Chapter Four

¹ When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples), he left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. The Lover of mankind, having once for our sake become incarnate, does all things for our benefit. And now, accordingly, hearing that the Pharisees had heard of His glory, and knowing that they would be stirred to envy against Him, He withdraws into Galilee; teaching us two things thereby: one, to spare our enemies, and to try in every way not to give them occasion of offense or envy; the other, not to cast ourselves into temptations senselessly and unprofitably, but to withdraw for a season, until the madness abate. And though He was able to restrain those who envied Him, even had they rushed against Him, yet He gives way, that the dispensation of the flesh might not be thought a phantom. For if He had often passed through the midst of them, what would not the phantom-theorists have said — I mean the followers of Manes, and Valentinus, and the accursed Eutyches? And hinting at the slanderous nature of envy, the evangelist says that, though Jesus baptized not, yet the envious, wishing to nettle the Pharisees against Christ, slandered Him as baptizing. And He must needs go through Samaria. For He made the Samaritans a kind of by-work of His journey. For mark that he did not say, “He must needs go away into Samaria,” but, “go through Samaria.” For He wished to cut off from the Jews every pretext of accusation, so that they could not say that, leaving them, He went over to the abominable Gentiles. For when they drove Him away, then He went to the Gentiles; and not even then principally, but as a by-work.

² Then comes he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. It is worth telling whence the Samaritans took their rise, and whence they received this name. Somor was the name of the mountain, from him who possessed it, as Isaiah also says, “The head of Samaria is Ephraim.” And those who dwelt beneath the mountain were not at first called Samaritans, but Israelites. But having offended God, they were delivered over at various times to the Assyrians. And at last the Assyrian came upon them, when they had plotted revolt, and took them, and no longer suffered them to remain in their land, suspecting a fresh revolt; but he removed them to the Babylonians and Medes, and from thence brought nations from various places, and settled them in Samaria. And these things being done, God, wishing to show the barbarians that not for weakness but for sin He had delivered up the Jews to them, sent lions upon the barbarians settled in Samaria, which destroyed them all utterly. When this was reported to the king, he sends for some of the Jewish elders in captivity, and asks what should be done, that the lions might no longer ravage the barbarians in Samaria. And they instruct him that the God of Israel watches over that place, and does not suffer to dwell there those who know not His ordinances. If, then, he cares at all for the barbarians there, let him send Jewish priests, who shall deliver to the barbarians the ordinances of God; and so shall God be propitiated. The king is persuaded of this, and sends a certain priest to deliver to the barbarians in Samaria the law of God. But they received not all the divine books, but only the five of Moses — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Yet not even completely did they depart from impiety; but at later times they departed indeed from the idols, and worshipped God. The Jews, then, returning from the captivity, were ever jealously disposed toward them, as being of Assyrian race, and they called them Samaritans from the mountain. But those called themselves descendants of Abraham and Jacob; for Abraham was a Chaldean, and Jacob was reckoned akin to them because of the well there. The Jews, then, together with all the Gentiles, abhorred them also; whence also, reproaching the Lord, they said, “You are a Samaritan.” And He Himself said to the disciples, “Into a city of the Samaritans enter you not.” And for what cause does the evangelist speak precisely concerning Jacob’s parcel of ground and the well? First, that when you hear the woman saying, “Jacob our father gave us this well,” you be not surprised. For that place was Sychem, where the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, wrought that grievous slaughter, because their sister Dinah had been violated by the ruler of the Sychemites. And then we learn this also from the evangelist’s reciting to us the things concerning the parcel of ground and the well: that the casting away of the Jews came to pass of old because of their sins; and when they had offended God, the Gentiles possessed the places; and what the patriarchs had acquired through faith in Christ, these the Jews lost through impiety. So that it is nothing new, even now, if the Gentiles have been brought into the kingdom of heaven in place of the Jews. And the parcel of ground which Jacob gave to Joseph — they, having destroyed the Sychemites and laid waste the city, the father gave to Joseph.

³ Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus says to her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away to the city to buy meat.) By saying that the Lord was wearied with His journey, the evangelist shows us at once both His freedom from pomp and superfluity (for He did not even use beasts of burden for the journey, but went on foot, teaching us also not to need many things), and at the same time that He journeyed earnestly and not slothfully. From which we too learn to do the work of God with earnestness and care. And the “He sat thus” may signify simply and as it chanced, and that He sat not upon a throne, but thus, plainly without ceremony, resting His body upon the ground, and refreshing it beside the well. Then he brings in another cause also of His sitting beside the well — the fact that it was steady noonday. For mark, he says, it was about the sixth hour. So that, because of the heat of the hour, He needed both rest and refreshment. And in another way: that no one might accuse the Lord — how, while He charged His disciples not to go off into the way of the Gentiles, He Himself comes to the Samaritans — for this cause he says that the sitting in the place came to pass because of the weariness, and that the conversation with the woman had a reasonable occasion, namely thirst. For since He thirsted, naturally according to the human, He needed also drink. And to one seeking, the little woman holds converse — a converse of a learning-loving soul. What then was left to do? To repel the woman so eagerly disposed to learn, and thirsting to hear concerning the things wherein she was perplexed? Away with this from the love of God toward man! And mark for me from this also the unpretentiousness of the Lord. For He is left alone on the way, the disciples having gone off into the city to buy meat. For so far did they set the things of the belly in second place, that at the very hour when nearly all men also doze after their meal, these were buying meat — bread only, that is — that we too may learn to make light of the variety of dishes. And mark for me also the accuracy of the evangelist. For he did not say declaratively, “It was the sixth hour,” but, that he might not fall short of the truth, “about the sixth,” providing for the safety of his account.

⁴ Then says the woman of Samaria to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water. The woman says to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then have you that living water? From His figure and dress perhaps, and the rest of His bodily disposition, and from His very speech, the Samaritan woman supposed the Lord to be a Jew; wherefore she says to Him, “How is it that you, being a Jew,” and so forth. Mark how circumspect the little woman was. For if there was need to be on guard, it behooved the Lord, not her. For she did not say, “The Samaritans have no dealings with the Jews,” but, “The Jews receive not the Samaritans.” Yet nevertheless the woman does not even thus keep silence, but, supposing the Lord to be doing an unlawful thing, she corrects what was being done contrary to the law. But Christ does not reveal Himself before the virtue of the woman is shown. For when the virtue of the little woman was shown, and that she was thus circumspect and exact, then thereafter He begins to discourse to her the loftier things. “If you knew,” He says, “the gift of God” — that is, if you did know what God bestows, and that they are eternal and incorruptible things; and did know Me also, that, being God, I can give you these things — you would have sought and received living water. And He calls the grace of the Holy Spirit “water,” both because it cleanses and supplies much refreshment to those who receive it; and water not standing still, like that in cisterns and wells, putrid and corrupted, but living, that is, gushing up, leaping up, in motion. For the grace of the Spirit makes the soul ever-moving toward the good, ever making ascents. Such living and ever-moving water Paul drank, forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth to the things before. The woman says to Him, Sir. Do you see how, straightway departing from her lowly conception, she renders Him much honor, naming Him Lord? Yet she did not attain to the depth of Christ’s words, but He speaks one thing, and she understands the things concerning the water in another way.

