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(404) QUESTION 41.

What is the meaning of the five husbands of the Samaritan woman, and of the sixth who was not her husband? Response Both the Samaritan woman, and the one who had the seven brothers in marriage according to the Sadducees, and she who had an issue of blood, and she who was bent toward the ground, and the daughter of Jairus, and the Syrophoenician woman, signify both the nature of humanity in general and the soul of each individual person, with each one signifying both nature and the soul according to the underlying disposition of the passion. For example, the woman of the Sadducees is nature or the soul; she cohabited barrenly with all the divine laws given from the beginning of time, but did not accept the expectation of things to come. Likewise, the woman with the issue of blood is nature and the soul, having its power, which was given to it for the generation of works of righteousness and of reasons, flowing away through the passions toward matter. The Syrophoenician woman is that same nature and the soul of each individual, having her thought as a daughter who, out of helplessness, is grievously torn apart as if by epilepsy through her love for matter. Likewise the daughter of Jairus is nature and the soul according to the Law, having died completely through the non-practice of the legal commandments and the ineffectiveness of the divine ordinances. The woman bent over is nature or the soul, which has bent its entire intellectual power concerning action toward matter through the deceit of the devil. The Samaritan woman, just like the preceding women, signifies nature or the soul of each individual, which, apart from the prophetic gift, cohabited with all the laws given to nature as if with husbands; of whom five had passed; but the sixth, even though he was present, was not the husband of nature or of the soul, not begetting from it the righteousness that saves completely.

Nature, then, had as its first husband the law in paradise; the second, the one after paradise; the third, the one at the flood in the time of Noah; the fourth, that of circumcision in the time of Abraham; the fifth, that of the offering of Isaac. Having had all these, nature cast them off, as they had died through its own barrenness of the works of virtue. And a sixth, which did not produce the righteousness ordained by it; or because she was about to pass over to another law as husband, the Gospel; since the Law was not given to the nature of men forever, but for a dispensation that would lead as a tutor to what is greater and more mystical. And I think it is with this meaning that the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: ‘And he whom you now have is not yours’; for He knew that nature was to be transferred to the Gospel. Therefore also at about the sixth hour, when the soul is most brightly illumined from all sides by the rays of knowledge on account of the presence of the Word to it, with the shadow in the Law having departed, He conversed with her by the well of Jacob, (405) that is, by the spring of scriptural contemplations, as she stood with the Word. Let this suffice on this matter for now.

SCHOLION. 1. The well of Jacob is the Scripture; and the water is the knowledge in the Scripture;

and the bucket is the learning of the letters of the divine word, which the Lord did not have, being the Word Himself, nor giving knowledge to believers from learning and study, but bestowing upon the worthy the ever-flowing and never-ceasing wisdom from spiritual grace. For the bucket, that is, learning, taking a very small part of knowledge, leaves the whole ungrasped by any reason. But knowledge according to grace possesses whole and without study the wisdom attainable by men, gushing forth in various ways according to their needs.

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(404) ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΜΑ΄ .

Τίς ὁ λόγος τῶν ε' ἀνδρῶν τῆς Σαμαρείτιδος, καί τοῦ ἕκτου καί μή ὄντος ἀνδρός; Ἀπόκρισις Καί ἡ Σαμαρεῖτις γυνή, καί ἡ τούς ἑπτά λαβοῦσα κατά τούς Σαδδουκαίους, πρός

γάμον ἀδελφούς, καί ἡ αἱμόῤῥους, καί ἡ πρός γῆν συγκύπτουσα, καί ἡ θυγάτηρ Ἰαείρου, καί ἡ Συροφοινίκισσα, καί τήν καθόλου τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσιν, καί τήν τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ἀνθρώπου ψυχήν δηλοῦσιν, ἑκάστῃ κατά τήν ὑποκειμένην διάθεσιν τοῦ πάθους σημαίνουσα καί τήν φύσιν καί τήν ψυχήν. Οἷον, ἡ μέν τῶν Σαδδουκαίων γυνή ἐστίν ἡ φύσις ἤ ἡ ψυχή· ἡ πᾶσι μέν τοῖς ἀπό τοῦ αἰῶνος δοθεῖσι θείοις νόμοις ἀγόνως συνοικήσασα, τήν δέ τῶν μελλόντων προσδοκίαν οὐκ ἀποδεχομένη. Ἡ δέ αἱμόῤῥους ὡσαύτως ἡ φύσις ἐστί καί ἡ ψυχή, τήν δοθεῖσαν αὐτῇ πρός γένεσιν ἔργων δικαιοσύνης καί λόγων τοῖς πάθεσι πρός τήν ὕλην καί διαῤῤέουσαν ἔχουσα δύναμιν. Ἡ δέ Συροφοινίκισσα, ἡ αὐτή φύσις ἐστί καί ἡ τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ψυχή, ὡς θυγατέρα τήν διάνοιαν ἐπαχθῶς τῇ φιλίᾳ τῆς ὕλης ἐξ ἀμηχανίας ἐπιληπτικῶς διαῤῥησσομένην ἔχουσα. Ἡ δέ θυγάτηρ Ἰαείρου ὁμοίως, ἡ κατά τόν νόμον φύσις τε καί ψυχή, παντελῶς ἀποθανοῦσα τῇ ἀπραξίᾳ τῶν νομικῶν ἐντολῶν καί ἀνενεργησίᾳ τῶν θείων προσταγμάτων. Ἡ δέ συγκύπτουσα γυνή, ἐστίν φύσις ἤ ἡ ψυχή, ἡ πρός τήν ὕλην τήν περί πρᾶξιν νοεράν δύναμιν ὅλην διά τῆς ἀπάτης τοῦ διαβόλου ἐπικάμψασα. Ἡ δέ Σαμαρεῖτις, ὡσαύτως ταῖς προλαβούσαις γυναιξί, τήν φύσιν δηλοῖ ἤ τήν τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ψυχήν, δίχα τοῦ προφητικοῦ χαρίσματος, πᾶσι συνοικήσασαν καθάπερ ἀνδράσι, τοῖς δοθεῖσι τῇ φύσει νόμοις· ὧν πέντε μέν ἦσαν παρελθόντες· ὁ ἕκτος δέ, κἄν παρῆν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἦν ἀνήρ τῆς φύσεως ἤ τῆς ψυχῆς, μή γεννῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς τήν σώζουσαν εἰς τό παντελές δικαιοσύνην.

