Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1 part 6/10

And this identity is the first state.

We too, at any rate, are sometimes at variance within ourselves, saying:

'Is it perhaps this, or is it not that?'—and this belongs to one who has not understood.

He who has heard is set at rest. When one is no longer carried about into many things, but comes to know that which the one announcing declares, he is at rest, he is no longer troubled.

Indeed, that well-known philosopher calls senselessness a disturbance:

For let not the parts of the substances disturb us. 'Who knows the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a saying? The wisdom of a man will enlighten his countenance.'

Rare is he who has knowledge of the wise.

For it is possible to know scientifically who is wise.

And he who thus contemplates the wise man, who he is, also knows wisdom.

One cannot know a shipwright without perceiving the art according to which he builds ships.

And no one can establish who a painter is, unless he knows the art of painting.

It is not possible to know a wise man without having come to know the wisdom according to which he has been qualified and from which he takes his name.

Indeed, some know some, and others do not know others.

The interpretations, then, of the sayings of the wise—the discerning ones—who knows them? Rare too is he who has knowledge of these, he who is able to be intelligent, and, because he is intelligent, is able to know a parable and a dark saying, the utterance of the wise and their riddles.

The interpretations of the riddling sayings are not known by just anyone, but by him who, in accordance with the wisdom by which the sayings are uttered, is himself wise.

'The wisdom of a man will enlighten his countenance.'

This is what he means: that the wisdom of the man shows his countenance to be luminous—not the face of the body, not the member of the flesh, but the countenance of the inner man, concerning which the wise say:

'The light of Your countenance, O Lord, has been sealed upon us.' And if the light that makes wise and produces wise men and renders them enlightened is the light of Your countenance—for Your Word is Your image, the impress—then he who partakes of this light is illumined and becomes enlightened.

Thus indeed Jesus says to those who drew near to Him:

'Let your light shine before men.' And He says to all:

'You are the light of the world.' Now the apostles are not a sensible light of the world—that is, one appearing to the multitude of men—but of the true world.

Jesus did not find the sin of him who has been reconciled in Christ to God.

This countenance, then, of the inner man is illumined by wisdom.

And wisdom and light and word and truth and the other conceptions spoken concerning Christ are one and the same.

'And the shameless one shall be hated before his face.'

'Keep the mouth of a king, and be not zealous concerning the matter of an oath of God.'

The shameless man, who has no boldness of speech arising from light and wisdom—since these are absent—shall be justly hated.

And this belongs especially to the sophists, who wish to sophistically twist the truth.

For out of much shamelessness they contradict the truth.

Thus they interpret things as they do not have them by nature.

Hateful, then, is he, even if at times through his craftiness he escapes notice and is not hated—yet nonetheless he is hateful.

For hateful is he who is worthy of being hated, even if no one hates him.

Vice at any rate, if anything else is, is hateful:

pleasure holds fast many who love it.

Many are they who are bewitched;

and it is surely not the case that evil is not hateful.

'Keep the mouth of the true King,' guard His word, live according to His word, and set your mind by it.

For the 'mouth' has often been shown by us to signify the word.

Attend to the word of God, which is called His 'mouth of a king,' and so act, so think, so conduct your life.

'And be not zealous concerning the matter of an oath of God.'

Even among the outside laws such a thing is hateful.

He who is eager to swear an oath provides ground for suspicion of perjury—unless an oath be laid upon him by the ruler, there being no other testimony, and he be compelled to swear concerning the matter.

'Be not zealous'—do not of your own deliberate choice rush to swear;

do not employ the faith that cannot be demonstrated.

If assurance can be furnished, be not zealous concerning an oath.

He who swears to his neighbor and does not set it aside, who thus speaks truly so as not to break faith, is not hateful.

'From before his face you shall go; stand not in an evil matter;'

'because he will do whatever he wills, as a king exercising authority.' It can, by a transposition, be said concerning the shameless man, that 'from before his face you shall go'—get outside of the shameless one.