⁵ Are you greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman says to him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come here to draw. She makes Jacob her father, pressing herself into the Jewish nobility. And mark for me the understanding of the woman, how straightway from the difference of the waters she reasons also to the difference of the givers. For if, she says, you will give such water, assuredly you are greater than Jacob, who gave us this present water. And the “He drank thereof himself” is a praise of the sweetness of the water. For so well pleased, she says, was the patriarch with the well, that he himself drank of it, and his children. And the “His cattle also drank” is indicative of the abundance of the water. For not only, she says, is the water sweet, and so sweet that even Jacob drank of it, but also plentiful, and so plentiful as to suffice even for the multitude of the patriarch’s flocks. And when the woman said, “Are you greater than our father?” the Lord does not say openly, “Yes, I am greater,” lest He should seem to boast, having not yet given proof of His own power; but by what He says He establishes this. For he that drinks of this water shall thirst, but he that drinks of Mine shall not thirst. So that if you admire Jacob who gave this water, much more ought you to admire Me who furnish far better water. For what I give becomes a well of water ever and ever multiplied. For the saints do not keep to the end only so much as they receive from God; but they receive seeds and beginnings of the good through grace, and they themselves spend and increase it; which the Lord signifies also by the parable of the talents, and by the innkeeper. For he that received the two talents gained other two by his working; and to the innkeeper, who received the man wounded by robbers, the Lord promises, “Whatever you spend more, I will repay you.” This, then, He hints at here also: I give water to the thirsty, but that which I give does not remain so much, but overflows, and becomes a well. The Lord gave to Paul a little water, the catechizing of Ananias; but Paul showed that little water of Ananias’s teaching to be a well, so that from Jerusalem to Illyricum reached the streams of that well. And how, then, is the woman disposed concerning these things? Still lowly (for she thinks the words are about sensible water), yet nonetheless she shows some progress. For before she was perplexed, saying, “Whence have you living water?”; but now, receiving the word without hesitation, she says, “Give me this water.” She seems, then, to be more understanding than Nicodemus. For he, hearing countless such things, said, “How can these things be?”; but she begins already to despise even the well, with her “Neither come here to draw.”

⁶ Jesus says to her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband: for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband: in that said you truly. The woman says to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and you say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus says to her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. Go, call your husband. For since He saw her pressing on to receive, and constraining Him to give, He says, “Call your husband,” as if showing that he too ought to become a partaker with her of this My gift. But she, hastening at once both to escape notice and to receive, says, “I have no husband.” And the Lord, thereafter by prophecy revealing His own power, both numbers the former husbands and reproves the one now concealed. Did she then take it ill, hearing these things? Or did she leave Him and flee? By no means; but rather marveling, and persevering the more, she says, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet”; and she asks Him concerning divine doctrines, not concerning things of this life — such as health of body, or money; so philosophic and apt for virtue was her soul. But what? “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain.” She says this on account of Abraham and his company; for in that mountain they say Isaac was offered up by him in sacrifice. “And how,” she says, “do you say that one ought to worship in Jerusalem?” Do you see how she has become loftier? For she who a little before was anxious not to be troubled by thirst, now asks concerning doctrines. Wherefore Christ also, seeing her understanding, does not solve this perplexity of hers (for it was not of great moment), but reveals another and greater doctrine, which He revealed neither to Nicodemus nor to Nathanael. For the hour comes, He says, when neither in Jerusalem, nor here, shall God be worshipped. For you, He says, are eager to show the things of the Samaritans more honorable than those among the Jews; but I tell you that neither these nor those have the precedence, but there shall be another order of things, better than both. Nevertheless, even so I declare the Jews more venerable than you Samaritans. For you, He says, worship you know not what; but we Jews know. And He numbers Himself with the Jews, speaking somewhat to the woman’s supposition; for she supposed Him to be a Jewish prophet, and for this cause He says, “We worship.” And how did the Samaritans not know what they worshipped? They thought God to be enclosed in a place. Wherefore also, when they were being devoured by the lions, as was said above, they sent and reported to the king of the Assyrians that the God of the place received them not. Hence indeed they remained for a long time worshipping idols also, and not God Himself. But the Jews were freed from this supposition, and knew Him to be the God of all things, even though not all of them did. For salvation is of the Jews. This gives us a twofold meaning. For either that the good things came to the inhabited world from the Jews (for the knowing of God, and the condemning of idols, had its beginning thence, and all the other doctrines, and this very thing of worship among us Samaritans, even if not rightly, yet had its beginning from the Jews); or He names His own presence “salvation,” which came of the Jews — that one might understand by the salvation the Lord, who came of the Jews.

