Letter 93

To Silvanus the Bishop. Elijah the Tishbite, having slept beneath the shrubs [the broom tree; cf. 1 Kings 19:4-6], and on being awakened, sees at his head a cake baked on the coals and a cruse of water. Who, then, is great enough to find a cake baked on the coals lying at his head, in which Solomon says the spiritual eyes of the wise man have their hidden nourishment? Or rather, who is great enough to obtain, from reverent inquiry and genuine asking, the spiritual bread that bestows life upon the soul, and the water that leaps up unto eternal life [cf. John 4:14]?

Ἠλίας ὁ Θεσβίτης ὑπὸ φυτῶν καθευδήσας, καὶ ἐγερθεὶς ὁρᾷ πρὸς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ ἐγκρυφίαν καὶ κρυψάμην ὕδατος. Τίς τοίνυν τηλικοῦτος, ὥστε εὑρεῖν ἐγκρυφίαν, πρὸς κεφαλῆς κείμενον, ἐν ᾗ ὑπαλφὴ ὑπάρχειν λέγει Σολομὼν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τοῦ σοφοῦ τοὺς νοητούς· ἢ ἀπὸ εὐσεβοῦς ζητήσεως καὶ αἰτήσεως γνησίας, τὸν πνευματικὸν ἄρτον τὸν ἐπιδίδοντα τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ ἀλλόμενον εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον;