to come to a woman. 53 But perhaps someone might inquire into the reason why Jews do not associate with Samaritans, which it is possible to find in the third and fourth histories of the Kingdoms, but also in the second of the Chronicles. For the law having said, "Do not touch the unclean," they did not dare to touch the flesh of foreigners, believing that by this they would be defiled. But perhaps someone might say, objecting to "His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food," saying, If in the desert he fed five thousand and four thousand, along with a multitude of women and a great number of children, at one time from five, at another from seven loaves; what great thing was it to provide the disciples with food without going away into the city for its purchase, when Jesus could provide it by his own power? It must be said, therefore, to this that Jesus, having become man, if as in truth God he did all things, he would have been unknown as having become man, just as, if he did all things as a man, his divinity would have been overshadowed. Wherefore, whenever there was a need for a miracle, he fed many from little, not so much for the sake of satisfying them as for revealing his divine power. But when it was not very urgent to provide an abundance of food from no resources, the disciples went away to buy loaves. For if Jesus, doing these things for the demonstration of his

humanity and the manifestation of his divinity 〚many stumbled at the gospel, some defining that he had become man in appearance but not in truth, and others supposing him to be only a man; how much more, if nothing had been done and written with precision concerning the manifestation of his divinity and humanity, would those who did not read carefully and wisely concerning

this history have been deceived?〛 54 The Samaritan woman, for her part, was exerting the greatest possible effort to exalt and prefer the opinions of Samaria over the Jewish customs and doctrines. Therefore also, when the Savior promised to provide living water, she retorted with, "Are you greater than our father Jacob?" But the Savior, knowing how to manage all things wisely, knowing that to exalt the things of the Jews and to say "Greater" was apt to strike then and there the mind of a woman imagining for the time being nothing higher than perceptible things, this he stores away in silence, but through other words, which were no less able to establish this, but which softened her hearing, he renders her mind more suitable. For he does not himself introduce the comparison and the difference in glory, but he directs the woman to deduce the preeminence of his superiority from the things that would be said. For from this water, he says, the one who drinks "will thirst again; but whoever drinks from the water that I shall give him will never thirst." And see the wisdom of the words and the power. For he said "will thirst again," which did not need proof from elsewhere; for he had the woman as a spontaneous witness. But "will never thirst," by the greatness of the promise † he brought her in, rousing her by the promise. Through both, leading her to the consideration of a more divine conception, as if to say, "If you hold Jacob in greater honor and for a wondrous achievement, because he gave you water from which he who drinks returns again to the same thirst, what ought you to consider him who is able to provide water that does not soothe a bodily thirst for a short time, but is able to become for the one who drinks it a spring of ever-flowing water, and to provide streams of salvation, which irrigate those who draw from them and procure eternal life?" For just as water both cures thirst and cleanses the defilement on the outside of the body, so also the intellectual and heavenly streams of Jesus' teaching and the more divine conception concerning him both heal the thirst from unbelief, and cleanse the soul of the filthiness which the defilement of sins and the gloomy reasoning of impious opinions have soiled. 55 The well of Jacob is, by way of allegory, the writing of Moses

ἔρχεσθαι γυναικός. 53 Ἴσως δ' <ἂν> ἐπιζητήσειέ τις τὴν αἰτίαν δι' ἣν Ἰουδαῖοι οὐ συγχρῶνται Σαμαρείταις, ἥντινα εὑρεῖν δυνατὸν ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ καὶ τε τάρτῃ τῶν Βασιλειῶν ἱστοριῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ τῶν Παρα λειπομένων. τοῦ γὰρ νόμου εἰρηκότος· «Ἀκαθάρτου μὴ ἅψησθε» οὐδὲ τῆς σαρκὸς τῶν ἀλλογενῶν ἐτόλμων ἅψασθαι, νομίζοντες ἐκ τούτου μολύνεσθαι. ἴσως δέ τις φήσει, ἐνιστάμενος τῷ «Οἱ μαθη «ταὶ αὐτοῦ ἀπεληλύθεισαν εἰς τὴν πόλιν, ἵνα τροφὰς ἀγοράσωσι», λέγων Εἰ ἐν ἐρήμῳ πεντακισχιλίους καὶ τετρακισχιλίους μετὰ καὶ πλήθους γυναικῶν καὶ πολλοῦ ἀριθμοῦ παιδίων ἔθρεψεν, ὁτὲ μὲν ἐκ πέντε, ὁτὲ δὲ ἐξ ἑπτὰ ἄρτων· τί μέγα ἦν τὸ εὐπορῆσαι τοὺς μαθητὰς τροφῆς ἄνευ τοῦ ἀπελθεῖν ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐπὶ ἀγορασίᾳ ταύτης, τοῦ Ἰησοῦ παρασχόντος αὐτὴν τῇ ἰδίᾳ δυνάμει; λεκτέον οὖν πρὸς τοῦτο ὅτι Ἰησοῦς, ἄνθρωπος γεγονώς, εἰ ὡς ἐν ἀληθείᾳ θεὸς πάντα ἐνήργει, ἠγνοήθη <ἂν> ἄνθρωπος γεγονώς, ὡς ἄν, εἰ πάντα ὡς ἄνθρω πος ἔπραττεν, ἐπεσκιάζετο ἡ θεότης. ὅθεν εἴ ποτε χρεία παραδοξο ποιΐας ἐγίνετο, ἐξ ὀλίγου πολλοὺς ἔτρεφεν, οὐ τοσοῦτον τοῦ χορτά σαι χάριν ὅσον τοῦ φανερῶσαι τὴν θεϊκὴν δύναμιν. ὅτε δὲ οὐ πάνυ κατήπειγεν ἐξ ἀπόρων τροφῆς εὐπορίαν παρασχεῖν, ἐπὶ τὸ πρίασθαι ἄρτους ἀπήρχοντο οἱ μαθηταί. εἰ γὰρ ταῦτα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ποιοῦντος πρὸς ἔνδειξιν τῆς

ἀνθρωπότητος καὶ φανέρωσιν τῆς θεότητος 〚πολλοὶ τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ προσέκοψαν τῶν μὲν δοκήσει αὐτὸν ἄνθρω πον ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀληθείᾳ αὐτὸν γεγονέναι ὁρισάντων, τῶν δὲ μόνον ἄνθρωπον ὑπειληφότων αὐτόν· πόσῳ μᾶλλον, εἰ μηδὲν πρὸς ἀκρί βειαν πέπρακτο καὶ γέγραπτο περὶ φανερώσεως τῆς θεότητος καὶ ἀνθρωπότητος αὐτοῦ, ἔμελλον ἀπατᾶσθαι οἱ μὴ ἀκριβῶς καὶ φρονί μως ἐντυγχάνοντες τῇ περὶ

τούτων ἱστορίᾳ;〛 54 Ἡ μὲν Σαμαρεῖτις τῶν Ἰουδαϊκῶν ἐθῶν τε καὶ δογμάτων τὰ τῆς Σαμαρείτιδος δόξης ἐξαίρειν καὶ ὑπερτιθέναι τὴν ὅτι μάλιστα σπουδὴν κατεβάλλετο. διὸ καὶ τὸ «Μὴ μείζων εἶ σὺ τοῦ πατρὸς «ἡμῶν Ἰακώβ;» ὕδωρ ζῶν ὑποσχομένου τοῦ σωτῆρος παρασχεῖν ἀντεφθέγξατο. ὁ δὲ σωτὴρ οἰκονομεῖν ἅπαντα σοφῶς εἰδὼς τὸ μὲν ἐξᾶραι τὰ Ἰουδαίων καὶ τὸ «Μείζων» εἰπεῖν, αὐτόθι πλῆξαι πρό χειρον ἐπιστάμενος καὶ τότε γυναικὸς διάνοιαν, οὐδὲν τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὑψηλότερον τέως φανταζομένης, τοῦτο μὲν ἀποθησαυρίζει τῇ σιωπῇ, διὰ δὲ ῥημάτων ἑτέρων οὐδὲν μὲν ἧττον τοῦτο κατασκευάζειν δυνα μένων, λεαίνειν δὲ τὴν ἀκοήν, ἐπιτηδειοτέραν τὴν γνώμην παριστᾷ. οὐδὲ γὰρ τὴν σύγκρισιν καὶ τὴν ἐν δόξῃ διαφορὰν αὐτὸς ἐπάγει, ἀλλὰ παραπέμπει τὸ γύναιον ἐκ τῶν ῥηθησομένων τῆς ὑπερ οχῆς τὴν ὑπερβολὴν συλλογίσασθαι. καὶ γὰρ ἐκ τούτου, φησί, τοῦ ὕδατος ὁ πίνων «διψήσει πάλιν· ὃς δ' ἂν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ «ὕδατος οὗ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ οὐ μὴ διψήσῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα». καὶ ὅρα τὸ σοφὸν τῶν λόγων καὶ τὴν δύναμιν. τὸ μὲν ὅτι «∆ιψήσει πάλιν» εἶπεν οὐ δεόμενον κατασκευῆς ἀλλαχόθεν· αὐτόκλητον γὰρ εἶχε τὴν γυναῖκα μάρτυρα· τὸ δὲ «Οὐ μὴ διψήσῃ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα» τῷ μεγέθει τῆς ἐπαγγελίας † εἰσέφερεν αὐτὴν τῆς ὑποσχέσεως διανιστῶν. δι' ἀμ φοῖν δὲ πρὸς ἐπίστασιν ἄγων θειοτέρας ὑπολήψεως, μονονουχὶ λέγων «Εἰ τὸν Ἰακὼβ ἄγεις ἐν μείζονι τιμῇ καὶ θαυμασίῳ κατορθώ ματι, ἐπεὶ παρέσχεν ὑμῖν ὕδωρ ἐξ οὗ πάλιν ὁ πίνων εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν ἐπαναστρέφει δίψαν, τίνα ἄν σε λογίσασθαι χρὴ ὃς ὕδωρ παρασχεῖν ἐστὶ δυνατὸς οὐ σωματικὴν δίψαν ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ πραΰνον, ἀλλὰ δυνάμενον τῷ πιόντι πηγὴ χρηματίσαι ὕδατος ἀεννάου, καὶ παρέχειν ῥεῖθρα σωτηρίας, ἃ τοῖς ἀρυσαμένοις καταρδεύει καὶ προξενεῖ ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον;» ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ ὕδωρ θεραπεύει μὲν τὴν δίψαν κα θαίρει δὲ τὸν ἔξωθεν τοῦ σώματος μολυσμόν, οὕτω καὶ τὰ νοερὰ καὶ οὐράνια τῆς διδασκαλίας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ νάματα καὶ ἡ περὶ αὐτοῦ θειοτέρα ὑπόληψις ἰᾶται μὲν τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀπιστίας δίψαν, καθαίρει δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν τῶν ῥυπασμάτων, ἣν ἁμαρτημάτων κατερρύπωσεν μολυσ μὸς καὶ λογισμὸς ζοφώδης δυσσεβούντων δοξασμάτων. 55 Φρέαρ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ εἶναι πρὸς ἀλληγορίαν τὴν Μωσέως γραφὴν