⁷ But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Even if we Jews have more than you Samaritans in the manner of worship, yet the things of the Jews too shall thereafter have an end. For not only shall the things of the places be changed, but also the things of the manner of service; and these stand at the doors, and now are; for they will not, like the things spoken by the prophets, receive a long extension of time. And He calls “true worshippers” those who live according to His law, who do not enclose God in a place, as the Samaritans, nor serve Him with bodily service, as the Jews, but in spirit and in truth — that is, through the soul, through the purity of the mind. For since God is a Spirit — that is, incorporeal — He must be worshipped incorporeally, that is, according to the soul. For this He shows through the “in spirit”; for the soul too is spirit and incorporeal. And since many seem to worship Him according to the soul, yet have not a right opinion concerning Him, as the heretics, for this cause He added the “in truth.” For one must both worship God according to the mind, and also have a true opinion concerning Him. And perhaps one will say that He here hints at the two parts of the philosophy that is according to us — I mean practice and contemplation — through these two: through the “in spirit,” the practical part. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God put to death the deeds of the body, according to the divine Apostle; and again, “The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh”; so that He hints at the practical through the “in spirit”; and through the “in truth,” the contemplative. And these things Paul also says, when he speaks of “the unleavened bread of sincerity” — that is, of purity of life, which is of the practical — “and of truth,” which is of the contemplative; for the contemplative is occupied about the truth of doctrinal teaching. And in another way: since it was proper to the Samaritans to enclose God in a place, and to say that in this place one ought to worship, while for the Jews all things were accomplished typically and shadowily — the “in spirit” is said in contradistinction to the Samaritans, so that the saying is such as this: You Samaritans offer a kind of local worship to God; but the true worshippers shall offer no local worship; for they shall serve in spirit, that is, with the mind and the soul. But neither shall they worship after the manner of the Jews, in type and shadow, but in truth, since the Jewish customs and observances are to be dissolved. And perhaps, since the Jewish law, understood according to the letter, was a type and shadow, the “in spirit” is set in contradistinction to the letter (for the law of the letter is no longer our polity, but that of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life); and the “in truth” in contradistinction to the type and shadow. The hour comes, then, He says — or rather even now is, namely the season of My bodily presence — when the true worshippers shall, not after the manner of the Samaritans, worship in one place, but in every place according to spirit, offering the worship incorporeally (even as Paul says, “whom I serve in my spirit”), a worship not shadowy, but expressive of the things to come. For such worshippers God seeks, since He is truth — true worshippers.

⁸ The woman says to him, I know that Messias comes, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus says to her, I that speak to you am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What do you seek? or, Why do you talk with her? Whence did the woman know that Messias comes, who is called Christ? From the Mosaic Scriptures. For we said, in our former remarks, that the Samaritans received the Pentateuch of Moses. Since, then, they received the things of Moses, from these they knew the prophecies concerning Christ, and that He is the Son of God. For the “Let us make man” shows that it was said by the Father as to the Son; and to Abraham in the tent it was the Son who discoursed; and Jacob, prophesying concerning Him, said, “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, until He come for whom it is laid up”; and Moses himself, “A prophet shall the Lord raise up to you from among your brethren, like to me; him shall you hear”; and many other things proclaim the coming of Christ. For this cause, then, the woman says, “I know that Messias comes.” And the Lord thereupon reveals Himself to her, the sequence of the discourse requiring it. For had He said straightway at the outset, “I am the Christ,” He would neither have persuaded the woman, and would have seemed to be burdensome and a boaster; but now, having little by little advanced her to the remembering of the expectation concerning Christ, He thus thereafter reveals Himself. And for what cause, to the Jews who continually asked, “Tell us if you are the Christ,” did He not reveal Himself, but to the woman He tells it? To them He says nothing, because they asked not in order to learn, but rather to slander; but to her, because she was right-minded, He reveals Himself openly. For of a simple judgment and mind, and longing to learn the truth, she asked; and this is plain from what followed. For having heard, she not only herself believed, but also netted others to faith; and everywhere the woman appears both careful and faithful. And the conversation and teaching with the woman being now completed, the disciples opportunely arrived, and marveled at His freedom from pomp, that, being so glorious and renowned among all, He endured with such great condescension to discourse with a poor woman, and a Samaritan. Yet marveling, they nevertheless dare not ask concerning what He discoursed with her; so well-instructed were they, and kept the reverence befitting disciples toward their teacher. And if anywhere they appear to speak boldly — as John when he falls upon His breast, and when, coming, they say, “Who is the greater?” and when the sons of Zebedee entreat that one may sit on the left and one on the right — yet those things they inquire as pertaining to themselves, and appearing for the present necessary to them. But here, since it did not so much concern them to seek what was in no wise necessary, for this cause they use not boldness, as having no occasion for it.

