Glaphyra in Pentateuchum

Let us observe with careful eyes, and, attempting as far as possible to thin out the thickness of the mist that lies upon them, let us say to him who gives sight to the blind—I mean that word: Open my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law. Therefore (for I will return to what was said at the beginning and recall again what I stated), Leah the elder must very well be compared to the Synagogue of the Jews; but Rachel we will understand to be the Church of the Gentiles. And having as it were first laid down the faith in this as a foundation for our words, let us proceed to the rest. 9. Leah, then, first bore four sons; then in between, from the two handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, there were four others. But when Leah and Rachel had divided between themselves the mandrakes found in the fields by Reuben, both became mothers; and Leah, in addition to those four, bears Issachar, which means "wages"; then Zebulun, which again, when interpreted, means "blessing" and "prosperity." And Rachel also bore Joseph, which means "addition of God." And after him, at the end, Benjamin, which means "son of pain." For the elder in time—that is, the Synagogue—first bore to God the multitude of the Jews. And that God called those born of her sons, you will understand very well, when he says to Moses: Israel is my firstborn son. And through the voice of Isaiah: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten sons and exalted them, but they have rejected me. However, they were born of free women on account of the fathers, upon whom he did not cast the yoke of the law.

For indeed the blessed Paul himself also showed us the freedom of the fathers, saying: But I was once alive apart from the law. He assigns the "I" to the root of the race, and traces it up to the heads of the fathers. But that they were going to submit to the yoke of slavery according to the law, even if they had been born of free parents, the neighboring and closely joined generation of the four, who were also born of maidservants, would show us enigmatically. But there is also a mystery in them. For those from Bilhah, Dan and Naphtali, were enrolled under Rachel; while those of Zilpah, Gad and Asher, were enrolled under Leah, and were later-born than those from Bilhah. But, I think, someone might altogether raise a difficulty, and very reasonably, how those born of a maidservant—I mean Bilhah—could be enrolled under Rachel, although they fulfill the type of the Church from the nations. What then do we say to this? That in the beginning the blessed prophets were counted among the children of the enslaved Jerusalem, but were in a certain way sons of the Church from the nations. For they thought her thoughts, saying that the mystery of Christ would be brought to light and would shine forth in due seasons, and fore-figuring it through countless forms, and almost bringing it before the eyes of the more ancient. But those after them, born again into slavery, did not receive Christ, the provider of freedom; and that the first were better than those after them, it is easy to see, since God says through the voice of Isaiah: How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot, full of judgment, in which righteousness slept within her, but now murderers?

You understand how he says that Jerusalem, that is Zion, became full of judgment—that is, of uprightness—and a dwelling place of the righteous, but in later times was filled with murderers. 10. One could see, quite clearly, even from the names themselves, if one wished, that those through Bilhah would be nurslings of the Church, but those from Zilpah rather enemies. For Dan is interpreted as "judgment," and Naphtali as "broadening." This became the proclamation for the prophets. For that Christ was going to judge the world in righteousness, and to condemn Satan as one who had taken advantage of us and destroyed us, but to save us as well and to transfer us, as it were, from great constriction into a broad heart—it is no difficult thing to show again. For the blessed Psalmist cried out, saying, as from the person of those in Christ and sanctified in the Spirit: I ran the way of your commandments, when you broadened my heart. And the most wise Paul, writing to those among the Corinthians who wished to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, says: Our mouth has been opened to you, Corinthians, our heart has been broadened. You are not constricted in us, but you are constricted in your own affections; and I say the same recompense as to children. Be broadened also yourselves, do not become unequally yoked with unbelievers. And that judgment has become upright and just from Christ, the blessed David himself will again make clear, putting upon himself the person of those who had been taken advantage of, and saying to the Savior of all, Christ: Awake, Lord, and attend to my judgment, my God, my Lord, for my cause.

The Savior himself makes this clear when he says: Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Do you see that the prophets foretold that a just judgment and an enlargement of heart would come to us, speaking the mystery that concerns Christ? So then, from Bilhah were born Dan and Naphtali, which means judgment and enlargement; and from Zilpah, Gad and Asher; and Gad is interpreted as a place of trial, while Asher means wealth. Were not, then, the later peoples of the Jews of this sort, after the first ones? How, then, is it ambiguous? For one could see this from the very things that happened in the time of Christ. For some tested him together with those called Herodians, saying: Teacher, we know that you are true, and you care for no one; for you do not look at the face of men, but you teach the way of God in truth; is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? They came forward testing him, in order to trap him. For the inspired evangelist has testified thus. But others, for the sake of gain and love of profit, did not receive the Son. For they said, it says, among themselves: This is

The heir, come, let us kill him, so that the inheritance may become ours.” That the Pharisees were exceedingly fond of wealth and greedy for gain, and that the unholy band of the Scribes was too, one may see, and very readily, by applying the mind to what has been written about them. For our Lord Jesus Christ said that those who have chosen to set their minds on things above must sell off earthly wealth and distribute their possessions to the poor, so that they may gain the treasure above. But, as the evangelist says, the Scribes and the Pharisees, being lovers of money, heard these things and sneered at him. And that, reaching even to the most trivial matters, they busied themselves with hair-splitting with great precision, not even letting go the smallest point against those who did not bring the appointed tithes according to the law—although they cared little for the law—the Lord made completely clear to them when he said: “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and you have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, and mercy, and faith.” Therefore Gad is a den of robbers, and Asher is wealth. And both were born of Zilpah the maidservant, after Dan and Naphtali, who were from Bilhah. But in these things let the time before the coming of our Savior be written for us—the time when Rachel was still barren, that is, the Church from the nations; and that she will bear many and will be the nurse of countless children, Isaiah proclaimed beforehand, saying: “Rejoice, barren woman, you who do not give birth. Break forth and cry out, you who do not labor in childbirth; for the children of the desolate are more than those of her who has a husband.

The inspired David also made this clear when he said of God: “He settles the barren woman in a house, a mother rejoicing over her children.” And somewhere the Master and God of all also said to her: “Lift up your eyes round about, and see all.” And again: “Behold, these come from afar, these from the north, and these from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians.” Come then, if it seems good, let us consider when and how the barren woman has given birth. Accordingly, after those who were born from handmaids, Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, finds mandrakes in the field; and he brings them to Leah his own mother. And she gives them to Rachel when she asks. And Leah, having taken the mandrakes, bears two more sons, Issachar and indeed Zebulun. Then God remembers Rachel, and when her womb was opened, she too bore Joseph, and at the end Benjamin. That Leah hints at the Synagogue of the Jews, and Rachel at the Church from the Gentiles, the word has foretold to us very many times. So then, dismissing as unprofitable the repetition of the same things, let us now relate what the mandrakes, found through Reuben the firstborn, might be a type of. And what might the distribution to both and, as it were, equally signify? For Leah gave to Rachel. And in addition to these, what does the very birth of the children mean, laboring with the mystery in the meanings of the names? 11. The mandrakes, then, grow in fields; and their kind is the apple.

That sleep is the thing, and that it soaks those who partake of it in a deep stupor, I think will not need a long argument to demonstrate, since the wakefulness of the sick is sometimes overcome by the physicians' skill through the natural power of mandrakes. These also hint the mystery of Christ to us in an enigmatic way, as one who slept in a manner for our sake, and lowered himself into emptying even to death, even if he rose to life again. For he was God by nature, and became flesh. But wherever death is altogether taken in the order of sleep, there one must also seek the rising again to life. And in these things, as it were, is the whole mystery of Christ. And indeed the inspired Paul, to those who had been stirred by levity into a different opinion, charges, saying: For I delivered to you first of all what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And after other things: But if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

For since Christ first among men showed death to be sleep (for he was life by nature), a kind of door and road, as it were, has come to human nature, so that from then on one must needs drowse through death itself. For this reason indeed the most wise Paul, up and down, calls those overtaken by death "those who have fallen asleep," as those who will presently come back to life through Christ. For he said again: "For if we believe that Christ died and rose again, so also God will raise those who have fallen asleep with Jesus, and will present them with us." So then, mandrakes are a sign of sleep. And Reuben, being firstborn, finds these, then carries them to his mother; and she divided them with her sister. For those from Israel, the firstborn, were the first in time to understand and to be enriched with the mystery concerning Christ; and indeed, having brought to their own mother—I mean Jerusalem—a brilliant discovery of the shrewdness that was in them, they persuaded her to rejoice. For before the calling of the Gentiles, the divine disciples initiated those throughout all Judea. For even if perhaps not all believed, yet at any rate they received the word concerning Christ. And the remnant has been saved, according to the Scriptures. That the Jews have anticipated the Gentiles in faith is surely evident, and not unclear to any of those who exist. Leah, then, having taken the mandrakes, bore two sons, Issachar and Zebulun. And Issachar is interpreted as "wage":

But another, that is, Zebulun, means "good journey" and "blessing." For as I have already said, through the holy apostles, as through her own children, the Synagogue of the Jews having received thereafter the mystery of Christ, was shown to be a mother of children who are prospered by God with reward and blessings. For that faith in Christ is not without reward, the forgiveness of sins would immediately teach. And our Lord Jesus Christ himself will confirm this, saying: "Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in me has eternal life." No less also the blessed Paul: "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation." What reward, then, is greater and more worthy of acceptance than to save a soul? For that this possession is excellent and worthy of every account, the Savior himself persuades us, saying: "For what will a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Glorious, then, and saving is the reward for those who believe. And that for those who have been justified in Christ there follows in every way also the need to be blessed, would not be a matter of dispute. For we have been sanctified in the Spirit. And the blessed David says: "The blessing of the Lord be upon you. You are blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

God said somewhere also through the voice of Isaiah, to the mother of those who believe, I mean the Church: I will put my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children. In agreement with this the most wise Paul also writes to those justified in faith, saying: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. But those who have richly partaken of the blessing from above, how would they not be prospered unto every good work? For the way of the pious, he says, became straight, and the way of the pious has been prepared. For the way of the Lord is judgment. For concerning the Synagogue of the Jews God said somewhere: Behold, I block up her ways, and she shall not find her path. But us, sending us into the dwellings above by a smooth, as it were, and leveled road, he commands the holy ministers: Open the gates, let the people enter in who keeps righteousness, and declares the truth, who takes hold of the truth, and keeps peace. And again: Make a way for my people, and the

Scatter the stones from the road, so that those who stumble on the obstacles in between may not receive hesitation toward good endeavors. Therefore Leah bore those who are prospered by God for reward and blessings; and Rachel likewise, having received the mandrakes, bore Joseph. For just as the Church, having received the mystery of Christ through the holy apostles, as from a like sister—the Synagogue of the Jews—has appeared as mother of a people that is always in increase and going on to a multitude not measured (for Joseph is interpreted as "addition of God"), so the Church from the Gentiles has been added to the flocks from Israel. Therefore Christ also said: And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. Therefore the flock from the Gentiles has been added, as I said just now, to the older flocks, and it has an unceasing, rich increase into the ever more and more, until in the last times, as it were, Benjamin himself is born—that is, the people that is a son of pain. 12. And who is this, upon whom even the mother herself will at last cease, and as it were pass over to another life? For Rachel died in the very pangs of Benjamin. To know these things with exact precision we will again commit to God, and to those who are prudent among us; but it does no harm to say what has come to mind. I think, then, that it would reasonably be understood that the people who are a son of pain is the multitude of those who believe in the last times of the age.

For at that time there will also be the son of lawlessness, the one who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in the temple of God as God, showing himself that he is God. This one will set himself against the saints, and will differ in nothing from untamed beasts. For as the Savior himself said, there will then be great tribulation, such as has not occurred from the beginning of the world, nor ever will occur. And that the things of that one's perversity and inhumanity will fall not on others but on the saints, Christ himself has again made clear, adding: And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. For since persecution will come against every chosen and genuine person in the faith, as a terrible and unbearable greed, and indeed tortures will be inflicted on some, my time will certainly be in straits, with the compassionate God, I think, measuring the trial to the strength of those who labor. The most wise Paul also persuades us to think this way: But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way out, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, when Benjamin is born—that is, the people who are at the end and in pains—Rachel too will cease. For, as I said just now, the Church will depart to another life—that is, we, who through faith in Christ have been enriched with union with God through the Spirit. And do not be surprised if death has removed Rachel from the things of this world.

For sometimes the matter will trouble some people who have been brought to contemplate what happened long ago. Will the Church, then, cease at times, and be extinguished in a manner of speaking by death? And is this the transition to better things? To such things we say: When you hear "Church," know that it means the holy multitude of those who believe; for whom to have died, in respect of the life that is in the world and fleshly, is a road to progress in the citizenship and life in Christ, and a manner of transition to the better and higher things. For this reason the blessed Paul also brings a more vehement rebuke upon some, saying: If you died from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to decrees? And again he writes to those who shake off the fleshly and pleasure-loving life: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. And he said that we must also put to death the members that are upon the earth

Plainly, calling it fornication and uncleanness, and the things akin to these. Therefore the death of Rachel signifies, in some way entirely, the death understood in Christ of the flock of the faithful, that is, of the Church, as it were carrying them over to another life; since it is true that our condition will be changed from corruption to incorruption, from death to life, from weakness to power, from dishonor to glory, from measured times to long-lived life. For thus, thus also we shall be with Christ himself forever; through whom and with whom be the glory and the might to God and the Father, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

GLAPHYRA ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS, BOOK 5.

