καὶ ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε. Καλῶς, ἀγα πητοὶ, καὶ ὁ τῆς οἰκουμένης διδάσκαλος Παῦλος τῷ αὐτῷ κανόνι Κορινθίοις γράφων ἔλεγε· Τί γὰρ οἶδας, γύναι, εἰ τὸν ἄνδρα σώσεις; Τέως δὲ τῶν προκειμέ νων ἁψώμεθα. Ὕπαγε, φώνησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου, καὶ ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε. Λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ γυνὴ, Οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα. Καὶ ἤρξατο λοιπὸν ἡ γυνὴ τὰς ἑαυτῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀνακα λύπτειν· ἤρξατο λοιπὸν ἐξομολογεῖσθαι, καὶ λέγειν, Οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα. Καὶ γὰρ λοιπὸν τῷ τῆς πορνείας καὶ τῷ τῆς ἀσωτίας κατεβαπτίσθην βυθῷ, καὶ ἄνδρα οὐκ ἔχω. Λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Καλῶς εἶπας, ὅτι Ἄνδρα οὐκ ἔχω· πέντε γὰρ ἄνδρας ἔσχες,