⁹ The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and says to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came to him. So greatly was the woman kindled in heart by the things spoken, that she even left her waterpot; so quickly, then, did she prefer the water of Christ to the well of Jacob. And straightway she becomes an apostle, ordained by the faith that had laid hold of her heart, and she teaches a whole city, and draws it on. “Come,” she says, “see a man, which told me all things that ever I did.” Truly, when the soul is set on fire with divine fire, it looks to nothing of the things on earth, neither to shame nor to dishonor. Behold, then, this woman too is not ashamed even to publish her own affairs, but says, “Which told me all things that ever I did.” And yet she could have said it otherwise: “Come, see a prophet prophesying”; but not so; rather she despises her own reputation, and looks only to the proclaiming of the truth. And she does not say, “This is the Christ,” declaratively, but, “Is not this the Christ?” — wishing thereafter to take those very men as fellow-voters with her, and making the word more easily received. For had she declared, “This is the Christ,” perhaps some would have taken it ill, not receiving her verdict as that of a woman of ill report. And some have understood the five husbands of the Samaritan woman to be the five books which the Samaritan woman alone received. “And he whom you now have,” He says — that is, my word, which you now receive of me — “is not your husband”; for you are not yet joined, He says, to my teaching, the teaching of Jesus. And one might say that the Samaritan woman is reckoned also as a type of human nature. For our nature of old dwelt in a mountain — the mind full of divine grace. For before Adam sinned, he was adorned with all divine gifts. For he was even a prophet. For, raised up from his sleep, he declared concerning the moulding of the woman, and concerning the man’s relation to her. For he said, “This is now bone of my bones”; and that “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother.” Our nature, then, was in this mountain, the lofty mind; but having offended God, it was led away captive, and the holy seed — I mean every diviner thought — the devil who took us captive led away into Babylon, that is, into the confusion of this world; and he settled in their place the barbaric reasonings, which the lions — the good reasonings that reign in us — devoured, until they persuaded them to receive the oracles of God. But not even these completely; for wickedness, having once dwelt in our mountain, I mean the mind, received indeed the things of Moses, but did not wholly become of the good, but was still under a curse. The Lord, then, having journeyed — that is, having gone through many ways and manners of dispensations for our salvation, and dealing with our life now by threats, now by stripes of evils, now by benefits, at another time by promises of good things — grew weary indeed, taking such ways to set us right; but found yet another dispensation, in which He both sat and rested, being pleased with it. What dispensation? The well of baptism, in which He benefited our nature as a kind of Samaritan woman. And this well of baptism might fitly be called the well of Jacob, that is, of the supplanter. For in this very well one supplants the devil; since the Lord also in it crushed the head of the dragon, whom He also gave for meat to the people, the Ethiopians. For in this dragon none other delight and are fed, but those darkened and black in soul, and without share in the divine light. And to this our nature five husbands were joined — the various laws given to it by God: the one in paradise, the one under Noah, the one under Abraham, the one under Moses, the one through the prophets. For Noah, after the flood, received a certain ordinance, and Abraham that of circumcision. Joined, then, to these five laws, our nature took to itself afterward a sixth, which it had not as a husband, nor was yet joined to — that of the New Covenant. But one might understand by the sixth law, which our nature had not as a husband, that of idolatry. For this law it had not given to it by God as a spouse, but as an adulteress it mingled with it. Wherefore also the prophet says, “And they committed adultery with wood”; and again, “They went a-whoring after every tree,” because of the graven images and the trees which they honored. For to such a pitch of folly was our nature hurled down, that it sacrificed even to fair trees for their beauty — to cypresses and planes, and the like. When, then, man loved this sixth adulterer, and slipped into idolatry, then the Lord, coming, frees us from it; wherefore He says, “Whom you now have.” For indeed, in the times of Christ’s coming, the wiser among the Jews too turned aside to Hellenism; and the heresy of the Pharisees, believing in fate and astrology, makes this plain. And a Samaritan woman is also every soul that is irrationally yoked to the five senses, and then takes to itself, as a kind of sixth adulterer, the most perilous error concerning doctrines; whom Jesus benefits, whether through baptism, or through the fountain of tears. For tears too might be called the well of Jacob — that is, of our mind, the supplanter of wickedness. And of this water the mind itself drinks, and the sons of the soul, anger and desire; for the tears become a cleansing to the soul.