Concerning Jacob. 1. In many parts and in many ways the God-inspired Scripture foretells the types of the salvation through Christ, placing no small benefit from this for those who will read it. For just as those who have been thoroughly trained in the art of painting embellish with the manifold forms of colors, bringing the shadows into a more visible appearance, and pouring out much grace of the painting; so also the wisdom that is the craftsman of this whole universe, that is, God, through various adornments of every kind subtly reveals beforehand the beauty of the mystery, so that those being initiated, understanding as in riddles, and making the matter almost a preliminary instruction and introduction to understanding, might be somewhat more ready for the acceptance of the truth. We spend our time, then, in this world, differing little, or perhaps even being inferior to irrational animals, if God made the rebuke truly against those of Israel, saying thus:

The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel does not know me, and my people do not understand. But if the peoples of the Jews, having the Law as their paedagogue, were condemned for such terrible ignorance, what account could there then be concerning the Gentiles, upon whom the deep darkness of the polytheistic error has fallen? For as if forever stooping downward, and entangled in the desires of the flesh, they hastened to think only of the things upon the earth, not even able to lift up the eye of the mind, so to speak, to the heights of the love of God. Hence the blessed prophets, lamenting for us and all but weeping over us as we lay there, spent countless words. For the blessed Isaiah says, Hades has enlarged his soul, and opened his mouth without ceasing. For there was no turning away from evil; but weighed down as if by an unbearable greed by the Satan who tyrannized over us, the wretched ones descended into Hades at their departure from here, while death swallowed them greedily and shepherded them, as it were, into this, the inventor of sin. And indeed not without tears, as I said just now, did the inspired David himself also call to mind such a calamity. And he spoke thus concerning us, at one time: They were set as sheep in Hades, death shall shepherd them; and at another time: Shepherd of Israel, give heed, you who lead Joseph like a sheep; you who sit upon the Cherubim, appear; stir up your power, and come to save us. For this reason we have not remained under death forever.

For God the Father has sent us from heaven the good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ—not to shepherd those who have come under him in Hades, but to lead them away to incorruption and life. For he pastures them among lilies, and in good pasture, and in a rich place, according to what is written: setting before us the spiritual grass, and making us drunk with streams from above and from heaven, and making us fruitful, and in addition to these things, he enlarges us into a measureless multitude of peoples. And again, as it were in shadows, one may see, as I said, the wondrous Jacob, and the things written concerning him, as the word sets them forth and makes bright, as far as possible, what in the history seems somehow obscure. It is written, then, as follows: And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban: Send me away, that I may depart to my place and to my land; give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, that I may depart. For you know the service which I have served you, and how many were your cattle with me. For they were few, as many as you had before me, and they have increased into a multitude. And the Lord blessed you at my foot. Now therefore, when shall I also make a house for myself? And Laban said to him: What shall I give you? And Jacob said to him: You shall give me nothing. If you will do this thing for me, I will again shepherd your sheep today and keep them. Let all your sheep pass by today; separate from there every speckled and dark-colored sheep, and every gray animal among the lambs.

And every speckled and spotted among the goats shall be my wages, and my righteousness shall answer for me on the morrow, for it is my wages before you. Every one that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, and dark among the sheep, shall be stolen with me. And Laban said to him: Let it be according to your word. And on that day he separated the he-goats that were spotted and speckled, and all the she-goats that were spotted and speckled, and every one that was white among them, and every one that was dark among the sheep, and gave them into the hands of his sons, and set a journey of three days between them and between Jacob. And Jacob shepherded the sheep of Laban that were left. We must now again, as briefly as possible, gather together the breadth of the history, and further add what sense would be fitting for the contemplations upon it. 2. The blessed Jacob, then, served Laban for two daughters, Leah, I say, and Rachel. And having spent long years for this, when Joseph was born to him from Rachel, who was especially and exceedingly beloved, he is reasonably at a loss thereafter, and again he hastens to go home. And the account of his departure has no implausible invention. For if, he says, I were to distribute your goods without wages and continually, when shall I also make a house for myself? that is, when shall I gather together the things that sustain life for my own children, and shall I myself also be called master of a house? But this is Jacob's part. Laban, however, changes his tune as of a good shepherd, and says that he is blessed at his coming in. But he by no means lets him go.

And yet the servitude for the daughters had reached its appointed end. And he promises to provide the pleasing wage. But that he was becoming good and gentle, and one of those most exceedingly patient, and indeed the cause of blessing from God for him, he affirmed clearly. For he said, "God blessed you for my sake," placing "for my sake" in place of "at my foot." For Laban had said this beforehand. And he asks for a wage, and promises to distribute Laban's flocks. When those sprinkled, that is, the white and ash-colored, had been apportioned to him and separated out individually. When this had happened, Jacob sets apart the flock allotted to him together with his own children, but he himself still shepherds Laban's. What then, of such things, would be the clear and, as it were, winnowed to spiritual fineness meaning for us, it is necessary to say. 3. Let Jacob, then, be understood as bearing the person of Christ himself, just as indeed we have said before. For Christ is the true supplanter. For sin has been trodden down entirely, both in the sense in which it is understood, and he has appeared as man, being youngest and later-born than those who came before him—I mean the holy prophets, and Moses himself. Nevertheless he holds the primacy, and is firstborn because the Only-Begotten has attained among many brothers. He is the one blessed by the Father through abundance of grain and wine. Nations have served him, and rulers have bowed down to him. And he who curses him is cursed; but he who blesses is blessed, according to the blessing

Isaac. He who in likeness to Jacob had, so to speak, all but left heaven as a kind of ancestral home, and had come to Laban, whom one must liken to the world, which never knows who the God by nature is, but has fallen sick, as it were, exceedingly with the polytheistic error; for Laban too was an idolater. The world is indeed Christ's own, inasmuch as He is understood to be God by nature and Lord and Creator of all things, yet it is not His own again because of the apostasy, and because it already seems in some way to have become another's through sin. For it was inscribed to Satan as king. Therefore the Word has come down from heaven, as though He had left His ancestral home. For this is what I said just now. And He was as a stranger in His own world. And the wise John will testify, saying: He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. But these things would perhaps reasonably fit the times of His visitation. That even before the incarnation He was among His own as God, yet unknown to the world, He took thought for our affairs, out of innate goodness and God-befitting gentleness—the divine Jacob would straightway show this as in a type in his own person. For he shepherded Laban's sheep, though he had from him no wage at all; but by hope alone, having been led to this, that he might be joined to his two daughters, and be shown forth as father of legitimate children. And these were Leah and Rachel. For the Son, being God by nature, was in the world; for this is Laban.

And he was, as it were, shepherding in a certain manner, as God ordering the things that sustain life, granting the fruits of the earth, sending forth springs of waters and the streams of rivers, causing his sun to rise, according to what is written, sending down rains, implanting in human nature the innate prudence. For he himself is The true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world. And he was fulfilling these things, as I said, for the sake of his innate gentleness alone; and receiving, as it were, no reward from those in the world at that time—neither glorification, nor worship, nor right opinion, nor an unerring conception concerning him—but having foreknown that he would have two wives at the appointed times, who would be mothers of legitimate children to him, bearing them spiritually. And who are these? First, the elder, that is, Leah, fulfilling the type of the Synagogue of the Jews. Second, and not long after, and thrice-desired, the younger Rachel, that is, the Church from the Gentiles, who also bore Joseph, which is interpreted as the addition of God. For the flock from the Gentiles has been added to those from Israel. But it is also understood in another way: she goes on through the additions of believers at the appointed times to a multitude beyond measure. But observe the carefulness. For the precision in these matters is very profitable: Leah gave birth before Rachel; then in between there were two maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah. But Jacob was for a time at rest; and he had not yet considered making a house of his own. Rachel bore Joseph, and thereafter he longs for a house: For when, he says, shall I make for myself a house? For the Synagogue of the Jews bore those who were for slavery under the law. But Christ did not yet clearly acknowledge that he had a house of his own.

For he did not at all accept the temple made of stones, which Solomon built. And indeed, when the Jews were once exceedingly puffed up over this, he all but rebukes them, saying: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is a footstool for my feet. What sort of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? But neither has Israel become a spiritual house of God. For he did not dwell in them. But since the Church from the Gentiles has brought forth the new people, added in addition, the Savior was thereafter preparing for himself a house of his own. And who is this? We who have believed, concerning whom he also speaks through the voice of the prophet: Giving my laws into their mind, and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people. He dwells in us through the Spirit, just as I recently said, having not dwelt in Israel. For that those before the coming were without a share in the Spirit—I speak, as it were, in a figure, in comparison with what is ours—the most wise John will make clear, saying: For the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

For having been raised from the dead and reshaping human nature into the divine image, he first breathed upon the holy apostles, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit. And the inspired Paul also said somewhere: For you did not receive a spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, in which we cry: Abba, Father. Therefore there was a spirit of slavery in Israel; but in us who are from Rachel—that is, from the Church of the Gentiles—there is the Spirit of God unto adoption, making us the spiritual house. For those from Rachel are free, whose eyes are beautiful and lovely, although Leah's were not so. For the Synagogue of the Jews does not see soundly. And the most wise Paul will testify, saying: For until this very day the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament, not being unveiled, because it is done away in Christ. But until today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all, as he himself again said, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Do you understand that with beautiful eyes and unveiled face we behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror? For Rachel's eyes are bright, as I said just now. Since, therefore, the youngest Rachel has borne Joseph, the inspired Jacob now hastens to go home.

Laban is transformed, and he says he is blessed to the point of a whole multitude, the herd being broadened. For the world greatly needs God, even if perhaps it does not say so, yet by knowing and confessing that all things—both those that sustain life and those that contribute to well-being—are from God. But the blessed Jacob asks for a wage, no longer being held to be there in vain. And the wage was not unwelcome to him: the speckled, the ash-colored. In the times from above and still past, although he administered the world out of his innate and God-befitting gentleness, the God Logos through whom all things exist allowed those in it to walk in their own ways, according to what is written. But since the Church has given birth to the people who are always in additions and new, that is, those who have already obtained spiritual rebirth through faith in him, he demands from the world as a kind of wage for his providence over it those who are more ready for believing, of whom the ash-colored and spotted are a type. What then is this? Always, in flocks of sheep and goats, the single-colored are preferable to those who raise them; but the spotted and speckled have second rank, and are not on equal account with the others. For the wool in them is not single-colored, but slightly varied, and is of a different color and, as it were, mixed together. Christ therefore receives from the world, not surely all the things in it that are precious and choice among men, but rather those that seem to be in a lower state among them and not in equal esteem. And the inspired Paul will confirm the account, writing to those who have believed:

For see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many well-born; but God chose the foolish things of the world, so that he might put the wise to shame, and God chose the weak things of the world, so that he might put the strong to shame. But this could also be understood in another way, if one wished to examine such matters precisely: the sprinkled with ashes. For those in Christ who possess what is fitting are in some way variegated, as in deeds and words. For the gray and the black would be reckoned as an enigma and shadow of the mystery according to Christ, and one would describe the obscure, indistinct to the many word concerning him. For the inspired David also said somewhere in the book of Psalms, that He made darkness his hiding place, his tent round about him. Dark water in the clouds of the air—likening to a tent, as it were, the hard-to-grasp nature of the doctrines concerning God, and naming the darkness, and dark water in the clouds of the air. And Wisdom also promises to grant to some richly the power to understand parables and the dark word, sayings

and the riddles of the wise. Therefore the deep and, as it were, dark meaning of the doctrines concerning Christ is hinted at for us by the dusky color. But the bright and, as it were, transparent element—I mean in works of piety—will set alongside it the other, that is, the white. For this reason the Master of all also foretells the purification of faith in Christ, saying through the voice of the prophet: Learn to do good, seek judgment, rescue the wronged, judge the orphan, and justify the widow, and come, and let us reason together, says the Lord. And if your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow. And if they be as crimson, I will make them white as wool. Therefore chosen also in the preeminent word with the Savior of all, Christ, are those who hold the second rank in the world, and are placed as it were among others in lesser positions, and are surpassed in glory, and are dappled, as it were, having the variegated in a spiritual sense as in the depth of the doctrines concerning God, and richly possessing the word that is not manifest to others, and exceedingly distinguished by the brightness that is according to piety. So the dappled things are Jacob's wage. But in what manner he outwitted Laban, and does very many of the things chosen, let us investigate, if it seems good, and learn from the sacred Scriptures themselves. For it is thus: And Jacob took for himself a rod of storax, green, and of walnut, and of plane tree. And Jacob peeled them with white peelings, stripping off the green. And the white which he peeled appeared on the rods, variegated.

And he set the rods, which he had peeled, in the troughs of the watering places of the water, so that, when the sheep came to drink, when they came to drink before the rods, the sheep might conceive at the rods. And the sheep bore young that were all white, and speckled, and ash-colored spotted. But Jacob separated the lambs, and set before the sheep a ram all white, and every speckled one among the lambs. And he set apart for himself flocks by themselves, and did not mix them with the sheep of Laban. And it came to pass in the time when the sheep conceived in the womb, Jacob set the rods before the sheep in the troughs, so that they might conceive at the rods. But whenever the sheep bore young, he did not set them. And the unmarked ones became Laban's, and the marked ones Jacob's; and the man became exceedingly, exceedingly rich. Now we say that it belongs to pastoral knowledge to know that sheep and goats would bring forth offspring resembling all the things they see, and that the offspring would become of like kind to the colors of the things that fall in their way, if they should look upon them at the time of conception. And somehow the matter seems to be brought about by the laws of nature. But such things are wholly unutterable, and untrodden by our conceptions. But the chosen things, ash-colored and speckled, the inspired Jacob again made according to a divine oracle. For he said somewhere to Leah and Rachel: And it came to pass when the sheep conceived in the womb, and I saw with my eyes in my sleep. And behold, the he-goats and the rams that were mounting the she-goats and the sheep were all white and speckled and ash-colored spotted.

