The Marketplace and the Silver Cord

And having said many things regarding those who do not listen, they 'are being cut'. Thus also Jeremiah, after Israel and Jerusalem had been taken captive, having sat in desolation, lamented with a wail for the throne. And even so God says: 'Lament for me concerning the bride girded with a sackcloth for her man, the virgin conquering'. Therefore, 'those being cut were surrounding in the marketplace'. The teachers rejoice when the hearers are being made straight; they are grieved when the divine decrees are heard against them. Since, therefore, even after the hearers sin, the teachers pity them in proclaiming the divine, 'those being cut cry out', not seeing those who are doing what they stand in defense of. And the New Testament knows the church as a 'marketplace', just as the Greeks do. In the Acts of the Apostles, indeed, it says that 'they have' certain requests, 'market-people lead them', that is to say, rhetoricians. 'You are able', he says, 'to move a case concerning this, those who are proclaiming, the rhetoricians'. Therefore, 'those being cut surrounded in the marketplace' those who were proclaiming; having been exalted and even 'dancing' after 'having surrounded', it would be 360 if what is said by them were being transferred into works of ages. Before the silver cord is overturned and the golden ornament is crushed.

12,6ab Toward a literal sense: 'the silver cord' may be the giving and the receiving concerning transactions. Toward a spiritual sense: since the word of the Lord is 'silver' and 'his words are refined silver', 'cords' are woven from these; that is, things well-understood by the orthodox or otherwise, both ways, the 'silver cord is not overturned', it 'is active'. But since we must speak according to the text, this can be said: that “while the silver cord” “is active” — not “being overturned,” not “being cast out” (for it “shall be cast out” after these things, when “that which is in part is abolished” 1 Cor 13:10) — “those being cut in the marketplace surround,” “while” they have the “silver cord,” “while” they weave the “oracles of the Lord”; for then they also proclaim.

12,6b And the golden ornament is crushed. The deposit of 'gold' is so called, perhaps also the 'gold' itself, but rather the deposit. For those guarding the treasure neglect...

“Gold,” then, must be taken here as the mind; and “silver” as the uttered word. “Gold” you take here as the meaning, and “flower-ornament” as the ruling part, as being the case and guard of the “gold.” And if “silver” signifies the word and the scripture of God, it is a weaving to take fitting sayings with fitting ones, and to join the understanding of these to those and of those to these. Again: does he not mean the church by “until”? — he means this: “in the marketplace those being cut are cut as they surround.” “Marketplace” is the ecclesiastical teaching. And by ecclesiastical I do not mean altogether that of the Christians, but the congregational. This, then, is what he says: that as long as the “silver cord” “is active,” they “surround” and “lament” the disobedient.

But when it “is overturned,” “when that which is in part is abolished” (1 Cor 13:10), no longer do “those being cut surround the marketplace”; for their lamentation will no longer effect anything then, when each hears: “now you repent, when there is no ‘time.’” But I do not say this, that there will never be repentance, but then, when the “time of judgment” is active, when “they stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive what he did through the body” (2 Cor 5:10). Again: but if it “is not overturned”? — this: then “those being cut surround in the marketplace,” while the word of the teaching is still “active,” though they are not persuaded, not assenting, not bound by the “silver cord”; for the one who assents is bound.

“And the flower-ornament is crushed.” It was said that scripture signifies the meanings by “gold”; the meanings, then, worked out and prepared so as to become good oracles. For “petals” appear, cut in the garments of the high priest; for it is said […] “gold” and the lower construction […]. It can, then, “be crushed” […] to join them together and as it were to be hammered flat. “And the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel runs together at the cistern” (Eccl 12:6). It belongs to some to drink from the “spring” itself without the vessel. Rebekah — the perseverance in good things, the perfect teaching — “going down to the spring,” took the drink “with a pitcher,” that […].