¹⁰ In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said to them, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Has any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus says to them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. The disciples prayed the Lord — that is, besought Him — to eat, not from a rash mind, but from much tender love toward their teacher; for they saw Him wearied with the journey and the flame that pressed upon Him. But the Lord, knowing that the Samaritan woman was about to draw nearly the whole city to Him, and that the Samaritans would believe in Him, says, “I have meat to eat” — that is, the salvation of men; for so do I desire this, as none of you desires sensible food. And this meat, which I have to eat, you the disciples know not. For being still gross, and not able to understand the things spoken by Me enigmatically, you know not that I call the salvation of men meat. And in another way: You know not this meat; for you know not that the Samaritans will believe Me, and will be saved. What then the disciples? They are still perplexed, “Has any man brought Him ought to eat?” For they dare not, because of their wonted reverence, put a question to Him. But He, though they asked not, reveals the thing spoken enigmatically, and says, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me (for the will of God is the salvation of men), and to finish His work.” For the prophets and the law could not finish the work of God; for they were incomplete, showing forth types and shadows of the good things to come. But the Lord finished the work of God — I mean our salvation and renewal. And perhaps understand by the work of God the man, whom the Son of God alone perfected, having shown our nature in Himself sinless, and in every good work perfected and complete through the divine conduct in the flesh, and having conquered the world to the end. And the law too is a work of God, inasmuch as it was written with the finger of God, which the Lord alone finished. For Christ is the end of the law, as having brought to rest all the things accomplished in the law, and having translated them from the bodily service to the spiritual. And the Lord often speaks enigmatically, making His hearers more attentive, and rousing them to ask and to learn what is spoken covertly. And by naming the salvation of men meat, He teaches the disciples that they too, when they should be ordained teachers of the inhabited world, should make less account of bodily food, transferring all their desire to the saving of men. And note that the Lord received also the food offered by some. For the disciples say, “Has any man brought Him ought to eat?” And this He did, not as needing the ministry of others (for how should He who gives food to all flesh?), but that those who offered might have a reward, and might be accustomed to feed others also; and at the same time giving to all men a pattern of not being ashamed of poverty, nor reckoning a heavy thing the receiving of food from others.