And the angel of God said to me in a dream, "Jacob." And I said, "What is it?" And he said, "Lift up your eyes and see the he-goats and the rams mounting the sheep and the she-goats, white and speckled and ash-colored with spots." This, then, is what the sacred Scripture says. But come, let us run beneath the lowly level of the history and ascend to the spiritual things. 4. The rod again allegorically inscribes for us the Emmanuel. For it has been named thus in the God-inspired Scripture. For the divine Isaiah says, "And a rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from the root." And to the Father and God in the heavens, the divine David, assuming the person of the believers, cried out to us: "Your rod and your staff, these have comforted me." For we have been comforted in Christ, and we have made him our support. For it is written, that "The Lord will shield the righteous." For us, then, who are rational goats, the flocks throughout

Christ sets himself before the whole inhabited world, and in the entire cosmos, like a rod. Not simply a rod, but a storax rod, and a walnut rod, and as it were from a plane tree. This plant too is among those attested for uprightness; and the storax is a sign of death. For a dead body is treated with spices, and the sweetest of spices is storax. Christ died for us and was buried, according to the Scriptures; and the walnut is a sign of watchfulness and sleeplessness. For such things nature works in us. Christ was raised for us. For he did not become subject to the gates of Hades, nor was he wholly captured by the bonds of death. And the rod from the plane tree again seems to suggest the upward course and the ascent on high, that is, the ascension of Christ into the heavens. For the plane tree is a well-grown tree and among the very tallest. The Son was exalted by the Father. For Peter said of him: "Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God." And Paul says that he is highly exalted, and has received the name that is above every name, and the worship of all. But if someone wishes, he will understand the plant in another sense as well. And what is the manner? Those who busy themselves curiously with the etymologies of names say that because its leaf spreads out very widely, the tree is for this reason called a plane tree. For we too are widened through faith and love, having as it were grown upon Christ. For the law is very narrow, and the mind of those who worship idols is compressed. And indeed God cried out to the flocks from the nations through the voice of the prophet: "Learn to hear, being pressed together.

But Paul, when the Corinthians chose to slip back into their ancient error after the breadth of faith, writes to them saying: Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians, our heart is enlarged. You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own affections. Now in the same recompense, I speak as to children, be enlarged also yourselves, do not become unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? And indeed the Psalmist somewhere says in the Spirit concerning Emmanuel himself, mocking the narrowness of the law: Your commandment is exceedingly broad. And again: I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart. In addition to this: And I walked in a broad place, for I sought your statutes. And that the walnut rod, as I said recently, is by nature productive of wakefulness, God saying to the prophet Jeremiah: What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, he says, a rod of walnut. And the Lord said to me: You have seen well, for I am watchful over my words to perform them. Therefore Christ, understood as it were in the form of the rod, sets himself before us as one who died, and was raised, and is lifted up into the heavens, and who through the Spirit spiritually broadens the hearts of those who receive him. But where has Jacob placed the rods? In the troughs of the watering places. And again, the troughs and watering places of the rational flock, that is, of us, may be understood as the writing of Moses and the prophetic proclamations, which pour out to us, as it were, the word from above and from God.

For it is written, "And you will draw water with gladness from the springs of salvation." There we shall find Emmanuel, the rod of power, and as it were in death for our sake, and firstborn from the dead, and exalted in glory, and enlarging those who have believed, just as I said a moment ago. For the whole word of the holy prophets, and indeed of Moses, inclines toward the mystery of Christ. Therefore also the wise Paul said, "The end of the law and the prophets is Christ." Moreover, Jacob peeled the rods with white peelings, stripping away the green; and thus the varied offspring conceived upon them. For Christ, as it were, strips away the shadow of the law, and the so-called veil of the prophetic writings, and making the word in them white and altogether clear to us, he brings a spiritual incantation; and he does not merely persuade

those who wish to be variegated by the mottling toward virtue, pursuing it in a twofold way, in deed, I say, and in word. And indeed the divine prophets, running under the face of those justified in faith, have cried out clearly: "Because of your fear, O Lord, we conceived in the womb, and we travailed, and we brought forth the spirit of your salvation." And somewhere again the same blessed Isaiah said distinctly: "Be strong, you hands that hang down, and you knees that are paralyzed. Comfort, you who are faint in mind, be strong, do not fear. Behold, our God repays judgment, and he will repay." And again:

Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with dominion; as a shepherd he will shepherd his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs, and will comfort those with child—that is, there will be spiritual comfort for those already in travail with the divine word, since they will be fruitful and are about to bring forth, at any moment now, the glories of the gospel way of life. For this is the fruit of a holy and unadulterated soul. But Jacob, it says, made flocks for himself apart, and did not mix them with Laban's sheep. For the profane is incompatible with the holy, and the defiling with the pure. And "apart" are those of Christ who refuse to mingle with the things in the world, and are freed from all love of the flesh, and are not undistinguished in life, but rather most notable for virtue. For the undistinguished, it says, were Laban's, but the distinguished were Jacob's. Yet Jacob was not without envy. For when they had seen him rich and prosperous, his sons were greatly stung. Therefore he also planned to depart, and to go back again to his ancestral home. For it is written, "And the man became exceedingly rich. And he had many cattle, and oxen, and male and female servants, and camels, and donkeys, and mules." And Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons saying, "Jacob has taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's he has made all this glory." And Jacob saw Laban's face, and behold, it was not toward him as yesterday and the day before. And the Lord said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your father, and to your kindred, and I will be with you.

But Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field, where the flocks were. And he said to them: I see the face of your father, that it is not toward me as yesterday and the day before. But the God of my father was with me. And you yourselves know that with all my strength I have served your father. But your father has cheated me, and has changed my wages ten times. Then he says: And God has taken away all the cattle of your father, and has given them to me. For truly our Lord Jesus Christ has been enriched, unto a multitude beyond measure, gathering in the world his own worshippers; and they make the confession of the service under him a bright offering of good intent, saying: But we are his people of pasture, and the sheep of his hand. But the children of the world do not endure to keep quiet at these things. And as if seeing their own father being plundered, and the most distinguished of the sheep running under the hand of the good shepherd, and those begotten under Christ being variegated with manifold virtues, they murmur, saying: Jacob has taken all the things of our father, and from the things of our father he has made all this glory. And they speak falsely in no way. For the word is true. For Christ has gathered together to himself all those in the world, and having packed into his own courts the flocks of those who believed, he has wealth befitting God and glory surpassing. For he himself somewhere said to the Father and God in the heavens: All my things are yours, and your things are mine, and I have been glorified in them. But let us also see the wages of Jacob himself.

And there were to him, it says, many cattle, and oxen, and male and female servants, camels and donkeys. You see that Christ also gathers from every kind, as it is written: The kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, and gathering from every kind. For he receives the servant, in order to make him radiant with the boasts of freedom. He receives those under the law as already sacred and fit for the spiritual sacrifice, as in the order of a sheep and an ox, so that having transferred them to the splendor of the gospel way of life, he might make them more sacred. And in addition to these he receives the unholy and unclean kind, as in the order of a camel and indeed also a donkey, so that having melted away the filth of the polytheistic error, he might join them, pure and purified, to the choirs of the saints. When therefore the sons of Laban had been stirred to envy, and Laban himself, showing his brow joyless and sullen and not free from malice—for his face was not, it says, as yesterday and the day before—God was commanding Jacob to return to his own home. And he summoned the women, I mean Leah and Rachel, and clearly recounted the father's injustice. And he added that God has taken away all the cattle of your father, and has given them to me. And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him: Is there any portion or inheritance for us in the house of our father? Have we not been reckoned by him as strangers? For he has sold us, and has devoured our silver with devouring. All the wealth and the glory that God has taken away from our father shall be ours and our children's.

Now therefore, do all that your God has spoken to you. For when the world and its children are downcast over Christ, consolation from above and from heaven—that is, from the Father—is given to the brides of the Savior, I mean the Churches. Moreover, the consolation comes through the Son, who ferries across to us, as it were, the words from the Father. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God, according to the voice of John. For observe how God spoke to Jacob, and he to his brides, I mean Leah and Rachel. And the word of consolation was this: that they must depart together with their own bridegroom from the father's house. So too the blessed Psalmist says in the Spirit to the Church: Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house. For the king has desired your beauty. For he is your Lord, and you shall worship him. Therefore Jacob spoke to his brides the things from God. And what was the word? A censure against Laban, that he was unjust and wicked, and slow to pay the wages he would defraud them of. And Christ himself is also described, in the face of the world's great insensitivity, as not enduring to pay back to him as Master the thanksgivings, and as unwilling to bring in, as it were in the order of a debt and wages, the spiritual gifts owed for his care toward him—I mean faith and love. Nevertheless, all things have come to be under him, as God the Father draws them in the net. For the Son said somewhere to him: Those whom you have given me out of the world were yours, and you have given them to me.

And this was surely the meaning of "God has taken away all the livestock of your father, and given them to me." And the venerable brides of the Savior readily promise to follow; but they say they have been sold, as it were, to him by the world. For Emmanuel purchased the Churches with his own blood, and they have been estranged from their former father. For they have no word of fellowship or portion with the world, from which they have also been called. Rather, their wealth and that of their children is beyond mind and reason: he himself is their portion and lot, their glory and boast, and everything whatsoever that contributes to splendor and prosperity. The world, then, together with its own children, is downcast over Christ, and is consumed by the fire of envy, seeing the one who advances in glory to such a point as to make the whole under heaven his own and to prevail over those on the earth. But that beyond murmurings and revilings the things of his madness are extended, and he persecutes, and rages, and, as much as one may say within the power of his attempts, is borne against the glory of the Savior and the Churches under him and his children—that is, the multitude of those who believe—he is convicted as most hostile; this is easy to see and learn.

For those who have chosen it, as shown by what follows: "For Jacob rose up," it says, "and took his wives and his children upon the camels, and he brought along all his possessions and all his equipment that he had acquired in Mesopotamia, and all that was his, and he departed to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. But Laban had gone to shear his sheep. And Rachel stole the idols of her father; and Jacob hid it from Laban the Syrian, so as not to tell him that he was fleeing. And he fled, he and all that was his, and he crossed the river, and he set out for the mountain of Gilead. And it was reported to Laban the Syrian on the third day that Jacob had fled. And taking all his brothers with him, he pursued after him a journey of seven days, and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. And God came to Laban the Syrian in sleep by night, and said to him: Take heed to yourself that you speak not to Jacob evil. And Laban overtook Jacob. But Jacob pitched his tent in the mountain. And Laban set up his brothers in the mountain of Gilead. So Laban encounters him, and he reproaches the divinely inspired Jacob greatly, because he had fled secretly, all but stealing his daughters and the gods in his house. For he said as follows: Now then you have gone; for with desire you desired to depart to the house of your father. Why, he says, did you steal my gods? But Jacob, it says, did not know that Rachel his wife had stolen them. And Laban, having searched for his own gods, does not find them with Leah, nor yet in the house of the maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah.

But when Rachel expected to be searched by her father, she cleverly outwits the matter. For she took the idols, it says, and put them into the camel's packsaddle, and sat upon them, and said to her father: "Do not take it hard, lord, that I cannot rise before you, for it is according to the custom of women with me." And Laban searched throughout all his house, and did not find the idols. When he was now somehow at a loss, and was lamenting, as was likely, the loss of his own gods, the blessed Jacob was thereafter reasonably blamed, as having chosen to pursue him in vain, and having nothing at all to bring against him. Then words about an agreement were set in motion between them, and understanding was being worked out by both for peace. For Laban answered, it says, and said to Jacob: "Your daughters are my daughters, and your sons are my sons, and your cattle are my cattle, and all that you see is mine, and my daughters'. What shall I do for these today, and for their children whom they have borne? Now therefore come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and it shall be for a witness between me and you." And he said to him: "Behold, no one is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you." And Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his brothers: "Gather stones." And they gathered stones, and made a heap, and ate there upon the heap. And Laban said to him: "This heap witnesses between me and you today." And Laban called it, "Heap of Witness." But Jacob called it, "Heap is Witness." 5.

We have therefore related the matters of the history in these passages briefly and, as far as possible, striving to abridge them. But it is now necessary to clarify what is in the innermost mind. That, then, the world has raged madly against Christ who is rich, [against] the flocks of the believers, and leaps upon them in a frenzy—this would not need many words for anyone to demonstrate clearly. For see how, when Jacob departs, Laban pursues with cries together with his own children. Christ also departs as if from the world together with his own brides, that is, the Churches, and as it were removes with his whole household, spiritually calling out to his own: "Rise, let us go from here." But the manner of the departure is not perceptible to the senses, nor indeed would it be carried out bodily from place to place. For it is altogether unusual to think or speak in this way. But from thinking the things of the world, it is usefully brought to completion in willing to do the things that seem good to God. For as the blessed Paul writes, we have no city here that remains, but we seek the one to come, of which God is the craftsman and creator. And another of the holy apostles writes: I urge you, as sojourners and strangers, to abstain from fleshly desires, which wage war against the soul. And while walking on the earth, let us make our citizenship as in heaven, striving to live no longer in a fleshly manner, but rather in a manner befitting holiness and spiritually. Paul stirs us up to this when he writes: Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may prove what is the will of God—the good, and acceptable, and perfect.

But since we have not been conformed to the world, as we abandon the world's deceit, we shall imitate him. And knowing this to be so, the Savior said: If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you. So it persecutes, hating. But God reins in the one who murders and rages with uncontrollable anger, not permitting him even to leave behind so much as harsh words. For God said to Laban, it says: Take heed to yourself, lest you speak evil against Jacob. But the world brings a charge, as though it had been despoiled and its gods had perished. Yet Rachel had stolen these. But observe the attempt. Laban searched for the gods with Leah, and indeed also with the two maidservants, and he did not find them, it says. But Rachel sat upon them, making the excuse of custom. What then does the account mean? The purification of idols was not the achievement of the Synagogue of the Jews, nor even of those who had been brought into slavery; but of the younger Rachel, that is, of the Church, which has cast dishonor upon things made by hand; and almost fulfills concerning them what was said through the voice of the prophet: And you shall remove the idols that are overlaid with silver, and those overlaid with gold you shall make thin, and you shall sift them as the water of a woman in her separation, and you shall thrust them out as dung. Since Laban's gods were not found with him, he made the rest of the reconciliations for peace with the wondrous Jacob. For the world, no longer having the falsely named gods, will be a friend; or rather it has already become the bond of peace with Christ.

