16 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.
This is not written of her in vain. Nevertheless the meaning of the statement disturbs me: “She was a virgin, whom no man had known.” It is indeed as if a virgin were something other than one whom a man has not touched. And what does the addition seem to mean in reference to a virgin that it should be said, “A man had not known her”? Is there indeed another virgin whom a man has touched?I have often said already that in these stories history is not being narrated but mysteries are interwoven. I think therefore that something such as this is indicated in this story.
Just as Christ is said to be the husband of the soul, to whom the soul is married when it comes to faith, so also, contrary to this, he who also is called “an enemy” when “he sows tares among the wheat” is called the husband to whom the soul is married when it turns away to faithlessness. It is not sufficient, therefore, for the soul to be pure in body; it is necessary also that this most wicked man “has not known it.” For it can happen that someone may possess virginity in body, and knowing that most wicked man, the devil, and receiving darts of concupiscence from him in the heart destroy the purity of the soul. Because, therefore, Rebekah was a virgin “holy in body and spirit,” for this reason the Scripture doubles her praise and says, “She was a virgin; a man had not known her.”
And so Isaac is good and true, for he is full of grace and a fountain of joy. To that fountain came Rebekah to fill her water jar. For Scripture says that “going down to the fountain she filled her water jar and came up.” And so the church or the soul went down to the fountain of wisdom to fill its own vessel and draw up the teachings of pure wisdom, which the Jews did not wish to draw from the flowing fountain. Listen to him as he says who that fountain is. “They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water.” The soul of the prophets ran thirsting to this fountain, even as David says, “My soul has thirsted after the living God,” that he might fill his thirst with the richness of the knowledge of God and might wash away the blood of foolishness with watering of spiritual streams.
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Genesis 24:16
Just as Christ is said to be the husband of the soul, to whom the soul is married when it comes to faith, so also, contrary to this, he who also is called “an enemy” when “he sows tares among the wheat” is called the husband to whom the soul is married when it turns away to faithlessness. It is not sufficient, therefore, for the soul to be pure in body; it is necessary also that this most wicked man “has not known it.” For it can happen that someone may possess virginity in body, and knowing that most wicked man, the devil, and receiving darts of concupiscence from him in the heart destroy the purity of the soul. Because, therefore, Rebekah was a virgin “holy in body and spirit,” for this reason the Scripture doubles her praise and says, “She was a virgin; a man had not known her.”