As it is impossible to recognize a white thing if one does not know the color white, and as it is impossible to recognize science if one does not know what science is, so it is also impossible to recognize a wise person by someone who does not know wisdom according to which the wise person is formed and called.

Here he means that the wisdom of a person makes the face shine, but not the face of the body, not a part of the flesh, but the face of the inner person. . . . The face of the inner person is illuminated by wisdom. But wisdom, light, Logos, truth and the other conceptions are identical when applied to Christ.

And you find in another passage, For he that keeps the commandment does not know the wicked word when it is altogether clear that knowledge of wickedness is not culpable, but association with it is.

Whoever knows what is good also knows at the same time what is bad. To know here does not mean to do but simply to know about something. Because when the commandment is given to turn away from evil and do good, we must also know evil in order to be able to turn away from it and to choose good. About these things the apostle writes with the following words: But test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.^[1] One sees here that whoever tests everything, knows that the good is to be chosen and obeyed and that the evil is to be avoided. . . . Ecclesiastes means that he who obeys the command does not know an evil word, that is, he does not say that he does not understand it, but that he does not use it.

In the direct and literal sense, there is no person who has power over the spirit^[1] so as to understand the movement of air, that is, the wind as breath. The human being has no great power as long as he does not have power over the wind. He can do nothing to cause it and nothing to prevent it when it wants to harm him. Sailors have no power to direct the wind in accordance to their direction, and they cannot stop it when it is fierce and dangerous, even if they are excellent sailors. Thus we have to understand it in this sense in the literal meaning. Since, however, the soul of human beings often is called breath, we also can say: There is no one who has the power to cause the soul to remain within him or who has the power to take it from other living beings. This depends on providence.

It is clear, then, that no one can be deceived by the devil except one who has chosen to yield to him the consent of his own will. As Ecclesiastes clearly puts it in these words: For since there is no speedy opposition to those who do evil, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set to do evil. It is therefore clear that each person goes wrong from this; namely, that when evil thoughts assault him he does not immediately meet them with refusal and contradiction.

UPUntil now, never confuting him with your own answer or that of another, you allowed him to lord it over you, according to that saying of Solomon’s: Because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the heart of the children of men is full within them to do evil. Therefore after his exposure that evil spirit will no longer be able to disturb you, nor will that foul serpent ever again make his lurking place in you, since he has been dragged out into light from the darkness by your life-giving confession.

Let them rest assured that punishment shall be inflicted on the wicked, and rewards shall be bestowed upon the righteous, by him who deals with everyone as each deserves, and who will proportion his rewards to the good that each has done, and to the account of himself that he is able to give. And let all know that the good shall be advanced to a higher state, and that the wicked shall be delivered over to sufferings and torments, in punishment of their licentiousness and depravity, their cowardice, timidity, and all their follies.

In fact, Solomon gives over the entire book of Ecclesiastes to suggesting, with such fullness as he judged adequate, the emptiness of this life, with the ultimate objective, to be sure, of making us yearn for another kind of life which is no unsubstantial shadow under the sun but substantial reality under the sun’s Creator. For a person becomes as insubstantial as the insubstantiality that surrounds him, and it is by God’s righteous decree that he, too, must pass away like a shadow.

So Solomon bears witness, saying, There are just men to whom many things happen, as though they had done the deeds of the wicked; and there are wicked, who are as secure as though they had the deeds of the just. God no doubt so ordains it of his inestimable mercy, that scourges should torture the just, lest their doings should elate them, and that the unjust should pass this life at least without punishment, because, by their evil doings, they are hastening onward to those torments that are without end. For that the just are sometimes scourged in no way according to their deserving is shown by this very history that we are considering.

Now, to be made a sharer at the table is to begin to have life, as we see from a text in Ecclesiastes: There is no good for a man except what he shall eat and drink. How can we reasonably interpret these words save as an allusion to partaking at the table which the Mediator of the New Testament, priest according to the order of Melchizedek, provides with his own body and blood? This sacrifice, indeed, has taken the place of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament that foreshadowed it.