These things can also be referred to the devil himself and to every evil power.

For the things said concerning men as evil, as wicked, might also be said concerning the demons and the devil.

For the things said concerning men as mortal living beings are not referred either to the devil or to a demon.

And it is possible that this is said also concerning the king, from before whose face one must rightly conduct one's life:

'from before his face you shall go,' as being sent by him, in which sense we say that:

even if it should ever come about that through ignorance one speaks something evil, such as a harmful falsehood, do not stand in it, do not abide in it.

But concerning the divine sayings and words Paul writes that:

'Abide in the words of God, the blameless, the sound.'

'Because he will do whatever he wills'—will not the one shameless in countenance do what he wishes? Therefore flee from before his face.

But if the saying concerns God as king, who does whatever He wills, do not suppose that, being about to sin, you will escape Him; by swearing falsely you flee from His knowledge.

According as a king wields authority.

The king who possesses authority is hindered by no one; no one looks him in the face to oppose him, but he does everything that he wills.

Take the words, then, in both ways.

That is, either concerning the true King, God.

Even if he speaks of the shameless one, again he instils in us a fear that makes us flee from him.

But truly the king is the wise man.

The Stoics at any rate say that only the wise man is a king, and only he a priest.

For if he is a king who rules according to law, and only the wise man understands this, then he alone is a king.

Thus, for instance, it was said to Abraham, who in outward fortune was a private man, by those of discerning sight: 'You are a king from God among us.' Though from others men become such by other means, yet from God you are.

For God is the King of those who reign.

But if the word is also about the shameless person, he too, like a king, exercises authority over those who fall under his domain.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Death, which reigned from Adam until Moses, exercises authority over those under its power and dominion.

What will you do? He who keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing.

And concerning God it is true to say that no one says to Him:

'What will you do?' And so also concerning the shameless and insolent king.

And perhaps this shameless one is able to bear the character of the Antichrist.

For there too, in the prophecy about him concerning Elijah, a certain maiden, rising up, thus reproved him, calling him shameless.

He who keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing.

He who knows the good straightway knows also the evil.

But 'to know' here does not signify to make use of, but only to be aware.

For if a commandment is given that we may turn away from evil and do good, we must also know the evil, in order that we may turn away from it and choose the good.

Concerning such matters the Apostle writes, saying:

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good;

abstain from every form of evil. You see how he who proves all things knows the good, that it is to be chosen and to be guarded, and the evil, that it is to be shunned;

it is fitting to become estranged from it.

If, then, he who knows the good knows also the evil and conversely, how does he say here that the one who keeps the commandment does not know an evil thing? And yet the commandment is a good word.

But he who knows the good word knows also the evil word;

yet he says that the one who keeps the commandment does not know an evil thing—that is, not that he does not understand it, but that he does not make use of it, that he does not know it in the way that:

even Jesus knew not sin. In this way the keeper of the commandment does not know an evil thing.

But let 'not to know a thing' be either disobedience or the not hearing the word as one ought to hear it.

He who hears the word as he ought has come to know it, and has experience of it.

But he who keeps the commandment, since he has no experience of what is contrary to the commandment, shall not know the evil thing.

Now 'word' is often used in place of the thing itself.

Thus Mary, having heard the word of the angel, says:

Be it unto me according to your word. So shall it come to pass for me, as your word declares.

For there is also a word in the soul:

the thought that is apart from being true or false, and at other times that which must already possess one of the two, either being true or being false.

See how a thought is called a word, since it falls under the definition of it as knowledge;

since therefore there are also such thoughts, we shall call them words.

This, then, the divine Apostle, knowing, says that he heard unspeakable words. And it seems to be a contradiction, unless we take 'spoken' and 'unspeakable' according to different meanings.

They are unspeakable, inasmuch as they are conversed with in the mind alone, and God instils them into the understanding.