He himself is again the most esteemed stone, the costly one, the cornerstone, the precious one, the one for a head of a corner, and for the foundations of Zion. For Jacob, it says, set up a pillar as a type of Christ. And other stones of the holy apostles are gathered together, or of those justified in faith and sanctified in the Spirit, prefiguring in a fitting way the running together unto Christ. For concerning the holy apostles the prophetic word said: For holy stones roll upon the earth. For the divine disciples ran through the whole earth, carrying the gospel proclamation to the nations. And to those justified in faith the wise Paul writes: In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Holy Spirit. Therefore the gathering of stones is called a Heap of Witness by Laban, but the divine Jacob raises the meaning to what is still greater and incomparably superior, that is, to Christ, naming what had happened a Heap of Witness. For Christ himself is the head of those who believe. And that the multitude of angels will also be present ministering to Christ, the Savior of all, as he saves his own and leads them out of the evil in the world—and clearly also fulfilling the service appointed to them—one might easily learn again through the following. For when Laban had already departed and was peacefully withdrawing homeward, Jacob, it says, looked up and saw a camp encamped, and the angels of God met him. And Jacob said, when he saw them: This is the camp of God; and he called the name of that place, Camps.

It is written, "The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him, and he will deliver them." And again, "He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways." Our Lord Jesus Christ indeed saves all who love him; through whom and with whom be glory to God and the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. Still concerning Jacob. 1. The manner of the saints is not without admiration, at least among those who have chosen the best life; but the glory of their conduct will surpass every account. It would be a good model for those who wish to live piously, making clear in various ways in what manner one ought to be carried straight toward what is fitting and pleasing to God. For I say—or rather, the word of divinely inspired Scripture itself says—that we ought, rightly contemplating the outcome of the conduct of the more ancient saints, to imitate their faith, and, so to speak, to follow in the footsteps of the virtue that was in them. For it is absurd that those who have become skilled in the royal arts make their predecessors their teachers in this, and hasten to emulate those who have most accurately perfected what is seemly in these arts; while we, whose aim is to succeed in virtue, should not fix the eye of our mind upon the seemliness of the more ancient saints and, in a manner, wipe off from them the things through which one might become most approved before God, and so make our own mind knowledgeable of the pious conduct.

Let the wondrous Jacob then be set before us, inferior to no one, traversing, as far as possible, a blameless way—I mean the way of life in conduct that was fitting for that time—and having God, the Lord of all, as his helper and protector, who permits him to encounter toils at times for his benefit. For no one could acquire the boasts of virtue without sweat. But after the exercises, he crowns them with gladness, and enriches them as it were with the abundance of prizes, like the strongest of athletes. For do not say to yourself: Why did God not grant the saints the privilege of rejoicing without toil? For that would have been to leave them untrained, and least of all to assign them the reward of virtue—perhaps their well-being—and to make the fruit of an untested inclination of the will his favor toward them, and the bright and admirable generosity of his gifts. But it was necessary that they be seen to be approved, and that they show themselves beforehand worthy by their very deeds of the things that come from God; and that they be set forth as an example and clear pattern for those after them, of the need to choose to be most industrious and vigorous, considering that for those who live a life without toil and condemned, no reward would ever come, but the choicest things of all will surely follow those who are most devoted to toil, and who have preferred the sweat spent on good things above the sweetest things in life. Thus one of the wise said: Child, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation, direct your heart, and endure. For endurance gives birth to proven character, and proven character to hope.

But hope does not put to shame, according to what is written. Let us then keep to the proposed aim. 2. After Laban's departure from the mountain of Galaad, he hastened toward the land that brought him forth, and the wondrous Jacob wished to press on. But scarcely had he escaped Laban's attack and breathed a little, when he immediately fell into more grievous terrors. For since, as he set out from Mesopotamia and hurried away to the land of Canaan, he had to pass through the midst of Seir, where Esau dwelt, he was exceedingly afraid. For he did not forget that he had grieved him both on account of the blessing and on account of the birthright itself. But in what manner he removed the grief that arose from these things, and brought his brother into love and gentleness—how is it not worth seeing, and in addition to this, marveling at? It is written, then: And Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau his brother, into the land of Seir, into the country of Edom, and he commanded them, saying: Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban, and I have delayed until now; and there have come to be for me oxen, and donkeys, and sheep, and male servants and female servants. And I have sent to announce to my lord Esau, that your servant may find favor before you. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying: We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and

four hundred men with him. And Jacob was greatly afraid and was at a loss. And he divided the people who were with him, and the oxen, and the sheep, into two camps. And Jacob said: If Esau comes to one camp and cuts it down, the second camp shall be saved. And Jacob said: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Lord, who said to me, Depart to the land of your birth, and I will do you good, let it suffice me of all righteousness and of all truth which you have shown to your servant. For with this staff of mine I crossed the Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and mother upon children. But you said: I will do you good, and I will make your seed as the sand of the sea, and it shall not be numbered for multitude. You understand how he runs up to Esau flatteringly, and all but fawns upon him when he is grieved, and tries to steal away the ungovernable part of his anger at least by speaking kindly. For although he had obtained the better portion through his father's blessing, and had been preferred before by the glory of the firstborn, and had God as his helper, he would submit in a manner befitting a saint, having chosen above all to accomplish that saying: If it is possible, as far as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. For a word is sometimes harsh and steep and full of contempt, and will be unbearable to some. But as the wise writer of Proverbs wrote, A submissive answer turns away wrath. And observe for me the skill of the righteous man in piety.

For he sends messengers to ask for peace and to convey to Esau most delicate words; for he commanded them to say over and over: Thus says your servant Jacob. But he himself turns again to prayers and does not cease from the help that always saves them. And he confirms that experience had made clear the hope of greater things from what had already passed, saying: With this staff of mine I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps. For he said, that having only this staff from home I crossed the Jordan, and I have become master of many things, having your goodwill, O Master. Through these things, then, we too shall know that we must be gentle and peaceable and by every means hunt after living without conflict. For a servant of the Lord, he says, must not fight but be gentle toward all, according to what is written. For that we should also make good use of human skills for good, nothing prevents, and it would be, I think, among the most praiseworthy things. But it is necessary to seek, even if this should come about from us, the care that comes from God and the help from above, not thinking lofty things, but rather pondering what is written: The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find favor before the Lord. Having chosen to think and act thus, we shall gain the goods that come from peace, and we shall turn those who rage against us to gentleness. For wild beasts, he says, shall be at peace with you. This Jacob did.

For he does not soften his brother only with winning and gentle words, but he also made him a sharer of gifts and of his possessions, allotting him the richest portion—sheep and oxen, goats and donkeys, camels and calves. For peace is better than wealth, and the possession of things temporary should be held before friendship toward brothers. And indeed, as I said, the inspired Jacob feared his brother Esau, and as one about to suffer at once the effects of his anger, he was disheartened; and having trampled on the envy that at first clung to Jacob, he embraced him with tears, and by the laws of nature he granted that what pertains to love could be delayed. For it is written: And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and fell upon his neck, and both wept. And all these achievements of meekness are the fruit of a humble and unboastful mind, and a gift of the goodwill of God to those who love him, who smooths what is steep and levels what is rough, and by his cheerfulness

...fattening those who strive to be attached to him. But I think the narrative must indeed be reshaped by us into spiritual contemplation. Come then, let us speak, going back and running up to the beginning of the whole account. For the mystery of Christ would become clear to those who have chosen to study useful things. 3. The divine Jacob, then, having shown that his brother was murderous and savagely raging, as was reasonable, was setting out on his journey to Harran and to Laban, his father—that is, Isaac—consenting to his flight. For it seemed that in this way he must elude the attack of the one who had been grieved. Having arrived, then, at Laban, he wooed the man's daughters, I mean Leah and Rachel, and indeed he grew rich in the offspring of children, and in herds of cattle, and in addition to these, in the other property. But when he had come at last to the point of setting things right, he considered having his own household, and he departs from Harran and from Laban's house, together with what he had acquired, and indeed with the portion of wives and children. But when Laban pursued, he was overtaken, yet he made terms for peace, and Christ confirmed the bond of love. For the stone had been set up as a type of him. Then after this, when Laban had likewise run back home and departed, it happened that peace was made also with the very one who had long ago been murderous and raging, that is, Esau. For they embraced one another, in a manner burying their former distress by their mutual rushings into love for one another.

With these words the whole account of the history was brought to its close; and we too have remembered it, having assigned to Jacob the very person of Christ, and in some sense also that of those who are justified in faith. But Esau, we said, prefigures in himself the people from the circumcision and under the law; especially since God, the Master of all, said to Rebecca while she was still in the pangs of childbirth with the twin young men: Two nations and two peoples shall be separated from your womb, and people shall prevail over people, and the greater shall serve the lesser. And this has indeed been fulfilled through Christ. For those from Israel, being first in time and for this reason called firstborn, have come afterward and have been placed at the back of those who are in Christ through faith, who have also inherited the glory of the firstborn, because of the firstborn within them, even if he is only-begotten, to whom they have also become conformed, having the regeneration through the Spirit unto incorruption and sanctification. Therefore Esau, that is, Israel, burning with envy, persecuted Jacob, I mean Christ. But the account, as I said, varies in these matters for us, always seeking what is fitting, sometimes referring Jacob to Christ, and sometimes to the new people in faith. And Christ, persecuted in a manner and not willingly, departed into the country of the Gentiles, having cried out plainly: I have abandoned my house, I have left my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of its enemies. My inheritance has become to me as a lion in the thicket. It has given forth its voice against me, therefore I have hated it.

But also to the women in the garden after the resurrection from the dead he made himself visible out of gentleness and love for humanity, saying: Go, report to my brothers, so that they may go to Galilee, and there they will see me. Having therefore arrived in Galilee, just as also the inspired Jacob in Harran, he shepherded the sheep of Laban, that is, of the world, which had served the creation and had gone astray, just as also Laban. Having been there, like a bridegroom he spiritually takes up residence with a pure virgin, the Church from the nations, that is, Rachel, bringing in with her also the one already previously joined to him through the law, the Synagogue of the Jews, of which Leah is the type. For the remnant of Israel has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet, even if perhaps not the whole multitude has honored the grace through faith in Christ. Therefore the bridegroom Christ, having been displayed among the nations, and having regenerated by grace as many as possible into adoption in the Spirit, and having truly gathered a flock of rational creatures not easily numbered, was persecuted by the

of the world. For some of those in the world who had been allotted the highest honors made war against the glory of Christ, and had on earth a power hard to contend against. But the divine grace has appeased even this. And the world also came to peace with Christ, just as Laban did with Jacob. But in later times our Lord Jesus Christ will make his own even Israel himself, the former persecutor, just as indeed Jacob also greeted Esau after his return from Harran. For that Israel himself too will be received after times into love for Christ through faith, we would by no means doubt, yielding to the words of divinely inspired Scripture. For somewhere through one of the holy prophets the Master of all said: Because for many days the sons of Israel shall sit, with no king, nor ruler, nor sacrifice, nor altar, nor priesthood, nor manifestations, and after these things the sons of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall hope in the Lord, and in his good things in the last days. For while Christ, the Savior of us all, was still gathering those from the nations who had believed, Israel was somehow at rest, having no law as arbiter of what must be done, nor offering the customary things at the divine altar; but awaiting, as it were, Christ returning from the calling of the nations, so that for the rest he too must be brought in through faith, and, so to speak, be joined with the others by the law of love.

For observe that Jacob, rejoicing in the offspring of children and in many herds of flocks, returns from Harran, and from then on Esau receives even him into love. Therefore Israel will in due time turn back after the calling of the Gentiles, and will marvel at the very wealth that is in Christ. For this very thing can easily be discerned by those who wish through the things that were historically done. Jacob sent gifts to Esau, changing him to love, and by the generous giving of gifts. He also sent peaceful messengers to him, speaking words of love. And that he will be present, and that the things that will establish their friendship are not far off, Christ in due time clearly brings even this to pass. For he said somewhere to the Jews through the voice of the prophet: And behold, I will send you Elijah the Tishbite, before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes. He will restore the heart of a father to a son, and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come and strike the earth utterly. He, when he comes, will turn my Israel, which is hard to lead, as is likely, will remove it from the ancient wrath, will make it friendly and peaceful toward Christ, almost showing the gifts of his generosity as already present, that is, the hope of those who believe. For the things of the promise will no longer go on for a length of times for those who believe at that time, but the gift is near, and grace is at the feet. For immediately the son of sin is being done away with, while our Savior Christ, the Savior of us all, comes down from heaven with the holy angels, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit forever and ever.

Amen. Still concerning Jacob. 1. Human nature was held fast by sin unto death. But since it had wholly withdrawn from the One who knows how to save, the one fashioned according to the divine image was, so to speak, even taken captive by the spear, and was weighed down by the burden of slavery. For it was submitting its neck, even unwillingly, to Satan who had gained the advantage over it—he who, out of very great arrogance (for the evil spirit is overweening), was emboldened against, so to speak, all things upon the earth, saying: I will take possession of the whole inhabited world with my hand as a nest, and as forsaken eggs I will gather them up, and there is no one who will escape me, or contradict me. For he has reigned through greed, as I said, and has been called the god of this age. For the world has bowed down to him and has served the creature rather than the Creator. But since God was being mocked by the misery into which they had been brought, he was promising to send us his Son from heaven, to restore human nature again to what it was in the beginning. The things in Christ are a new creation, according to the Scriptures. And the blessed prophets have become the bearers of the good tidings that came to us, having prophesied concerning the grace that was toward us, searching to what person and what time the Spirit of Christ within them was pointing, foretestifying the sufferings that were to come upon Christ and the glories after these things; to whom it was revealed that they were not serving these things for themselves but for us. For thus writes the disciple of the Savior. And there is much discourse among them concerning the incarnation of our Savior, and that in due seasons the Redeemer will come. But for the easy learning of those who will read, to bring forward a few things causes no distress.

