Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1 part 7/10

The water, if it flow into the open sea — surely it is of no use for sowing.

Even if in some other way all things brought about by Providence are useful, nevertheless it profits the earth nothing if it flow into the Adriatic or into the open sea.

So much as regards the literal sense; but this now with respect to the deeper meaning.

The clouds being filled with rain are the souls that minister to the word of salvation.

Being one cloud, Moses said:

'Let my speech be looked for as the rain.'

And concerning all who water the spiritual vineyard, the house of Israel, a command is given — when instead of grapes it has borne thorns — not to rain upon it.

And again in Isaiah himself it is said:

'Let the clouds drop down righteousness, let the earth bring forth mercy.'

The springing up of mercy comes not from the perceptible earth, but from that which is called the good and fair earth of a noble heart, where the seed of Jesus, having fallen, bore fruit.

But when are these clouds filled with rain — that is, with the word — save when the word of the Lord comes to them, so that each one says:

'Thus says the Lord to me'?

And then the clouds are filled with rain, when they pour it out upon the earth.

If anyone be not filled with the word, he cannot rain;

but neither can he give another to drink.

Such are the false teachers, who understand nothing yet suppose that they possess all things.

And upon the earth — that is, either humanity or the heart of each one, made ready for reception.

'If a tree fall to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there shall it remain.'

It is plain that this is spoken allegorically and with a view to a higher sense.

For who does not know that, whenever one cuts down trees, the tree remains where it falls? Yet even this is not true according to the plain history:

it does not remain where it falls, but is carried off for some use.

'Tree,' then, here means the man.

And it says that, wherever a man is overtaken, there he is found and there he is judged, so that it may be like this: that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive according to what he has done through the body.

And if good, it falls to the south;

but if evil, to the north.

In many ways is the south distinguished from the north — both locally, and also with respect to the higher meaning.

The bride in the Song of Songs says:

'Awake, O north wind, and come, O south.'

She sends the wicked power away from herself.

For in her the wicked power once dwelt.

When evil was at work — the evil that was before faith, before the calling — she had the north wind making its dwelling in her.

But when she turned aside from evil and came to the doing of good, she calls upon the south:

'Blow through my garden, and let my spices flow' — the north wind not doing this.

And she uses the names quite in accord with nature;

for she called the north a cold wind.

And the cold closes up the pores of trees — the so-called invisible seeds — so that the parts are held fast within.

But if the warm south blow through the garden of the soul that says these things — the garden being that which is according to the soul — the pores are opened wide; that is, the thoughts, since the spices are the fragrant conceptions.

This, then, is what it says: that where the tree falls, there it remains.

If, when the soul is breathed upon by the south, the spices flow, it falls into the place where the fragrant things are.

Is there, then, no longer any change? — But for the present it speaks of the fall that happens immediately, as when I say that all the nations shall be set before the King, the Saviour who comes, so that he may separate the goats from the sheep;

and he shall set the sheep on the right hand, but the goats on the left.

But was it that, where the goat fell on the left, and the sheep on the right, there it remained? — Not so; for if the goats hear, 'Depart into the everlasting fire,' it does not say that they will remain there forever, nor that those called into the kingdom will remain there forever and will not advance also into greater and loftier and supramundane places, so as to attain to that glory which the Saviour had before the world.

And this too it means, that where it falls, there it remains, as when he who declares this says:

'If a man be earnest, he shall remain in virtue; if base, in vice.'

This is not stated as a thing in doubt, but as showing what follows of necessity;

though even if he had spoken it as doubtful, it would be on account of the mutability of the will.

Is the 'tree' set forth in another Scripture also? — He who is called blessed for not having walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the pestilent, shall be, it says, like the tree planted by the streams of waters.

Then a little after it adds:

'And whatsoever he does shall prosper,' showing that it speaks concerning a man;

for it does not belong to a plant to act and to prosper.