And they possess the true and the false, so that in this respect too they are words.

They are unspeakable in that they are not uttered by means of syllables, being such as cannot be written or engraved.

But by reason of their not being brought forth through syllables, they are unspeakable.

But if each of the things I speak is speakable—for I bring it forth by articulate voice—yet the thought, which the voice does not convey, is an unspeakable word.

For it possesses either the true or the false.

They are unspeakable in that they cannot be brought forth by syllables and articulate expressions, but in that they possess the true or false, they are words.

And the heart of the wise knows a time of judgment;

for to everything there is a time and judgment, because the knowledge of the wise man is much upon him.

The mind and heart of the wise man knows the time of judgment—not only that which is spoken of in Scripture.

The divine words call 'a time of judgment' that time in which all men stand before the judgment-seat of God.

And this time He calls a day of judgment. But here the wise man knows every time and the judgment of every matter.

He applies himself to matters with discernment, and utters his words with discernment.

For he knows when he must give an answer and when not, and when to hold back his word and when to let it loose against his hearers.

He understands, then, the judgment of this occasion, so that you may take 'time' not as some fixed span, such as daytime or nighttime, but as the fitting occasion for saying such-and-such things to one who has such-and-such a disposition.

The heart of the wise man, then, knows the time of judgment, knows the discernment according to which he must make use of the occasions.

For to everything there is a time and judgment.

Every matter clearly has its time and judgment.

He, therefore, who is able so to handle matters as to speak of them opportunely and with discernment, this man is wise and does the work of a wise man.

Because the knowledge of the man is much upon him.

Now we take 'the knowledge of a man' in two ways: either that which he knows or that by which he is known.

For instance, the wise who are knowers of themselves possess both aspects of the account, both that of the knower and that of the known.

If they are knowers of themselves and no others know them, they are themselves both the knowers and the known.

Much, then, is the knowledge of the man that is upon him, both that which he himself knows and that by which he himself is known.

Indeed, at any rate, men have set in motion countless discussions about that maxim which says, 'Know yourself.'

The utterance is one, it is brief, but the meaning is manifold.

He who has come to know himself knows that he is a created being, and knows that he has a natural fitness for the taking up of virtue.

He knows that in himself the soul rules and the body is ruled, and again that in the soul the rational faculty rules, while the appetitive and spirited part is ruled.

But if these things come about in reverse, it is the worst of evils.

That soul, if it be ruled by the body and yet rules the body, brings ruin upon that man.

And if the rational faculty be governed by anger or by desire, this rule is contrary to law.

The wise man, therefore, must know and understand himself, that the knowledge concerning him is great, and likewise that which he ought to know concerning himself.

For if he knows that the knowledge concerning him is great — since indeed he must come to know himself — then, having learned no little, he will not cease, supposing that he has already been made perfect.

And even should he receive all the understanding and knowledge that can here be attained, he knows that he knows in part and will not cease, as some already have, but still labours to take up yet further knowledge, even should he come to know all things visible.

And, as Solomon says, though he should receive an unerring knowledge of all things that are, lifting his mind up to the things invisible, he knows that his knowledge lies in many matters.

For he has apprehension of sensible things alone.

But as for the things beyond those and far surpassing them, he will never cease from knowing, until he attain to that end which is to know God as He is.

He who bends his attention upon himself is at once the known and knowledge, the knowable and the science.

And I have said these things in a general way, because often the soul, when it is a plant under cultivation, itself holds the principles of both.

It cultivates itself; it cultivates nothing other.

It does not cultivate the things outside itself, as one who tills the sensible plants.

Such a one does not take care of himself, but is a craftsman of plants.

For he is not one who knows what shall be, since who shall declare to him how it will be? On this account the knowledge concerning man is great. No one knows by sense-perception the thing that is to be.

Sense-perception has apprehension of things present.

But the things to come do not yet have subsistence.