It would be fitting to make this charge against the Jewish people, as one can see from the facts themselves. For although it was possible to observe the Savior's coming from the prophetic words—or rather, perhaps the wretched ones even understood it from the shadow in the Law itself—they stubbornly opposed the things divinely foretold, and even Christ himself, or as the wise Paul said to us: A hardening has come in part upon Israel, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear, nor understand. As the Savior himself also said. For the divine Isaiah has set before us Emmanuel himself in his own writings, saying clearly: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for which reason he has anointed me; he has sent me to proclaim good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to call the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense. For these were the glorious achievements of his visitation. And Hosea again said somewhere concerning him: And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one ruler, and they shall go up from the land, for great is the day of Jezreel. For very many were the teachers among the Jews at various times who persuaded the people under their hand to honor the God of all with their lips only, and taught as doctrines the commandments of men. But one rule over all and for all has been established—Christ—and we have gone up from the land, that is, we have been taught to set our minds on things above. For truly great is the day of Jezreel, that is, of God's sowing, namely the Son.

The inspired David also kept this day in mind when he said: "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." And furthermore the most wise Paul says to us: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation," by which, clearly, we have also been saved, Christ calling us to this. For as the wise disciple has said: "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." You will also hear Jeremiah saying clearly: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will raise up for David a righteous branch; a king shall reign and shall understand, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety. And this is his name which the Lord shall call him: Josedek, among the prophets." For Christ, the righteous king, has reigned over us; he has executed judgment and righteousness, releasing from sins those who had been deceived, and condemning the enemy of the one he had defrauded, Satan. And his name is Josedek, that is, the righteousness of God. For we have been justified in him, and not by works of righteousness which we ourselves have done, but according to his great mercy. Therefore God and the Father also said: "My righteousness draws near quickly, and my mercy shall be revealed." For Christ has become for us mercy and righteousness from God and the Father, whom the illustrious choir of the saints also called by this very name. For the blessed Samuel, renowned among the prophets, addressed the people of Israel, saying:

And behold, I have walked before you from my youth even to this day. Behold, I am here; answer against me before the Lord and before his Christ. And again: The Lord is witness among you, and his Christ is witness on this day, that you have found nothing in my hand. But more clearly also the blessed David all but accuses the madness of the Jews, and their unbridled boldness against Christ, and their recklessness in thoughts, and their childishness in reasonings, saying: Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly the counsels of the Jews' ignorance against Christ were vain. For Life would not have died, nor would he who said even to the spirits below, "Come out," and to those in darkness, "Be revealed," have been held captive in the gates of Hades. And the prophet Jeremiah also lamented over Jerusalem as impious, as slaying the Lord, as profane, as ungrateful. For he spoke thus: The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their corruptions, of whom we said, In his shadow we shall live among the nations. For since it was necessary to choose the grace that comes through faith as the saving way, they who fought against God were caught. Therefore the Creator of all things, the only-begotten Word of God, having brought himself into emptying, has been anointed by the Father, and has become as we are. And the purpose of the emptying was to save those upon the earth. And indeed the prophet Zephaniah was proclaiming the good news, saying:

Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem; be glad and delight yourself with your whole heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your injustices; he has redeemed you from the hand of your enemies. The Lord, the God of Israel, will reign in your midst; you will no longer see evil. But the disobedient and unyielding, who go beyond all boldness, have raged against him with the most shameful of all things, acting with ease and deliberating with greater readiness. Therefore they have also paid the penalties for their offenses. For the wicked have perished miserably. Yet not entirely. For the remnant has been shown mercy and has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet. 2. That these things will therefore come to pass in this manner at the appointed times, the inspired Jacob was taught, God shaping the matter skillfully. And how, I will say, setting forth necessarily from the sacred Scriptures; and it is as follows: And rising up that night, he took the two women, and the two maidservants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok, and took them, and crossed the brook, and brought over all that was his. But Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until morning. And he saw that he could not prevail against him, and he touched the breadth of his thigh, and the breadth of Jacob's thigh was numbed, as he wrestled with him. And he said to him: Send me away, for the dawn has risen. But he said: I will not send you away unless you bless me. And he said to him: What is your name? And he said: Jacob. And he said to him:

Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, because you have prevailed with God, and you are mighty with men. And Jacob asked and said: Tell me your name. And he said: Why do you ask this, my name? And he blessed him there, and Jacob called the name of that place the Appearance of God. For I have seen God face to face, and my soul was saved. And the sun rose upon him when the appearance of God had passed by him. But he was limping in his thigh. The wondrous Jacob brought across the Jabbok, that is, the torrent, all that was his, and he himself remained alone. Then the matter—how is it not worth seeing? Come, then, let us consider the reason. For this account will go straight to our spiritual things. 3. In Edom and Seir Esau dwelt, and he held sway over the land, and he was in powers not beyond the hand of Jacob. But since, when he was departing from the midst of the rivers and the dwelling of Laban, and hastening to come to his ancestral land, there was in every way a necessity to make his return through Edom, he most providentially embraced peace with his brother, and indeed he also said that angels of splendid hospitality should go before him, because he himself also, intending to see

He would come, and at the same time he ordered them to announce beforehand, and by gifts and words he was taming and rendering gentle the one who had long been murderous and savage. But when those sent ahead arrived, saying: "We came to your brother Esau, and behold, he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him"—the divinely inspired Jacob was greatly afraid. For he did not know clearly whether he would meet with one friendly and peaceful, or with one no less roused to his accustomed boldness and having chosen to act out of envy. Jacob sent across all that was his, and remained alone—having, I think, fully considered this to himself: that if he should be seen as kind and gentle, there would be nothing harsh in his being present and addressed, once women and children had been sent across again. But if he should come still harsh and quarrelsome, and no better than his murderous rage, he would spare the infants and pity the tears of the women; but seizing him alone, he would satisfy his anger, and his death would be sufficient to appease the one he had grieved. Yet this had gone beyond even hope for him by the power of God, as we have already said before. For they embraced one another. From what happened, then, he was taught the power of the mystery. How, or in what manner, I will say again: for he sent across all that was his to the brook. But when he remained alone, a man wrestled with him until morning. We say, then, that the one wrestling with him was a holy angel, a type of Christ who is among us, on account of the human nature. But the fact that he himself did not cross the brook with the others—that is, the Jabbok, which is interpreted as wrestling—the seeming battle became for them.

And what again would one understand his word, or rather his innermost mind, to be? For against those who cross the Jordan—of which Jabbok is also a type—Christ does not wrestle, nor does he treat those who honor his mysteries as enemies or adversaries. Rather, he preserves them and crowns them as conquerors of the world, as in a battle—I mean the intelligible one—and makes them radiant with the highest honors. And the river's name is "Wrestling." For the kingdom of heaven is violent, and the violent seize it. And, "Narrow exceedingly is the gate, and constricted the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it." Therefore, because those who would come from Jacob at various times were going to neither cross the Jordan—that is, the grace that comes through holy baptism—nor impiously dishonor it, and would thereafter have Emmanuel himself as an adversary, the event was foreshadowing this. For that those who do not honor him in faith will be reckoned entirely and altogether among those who oppose him, the Savior himself will assure us, saying: "He who is not with me is against me." But may those who have believed be with him. And it is true that the reverse also holds—how could anyone doubt it? "And the man," it says, "wrestled with Jacob until morning, and he saw that he could not prevail against him." Do you hear how the wrestling took place at night? And he was convicted as he fell and was defeated, because he sought things unattainable, having chosen to fight against God, and to be overcome by God who is mighty in all things. This, I think, is what the inspired David also said in psalmody concerning those of Israel, that they devised terrible things against their own head—not to mention against Christ: "They devised a plan which they will not be able to establish.

Israel therefore fought against Christ with the sword, having come to be in darkness—that is, not having the divine mind for illumination, nor indeed the day that shines forth, nor the morning star that rises in a spiritual sense in the hearts of believers. For he has remained disobedient, and as the prophet says, While they waited for light, darkness came upon them; while they waited for brightness, they walked in the gloom of night. But the wondrous Paul writes to those who have been justified in faith and have been enriched with the enrichment that comes through the Spirit, saying: We are not of the night nor of darkness, but sons of light and of day. And that they have become better than the ignorance of the Jews, and have passed beyond the darkness that befits them, he indicated by adding: The night is far advanced, and the day has drawn near. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light; let us walk decently, as in the day. Accordingly, those who have believed are in the day, while the disobedient, as in night and in darkness, fight against Christ. This is what those of Jacob have done, except that they have grown weak and have been conquered, and cannot walk uprightly. For he touched, it says, the wrestling man with Jacob on the breadth of his thigh, and the breadth of Jacob's thigh grew numb when he wrestled with him. And what then shall we understand from this? Come, let us say. That the thigh in the God-inspired Scripture generally indicates the parts of the body necessary for the begetting of children, and from this, finally, the offspring itself. For in all, the child-begetting members lie about the thighs.

And indeed the blessed Abraham, when he sent his genuine servant to the middle of the rivers to take a wife for Isaac, commanded him to swear, saying thus: Put your hand under my thigh—that is, Swear by God, and by those who shall come from me, and by the lordly offspring. The thigh, then, signifies those from the thighs. Jacob's thigh, therefore, was numbed. For those who came from his thighs, that is, those from Israel, became lame. And the Savior himself is witness through the voice of David, saying thus: Foreign sons lied to me; foreign sons grew old, and they became lame from their paths. And that Israel has endured a noetic lameness, even the wise Paul understood. For he too writes: Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the knees that are paralyzed, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be turned aside, but rather be healed. And the healing of such lameness could never come about otherwise than through faith in Christ and love alone. But those who did not accept the faith have remained in lameness and in the turning aside of the passion, according to the voice of the blessed Paul. The affliction, then, that befell Jacob in his thigh when he wrestled is an enigma of Israel's noetic lameness. Moreover, we would not be speaking falsely in any way, affirming and saying that Christ in a certain manner contends and wrestles against those who are in night and have a darkened mind, paralyzing them into spiritual lameness; one might learn this no less easily through what follows. For the man who wrestled said to Jacob: Send me away, for the dawn has risen.

You understand how he does not endure to wrestle when day has dawned. For he does not fight with those who have come into the light. For whom it would be fitting—those who have passed into this most radiant state—it remains also to say: O God, my God, to you I rise at dawn. And indeed to this belongs also: In the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will present myself to you, and you will look upon me. For when the light of righteousness—that is, Christ—rises in our mind and sends a noetic ray into our hearts, then indeed, then we shall present ourselves very radiant to him through all-round equanimity, and we shall show ourselves worthy of the oversight from above; for the eyes of the Lord, it says, are upon the righteous. So then, when the dawn has already risen, he puts an end to the wrestling. See how, in a manner befitting the divine plan and most skillfully, he teaches Jacob, who wishes to depart, to change his mind and to desire exceedingly to grant him the things necessary for salvation. For he who has wholly conquered and is able to depart—even if perhaps the conquered one does not let him go, yet as it were granting him the power, if he should choose, even to hold on fast—says: Let me go. We shall find something similar to this in what was wisely and providentially spoken by God to Moses. For he wished to exact punishment from the senseless Israel, which had fallen into idolatry in the wilderness (for it had made a calf). And as it were yielding to the blessed Moses, to restrain the anger if he wished, and to make supplications on behalf of those who had sinned, he says: I have spoken to you once and twice, saying: I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make you into a great nation." But when Moses understood the economy of the divine gentleness, he comes to hinder it, and says: "If you forgive them their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me also out of this book which you have written." Therefore in some such manner the words "Let me go" were spoken to Jacob by the one wrestling with him. But he, quickly understanding who the wrestler was, and now having come to a perception of the whole matter, lays hold of him earnestly, and says: "I will not let you go unless you bless me." And he was blessed, and the manner of the blessing for him was the transfer of the name from the first to another. For, he says, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name—Jacob signifying the supplanter, that is, the one steadfast and sober so as to be able to accomplish what is necessary; and Israel being interpreted as a mind seeing God. What then is the reason? Come, let us say it, drawing the narrative back a little. 4. Jacob, having wrestled and been conquered, and having suffered the numbing in the darkness—that is, in the thigh—now holds fast to the wrestler as one at peace, when the light is shining through and morning has now come; and he was as it were forcing him to bless him, and indeed he was blessed; for he was renamed Israel. For Israel, as it were, sets over against Emmanuel the disobedient and hard-to-lead—yet as in ignorance and darkness, I mean that of folly. For they were hardened; he scarcely recognized the divine light when it rose upon him in his mind.

