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| Chapter XLIV
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Chapter
XLIV.
And erring widely from the meaning of Scripture,
he says that “God gave wells3892
also to the
righteous.” Now he did not observe that the righteous do
not construct cisterns,3893
but dig wells,
seeking to discover the inherent ground and source of potable
blessings,3894
| 3894 τὴν
ἐνυπάρχουσαν
γῆν καὶ
ἀρχὴν τῶν
ποτίμων
ἀγαθῶν. Boherellus
proposes: τὴν
ἐνυπάρχουσαν
πηγὴν καὶ
ἀρχὴν τῶν
ποτίμων
ὑδάτων. | inasmuch as they
receive in a figurative sense the commandment which enjoins,
“Drink waters from your own vessels, and from your own wells of
fresh water. Let not your water be poured out beyond your own
fountain, but let it pass into your own streets. Let it belong to
you alone, and let no alien partake with thee.”3895
Scripture frequently makes use of the
histories of real events, in order to present to view more important
truths, which are but obscurely intimated; and of this kind are the
narratives relating to the “wells,” and to the
“marriages,” and to the various acts of “sexual
intercourse” recorded of righteous persons, respecting which,
however, it will be more seasonable to offer an explanation in the
exegetical writings referring to those very passages. But that
wells were constructed by righteous men in the land of the Philistines,
as related in the book of Genesis,3896
is manifest
from the wonderful wells which are shown at Ascalon, and which are
deserving of mention on account of their structure, so foreign and
peculiar compared with that of other wells. Moreover, that both
young women3897
and female servants
are to be understood metaphorically, is not our doctrine merely,
but one which we have received from the beginning from wise men, among
whom a certain one said, when exhorting his hearers to investigate the
figurative meaning: “Tell me, ye that read the law, do ye
not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons;
the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was
of the bond woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman
was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for
these are the two covenants;
the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Agar.”3898
And a little
after, “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother
of us all.” And any one who will take up the Epistle to the
Galatians may learn how the passages relating to the
“marriages,” and the intercourse with “the
maid-servants,” have been allegorized; the Scripture desiring us
to imitate not the literal acts of those who did these things, but (as
the apostles of Jesus are accustomed to call them) the
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