Before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
All Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 12:6 Go To Ecclesiastes 12
Didymus the Blind
AD 398
Some are able to drink from the fountain without the pitcher. Rebecca, which means steadfastness in the good, stepped down to the fountain and scooped the water with the pitcher in order to give the thirsty servant [of Abraham] to drink; but she herself drank from the fountain without the pitcher.… The imperfect knowledge and the imperfect prophecy are the pitcher filled from the fountain. When the imperfect will pass away, the pitcher is broken. Its content, however, is not lost.… When one does not need to drink from the pitcher anymore because the Savior has given to drink and prepared in the person who drinks a spring of living water, then the pitcher is not needed for the person who has the fountain of living water inside.