¹¹ Say not you, There are yet four months, and then comes harvest? behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to life eternal: that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One sows, and another reaps. I sent you to reap that whereon you bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and you are entered into their labours. He begins now to reveal more clearly to the disciples the things foretold enigmatically. For you, He says, say — that is, you think — that the harvest, the sensible one, comes in this space of four months; but I say to you that the intelligible harvest is at hand. And these things He said because of the Samaritans now coming to Him. Lift up, then, your eyes — whether the intelligible or the sensible — and behold the multitude of the Samaritans coming, and their souls ready and eager to faith, which, like whitened fields, need the harvest. For as the ears, when they are whitened, are ready for the harvest, so these too are prepared for salvation. And he that reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to life eternal; that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together. And what He says is this: The prophets sowed, but did not reap. Yet not for this cause are they deprived of the joy, but they rejoice with us, even if they reap not with us; which in sensible harvests is not so. For there, if it happen that one sows and another reaps, there is grief to him that reaps not. But in spiritual things, not so; rather both the prophets, having proclaimed beforehand and softened beforehand the minds of men, rejoice with us who drew the men to salvation. And the “I sent you to reap that whereon you bestowed no labour” the Lord says for this cause, that when He sends the disciples to the preaching, they may not be troubled, as being sent to a toilsome work. For the more toilsome part, He says, the prophets undertook, but you are sent to what is ready. And He calls it “a true saying,” a kind of proverb current among the multitude, that “One sows, and another reaps.” And mark how He speaks all things as a Master and with authority: “I sent you to reap.” Let the followers of the accursed Marcion hear, and of Manes, and such men, who alienate the Old Covenant from the New; for hence too they are refuted. For if the Old were alien, how did the apostles reap the things of the prophets? So that, since the apostles reaped the things of the Old, that Covenant was not alien from the New, but both are one. Let the followers of Arius also hear, how as Lord and with authority He sends the disciples; and He sends them that they may reap from earthly things, and gather those who cleave to them, both Greeks and Jews, and bring them into the threshing-floor — I mean the Church — in which, being threshed by the oxen, that is, the teachers, and lying under them, they are rubbed, and casting off all that is chaffy, and fleshly, and fuel for the fire, are stored as pure grains in the heavenly garner, and then become meat for God, who delights in their salvation. So Paul reaped, cutting them off from the earth, and teaching us. And some have wittily applied also to the aged the “Look on the fields,” because of the gray hairs, and the harvest of death.

¹² And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come to him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of your saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world, the Christ. For the saying of the woman the Samaritans believe, judging among themselves, as men of understanding, that the woman would not have published her own life to do another a favor, unless He whom she proclaimed were truly some great one and above the many. Wherefore also, showing their faith by their works, they besought Him to be among them altogether; for the “to abide” signifies this, to dwell completely among them. But He is not persuaded of this, and remains only two days; whence also many more of them believed because of His teaching. For the evangelist does not relate the particular wonderful words of His teaching, but gives us to understand, from the end of the matters, the power of His divine teaching. For the evangelists pass by many even of the great things, because they write not for display and ambition, but for truth. The Lord, then, being among the Samaritans, it is likely taught them some diviner things; whence, having seen no sign at all, they believe and beseech Him to remain. But the Jews, even after enjoying countless words and signs, still persecuted Him — truly, a man’s foes are they of his own household. And mark for me how far this small multitude surpassed her who taught them. For they call Him not a prophet, nor Saviour of Israel, but of the world, and with the article: “This is the Saviour,” the one who properly and in very truth saved all. For many came to save — both the law, and the prophets, and the angels; but this One is the true Saviour.

¹³ Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet has no honour in his own country. Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went to the feast. Having gone out from Samaria, the Lord departs into Galilee. Then, lest any should inquire and be perplexed, for what cause He was not always in Galilee, but visited it only at intervals, and that though He seemed to be of Galilee, the evangelist says that for this cause He did not abide in Galilee, because they showed Him no honor. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet is without honor in his own country. For we men are wont to despise things in familiar use, ever attending to things strange and unwonted. What then? Do we not see many honored even among their own people? Most rare, indeed, is such a thing; and if anywhere some be found honored in their own country, much more shall they be honored in a strange one; so that the honor in one’s own country, compared with that in a strange land, would be found dishonor. For envy does not suffer fellow-countrymen to render the fitting honor, but they render it diminished, reckoning the good repute of their kinsman a shame to themselves. When the Lord came, then, into Galilee, the Galilaeans believed, having seen the signs which He did at Jerusalem. Yet the Samaritans are more approved, who believed even without signs, from the word of the woman. And mark everywhere how those who seem cast off are well approved in faith — I mean the Samaritans and the Galilaeans (for these too they despised as more boorish in disposition; wherefore also they said, “A prophet has not arisen out of Galilee”) — but those reckoned elect are cast off, such as were the Jerusalemite Jews. Fitly, then, were we Gentiles also received. For in His own country, one might say in the synagogue of the Jews, the prophet Christ had no honor, even as Moses says, “A prophet shall the Lord our God raise up.”