Εἶχεν οὖν πρῶτον νόμον ἡ φύσις ἄνδρα, τόν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ· δεύτερον, τόν μετά τόν παράδεισον· τρίτον, τόν ἐν τῷ κατακλυσμῷ ἐπί τοῦ Νῶε· τέταρτον, τόν τῆς περιτομῆς ἐπί τοῦ Ἀβράαμ· πέμπτον, τόν τῆς προσαγωγῆς τοῦ Ἰσαάκ. Τούτους λαβοῦσα πάντας ἡ φύσις, ἀπεβάλετο, θανόντας τῇ κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἀκαρπίᾳ τῶν ἔργων τῆς ἀρετῆς. Ἕκτον δέ, τόν μή ποιεῖν τήν κατ᾿ αὐτόν τεταγμένην δικαιοσύνην· ἤ διά τό μέλλειν πρός ἕτερον, ὡς ἄνδρα, νόμον μεταβήσεσθαι τό Εὐαγγέλιον· ὡς τοῦ νόμου μή δι᾿ αἰῶνος δοθέντος τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπ᾿ οἰκονομίᾳ παιδαγωγούσῃ πρός τό μεῖζόν τε καί μυστικώτερον· καθ᾿ ὅ σημαινόμενον οἶμαι τόν Κύριον φάναι πρός τήν Σαμαρείτιδα γυναῖκα· Καί νῦν ὅν ἔχεις, οὐκ ἔστι σός· ᾔδει γάρ εἰς τό Εὐαγγέλιον τήν φύσιν μετενεχθήσεσθαι· διό καί περί ἕκτην ὥραν, ὅτε μάλιστα πανταχόθεν ἡ ψυχή περιλάμπεται ταῖς ἀκτῖσι τῆς γνώσεως, διά τήν πρός αὐτήν τοῦ Λόγου παρουσίαν, τῆς ἐν νόμῳ σκιᾶς ἀπογενομένης αὐτῇ διελέγετο, καί περί τό φρέαρ τοῦ Ἰακώβ, (405) περί τήν πηγήν δηλαδή, σύν τῷ Λόγῳ τῶν Γραφικῶν ἱσταμένῃ θεωρημάτων. Ταῦτα καί περί τούτου τέως εἰρήσθω.

ΣΧΟΛΙΟΝ. α΄. Τό φρέαρ τοῦ Ἰακώβ, ἐστίν ἡ Γραφή· τό δέ ὕδωρ, ἐστίν ἡ ἐν τῇ Γραφῇ γνῶσις·

τό δέ ἄντλημα, ἐστί, τῶν γραμμάτων τοῦ θείου λόγου μάθησις, ἥν οὐκ εἶχεν ὁ Κύριος Αὐτολόγος ὑπάρχων, καί οὔτε ἐκ μαθήσεως καί μελέτης γνῶσιν διδούς τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, ἀλλά τήν ἐκ χάριτος πνευματικῆς ἀένναον σοφίαν, καί μηδέποτε λήγουσαν τοῖς ἀξίοις δωρούμενος. Τό γάρ ἄντλημα, τουτέστιν ἡ μάθησις, μέρος ἐλάχιστον λαμβάνουσα γνώσεως, τό πᾶν ἐᾷ μηδενί λόγῳ κρατούμενον. Ἡ δέ κατά χάριν γνῶσις, ὅλην ἔχει καί δίχα μελέτης τήν ἐφικτήν ἀνθρώποις σοφίαν, πρός τάς χρείας ποικίλως βλύζουσαν.