TEXTS
“These letters are foolishness.” This is what the soulish man says, for “The soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him” (1 Cor. 2:14). Look at what the text itself says: “And say this to the people: ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel’ ” – let what “the Lord God of Israel says” be worthy of the Lord God of Israel – “Every jar shall be filled with wine, and it shall be if they say to you, ‘Are we so ignorant as not to know that every jar shall be filled with wine?’ ” (Jer. 13:12). If those who make this response do so in such a way as to stick to the verbal level, saying that they have known that every jar shall be filled with wine, they speak falsely, for it is not the case that every jar shall be filled with wine. There are, in fact, jars filled with olive oil or other fluids, and some stay empty. Therefore they speak falsely, for it is not the case that every jar shall be filled with wine. Yet the people replied saying, “Are we so ignorant as not to know that every jar shall be filled with wine?” We shall interpret this to the best of our ability as follows. If we regard the different wines and what is said about them, we shall see, following the logical consequences of what is said about wines, that “every jar shall be filled with wine” is true. If there is a jar among the jars that is, so to speak, good, it will be filled with wine according to its goodness, and if there is one that is bad as jars go and in comparison with others, according to its bad quality it shall be filled with bad wine. How is it possible to learn from Scripture about the different wines? This is written about the worse kinds: “For their vine is a vine of Sodom and their tendrils are from Gomorra, their cluster is a cluster of bile, grapes of bitterness to them; their wine is the wrath of serpents and the incurable wrath of asps” (Deut. 32:32–3), but about the better kinds: “How strong is the cup that inebriates me!” (Ps. 22:5 [23:5])1 and Wisdom invites to her mixing bowl saying: “Come, eat my bread, and drink wine which I have mixed for you” (Prov. 9:5). Thus there is a wine of Sodom and a wine which wisdom mixes, and again, “My beloved had a vine on a mountain peak in a fertile place” (Isa. 5:1), which was called the vineyard of Sorek, because it is Chosen and Marvelous, and there is the vine of the Egyptians which God struck according to the passage: “God has struck their vine with hail and their little figs with hoar-frost” (Ps. 77:47 [78:47]). 2 Consider then that all men may be regarded figuratively as vessels of wine and call them, accordingly, “jars.” I say that the scoundrel is filled with the wine of the “vine of Sodom,” filled with the wine of the Egyptians and of the enemies of Israel. But the one who is holy and has been benefited is filled with the 180