¹⁴ So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went to him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus to him, Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The nobleman says to him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus says to him, Go your way; your son lives. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him, and he went his way. The evangelist reminds us of the wonder in Cana, where the water became wine, at once to increase the praise of the Samaritans (for the Galilaeans, he says, received Him both from the signs done at Jerusalem and from those done among themselves; but the Samaritans, from the witness of the woman alone, and from the teaching of the Lord Himself), and at the same time to show us that the nobleman also received from the wonder in Cana some good opinion concerning Christ, even if not the worthy one. And he calls him a nobleman, either as being of royal descent, or as having some dignity of office so called. Is then, one says, this man the same as the centurion in Matthew? for that one too was in Capernaum. I think, then, that he is not the same, but another. For that one even hinders Christ when He wished to come, saying, “I am not worthy that you should come under my roof”; but this one draws Jesus into his house. And that one’s child, that is, his servant, was held by a palsy; but this one’s son, by a fever. And there, having come down from the mountain, He entered Capernaum; but now, from Samaria, and not into Capernaum, but into Cana. Above all, that one was a centurion; but this one, a nobleman in dignity. The nobleman, then, asks the Lord to come down, that He may heal his son; but the Lord, taking hold of him, as having not perfect but partial faith (for his saying, “Come down ere my son die,” shows the weakness of his faith, as not believing that, even if it should befall him to die, He is able to raise him up), for these things, taking hold of him, says, “Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe”; and at the same time accusing also the other citizens, those in Capernaum. For they appear everywhere accused of much unbelief. Since, then, the nobleman was weak in mind, and pressed the Lord to come down for the healing of his child, the Saviour, showing him that even absent He could heal him, says, “Go your way; your son lives.” Accordingly He healed both the fever of the child and the unbelief of the father. And know that a wonder is one thing, and a sign another. For a wonder is what is beyond nature, such as the opening of the eyes of one born blind, and the raising of a dead man; but a sign is what is not outside nature, such as the healing of one sick. And this wonder the Lord works even now upon everyone who comes to Him. For every man is a kind of nobleman, not only as being kinsman of the King of all because of his soul, but also as himself having received a royal rule over all. And one is often found having his mind, as a son, ill with the fire of unseemly pleasures and desires. If, then, he come to Jesus, and ask Him to come down — that is, to use the condescension of His love toward man, and to forgive him his sins, before he be completely deadened by the disease of the desires (for if God should not condescend to us, but should mark our iniquities, and examine those, who thereafter shall stand?) — if, then, he come, as has been said, he shall obtain what he seeks, and shall receive back his mind whole. But mark also what the Lord says to him: “Go your way”; that is, go your way, and show an unceasing motion; for if you cease from going, your son shall assuredly die.

¹⁵ And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Your son lives. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said to him, Your son lives: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee. Astonished at the sudden change of the disease, the servants meet their master, bringing him the good tidings of his son’s health. For not simply and as it chanced, but suddenly was he freed from the fever, so that it might be shown that the matter was not a sequence of nature, but of the power of Christ. And learning from the servants the hour at which the child began to amend — that is, passed over to the better and more vigorous state — he believes perfectly in the Lord. For his former faith was imperfect. For do not say to me, “Nay, but he would not have come, had he not believed.” For fathers, out of love toward their children, are wont to go not only to physicians whom they trust, but also to the unskilled, wishing to leave nothing undone of what is needful. He came, then, from faith — if we are to grant even this — but a cold and imperfect faith, which one would not even call faith. But then he believed perfectly, when he also learned concerning the hour. And for what cause does the evangelist say that this was the second sign He did in Cana? That he might show the Samaritans worthy of many praises. For even, he says, when this second sign had been done, the Galilaeans had not yet attained to the height of those who had seen no sign.