There is, then, no sense-apprehension of things that have no subsistence, but only a cognitive contemplation.

It is scientific knowledge that contemplates what is to be.

So then, straightway, granting that some understand the things that come to pass by fate, they yet do not know the things that shall be.

For unless he take up again the sequence — that such a star has come to be with respect to such a zodiacal sign — he knows again the things that are, not the things that are to be.

And if ever, then, they speak by way of prognostication concerning an eclipse of the sun or moon, they again take it that, if this be traversed and such a configuration of the stars come about, this result is brought to pass.

Again it is from things that are that they take their contemplation, from the fact that it has often come to pass thus.

For 'how it shall be, who shall declare to him?' Some have made careful observation concerning the difference between what is about to be and what shall be.

That is called 'about to be' which is capable of coming into existence in a perceptible manner, while they say 'shall be' of those things which are, as it were, certain intelligible realities and hold their sequence within contemplation.

'Behold, I am with you all the days, unto the consummation of this age.' He did not say, 'I fall short of this.'

For 'it is' is one thing, and 'it shall be' another.

That which comes about in accord with the truth of nature is said to be 'that which shall be,' but 'that which is about to be' is that which is not perceptibly present, yet is capable of coming into existence.

Is not thunder wont to come to be at any moment? I do not say of it that 'it shall be,' but that 'the imminent is about to be.'

But that which shall be is joined to that which has preceded it, if it have a cause and a ground.

With respect to that which is caused, I do not say 'it is about to be,' but 'it shall be.'

For when the cause is present, with which the existence of that thing is bound up, that thing shall assuredly be.

The things, then, that shall be in this way, no one was any longer able to know, unless God be made manifest, unless the truth set the mind upon knowledge.

'Behold, I shall be with you' — I am not merely about to be.

For even from this present moment I am among you; from this present moment I am with you and shall be throughout all the days of the age.

And that I may speak more plainly: men make use both of knowledge and of sense-perception.

When the sensible things are not present, the apprehension of them is about to be.

Nor does he apprehend from this present moment, when he does not perceive that which is not present, but that which already has subsistence.

But when he possesses a scientific contemplation, he applies himself also to each demonstrative problem.

Already having the knowledge, he holds it also as one that shall abide.

For it does not fly away, as sense-apprehension does.

And there is a certain line of argument here attempted, sophistical rather than dialectical: that the sun is above the earth, and such a motion of it is then apparent, when it is day, when the underlying air is illumined by it.

'But when it sets,' he says, 'we do not know whether it is or is not.'

'For even if we suppose it' — 'but when it sets,' he says, 'we do not know whether it is or is not.'

'For even if we lay it down that it is, we hold this by some supposition.'

'But if it does not appear, we do not know whether it subsists or does not subsist.'

But I have said that this attempted argument is sophistical.

They interpret matters in the light of definitions.

Some defined the sun to be a star appearing by day.

And as its differentia they took 'appearing by day.'

But the differentiae must always belong to the things defined.

If, then, it was taken as a differentia of the sun that it is a star appearing by day, should it not be day, it does not have the differentia contained in the definition.

Whence it is uncertain whether it is or is not.

But taking it up beforehand I have said that it is a sophism.

It is neither a scientific theorem nor a dialectical problem.

'The spirit that governs all things.'

According to the ready and literal sense, 'there is no man who has authority over the spirit,' so that you should take the motion of the air as 'spirit,' that is, the wind.

For does he have authority over the many things, in that he does not will there to be wind?

And he cannot bring it on, nor can he hinder it when it would harm one who loves it.

Those who sail have no authority, even should they be the most excellent pilots, to bring a breath of wind parallel to those who sail, nor to still it when it is most violent and harmful.

According to the ready sense, then, it is to be taken thus.

But since often the soul of man is called 'spirit,' there is no one who has authority so as to make the soul remain, or to release it from the living being.

