The wells of the righteous and Paul’s allegory
Far from grasping the intent of what is written, he says that God also “gave wells to the righteous.” For he did not observe that the righteous do not build cisterns but dig “wells” (Genesis 26:18–22), seeking to find the spring that lies within and the source of good things fit to drink, since they also take in a figurative sense the commandment that says: “Drink waters from your own vessels and from the spring of your own wells. Let not your waters overflow outside your own spring, but let your waters pass through into your streets. Let them be yours alone, and let no stranger share them with you” (Proverbs 5:15–17).
In many places the word has made use of events that really happened and recorded them to set forth greater things, conveyed by a hidden sense. Of this kind are the passages about wells, and about the marriages and the various unions of the righteous; someone will more fittingly try to make these clear in commentaries on those very passages. That wells were indeed built by the righteous in the land of the Philistines, as is recorded in Genesis (Genesis 26:15–18), is plain from the wonderful wells shown at Ascalon, which are worthy of note because their construction is strange and unlike that of other wells.
That brides and maidservants are to be taken in a figurative sense is not our own teaching; we have received it from wise men of old. One of them said, stirring his hearer to figurative interpretation: “Tell me, you who read the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. But the son of the slave woman was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through the promise. These things are spoken in allegory: for these women are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar” (Galatians 4:21–24); and a little later: “But the Jerusalem above,” he says, “is free, which is our mother” (Galatians 4:26). Whoever cares to take up the Epistle to the Galatians will learn in what way the passages about the marriages and the unions with maidservants have been allegorised; for the word wishes us too to imitate not what are thought to be the bodily acts of those who did these things, but, as the apostles of Jesus are accustomed to call them, the spiritual ones.
Greek
Πόῤῥω δὲ τυγχάνων τοῦ βουλήματος τῶν γεγραμμένων φησὶ τὸν θεὸν καὶ φρέατα τοῖς δικαίοις δεδωκέναι. οὐ γὰρ ἐτήρησεν ὅτι οἱ δίκαιοι λάκκους μὲν οὐ κατασκευάζουσι „φρέατα“ δὲ ὀρύσσουσι, τὴν ἐνυπάρχουσαν (πη) γὴν καὶ ἀρχὴν τῶν ποτίμων ἀγαθῶν ἐξευρεῖν ζητοῦντες, ἅτε καὶ τροπικὴν λαμβάνοντες ἐντολὴν τὴν φάσκουσαν· „πῖνε ὕδατα ἀπὸ σῶν ἀγγείων καὶ ἀπὸ σῶν φρεάτων πηγῆς. μὴ ὑπερεκχείσθω σοι ὕδατα ἔξω τῆς σῆς πηγῆς, εἰς δὲ σὰς πλατείας διαπορευέσθω τὰ σὰ ὕδατα. ἔστω σοι μόνῳ ὑπάρχοντα, καὶ μηδεὶς ἀλλότριος μετασχέτω σοι.“ πολλαχοῦ δὲ ἱστορίαις γενομέναις συγχρησάμενος ὁ λόγος ἀνέγραψεν αὐτὰς εἰς παράστασιν μειζόνων καὶ ἐν ὑπονοίᾳ δηλουμένων· ὁποῖά ἐστι καὶ τὰ περὶ φρέατα καὶ τὰ περὶ τοὺς γάμους καὶ τὰς διαφόρους μίξεις τῶν δικαιων, περὶ ὧν εὐκαιρότερον ἐν τοῖς εἰς αὐτὰ ἐκεῖνα ἐξηγητικοῖς τις σαφηνίζειν πειράσεται. ὅτι δὲ καὶ φρέατα ἐν γῇ Φιλιστιαίων κατεσκεύασται ὑπὸ τῶν δικαίων, ὡς ἐν τῇ Γενέσει ἀναγέγραπται, δῆλον ἐκ τῶν δεικνυμένων ἐν τῇ Ἀσκάλωνι θαυμαστῶν φρεάτων καὶ ἱστορίας ἀξίων διὰ τὸ ξένον καὶ παρηλλαγμένον τῆς κατασκευῆς ὡς πρὸς τὰ λοιπὰ φρέατα. νύμφας τε καὶ θεραπαινίδας ἀνάγεσθαι ἐπὶ τροπολογίαν οὐχ ἡμεῖς διδάσκομεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ σοφῶν παρειλήφαμεν· ὧν εἷς τις ἔφασκε διεγείρων τὸν ἀκροατὴν ἐπὶ τροπολογίας· „λέγετέ μοι, οἱ τὸν νόμον ἀναγινώσκοντες. τὸν νόμον οὐκ ἀκούετε; γέγραπται γὰρ ὅτι Ἀβραὰμ δύο υἱοὺς ἔσχεν, ἕνα ἐκ τῆς παιδίσκης καὶ ἕνα ἐκ τῆς ἐλευθέρας. ἀλλ᾿ ὁ μὲν ἐκ τῆς παιδίσκης κατὰ σάρκα γεγέννηται, ὁ δὲ ἐκ τῆς ἐλευθέρας διὰ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας. ἅτινά ἐστιν ἀλληγορούμενα· αὗται γάρ εἰσι δύο διαθῆκαι, μία μὲν ἀπὸ ὄρους Σινᾶ. εἰς δουλείαν γεννῶσα, ἥτις ἐστὶν Ἄγαρ“· καὶ μετ᾿ ὀλίγα· „ἡ δ᾿ ἄνω,“ φησὶν, „Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐλευθέρα ἐστὶν, ἥτις ἐστὶ μήτηρ ἡμῶν.“ ὁ δὲ βουλόμενος λαβεῖν τὴν πρὸς Γαλάτας ἐπιστολὴν εἴσεται, τίνα τρόπον ἠλληγόρηται τὰ κατὰ τοὺς γάμους καὶ τὰς μίξεις τῶν θεραπαινίδων, βουλομένου τοῦ λόγου καὶ ἡμᾶς οὐ τὰς σωματικὰς νομιζομένας πράξεις ζηλοῦν τῶν ταῦτα πεποιηκότων ἀλλ᾿, ὡς καλεῖν εἰώθασιν οἱ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἀπόστολοι, τὰς πνευματικάς.