'Not so the ungodly, not so' — like the tree.

And again in Jeremiah it is said:

'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord;

the Lord shall be his hope;

and he shall be as a tree flourishing by the waters.'

And it calls it blessed by the Lord.

And again in the Psalms you have:

'Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the face of the Lord.'

'He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap,' among whom there is none who knows what is the way of the spirit.

And with respect to the literal sense it is true, for since the violent wind scatters abroad the seed that is being sown, and it does not fall into the furrows of the earth where it ought.

But in an anagogical sense the 'wind' is often taken to signify an unstable thing;

for it is said that they are 'carried about by every wind.'

If you keep watch for this wind, you will not sow; rather, sow when it has died down, when there is clear sky and a great calm.

And likewise there: you cannot sow in tears, that you may reap in joy; you cannot sow unto righteousness.

But it is also possible for 'to keep' (tērein) to be taken in the sense of 'to observe closely' (paratērein).

For this word is used in both senses: sometimes for 'guarding,' and sometimes for 'watchful observation.'

As when it says that 'the sinner watches the righteous man and seeks to put him to death'; he keeps watch as an archer might watch to see which limb of his opponent drawn up against him is exposed, that he may send his arrow there.

But when it says 'you shall keep us,' this stands in the sense of 'you shall preserve us.'

So too the serpent watches the heel of man, to see whether it is outside the sandal.

He who has his feet shod in the readiness of the gospel is not struck on the heel by the serpent.

Thus indeed it is said to someone by way of blessing:

'Iron and bronze shall be your sandal.'

But you know that iron and bronze, when taken for sandals, are no blessing;

for the sandal draws the one shod in it into its own shape, and a wound arises about the foot.

Therefore he who has received authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy shows himself invulnerable.

By these materials the unconquerable and the invulnerable are often signified.

'And he that looks upon the clouds shall not reap.'

When one looks upon the clouds, he sees rain impending, and he does not reap.

For if [you reap] with rain impending, the rain, coming down, damages what is being reaped by soaking it, and it readily comes to rot.

This, then, is what he commands:

Do you also perform each thing in its fitting and proper season.

And by means of these two expressions he transfers them to all things.

For instance, let the one being introduced into godliness sow from divine knowledge when it is time, that is, receiving those lessons which it was fitting for the newcomer to receive;

and let him not reap at once, but when he sees rain impending that is able to water it, then let him reap.

For in such matters both are taken together at once.

The earnest man begins and reaches his end ever in the act of advancing.

The advances that went before reach their end, while those that follow after take their beginnings.

Something of this sort the Saviour also says in the Gospel concerning the spirit of those who reap and those who sow:

'that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.'

Now this is not profitable in the case of sensible things—to sow and reap at the same season.

But the things of virtue, even while being reaped, grow, and while growing they come to be reaped.

For I said that from some it departs, while to others it comes on.

Indeed it is said, 'when a man has finished, then he begins';

and in the manner in which he begins, he also finishes at the same time.

The beginning signifies the sowing, and the end the harvest.

He rejoices in sowing and reaping at the same time.

It is also possible to take it thus:

When his seed is brought to maturity, he does not have the reaper.

The reaper, when he has nothing to sow, has nothing that he may reap.

Therefore these things can subsist together at once by the blessing and grace of God.

'Among those in whom there is no one knowing what is the way of the spirit.'

This he means: that among those in whom there is no one knowing the way of the spirit, these commandments are of use.

But I said that the earnest man—yes, the earnest and indeed perfect man—who ever passes from advances to further advances, does both;

for that man knows the way of the spirit.

Thus, then, is the one who knows the way of the spirit:

let him watch: if there is wind, let him not sow; and when rain is impending, let him also not reap.

'As the bones in the womb of her that is with child, so you shall not know the works of God.'

This signifies either the incomprehensibility of these works or their difficulty of comprehension.