'Send forth your bread upon the face of the water, for in the multitude of the days you shall find it.'

'Give a portion to the seven, and even to the eight.'

This saying has nothing pertaining to the literal sense.

For what profit is there, on the level of history, in sending forth upon the face of the water the bread which one has? Rather it renders it useless.

One must, then, take this saying with reference to the deeper meaning and the anagogical sense alone.

In many places of the divine instructions the multitude of men is addressed by this name.

'Deliver me,' he says, 'out of many waters, from the hand of the sons of strangers.'

By 'many waters' he has meant the sons estranged from the fear of God.

And again, there are many other Scriptures that teach this.

It is said, at any rate, that God gives upon the water the...

...and these are not found to be taken in a literal-historical sense.

The water can also signify the multitude of human beings.

One must send forth upon the face of such water the bread of salvation which nourishes the soul.

This is what he means...

...that it is water; but send it forth, do not spare the bread.

For the water will make it rot...

Again, this could be spoken with a view to yet another spiritual interpretation.

This bread is not the sensible one, but that of which it is said that 'the bread of life has come down from heaven.'

One must take up this bread after the purification of the soul, as it is said: 'If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord will bestow her upon you.'

First you receive the purification—cleanse your soul, make your soul radiant—and thus take the bread upon the water; the word 'upon' indicates 'after.'

And he says: know that in the multitude of your days you will find this bread.

It is not only for the present life that it works and nourishes, but also in a multitude of days.

It is also possible to understand it thus: that in proportion as many illuminations come from the Sun of righteousness, you have a multitude of days, according to the saying, 'With length of days will I satisfy him, and you shall be full of days.'

You will find the bread in the multitude of the days.

Still more and more, the more you are illumined, you find the bread of truth, the bread of life, so that the seed of righteousness was the water, and after the sowing of righteousness—upon it—you may sow the harvest and the knowledge of the true light.

Will the praiseworthy bread work upon blameworthy water?—We do not say upon blameworthy water; but just as we say that the one walking in ignorance and darkness comes to the light, and we do not say that they draw near to the light while remaining in ignorance and want of knowledge.

The conjunction dissolves also the preceding statements.

So then, likewise the saying 'Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden'—not that you should remain heavy laden, for 'I will give you rest.'

The one who commits sin with pleasure is not weighed down by it, though it is most heavy; he is not burdened, he does not think he is undergoing any evil.

But when he perceives what a weight and burden sin has, then he is burdened and labours and draws near to the one who gives rest.

Such also is what is said in Isaiah: 'Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians'—taken in common, evidently, either 'merchandise' or 'merchants'—'and the Sabaeans, men of high stature'—and they too have laboured.

And immediately he says that 'they will come over to you,' when—

When they have come, then they will bow down before you...

It is impossible to approach the light...

...and to virtue, for the one who remains in ignorance and vice.

For as long as he takes delight and pleasure, he does not draw near.

'Give a portion to the seven, and also to the eight.'

You see that the sequel of the following verse does not permit us to take 'send forth your bread' in a merely literal sense.

He gives a portion to the seven who admits the Old Scripture, that which was before the coming of the Saviour.

And it is called 'seven' because of the Sabbath observance.

He gives a portion to the eight who receives the resurrection of the Saviour.

For this occurred after the Sabbath.

The Jews, giving to the seven, have not given to the eight, and therefore they were not saved.

Those of the heresies, on the other hand, refuse the Law and the Old Scripture.

Because they do not give a portion to the seven, they have fallen away from the mark.

And to speak more precisely, the Jew who does not give a portion to the eight does not really give to the seven either, nor does the one from the Gentiles give to the eight if he does not give a portion to the seven, who proclaimed in advance the Ogdoad.

And just as if we should say that it is possible to have a well-ordered character without divine knowledge, and to seem to have divine knowledge without a practical life, we also say that a practical life without knowledge, and a contemplative life without practice—on the whole neither this one nor that one is of benefit.