And it has been blessed by Christ, even if not perhaps all, yet in some portion of those who have believed. For there has been a remnant according to the election of grace for Israel, as it is written, and not a few of the Jews in number have believed. And before the others, the inspired disciples, who once were Jacob, having the weakness in the law, and as it were supplanting, and breathing swiftly, and especially declining to stumble against God. For they were blameless according to the righteousness that is in the law. But after this they also became Israel, that is, they have passed over to a mind that sees God thereafter. For to know Christ—who he is and whence he has become among us, or what is the manner of his economy with the flesh—this, I say, is to receive the light of true vision of God in the mind. That the knowledge of God is greater, and more excellent, and incomparably better than the citizenship in the law, he himself will confirm by saying through one of the prophets: "For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God, rather than whole burnt offerings." And Paul, as he had become according to the righteousness that is in the law, both illustrious and blameless—yet he considers such things as loss, because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Christ. And that the genuine knowledge of Christ is also better than the brightness in works, Paul will make clear again when writing to Timothy, that he should train himself toward godliness: "For bodily training is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

For as the Savior himself said to the Father in the heavens, "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Therefore, even if someone happens to be a Jacob—that is, if he is able to supplant, and to escape cleverly and vigorously everything that knows how to paralyze and calls to sin—he will advance through Christ even to a holiness befitting understanding. And he will also be called Israel, that is, one who sees God. Then indeed, then he will also be mighty among men, having been strengthened with God. For the work of one who has grown weak is not the knowing of God, nor the grasping of the knowledge of him, even if one sees in a mirror and in a riddle; but it belongs to one who has already been brought past weakness to this end, so as to reckon fleshly and worldly things of no account, and with swift and, as it were, unrestrained purpose to dart toward what seems good to God—because this one will be mighty among men, and will be strengthened with God. Therefore the wondrous Jacob has been blessed, and he kept earnestly asking, saying, "Tell me your name." And he said, it says, "Why do you ask this, my name?" But God does not declare the name, because it is according to nature, and by this he shows it. For a name, as

For to a man, perhaps, there would be no name peculiar to God; yet from what he is by nature he is named in many ways. For he is Light, and Life, and Power, and Truth, Only-begotten, and Radiance, and the express Image of the one who begot him, Mercy, and Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Redemption. And again, the blessed Jacob, understanding that he was God, to whom no name could be attached as peculiar, called the name of that place, Form of God. For he says, I saw God face to face, and my soul was saved. Consider, then, how he became Israel, that is, one who sees God. He says that, as a man wrestled, he saw God face to face, and that his own soul was saved. For the knowledge that is in Christ is a saving thing. Therefore the Word is God even with flesh. For the patriarch Jacob says that he saw God face to face. And when the sun rose, he says, the form of God passed by; but he himself limped in his thigh. For as I have already said, when the Jews were enlightened, the wrestling ceased. And the form of God also passed by, that is, Christ ascended into the heavens. But Israel has not been freed from lameness. For not all have been saved. But he suffers, as it were, through those who disobey, so as not to walk uprightly in every respect. Therefore he was renamed Israel, and the supplanter was rewritten as a mind that sees God. And what after this again? And Jacob, he says, departed to tents, and he made for himself houses, and for his cattle he made tents. For this reason he called the name of that place, Tents. You hear how he dwelt in tents.

And this too would be a clear sign of the mind of Israel running back toward the better. For having already pitched his tent, he also dwelt in them. For when the mind already sees and has been deemed worthy of the vision of God, and has been nurtured and kindled by its advances toward the better unto perfection, there would be a fruit precious before God: to reckon the things of this world as of no account any longer, and rather to consider the life in the body a sojourning. For this mind is holy and reverent, and a precise declaration of an excellent and elevated citizenship. You would be persuaded of this, then, by the blessed David, who has arrived at such preeminence and sings: Spare me, for I am a sojourner in the earth and a stranger, as all my fathers were. And Paul also writes to those who have come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, and have arrived at a perfect man: We have not here a city that remains, but we seek the one to come, whose builder and maker is God. Therefore, that the wondrous Jacob—that is, Israel—chose to dwell in tents would be a sign, and perhaps not unclear to any of those of sound mind, that the things of this world ought to be considered a sojourning by those who are already opening their eyes toward God and have their mind illumined. Then he moves on to Salem, the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan; there again the righteous man was exercised, having suffered the wrongs done in the matter of Dinah his daughter. For she, like a young girl and still a maiden in her girlhood, went out from her father's tent to look upon the daughters of the local people. For the female race has always been stirred up to rush eagerly into loving those of the same age.

So the young woman ran out, but Shechem the son of Hamor violently forced her, not in order. For she had been deflowered, and he, now somehow uncontrollably steeped in desire, thought it right to make the girl his companion. Then indeed, then Simeon and Levi, the brothers of the young woman, were sharpened to anger, and they regarded the outrage as unbearable, and from that point they planned to do unholy things even against those who had done the wrong. For they persuaded those from Shechem to undergo the circumcision of their fathers and customary among them. But they killed them, utterly removed from all mercy and compassion. But the wondrous Jacob was greatly indignant at this, and rebuked them, saying: You have made me hated, so that I am evil to those who dwell in the land. For those who killed did not measure out the things that come from anger, nor indeed, as those raised under a righteous father, did they think anything of the things that are not entirely to be turned away from. For they plundered, and they killed those who had chosen to think the same things as they did, and who had trusted in faith.

What benefit, then, would come to us from this (for the God-inspired Scripture is in no way a tale told at random), come now, let us say as far as possible. 5. For we have been born with a spiritual birth, and we have been placed among the children of God through Christ. Therefore, if a soul already reborn through holy baptism, and set as a daughter of God, should happen to be corrupted by those accustomed to do this, or be carried away to choose fleshly things, or, as it were, to thoughts about God that are perverted from their place (for such truly are the little opinions of the unholy heretics)—

The brothers of the woman wronged in the faith—even if one of them holds the priestly rank, as indeed Levi did, or even if they are understood to be Simeon, that is, those set in the rank of the subordinate (for Simeon is interpreted as obedience)—should be indignant that one of their own according to the faith has been taken advantage of, but they should certainly not proceed to bloodshed any longer, nor demand savage penalties from those who have corrupted her, lest they hear Christ saying to them: You have made me hateful, so that I am evil to the inhabitants of the land. For it is necessary to remember that the Savior himself once rebuked the divine Peter when he drew his sword, saying: Put your sword back into its sheath; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. For it would surely not be fitting for us, who have chosen to strive above all for piety toward God, to arm ourselves with swords against enemies; but rather to be patient in suffering, and if some choose to persecute, to bless when reviled, not to resent when suffering, but rather to hand things over to the one who judges justly. But those who decline corruption must guard against straying anywhere from the paternal tent, that is, from the house of God, and against rushing upon the flocks of the foreigners, that is, of the heterodox. For Dinah, having gone out from her paternal tent, was carried off to the house of Shechem. But she would never have been violated if she had kept to her father's chambers and dwelt in the tents of the holy. For that the matter is good and not without benefit for enjoyment, the blessed David will persuade us as he sings:

One thing I have asked from the Lord, this I will seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the delight of the Lord and to visit his holy temple. For he hid me in his tabernacle; in the day of my troubles he covered me in the secret place of his tabernacle. Jacob, then, having become utterly fearful and disheartened, God commanded to depart. And it is thus: And God said to Jacob: Arise, go up to the place Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from the face of Esau your brother. And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him: Put away the foreign gods from among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments, and arise, let us go up to Bethel, and let us make there an altar to the God who heard me in the day of affliction, who was with me and saved me in the way in which I journeyed. And they gave to Jacob the foreign gods that were in their hands, and the earrings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that is in Shechem, and they have perished until this day. The God of all things, then, was summoning the righteous man to Bethel from Shechem. And he was not disobedient. Then, having come through Luz, and having been deemed worthy of a vision of God, and being confirmed by the promises that he would be the father of many nations, he goes up to Bethel, and Jacob, it says, set up there a pillar in the place where God spoke with him, a stone pillar, and he poured a drink offering upon it, and he poured oil upon it.

And Jacob called the name of the place in which God spoke with him, Bethel. Many things at once serve as no obscure proof that Jacob was transferred into the land of Israel, and that he chose a migration incomparably better. For he dwelt in tents, almost by this very thing showing that the race of the saints is but a sojourner in the world. Then, in the midst of this, having suffered the things that happened concerning his daughter, and being grieved not moderately at those who were basely defeated by anger—I mean Simeon and Levi—he rebuked them severely, showing forth to us through actual events that forbearance under evil and endurance in trials is befitting holiness. And since he had been called by God and had gone up to Bethel, that is, to the house of God (for Bethel is interpreted thus here), he performs sacred rites to God and is shown to be a mystagogue. For in what manner one ought to go into the house of God, he makes clear to those who follow him. For he commanded them to cast away the foreign gods as some sort of refuse and uncleanness, and to change their garments. This is indeed the custom for us when we are called to the sight of God and enter into his divine temple, especially at the time of holy baptism. For we must put away the foreign gods, as it were, from our midst, and departing from such error say: I renounce you, Satan, and all your pomp, and all your worship. Indeed we must all change our garment also, stripping off as it were the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit, and clothing ourselves anew with the new man, who is renewed according to the image of him who created him.

The women with Jacob also threw away the things in their ears. For women too, entering into the house of God, having no fleshly adornment, and even letting go of their very hair, perhaps release their heads from the charges that come from braiding. This, I say, is what it means for the women to remove the ornament in their ears. When, therefore, we go up to Bethel, that is, to the house of God, there we shall recognize the stone, the chosen stone, the one that has become the head of the corner, that is, Christ. And we shall see him anointed by the Father for joy and exultation for all that is under heaven. For the Son has been anointed, as I said, by God and the Father, our joy of all, the exultation of the whole world, according to the voice of the Psalmist. And you might see this also prefigured in what has just been said by us. For Jacob set up the stone, watering it with oil and wine. What was done was a type of the mystery according to Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to God and the Father together with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

BOOK 6 OF THE GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS.

Concerning Joseph. 1. Great, by common confession, is the mystery of piety, that is, Christ, and very deep indeed is the word concerning him, and the purpose of the economy with flesh. But it would be least of all clear to those who wish it in a simple way, yet it would not become manifest to the prudent without sweat; since, being illumined by divine grace, they are wise and quick of understanding, and are knowledgeable in the legal and prophetic writings. And indeed the inspired Peter, who was foremost among the disciples and surpassed the others, confessed the faith rightly; and he heard from Christ: Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in the heavens. For God and Father initiates us into the word concerning the Son; and he thus preserves us, bringing us to him as Savior and Redeemer. For no one comes to me, he says, unless my Father who sent me draws him. Therefore, so that through all of holy Scripture, so to speak, understanding the word concerning him and gathering blameless faith, we may not have our heart shaken as it were and made drunk by accursed double-mindedness, nor falling into disturbances from ignorance; henceforth let us hear God speaking through the voice of the prophets: They loved to move their feet, and they did not spare, and God did not approve of them. For this reason, through countless images, he establishes us firmly toward the truth, and he has usefully laid down beforehand the faith concerning him.

the things that happen according to the times, as it were setting up bright images of the knowledge concerning him. Let us see, then, also in the things concerning the wondrous Joseph, whether what I said would not again be true. And the things concerning him are as follows: These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, having become seventeen years old, was shepherding the sheep with his brothers, being young, with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, the wives of his father. And Joseph brought an evil report to Israel his father. And Jacob loved Joseph beyond all his sons, because he was a son of old age to him. And he made him a variegated tunic. And his brothers, seeing that his father loved him out of all his sons, hated him, and could not speak to him anything peaceful. 2. For the writer of the book has made an exact enumeration of those who came from Esau. For who sprang from whom, and in what part of the earth each of them settled, and the rule over whom they obtained by lot, the sacred Scripture has taught us; yet none of them had done anything noble, nor even worthy of mention. And the account, as it were, sails past those named, and as it were comes down to the wondrous Joseph; and it makes a bright narrative of those from the blood of Jacob. So Joseph was the youngest of the others (for he was seventeen years old), yet he did not neglect the sweat of shepherding; but together with the other brothers he took hold of equal pursuits, not having honored the most pleasant and always in some way dear ease of those in their prime; not declining the premature care of life, nor having loved rather to be at leisure, since indeed he was still among youths;

But like an old man, now having come into fair weather of thoughts and keeping his mind well established, and using speech that was hoary, and fore-showing the beauty of the brightness that was to come, he was naturally admired by the blessed and affectionate father, and was deemed especially worthy of love and sparing. For he was, it says, also a son of his old age. And what is this? The word inquires closely into the dispositions within us. For the affections of parents toward their children are equal in all respects among some, and in no way less in others. But often nature takes advantage and constrains the mind, persuading it to assign something small beyond the others to those who are more deficient, inasmuch as they are also in need of more urgent sparing. And besides, when many have sometimes been born, it somehow comes to an end, and the excess of love finally anchors in the last one, the affection for those who came before being somehow snatched to itself by the one after them. For the human mind is fond of novelty, and does not shake off satiety with things already past; but it lays hold of things not yet present, or just recently acquired, exceedingly, and receives a more vigorous desire for them. Therefore the wondrous Jacob loved Joseph beyond the others, because he was a son of his old age. But it must be known that, although he had first brought Leah into his house in Harran, he loved Rachel, who had borne Joseph, and at the end Benjamin. To this we say that both were sons of his old age. But the natural fitness of Joseph for anything whatsoever was not equal in all respects; but he showed the old man as it were inclined and leaning toward him in a different direction.

For he was reasoning, in all likelihood, that he would be splendid and famous. And he who had not cared for the frolics of youth, now coming to manhood, how would he not become one of those admired? And the blessed Jacob also did something new beyond the others in his case: for he wove a many-colored tunic, and honored him with the most distinguished garments. What then from this? Those from Zilpah and Bilhah were sharpened to anger, and were carried away with them into the most outlandish grief, and thenceforth received envy against the youth—those from the free woman, I mean Leah. For the young man was wronging them in nothing; but their father's love and the child's natural excellence instilled in them the fire of unjust envy; and for a time they shot at him with their tongues, somehow reviling and mocking him in the ways in which it was likely that the youth would already be reproached by enemies. This, I think, is the meaning of, "And they brought an evil report of Joseph to Israel their father." So then, skirmishes, as it were, were the first-fruits of their unholy designs—love of fault-finding and mockeries from an unbridled tongue, now appointed to serve envy. And their hostility was kindled to greater intensity from some such cause as this: for God fore-revealed to the young man that in time he would be splendid and looked upon, and among his brothers in better estate, and crowned with glories unto his lot. And the event, I think, was a summons, sharpening the boy to the desire of virtue.