Those who have busied themselves with the nature of animals have described, for each member, a certain way and sequence of its formation and change;

but concerning bone they had nothing to say.

They say that blood is constituted in this way:

when the nourishment that has been taken in has been digested—when, through its being conveyed onward, phlegm has been produced—the nourishment changes into blood;

but what is undigested must be cast out; it is not resolved into the constitution of the one who has eaten, but is discarded as a superfluity.

But when it has been digested, then, by a change occurring in due order, it is resolved into blood.

Then from the blood, they say, when it has been thickened and congealed, flesh comes to be; and from the superfluities of the nourishment come hair, nails, and such things, which are as it were superfluities.

But concerning the origin of bone, not one of them found it out, so that this should be 'as your judgments are a great deep.'

Of such a kind also is that which is said in one of the psalms:

'My bone was not hidden from you, which you made in secret.'

And the phrase 'which you made in secret' means this: that its origin is hidden;

yet this was not hidden from you.

Now take this further in an anagogical sense.

She who has conceived by a man, having received his seed, is with child.

The seed, cast down into the womb, receives its first change into 'nature' (physis).

For 'nature' is nothing other than seed thickened, being near to changing into flesh.

After 'nature,' the change leads on to the embryo, the embryo to the living creature, after which the delivery immediately takes place.

As, then, the things in the womb of her that is with child are not known, unless a revelation from God should chance to come to pass, so the soul that has received the seeds and the offspring of the bridegroom, the Saviour—concerning whom it is said, 'He that has the bride is the bridegroom'—holds these offspring hidden.

But they become manifest at that time when the offspring which God has sown change into thoughts and works.

Therefore one ought not to keep them ever in the womb.

But she keeps them in the womb and carries them within who does not change the words and the conceptions of works into works and doctrinal contemplations.

As, then, you do not know those things unless they change into good works and pious contemplations, so neither will you know the other works of God, unless they change into works that are according to actual operation.

so that, by way of anagogical interpretation, you may understand by the bones of the woman with child the strong doctrines;

for the bones are what hold together the whole body;

in the same way, apart from the doctrines of true religion, the passions and pursuits of a man cannot be rightly ordered.

For this reason it is said concerning these bones that they both have knowledge of God and know that none is like unto Him.

He did not, then, say this absolutely, but only insofar as it is in the womb of the woman with child;

just as when I say that in the night none of the visible things is seen, I do not mean that nothing at all is seen, but that nothing is seen while it is night;

for it is not the same thing to say that nothing is seen and that nothing is seen in the night.

In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening let not your hand rest, for you do not know which will prosper, this one or that one.

Since for the most part we turn our attention to the literal sense, this too must be taken according to the historical meaning.

In many places the word 'day' signifies not only the air that is illumined when the sun is above the earth, but also the whole life of a man, as when the psalmist says: 'And You have I waited for all the day long.'

And often 'day' is used also of a certain season that begins and ends.

He says, then, that at the beginning of the season — so that you may understand by 'one day' the season of sowing and of reaping — he says: at the beginning of that season in which it is possible to sow, do not be idle, but sow your seed.

So too in the evening let not your hand rest as it finds what it will reap;

when the time is fulfilled, the harvest will come.

And these things, then, are said with reference to the literal sense.

But with reference to the deeper meaning: those who sow in tears, those who sow to the Spirit that they may reap eternal life, sow at the beginning of the day — that day for which Abraham conceived longing and desire, that he might see it and it might be shown to him by the Saviour;

and that is the day concerning which the choir of the saints somewhere says:

'This is the day which the Lord has made.'

This same day the Apostle also indicates when writing to the Romans:

'The day is at hand; let us walk becomingly, as in the day.'

The season of ignorance, which is called night, has come to its end;

as this advances, the day succeeds it.

The beginning of the day is morning, in which all the saints make haste.

'In the morning I will stand before You and will look up'; and: 'O God, my God, unto You do I rise early.'

