Chapter XXIX.
How was Noah made a farmer; and what is the difference between a farmer and a tiller of the land: and how one tills the earth and the other works? Why did Noah plant a vineyard first, that is, something unnecessary, when there are springs sufficient for drinking: why also is it written of him, And he drank of the wine: where the double intoxication is discussed; and finally the double exposure of the soul.
107. And Noah began to be a farmer of the land (Gen. IX, 20). Indeed, at first glance, Noah, the just man, seems to be compared to Adam, who was made from the earth, because it is also written about Adam that he began to work the land after being expelled from paradise (Gen. III, 23): the same can be said of Noah, who became a farmer after exiting the ark. And in both cases, there was a certain form of the flood that preceded, since Noah lived after the flood, just as Adam lived after the formation of the world according to the bodily representation. For just as the world was being formed, the water was gathered into one gathering, so that the earth could be seen, which could not be seen before due to the confusion of the waters. Therefore, just as that first master seemed to have worked on the earth, so also, the one who came out of Noah's ark became the author of sowing and cultivation. These things are thought to be similar: but if you consider the words that now express the force of a deeper meaning, it is one thing to be the operator of the earth, and another to be the farmer. For one person functions like a hired worker, and another like the head of a household. In fact, Cain, who killed his brother, was a worker of the land. And so that you may know that working the land is more servile than free, his fratricidal act is included in the curse of his labor. Indeed, it is written: Because you will work the land, and it will not give its strength to you: you will be groaning and trembling upon the earth (Gen. IV, 12).
But our flesh is like the earth that the wicked man tills, but the good man cultivates. The former seeks reward from the earth; the latter seeks to gather good fruit and the grace of discipline, so that he may make his field more fruitful and may be able to respond to the cultivation of the Lord, and may show the indulgence of the cultivator. But the wicked man seeks nothing else but food for his body alone, being more concerned with the use of his belly, and content to explain only what can be beneficial to him for sustenance. Another person is nourished by the benefit of fruits. You recognize what fruits the righteous have. The fruits, however, are the spirit, charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness. Therefore, a good farmer has self-control, chastity, so that if any trees bend quickly to the ground and grow more abundantly, he may cut them as if with the sickle of his temperance, so that they may cast off what is weak and grow what is beautiful.
109. What is it that the righteous person first plants, and not either wheat or barley? And from where does the vine come after the flood and corruption of the earth? But we have already spoken about this (Chapters 19 and 20); for in the springtime even the roots of corrupt things can sprout. Hence, I think that this should be resolved with greater concern, because the righteous person seeks first those things that are for pleasure rather than those that are necessary. For the fruits of wheat and barley are necessary, without which we cannot live; but wine is for pleasure, given for the sake of enjoyment. Because it is just, therefore it claimed for itself more what was secondary than what was first. For it offered to God the necessary sustenance for life, which was second. But wine is unnecessary for humans, and not necessary.
110. But perhaps you may say that it is not possible for humans to live without drink, just as it is without food. Drink is necessary, therefore, just like food: I do not deny. Drink is certainly necessary, established by the Lord: I do not refuse. And so it is fitting to derive necessary drink from springs and rivers, which were not made by the hand of man, but flowed by the command and operation of our Lord God. But do not twist what we have said about the operation of the Lord to refer to what Cain's operation seems to have had curses; consider that it is not the operation that receives the name of the cursed, but rather what is written, to till the land. For the one who works the land is a hired man. But He is not a hired man, but the Lord, who said: My Father is working until now, and I am working (John 5:17). What does this worker do? Listen: My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work (John 4:34).
111. And he drank, he says, from the wine, and he became intoxicated (Gen. IX, 21). He did not say, he drinks wine; nor does the just man excessively drink wine; but from the wine, that is, he tasted its portion. It is the habit of the drunken to consume all the wine and to empty what he has taken like an intemperate person; but self-control should be used in a proper measure. Therefore, there are two kinds of drunkenness: one that brings staggering to the body and causes it to stumble, and disturbs the senses; the other that inflames the mind with the grace of virtue and seems to ward off all weakness. Where the Apostle says: Use a little wine for the sake of your frequent infirmities (I Tim. V, 23). For, just as with that moderate use of drinking, wine is not for weakness but for health, and it alleviates all bodily infirmity, so also that intoxication excludes all infirmity of the flesh, about which it is written: And how glorious is the cup that intoxicates (Ps. XXII, 5)! What is this intoxication? Be intoxicated, he says, not with wine in which is luxury, but be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephes. V, 18), as the Apostle said. Therefore, according to the literal sense, it is caution, and according to the higher sense of wise people, it is praise. The cautious person is one who, even though undressed, is undressed in their own home, where there is no lack of coverings, and certain disguises of drunkenness, so that they can hide their vices.
112. Therefore, the physical body covers the naked body, like walls and roofs: but let us see what the coverings of the soul are. But then we find coverings, if we dispel its nudity. Indeed, the nudity of the sage is twofold. Therefore, our mind is clothed in a twofold garment, if it has committed a foolish sin; for this is the nudity of a drunken mind, so that it does not know that it is sinning, like someone who, led astray by a certain intoxication of ignorance, slips into vice: or, on the other hand, buried in the sleep of negligence and ignorance, it does not know its own error. And when we stumble, or rather when we stumble upon many sins even with knowledge (for there is a certain natural drunkenness of our weakness, so that we are carried away by the force of pleasure into vice, just as many are inflamed by the heat of youth, or are ignited by lust and pleasure, or are snatched away by the desire for greed), certainly in all these cases a remedy should be sought, so that someone may cover up their weakness of this kind, first with a certain modesty and shame; so that even if they are still in a precarious situation of wrongdoing, they may nevertheless give a sign of change for the better. For it makes a great difference whether one desires to boast about their sins. In one case, there is shameful impudence, while in the other, there is tolerable modesty which shows hope for future correction.
113. Another stripping is that of the soul, because it casts off and removes, as it were, a certain burden of the body, as if fleeing from a kind of tomb of flesh. For the throat of such people is an open tomb, in which the soul, burdened with the pleasures and desires of various passions, is as if heaped up in a tomb. It therefore removes itself from earthly congestion, and, like a certain enclosing net, it escapes and flees from whatever snare of passions it has stripped itself of and turns away from all that unsightly appearance of earthly filth, so that it may see the light of eternal beauty.