For just as the trainers of boys, anointing the young, sharpen them for the most daring feats of boldness, and persuade them to choose to honor endurance of suffering, proclaiming beforehand the prizes which the ambitions of the judges of the contests set alongside the glory of victory—the acclamations from the spectators, the praises, the applause—so too the God of all things, whenever he sees a soul of good nature, distinguished by a tested and unadulterated mind, and disposed toward every one of the best things, then calls it to choose to do the good, displaying beforehand what is to come, and rousing it by his providence to eagerness—clearly eagerness for virtues. A vision, then, and a certain utterance from on high once came upon the young man—I mean Joseph. And he, I suppose, marveling, kept sharing it with his brothers, saying thus: Hear this dream which I have dreamed: I thought we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright; and your sheaves, turning around, did obeisance to my sheaf. And his brothers said to him: Will you indeed reign over us, or will you indeed lord it over us? And they added still to hate him, because of his dreams and because of his words. Observe, then, that their envy proceeds toward increase, and they make, as it were, food for their jealousy out of the things signified by the dreams. For those who were not at all moderately vexed at the outset, how would they have made it bearable—that he had been honored beyond measure—to choose even to do obeisance and to keep for him the rank here so august and exceedingly exalted?

But it is worth observing that point: how envy always has an unholy assault and comes through equal evils. And we shall find the beast to be blind and, as far as possible, a fighter against God. For observe how, when God foretold to Joseph the splendor of the glory that was to come, it was necessary to consider clearly that God, who judges justly, would not bring the highest honors upon those not worthy to obtain them, and then to rejoice over a brother who had the most radiant hope and was honored by divine vote. This they did not do, but they stir up the goad of envy more abundantly, and like wild beasts they rage, all but reproaching God who promises the glory and foretells that he will be conspicuous. We shall find this to have happened in the case of Cain and Abel. For when the God of all deemed the sacrifice of Abel worthy of praise and, sending fire down from heaven, received the gift, having paid no heed to Cain's, the murderous envy immediately entered in, and, as it were, leading out its own anger against the votes from above, it pursues the brother by deceit and indeed destroys him. For envy always ends in these things somehow. But what would be the meaning of the visions? For let us accept the sheaf as a sign of the time. Indeed, the rising of the one would suggest what is conspicuous in glory. That therefore a time will come when the inspired Joseph will be glorious, and the multitude of the brothers itself will be subject and subordinated to him, he indicated beforehand in riddling fashion by his sheaf being worshiped by the others. But the dreams of Joseph do not stop at these things.

But he also relates to his blessed father and his brothers something else he had seen concerning this. For he saw, he says, another dream, and he told it to his father and to his brothers, and he said: Behold, I dreamed another dream: As if the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. And his father rebuked him and said to him: What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will it indeed come to pass that I and your mother and your brothers will come and bow down to you on the earth? And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the saying in mind. The old man was skilled and distinguished in the highest powers of understanding. For he understood the power of the visions; but he rebuked the child, saying: Will it indeed come to pass that I and your mother and your brothers will come and bow down to you on the earth? And who could understand this? The manner of the rebuke is both wise and necessary. For he cleverly checks the envy of those who hear, and he tames the young man, who was pouring himself out with unbearable boldness, now in a certain way, and calls him to gentleness; and he does not allow the boy to exult over his brothers in the hope of the dreams, nor yet to disregard without counsel the honor due to a father, all but seizing for himself prematurely the preeminence of the splendor that was to come. For observe how he cleverly brings the power of the visions to an outcome that could not be admitted. For since Rachel, who had borne Joseph, was already dead, he says: Shall I and your mother bow down to you?

He did this, just as I said a moment ago, both dragging down the bulk of the young man's mind and putting to rest the envy of his brothers that had been stirred up against him. Yet he himself expects that the matter will come to pass. For he had not heard it carelessly, nor does he deem the words worthy of forgetfulness, even if he wrote down their plausibility. For he has kept watch over them, perhaps having taken courage that they will also come to fulfillment. And after the recounting of the dreams, the brothers departed to pasture together with the flocks in Shechem. Then, when a little time had passed by in between, the father urges the youth to go and visit his brothers. For, he says, do not your brothers pasture in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them. And he said to him: Behold, here I am. And Israel said to him: Go and see whether your brothers and the sheep are well, and report to me. So then he promises most eagerly to go, and indeed he sets out and has departed from the valley of Hebron. And as he was going around the wilderness, someone, meeting him, asked for what purpose he had come, and where at last, and to whom he was hastening. And he, immediately to these things: I am seeking my brothers; report to me where they are pasturing. And the man said to him, he says, they have departed from here. For I heard them saying: Let us go to Dothaim. And having arrived there, he was unexpectedly plotted against. For in due time envy, as it were, was working what had long seemed good. So then those from the maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah desired to make full use of him. For they were saying: Behold, that dreamer comes. Now then, come, let us kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say:

A wicked beast has devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams." But Reuben, hearing this, rescued him from their hands, saying, "We shall not strike him to the soul." And Reuben said to them, "Do not shed blood; cast him into one of these pits in the desert, but do not lay a hand on him." He said this so that he might rescue him from their hands and restore him to his father. So then, having stripped off the variegated tunic, they lowered Joseph into the pit, not dead, but only as one who would die and not long after. But when certain Ishmaelites, merchants of spices, were hurrying toward the land of the Egyptians, at the counsel of Judah (for he had cried out clearly that they ought not to destroy their brother), they sold the young man for twenty pieces of gold to those who had deposited the price for him, to those who wished to buy him. And Joseph was carried off to Egypt. But Reuben again, not knowing what had happened, came to the pit. And when he did not see the boy, thinking that he had come into danger, he tore his garment and laid the blame on the others, saying of Joseph: "The boy is not there; and where shall I go from here?" For he says almost exactly this: "How could I return to my father, or how would he at all receive us when we do not have the beloved one? And what indeed shall we say to him when he demands

to his father the boy? But they, having soaked the variegated tunic in the blood of a goat, brought it to their father, having composed drunken words by guile and deceit. "For we found this," they say; "recognize whether it is your son's tunic or not." And the father laments, and perhaps he had cried out against the envy of his sons and their unholy designs, saying, "A wicked beast has devoured Joseph." And he was hard to bring together and wholly uninstructable, and he received his despondency at the misfortune of the child. "For he did not wish," it says, "to be comforted, saying, 'I shall go down to my son mourning to Hades.'" Since the account of the history has thus come to its end, the mind will again pass over to the investigation of the innermost things. And as if coloring the truth with certain shadows by the things that happened perceptibly, he produces, as far as possible, the fitting beauty of the contemplation. 3. Therefore the younger Rachel, beautiful in form and gleaming with the charm of bright glances of the eyes, bore Joseph; although Leah was not so. From where? For it is written, that "the eyes of Leah were weak; but Rachel was beautiful in form and very lovely in appearance." But we said that Leah was the mother of the Jews, that is, the Synagogue, gathering the proofs for this both from the eyes and from the interpretation of the name. For truly the inner and mental vision of the Synagogue of the Jews is unlovely and greatly diseased with infirmity. "For they have eyes, and they do not see," according to the voice of the prophet. For they have not known the things of Moses, nor indeed have they been able to discern the mysteries in him, through which Emmanuel was variously described.

Leah is interpreted as "laboring," just as we have also said elsewhere. For the Synagogue of the Jews has labored, having the law given through Moses as a slow and hard-to-bear burden. Therefore Christ also, since they were laboring and weighed down, called them to the rest that comes through faith, saying: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." But Leah is in these things. Yet the eyes of Rachel are exceedingly pure. For the Church from the nations has beheld the glory of Christ, and in him the Father; and it has been called to intimacy with the spiritual bridegroom, that is, Christ, after the first. For this one has no newest wrinkle, although the first has grown old, and since indeed it has aged, it has come near to destruction. And Rachel is also interpreted as "flock of God." For the Church is the flock of the Savior; who said to the Jews through one of the holy prophets: "And I said: I will not shepherd you. Let the dying die, and let the failing fail, and the remnants—let each devour the flesh of his neighbor." But concerning us: "My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life." He is therefore a good shepherd, and in all things he himself is first. But he has also been called a sheep, since indeed he became like us. At any rate, the wise John pointed him out to the crowds of the Jews, saying: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." For countless victims were being slaughtered, according to the type of the law, but none wiped away the sin of the world. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

The blameless lamb, the true lamb, the blameless victim, has taken away the sin of the world. Therefore he has also been reckoned as a sheep with us. For this reason he might also be called the son of the Church, as firstborn among brothers. It should be known that Joseph is interpreted as "addition" and "increase of God." For the holy multitude is always given over to the increase of the children of the Church. Therefore it has also been said to her: Lift up your eyes round about, Zion, and see all. Behold, they have been gathered, and they have come to you. And again: Behold, these come from far away, these from the north, and these from the sea, and others from the land of the Persians. It is also written in the Acts of the apostles: in one place, that the Lord was adding those being saved day by day to the same; and in another place indeed: But rather, multitudes of men and women who believed in the Lord were being added. In this way, just as I have already said before, the intellectual Joseph—that is, those in Christ—might reasonably be understood as the addition of God. And our account would not be off the mark in naming those who believed in him as though also himself, in an economy of salvation. For he is the head, and the body and members are we, in part. And he is the vine, and we have been grafted in like branches, being bound together by the unity according to the Spirit through sanctification. But, it says, Joseph was seventeen years old. And that he was quite young, I think, the Scripture would also demonstrate to us through these words. And we say that Emmanuel himself is the youngest of the others, connecting to those who came before him—such as Moses and the prophets—that which is older in time.

Examining the power of what is written, we shall think that something else too is signified through this. For the number of the years will perhaps somehow trace out for us also the deep mystery of the economy with the flesh. And in what manner I shall try to make clear as far as possible; for as I have already said also elsewhere—for I shall remember it—it is the custom of divine Scripture that numbers which run backward, after their appointed completion, are made symbols of perfection. What I mean is this: if one were to count up ten and choose to run past it, he will begin again from the unit, as if arriving at its end. Likewise with the hebdomad. For beginning from the first, one goes up in order to the seventh; then, having closed the number of days at the end, he will return again to the first. So then the sacred word makes these, which are of this sort among numbers, signs of perfection. And indeed in the distribution of talents, it says that the one who has come to a lot of labor-loving according to God has received ten talents, and moreover has been set over ten cities; because the rewards will be equal in perfection to the approvals entirely and in every way, demonstrating this through this—the distributor of these, that is, Christ. And indeed one of the saints said that a barren woman bore seven, placing the seven, I suppose, in place of many, and as many as might be reckoned to a perfect number by one of those who have chosen to count up. When, then, it is said concerning Joseph that he was seventeen years old, we shall grant that Emmanuel has been composed into one Christ and Son from two perfect things, divinity and humanity.

For we will certainly not accept the opinion of some, who think that that divine temple which God the Word carried from the holy Virgin was emptied of a rational soul. But just as he was perfect in divinity, so also in humanity, except that he is composed into one in an ineffable and beyond-mind manner. Therefore the number ten signifies the perfect in divinity and somehow hints it to us. But the number seven would again indicate the state in humanity, being less than ten as in a Triad, yet brought to it and as it were added to it. For after the number ten, seven follows. In the pre-eminence of the Triad, that is of Divinity, is God the Word from the Father; in a subordinate condition is the human nature, and the glory of God in lesser things. And God the Word is understood as pre-existing, and the human nature has been added to him. Therefore necessarily the number ten is placed first, and seven has been added. For Joseph, it says, was ten and seven years old. Consider here with me the temporary and the without-beginning, as in time, I mean, of Emmanuel. For a numbering of years has occurred as in an image in Joseph; but "was" has been added. For he has been called to the generation understood according to us, and to a number of years because of the human nature, although the Word is God. But "was" follows him entirely. For he is understood and truly is co-eternal with God the Father, and, as the divine John says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. Therefore I will say again:

Joseph the wonderful was seventeen years old, and he pastured his father's flocks with his brothers, those from Zilpah, I mean, and Bilhah, that is, those born of the handmaids. For the Word of God, having become man, went about the land of the Jews up and down, gathering together as it were into love for God and the Father the lost sheep of the house of Israel. For as the blessed Paul writes, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Emmanuel therefore pastured those born into slavery, and those who had as it were from two maidservants a birth that was bastard and not free. For after the reign of Jeroboam, the ten tribes revolted from Jerusalem, and they dwelt and have dwelt in Samaria, Jeroboam leading them into this. And they went astray and worshipped the golden calves there. Whence also through the voice of Ezekiel God accused them as two women who had played the harlot, saying thus: Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother, and they played the harlot in Egypt; in their youth they played the harlot, and their breasts fell. There they were deflowered. And their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. And they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters; and their names were Samaria, that is Oholah, and Jerusalem, that is Oholibah. The Son, then, having become as we are, pastured those born at once of slavery and of harlotry.