'Out of the night my spirit rises early unto You, O God.'

In this morning sow in tears, sow the seeds of virtue with toil, sow to the Spirit with sweat, that you may reap eternal life; and having sown in tears, that you may reap in exultation and come rejoicing, bearing the sheaves of your sowing.

Let not your hand, then, let go of the beginning of the sowing;

sow with respect to both meanings.

It is also possible to take it in this way:

since one must walk becomingly as in the day, and they are sons of light and sons of the day, these have as the morning of virtue the present age, in which they ought to sow, so that in the evening they may reap.

But that evening is not theirs, but belongs to others;

for to them there will be eternal light, the Sun of righteousness ever shining upon them.

You have something similar set down in a psalm:

'In the evening weeping shall lodge, and in the morning exultation.'

The sun rises and sets at the same time, but not for the same people;

for those upon whom it rises, they exult.

Something closely resembling this is found in Jeremiah:

'Late in the day her voice cried aloud, when her sun set.'

And it is spoken by way of threat:

'And the sun shall go down upon the prophets' — and by 'prophets' here he means the false prophets — 'and the day shall grow dark over them.'

You then, O man, being exhorted, sow in the morning, let not your hand rest until evening, that you may receive from God the best harvest — knowledge;

'for kindle for yourselves the light of knowledge, gather in a fruit of life, until there come to you the produce of righteousness.'

'For you do not know which will prosper, this one or that one.'

'You do not know,' he says, 'which prospers, this one or that one.'

If, having sown, you do not tend the ground, you do not know whether it bears fruit or does not bear.

It is also possible to take it thus: that the same person sows and reaps at once, so that there is no distinguishing which comes first and which second, since all happen together.

And I received yesterday a testimony from the Gospel, that 'the sower and the reaper may rejoice together,' so that the time is one and the same both for sowing and for reaping — of reaping the progress already gained, and of sowing that which is to follow in succession.

It is also possible that the coming of the Saviour became for some a morning, but for others an evening;

an evening for those who disbelieved, but a morning for those upon whom He rose through faith and true religion.

It is impossible for one who has not learned to teach rightly.

At the beginning, then, of the introduction to instruction, sow, and let not your hand rest, so that you may be able again to have produce and to sow and to nourish others.

Some such blessing is borne in Genesis concerning Paul:

'Benjamin,' it says, 'is a ravening wolf; in the morning he shall devour, and in the evening he shall distribute food.'

He was a ravening wolf when he persecuted the Church and laid it waste;

from that condition, and thereafter, he became, out of Benjamin — the son of the right hand, the son of the day, the son of rest — then thereafter in the morning he ate, he was instructed in the introduction according to the faith, and in the evening he distributed food, he became an apostle, a teacher of the nations in faith and truth.

The phrase 'you do not know,' then, means: since they occur together, you do not have a knowledge that separates this one from that.

The word 'prosper' (stoichēsai) here signifies 'to agree together' (to accord).

And if both are together, they are good.

'And sweet is the light, and good it is for the eyes to see the sun.'

'If,' he says, 'you sow well and reap, the two good things have come together into one.'

You have well received both the progress that went before and that which follows in succession.

Jesus Himself, then, says that He is beginning and end;

'I am,' He says, 'the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am alive unto the ages.'

See how He says that He Himself is these very things that seem to be opposites, both the former and the latter.

He says, at any rate: 'I am the first and I am the last,' or 'First, I am the Alpha, and I am the Omega.'

There are letters which the Holy Spirit inscribes in the heart of those thus prepared.

'Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh do I write';

and he says that these are written by the Holy Spirit, by the living Spirit.

He Himself, then, is also the divine letters;

in which is written the book of the living, in which the names of the apostles are inscribed in the heavens — there they are enrolled as citizens.

He says therefore, 'I am the Alpha and I am the Omega.'

By means of the other letters He made it plain that He is the other things as well.

He is therefore both beginning and end.

