Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham (whom Paul treats allegorically in reasoning with the Galatians15    Cf. Gal. iv. 22, &c. See Gen. xxi), being sent forth from her master’s house by the anger of Sarah—for a servant suspected in regard to her master is a hard thing for lawful wives to bear—was wandering in desolation to a desolate land with her babe Ishmael at her breast. And when she was in straits for the needs of life, and was herself nigh unto death, and her child yet more sore for the water in the skin was spent (since it was not possible that the Synagogue, she who once dwelt among the figures of the perennial Fountain, should have all that was needed to support life), an angel unexpectedly appears, and shows her a well of living water, and drawing thence, she saves Ishmael. Behold, then, a sacramental type: how from the very first it is by the means of living water that salvation comes to him that was perishing—water that was not before, but was given as a boon by an angel’s means.

Ἡ Ἄγαρ ἡ παιδίσκη τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ, ἣν καὶ Παῦλος ἀλληγορεῖ πρὸς Γαλάτας διαλεγόμενος, ἐκπεμφθεῖσα τῆς οἰκίας τοῦ κυρίου διὰ τὴν ὀργὴν τῆς Σάρρας (χαλεπὸν γὰρ ταῖς νομίμοις γυναιξὶν ὑποπτευομένη δούλη πρὸς τὸν δεσπότην) ἔρημος ἐφέρετο πρὸς ἔρημον γῆν ὑπομάζιον ἔχουσα βρέφος τὸν Ἰσμαήλ. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐν ἀπορίᾳ τῶν ἀναγκαίων γέγονεν αὐτή τε ἐγγὺς ἦλθε θανάτου καὶ πρό γε αὐτῆς τὸ παιδίον (τὸ γὰρ ὂν ἐν τῷ ἀσκῷ ὕδωρ ἐδαπανήθη, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ οἷόν τε τὴν συναγωγὴν αὐτάρκειαν ἔχειν ζωῆς τὴν τέως ἐν τοῖς τύποις διάγουσαν τῆς ἀενάου πηγῆς), ἄγγελος ἐκ τοῦ παραδόξου φαίνεται καὶ δείκνυσιν αὐτῇ φρέαρ ὕδατος ζῶντος, κἀκεῖθεν ὑδρευσαμένη σῴζει τὸν Ἰσμαήλ. ὅρα τοίνυν τύπον μυστικόν, ὅπως εὐθὺς ἐξ ἀρχῆς δι' ὕδατος ζῶντος τῷ ἀπολλυμένῳ ἡ σωτηρία οὐ πρότερον ὄντος, ἀλλὰ δι' ἀγγέλου κατὰ χάριν δοθέντος.