Spiritual Ascent and the Meaning of Sychar

"My beginning" is interpreted opportunistically; for the wise man is with wisdom, either being led by her or having the rule from her, and having her as a spouse according to the Song of Solomon: "I brought her into my life to live with me" (Song of Solomon 1:2, 1:4), making wisdom clear, "and I became a lover of her beauty" (Song of Solomon 1:4); and she also bears prudence to a man.

This also leads on Lot the brother, concerning whom we would understand thus: Abram is a son of God through righteousness, for "everyone who does righteousness is born of God" (1 John 5:3), and because of this he is a participant in the mysteries of the divine, the invisible, and the superlative; and such a one has a brother who wisely transforms the sensible. For such a thing contributes to the perfect one; and Lot is his son, interpreted as "a turning away, having been liberated"; for since he is not a son of the wise but of one possessing the sensible, he is a turning away, being slightly shaken from the sensible, but since he is under the holy one and follows him, he exists as having been liberated, receiving this beginning of the divine and superlative understanding.

This indeed, Abram was leading both in man and in manner, wisely receiving the sensible things as well; for it is beautiful even for a turning away to flow toward the beautiful and be shaken from the opposites; such also is a prayer sent up, saying by the Psalmist: "Let the whole earth be shaken from before his face" (Psalm 104:7); for this happening, the earth no longer remains earth, because the Face has seized those upon the earth to become heavenly. Of the same thought is also "He who sits upon the cherubim, let the earth be shaken" (Psalm 97:5), so that a change may occur around him.

Thus also those with him, the patriarch, went out, changing toward the better; for they came into Canaan, which is interpreted as "prepared"; for it is proper for the one now being brought in to have begun to leave the sensible things to be turned toward the reception of more divine things. "And Abram traveled through the land as far as the place of Shechem, at the high oak; and the Canaanites were living in the land then" (Genesis 12:6). The word introduces that, having been moved as a newcomer into this land, he necessarily understands its form by traveling its length, and likely its breadth as well, learning its territory; for the saying "as far as the place of Shechem" signifies...

And that the Canaanites dwelt upon the land. Necessarily, therefore, one must move toward the ascent. The holy one, having been transferred from the sensible things, which he also rightly divides, toward a more divine progress, and having passed on, perceived the length, which they say provides as it were the height, and he perceived the height of the divine things. This very thing also the blessed Paul says: 'what breadth and length and depth to know the surpassing grace of God' (Ephesians 3:18). All these things, therefore, he perceived from the greater thing and is testifying concerning the others.

And he comes 'as far as the place of Sychar' (John 4:5), where the spring happened to be, upon which Jesus sat down having labored, because he had a body conformed to our flesh, which it is probable they suggest is because of the greater and theological occupation, which is indicated by the length; he came also to the discourse concerning the incarnation according to that which was said by Jesus: 'Abraham desired to see my day, and he saw and rejoiced' (John 8:56). And he comes to Sychar, being worthy of being interpreted as a 'shoulder' through the diverse actions of all these things; for the shoulder, from which the 'shoulder' support comes, is a symbol of work, as it has been said: 'Give your heart unto your shoulders' (Proverbs 4:23), and concerning one of the patriarchs: 'He set his shoulder to toil' (Genesis 49:24).

So also it is said concerning the man whom the Savior took up: 'His beginning was upon his shoulder' (Acts 1:11); having worked, he had the beginning, but the work was not from evil unto virtue—for 'sin he did not do' (Hebrews 4:15)—but the guarding of perfection; so also regarding the man who was king, having the eternal, innate, and essential kingdom of the God Word, not by work or by toil. And he comes 'to the high oak,' and since many of the trees and plants signify something intelligible, as those saying in Isaiah: 'In joy you shall go forth and in gladness you shall be taught; for the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you in joy, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands' (Isaiah 55:13), which signifies nothing sensible, but the exodus of the blessed, who do not depart with weeping, but with joy.

Someone says, 'What a vain thing is this: If death is so bitter' (1 Corinthians 15:33), but concerning Abraham it is said that he fell asleep and was joined to his fathers, 'having been nourished in...