It is possible therefore to partake of Him at once, insofar as He is beginning and end;

in one respect He is beginning, in another respect end.

And just as we call the same one both Lamb and Shepherd, and these do not conflict, so also we call Him both Way and Door, and these are not opposed.

In this way He Himself is called beginning and end.

He is beginning as the foundation of the divine building that is laid down;

for no one can lay another foundation than the one that is laid.

And He Himself is the head of the corner;

the very one who was laid as foundation has become the head of the corner, joining together.

For a corner is the joining together of two walls.

So when the two covenants were brought together, and the two peoples, and the Church became one, using Christ as its head, He became also the end.

Behold, beginning and end, first and last.

Take the 'first' here in the sense of honour;

there are in the Church those who bear the first ranks, such as apostles and prophets;

and there are those who have the other gifts, such as the gift of healings, of helps, of governments, of tongues.

For it is by imitating Him that they become these things.

And in this way He is called both first in honour and last in honour.

But if you wish to hear a deeper account as well:

Jesus, passing through the heavens not only in His ascent but also in His descent, imitated all the rational beings, as is set forth in the Ascension of Isaiah, so that He might benefit every order;

for as He came down He crossed no place where He did not work a benefit.

So too the living creature that has risen above may exist, while the last is perhaps the human being or the one who is under the earth.

He imitated all, therefore, so that He might benefit every order.

For if the Apostle himself became all things to all, that he might gain all—and to those he became all things and among whom he is last, he became lawless to the lawless, that he might gain the lawless, to the Jews a Jew, to the wise wise—if then His imitator did these things, much more did He Himself.

Then, having spoken thus, He goes on to say:

'He who lives, and I became dead.'

I am the living one—not one who came to be living;

for He is living, since He is life, yet He became dead;

yet the interruption in between is dissolved;

and 'behold, I am living unto the ages.'

For even if, being living, I became dead, I have not become dead unto the ages, since that life shines out again which I had before the deadening.

'And the light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes.'

In both senses the light is sweet and good for the eyes.

And if you take it of sensible things, it shows him the things that are visible.

But if it be of the divine, eternal light, concerning which it is said, 'It was the true light, which enlightens every man,' enlightening the eyes of the heart, it is sweet to them.

In both senses the light and the eyes are to be understood, and likewise the sweetness.

Likewise, if it speaks of the visible things shown by the sensible light, the 'sweet' stands for the 'pleasant.'

'A honeycomb: eat honey, my son, for the honeycomb is good, that your throat may be sweetened.'

And ... the honey, that which is eaten, the good, the spiritual distillation of the Scriptures ...

And the honeycomb, in which the literal wording of the Scriptures is composed ...

'... of seeing the sun.'

He who has this light beholds the sun.

The other visible things are shown by the sun and by light;

but the light itself is not shown by another, but reveals itself.

What holds true, then, in the case of the literal sense holds also in the case of the anagogical.

For seeing harmoniously requires that there be sight, and light, and things visible.

For sometimes, though the sight exists, the visible things are not beheld, when it is night.

And again, though the light exists, when someone does not look, even if he is not deprived of it, he does not see them.

Then, therefore, are these things seen, when ...

for the apprehension of them, and they themselves ...

The light that shows is one thing, and the visible things that are shown are another, and the sight that beholds is yet another.

In the case of intelligible things, however, it is not so.

The light is not shown by light, although it is visible, but reveals itself.

This indeed Moses, beholding ..., said:

'Reveal Yourself to me,' since no other can reveal You to me, as though one were to say to the sun:

'Reveal yourself to me, for nothing else is able to show you.'

So too the Saviour said in the Gospels:

'He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me;

and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will reveal Myself to him.'

Again, 'I reveal'—no other shows Me.

But you say that the Son shows the Father.

Yet consider that the essence of Father and Son is the same;

for just as the Father is shown by the Son, so too the Son is shown by the Father;

'He who has seen Me,' He says, 'has seen the Father.'

