Sayings of the wise; riddles; crown of graces; golden collar (Prov 1)

…his truth — or not of these alone, but also of those whose craftiness God will seize? For the word has named those people wise too. Why should the hearer understand the sayings of the blessed wise, yet not stretch to the words of the other wise, and have a mind smaller than the mind of this world wise, unable to follow what they say?

Is it not as with the eye, whose work is not only to see what is in order but also what is otherwise — or as craft wishes in such cases — so also with the mind: its work is to contemplate both thoughts that hit and thoughts that miss, so that it is not caught by the persuasiveness in falsehoods, and so that it can rescue those who are caught, if it also understands the sayings of the other wise wherever they play at wisdom, how they reason falsely, how the sophism is loosed, and how the false reasoning is exposed. That is how, through his own wise, God threatens to set aside wisdom that deserves to perish because of falsehood, and the deceptive understanding of those not intelligent according to him, and so through his own he will seize the craftiness of this age wise.

At once: if the Lord disciples did not understand the sayings of worldly wise people, how did they campaign to cast down strongholds, casting down reasonings and every height that lifts itself against the knowledge of God? And how could anyone keep Peter word perfectly — Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a word about the hope in you — without full preparation in speech, so as to be ready to defend that hope before every Greek and barbarian, every wise and senseless person, by understanding wise sayings, accusing some, overturning others, and establishing and proving these? Do not wonder if the one truly wise according to God is hard to find now; most of the exceptional gifts have failed, so they appear either not at all or rarely.

It remains to say what riddles are. I take a riddle to be an extended account about things as if they happened that did not happen and cannot happen, yet that signify something unspeakable in hiddenness. Sample from Judges: The trees went to anoint a king over themselves. Which three fruit trees — fig, vine, olive — refused to reign over trees unworthy of their kingship, and what is the thorny bramble that sends fire from itself to eat Lebanon cedars — the wise person sees, referring these to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the bramble to the opposing one. In Kingdoms there is such a riddle too: The thorn in Lebanon sent to the Cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as wife, and what follows. In the prophets you also find riddles, as in Ezekiel: The great eagle, long-winged, long in stretch, full of feathers, and what follows.

So much we could hold for now toward what is before us: parable and dark saying, sayings of the wise and riddles. A parable is speech as about something that happened which did not happen according to the letter yet could happen, pointing figuratively to riddles — as The sower went out to sow, which did not happen by the wording even if it is led up into other things. And how does Open my mouth in parables fit? What he added did happen: Before their fathers he did wonders. According to the letter he split a sea and led them through; all of it happened, even if those events are symbols of the modes of gospel parables. Someone else will say Open my mouth in parables is not aimed at Exodus but at Christ parables in the Gospel, as he speaks in the prophet: Attend, my people, to my law, and what follows.

A crown of graces: the circuit of the virtues, because they are bound to one another. A golden collar about your neck: he calls the golden collar the surrounding radiance and circular gleam of the divine oracles, and he calls the neck the mind. Let us lift his memory from earth. Those who said This is the heir; come, let us kill him so the inheritance may be ours would also say this. Cast your lot among us: leave that way of life, be with us, keep sabbath with us, keep the unleavened rites with us, and the other law observances. For they themselves share in the murder.