For that one, being deprived of its yoke-fellow, is weaker and useless.

The one who is minded solely in accordance with the Church—he gives a portion both to the seven and to the eight.

In different words, there is a passage in Micah having this same meaning.

For there too he says: 'And this shall be peace, when Assyria comes upon your land and when he runs upon your borders; and there shall be raised up against him seven shepherds and eight bites of men, and they shall shepherd Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nebron with its trench.'

Some have examined a portion of this passage, asking how there comes to be peace when Assyria comes upon the land of our soul and when he steps upon its borders; for then he works turmoil.

And they said this: that as long as this one is far off...

...—and it is an evil power...

...the devil himself—he is worsted by you.

But when he draws near and approaches and finds strong men, then he is brought to nothing.

Something similar I said also a little earlier concerning what is in Isaiah, which was mentioned.

'Before the child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in the presence of the king of Assyria.'

It would be no great thing if he had taken the power of Damascus, that is, the nations, and having taken the spoils of Samaria should hand them over, if the Assyrian were absent.

It is as when someone seizes a country while the ruling king is absent and takes it: it is no great thing, nor is the peace secure.

For when that one comes, he will avenge what was taken in his absence.

But when in the presence of the one who shields it something is taken from him, then they are strong and have the deepest peace, those who take away what belongs to that one.

This, then, is what he says: that this is the peace that is truly peace.

This is peace: when the Assyrian, having come upon your land, is defeated; when he is at a loss, able to plunder nothing from the land because of his own weakness.

'And there shall be raised up against him,' he says, 'seven shepherds'—the saints before the coming, as I said, whom he named 'seven' because of the Sabbath—'and eight bites of men,' those who believed after the coming.

These bite him and cause him pain.

For the word in Scripture signifies this.

'But if you bite and devour one another...'

And in Habakkuk again, concerning this same evil one, it is said: 'Suddenly there shall rise up those who bite him.'

Beyond expectation, those from the nations who were once under him shall rise up, causing him pain, biting him.

So then he says that the saints before the coming shall be raised up against the Assyrian, seven shepherds—so that you may take all the prophets before the coming, these very patriarchs, as these shepherds—not fixing upon the number seven as divided into five and two, but upon the mystical meaning of the Hebdomad.

Having obtained the Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God, having found rest of soul through Jesus—for 'you shall find rest for your souls'—these are in the true Sabbath and are named after it by means of the 'seven.'

The 'eight bites of men' are said to be those who, after the coming of the Saviour, drew near to the Gospel and wear down and bite the enemy.

And the pain of the enemy, which he had when the Gospel called all men, the word signifies in various ways: sometimes his crushing—'the God of peace shall crush Satan'—; sometimes his pain—the being bitten—; sometimes the loosing of the harm he does—'for I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.'

The word 'hurt' here signifies 'harm.'

'...for you do not know what evil there shall be upon the earth.'

'If the clouds be full of rain, they pour it out upon the earth.'

Since you are ignorant of the evil upon the earth—whether that which is done contrary to the good, or that which the evil one, having taken over human affairs, has wrought as pain—for this reason do what I command you:

'Give a portion to the seven and to the eight.'

For from these two very writings you shall know both the evil thing being done and the evil that is to come upon those who work wickedness.

For this reason: 'Give a portion to the seven, and also to the eight.'

You, then, who give to the seven? — He cannot know otherwise.

Read the Scripture, for you do not know what must be done and what must not.

Therefore, know what things are, what must be done and what must not.

Like to this also is the saying, 'Prove all things.'

But why do you prove them? That you may hold fast to the good and abstain from every form of evil.

'If the clouds be full of rain, they pour it out upon the earth.'

And with respect to the literal sense it is true.

When affairs are well, when those who are ministered to by Providence are in a good state, then it is that the clouds, being filled, pour out upon the earth.