And observe that the Son reveals the Father, and the Father also reveals the Son.

Paul at any rate says that 'it pleased God to reveal His Son in me.'

And Peter was borne witness to, that flesh and blood did not reveal the Son to him, but the heavenly Father who begat Him.

'And if a man live many years, in all of them ...'

'... let him rejoice, and let him remember the days of darkness, that they will be many.'

Even if a man should live ten thousand years, provided he was a man keeping the image and likeness, and provided the man had so become upright as to know the uprightness of the light, and to sow in the morning and in the evening not to let his hand rest from anything, he shall rejoice.

Even if he should live for many years, he shall rejoice.

And many years come to be from the circuit of the Sun of righteousness.

For just as the perceptible sun, coursing through certain circles, produces years and seasons, so also does the true light.

Concerning these things, then, the holy one who has been enlightened by it speaks:

'I remembered the years of old, and I meditated.'

If all our affairs are temporal, how are the things that come to pass among us to be called eternal years? And further:

'I remembered the days of eternity; consider the generations of generations.'

From eternal days the eternal years are constructed.

Even though a man should live for many years, then, he shall rejoice in them, provided he acts thus as a man, provided he does not, by comparison, become like a beast, nor like a mad-mettled stallion, nor lacking understanding like the mule.

Why 'even if'? Because not all live out these years.

But he who lives does not live by nature merely, but he lives if he so wills.

If this, then, be granted, he shall rejoice in all his days.

Taken according to the literal sense, therefore, what is true is not referred to—it is not the case that, if someone should live ten thousand years, he will rejoice in all of them—unless indeed you should speak thus:

The wise man rejoices not only in things pleasant, but also in things unpleasant, bearing them nobly.

'I will bless the Lord at all times,' he says, even though the circumstances surrounding him were unpleasant, even though they were grievous;

just as Job at all times rejoiced.

'And he shall remember the days of darkness, that they will be many.'

For the most part the man who is in wickedness does not remember the eternal lights, whereas the man who is in virtue knows also wickedness and remembers it;

and thus indeed he turns away from it ... darkness ...

For up to the present time they are active in living, but the wicked are handed over even after these things to darkness and to the other unpleasant things, to all the punishments.

The one who remembers, therefore, shall not make trial of them.

But we take 'to remember' in another sense also;

for we often take 'use' as memory, and 'not using' as forgetfulness.

For when it says concerning the righteous who receive the divine promises that 'they shall forget their former affliction'—meaning that they shall no longer make trial of it—'neither shall it come upon their heart any more'.

Why? 'For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth.'

When the world has been transformed and the promises rendered, there will no longer be memory of anything grievous.

And thus we are accustomed to speak:

when a change occurs, we say that we take forgetfulness of former things, whether they be good or not good.

'In a good day there is a forgetting of evils.'

For it does not mean this—that the one who has experienced good and light-filled days has forgotten that he experienced evils;

but rather that he no longer remembers them by way of experience.

'All that comes is vanity.'

'Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk blameless in the ways and in the sight of your eyes.'

That which comes is not eternal;

temporal in respect of these are the things that are seen, the visible creatures;

but the things not seen are also eternal, which the saints are eager to possess, saying:

'While we look not at the things that are seen;'

'for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.'

If they are eternal, they are not things to come; even if you should ever speak of a virtue or a knowledge as being 'to come'.

For if we had not come to be in wickedness or in ignorance, we should not have had a future enlightenment or a future goodness.

By nature, then, divine things are outside the realm of 'coming to be', being ever present.

And I recall that I once made use of such an illustration.

And I used such an illustration: that, while it is day, if someone in a house should shut the door and block up every opening, the light is not present to him—yet it is present.

If, then, he should open the windows, if he should cast off his ignorance, he finds the light present.

Everything that comes, therefore, is of this sort—it is vain, of the nature of vain things.