For those from Israel who stand at the head of the law still lead them, even though Christ is already teaching and initiating into the mysteries those who come to him, and is carrying them off to the path of truth. And this path was himself. Therefore he also said: I am the way. But the scribes and Pharisees, who have the reputation of the lawgiving, were pasturing them into thorns, into brambles, into error, into teachings and commandments of men; but he pastured them into good pasture, and into grass, as it were, most flourishing, the noble and admirable knowledge of the gospel teachings. And the former were shepherds slothful and slack, and besides these things, overcome by gain, and sick with the utmost love of profit—eating the milk, clothing themselves with the wool, and slaughtering the fat, according to the voice of the prophet—hirelings and arrogant, and deeming of altogether little worth the need to labor for the sheep. But just as those from Zilpah and Bilhah brought down an evil reproach upon Joseph, so also the most perverse multitude of the unholy Pharisees have slandered Emmanuel, and dared to malign his glory, impiously calling him a Samaritan, and a wine-drinker, and besides these things one possessed by demons, and aided by the workings of Beelzebul for this—to be able, I mean, to drive out the evil spirits of those who are sick. Therefore also through the voice of the prophet Emmanuel himself cried out against the loose-lippedness of the Jews, saying: Woe to them, for they have leapt away from me. Wretched are they, for they have acted impiously toward me. But I redeemed them; yet they spoke false things against me.

And again: Their princes shall fall by the sword, because of the unlearnedness of their tongue. The company of the Pharisees, then, has babbled insolently against Christ, bold and illiberal as it is. And this, I think, is what it means to bring down an evil report against their brother Joseph. But he was loved, it says, by his father, because he was a son of his old age. For there have indeed been other shepherds, both noble and good, before the manifestation of our Savior in the world and in the flesh—and before the others, the inspired Moses, and those in succession who shepherded the rational flocks. Nevertheless, the Father loved the Son in a surpassing way, even though he came last after the others and appeared in the final times of the age. It will fit Jacob, then, to have Joseph as a son of old age. But God is unaging, without beginning and without increase, and always perfectly complete. Therefore, not allowing the word to miss the mark of what is fitting in this wise hunt, we say that Emmanuel was born to God the Father as a son of old age, inasmuch as he came in the last times of the age—clearly of the present age—and since after him there is no other. For we do not expect to be saved in another. He alone will suffice, since we say that the salvation and life of the world lie in no other. He himself, then, will shepherd us for ages, according to the voice of the Psalmist, and we shall lie under him, the beloved,

who appeared in the last times of the age, as I said just now, with flesh, but who pre-existed as God. For we say that he is co-eternal with the Father. Joseph, then, was loved exceedingly by his father; and he gave him a many-colored tunic, as a kind of exceptional honor, making the thing a clear indication of the affection that was in him. But this too was a provocation of envy to his brothers, and a pretext for jealousy, just as the very outcome of events will teach. And the Pharisees too were mad against the beloved one, that is, Christ, because he was clothed, as it were, by God and the Father with a glory of many forms. For he was marveled at in many ways, I think: on the one hand as life-giver, on the other as light and able to enlighten those in darkness, as one cleansing lepers, and raising the dead most easily even when they already stank, as one rebuking the seas and riding upon their waves with authority. And indeed the Jews, already somehow at a loss and now unbearably consumed by the fire of envy, were saying to one another: What are we doing? For this man performs many signs. The all-many-colored tunic, then, is for us an enigma of the many-formed glory which God and the Father is said to have put around the Son when he became as we are because of the human nature. For as far as pertains to his own nature, he himself is the Lord of glory; even if he should perhaps say in an economic manner, because of his likeness to us: Father, glorify your Son. The sons of the maidservants, then, were provoked to grief at the things I mentioned just now. And in addition to these things, they became suspicious because of the recounting of the dreams.

For they were learning beforehand that in time they themselves would be underfoot and would be worshipped, while he would greatly surpass them and would for the rest run up to such glory that he would become an object of worship even to those who had begotten him. They were already grinding their teeth and receiving the thoughts that urged them to murder. The Jews too were provoked and were not a little grieved, learning that Emmanuel would surpass even the holy Fathers and would be worshipped by all the people, or rather by the whole earth. And understanding this, they said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance"—although the blessed David plainly says to the Only-Begotten who had become man: "All the nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord"; and at another time he makes manifest the envy and the unholy wrath of the Israelites themselves against Christ, saying: "The Lord has reigned; let the peoples be angry." Having therefore sufficiently shown the harsh and untamed envy of the Jews, let us speak in due season of their intolerable and murderous audacities, pressing the account of the history on every side and running back to the very aim of the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. For the account brings us back again to this. 5. For the command of his father persuades the wondrous Joseph to go to Shechem, if indeed they are in good health, and to oversee his brothers, wherever and in whatever manner they are pasturing their flocks. And he departs, but finds them with difficulty—not at all in Shechem, but rather having gone down to Dothaim.

But when they saw him approaching, they smiled bitterly and hatefully, saying: "Behold, that dreamer is coming." Reuben restrained them when they wished to do away with him; but they let him down into one of the pits, disregarding Reuben's counsel. Not long after, drawing the young man up from the pit, they sold him to the Ishmaelites who were going down into Egypt. But Reuben, returning to the pit and not finding the boy, and thinking he had already been killed and that it was the work of the murderers' impiety, was greatly grieved. And Joseph was carried away into Egypt, and his father mourned and continued lamenting for a long time. And our Lord Jesus Christ himself was sent by God the Father to visit those of Israel, to see whether they continued in strength—clearly in spiritual strength—and whether the flocks under them remained in good condition, not deprived of the shepherds' gentleness.

But they were found not in Shechem, but in Dothaim. Shechem is interpreted as "shoulder." The limb would be a sign of love of labor. For the God-inspired Scripture is somehow accustomed sometimes to signify strength, and sometimes labor, by the shoulder. For example, we say that passage: "Give your heart to your shoulders," that is, to love of labor. And Dothaim again means "great failing." Therefore those of Israel were found not being in labors for virtue, nor indeed in good repute according to the law, but in great failing—of righteousness, clearly, and of all gentleness. For there was not one righteous, there was not one doing goodness, there was not even one.

But, as God says somewhere through the voice of the prophet, they brought him only the honor that comes from the tongue, having turned their mind elsewhere, and having removed their heart far away from the obligation to fulfill the things ordained through Moses. For they were devoted to teachings alone, and to the commandments of men. But they recognized the beloved one present in the flesh, the spiritual Joseph. For the blessed evangelist John said that indeed many even of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it. Having recognized him, then, they treated him with madness. For they killed him, and the wretched men cast him down as into a pit—the deep and dark abyss of death, that is, Hades. For thus the divine David also signified him to us, speaking as to the Father and God in the heavens, as from the person of Christ: "Lord, you brought my soul up from Hades; you saved me from those who go down into the pit." And observe for me the power of the sacred Scriptures, and how very finely it has been polished to exactness: "The pit," it says, "was empty; it had no water," so that Hades may be clearly and vividly signified to us through this. And in what manner, I will say: water would be a symbol of life, as being life-giving. But it says there was no water in the pit. For Hades would reasonably be understood as the house and dwelling of those deprived of life. Nevertheless the boy was brought up. And Christ also came back to life from the dead. For he did not become held fast by the pit. Nor did Christ remain in Hades, but rather he emptied it. For he said to those in bonds: "Come out.

But when he was brought up, and not long after the inspired Joseph departed into the land of the Egyptians, the Ishmaelites having bought him; and they were traders in spices. For Christ also came to life and has come up out of the pit. But he transferred to Judea, leaving for the country of the Gentiles; the spiritual Ishmaelites carrying him about, that is, those in obedience to God; for the word is interpreted thus. And who would such people be? Again, the blessed disciples, who put their ear to the teachings through Christ, and became a firstfruit of those approved in obedience and faith, and in boasts beyond the law. For such people would reasonably be understood also as traders in spices, giving forth the sweet fragrance of the mystery of Christ, and tracing in their own souls the form of every virtue generally. These bought Jesus in a certain manner, leaving behind all the splendid things in the law, and trading for the one precious pearl, according to the Savior's own parable. These conveyed Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel, and proclaiming throughout all the earth under the sun that he is God and Lord, and as a chosen stone, rejected indeed by the builders in the law and the spiritual builders, but chosen and honored by God, and laid as the head of the corner. Except that Reuben prevented his brothers when they were murdering; and Judah also was grieved. And Reuben was the firstborn; Judah, however, was from the tribe called to kingship.

Therefore all who have been enriched with the likeness of the firstborn—if indeed they were from the Jews—and all who have been called to the kingdom of the heavens, having received the proclamation through Christ, were not a little grieved at the audacious deeds committed against him. For there were, there were not a few at that time, both in Jerusalem and in the other territory of the Jews, who were grieved and

suffered together with Christ when he was dishonored. And the father mourned for Joseph: For he was unwilling, it says, to be comforted. So from this too it is possible to see that the outrage against Christ and the murderous undertakings of the Jews grieved no moderately the Father and God in the heavens. And they have offended so grievously as to refuse comfort, and almost to endure no one at all if someone should choose to make supplications on their behalf. For the prophets often pleaded, and urged that Israel be saved—though it had done things beyond all reason against the prophets. And God often considered his gentleness; for those who were in danger were servants. But since they have raged madly against Christ himself, the Father is unconsoled, his wrath inflexible. For it is no longer some prophet who has been insulted, but the Savior of all things, the Master of the prophets, that is, Christ, through whom and with whom be the glory to God and the Father with the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen. Concerning Judah and Tamar. 1. The aim of the God-inspired Scripture is to signify to us the mystery of Christ through countless things.

One might compare it to a splendid and admirable city, one that has not just a single image of the king but as many as can be, set up conspicuously in every place. For observe how it omits none of the narratives that contribute to this end, but goes through them all. And even if the account of the history has something unseemly, it makes nothing of such things, perhaps, until the intended purpose is well woven together for it. For it is not its aim to make a declaration of the life of the saints—far from it—but rather to shape for us the knowledge of the mystery, through whatever would make the account concerning it clear and true, and nowhere liable to be censured as having erred from the truth. Therefore, as in the case of Judah again, and indeed also Tamar, the mystery of the Savior's economy is written for us. For it came to pass, it says, in that time, that Judah went down from his brothers, and came to a certain man, an Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw there the daughter of a Canaanite man, whose name was Shua. And he took her, and went in to her, and she conceived and bore a son, and called his name Er. And she conceived again, and bore a son, and called his name Onan. And adding further, she bore yet another son, and called his name Shelah. So these three children were born to Judah. And when the young men came to puberty, he receives Tamar and shuts her up with the firstborn, that is, with Er. But since he was evil in the eyes of God, he was removed before the begetting of children according to our reckoning. For God killed him, it says.

Then the father urged Onan to lie with his brother's wife and raise up seed for the deceased. But he, since he said the child to be born would not be his own, did wrong to the law of union, pouring it out onto the ground, and not rather giving his seed. And he too was destroyed at once by divine wrath. When this had happened, Judah thereafter was afraid to settle his third son with her, I mean Shelah. And the pretext for these fears was, he says, "Lest perhaps he too should perish." But he made a pretense that the marriage ought not to be consummated, namely the very brief age of the boy. For he said, it says, to his bride: "Sit as a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up." For he said: "Lest perhaps he too die, like his brothers." And Tamar departed and sat in her father's house. Then, when time had passed, Tamar was distressed at the delay of the marriage. And she already understood somehow that her father-in-law would not bring the promise to fulfillment for her. But he was rather making excuses, deferring it and putting off the expected thing into hopes that would not come to be. And what then does she contrive for this? It was announced, it says, to Tamar his bride, saying: "Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep." And she, having taken off the garments of her widowhood from herself, put on a veil, and

she adorned herself, and sat at the gates of Ainan, which is on the road to Thamna. For she saw that her son Selom had grown great, yet he had not given her to him as a wife. And Judah, seeing her, supposed her to be a harlot. For she had covered her face, and he did not recognize her. Then he was carried away by desire; and when he asked the woman for her wages, he promised to send a kid, and when she asked for pledges of the promise, he gave her the staff, and the ring, and the necklace—that is, an ornament of those things about the neck (and one might suppose, quite reasonably, since Judah was a Chaldean, that he was not careless in the habit of adorning himself for lying down); for the Chaldeans are lovers of ornament, and they make their hands and neck shine with gold, and sometimes they even crown their very hair. And this has been customary among them, and is reckoned manly, a mark of the highest nobility and not without praise for courage. When these things had been accomplished thus, Judah departed to the goal he had in mind from the beginning. But she returned to her father's house, and indeed she was now in the fair hope of her expectation, being with child. And when Judah learned this, he said the woman must die, as having played the harlot. But when she was at the last extremity, she showed him the staff and the rest, saying: "By the man whose these are, I am with child." And she said: "Recognize whose is the ring, and the necklace, and this staff." And Judah recognized them and said, "Thamar has been justified rather than I. For this cause I did not give her to Selom my son?" And he did not again know her.

And it came to pass, he says, when she was giving birth, that there were twins in her womb. And it came to pass, when she was giving birth, that one put forth his hand. And the midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, "This one will come out first." But when he drew back his hand, immediately his brother came out. And she said, "Why was the breach broken through on your account?" And she called his name Phares. After this his brother came out, on whose hand was the scarlet thread; and she called his name Zara. And these things I have said from the letter. But again the meaning of the necessary things is hidden. Which, whatever it may be, we shall examine, and not at length. 2. But I think it necessary to say this before the other things, that even if those who have a brilliant reputation in the divinely inspired Scripture somehow come to be found among things not very honorable, God directing some of the necessary things very well for benefit, we shall ward off far from us the harm that comes from being scandalized—if we reckon in word to be wise and quick-minded, and are not ignorant of the things most necessarily done by economy. For let us consider that even the blessed prophet Hosea once hired for himself a harlot as a wife, and did not refuse a marriage so discredited, and was called the father of hated children, whose names were "Not my people" and "Not pitied." And what the matter was and for what reasons it was done, we shall not hesitate to explain. For since those of Israel who seemed to be most distinguished were opposing the preachings of the prophets, and the divine word was unacceptable to them—

These things were being done through the saints at various times, so that, seeing what was to come in the very deeds themselves, as it were brightly and openly written on a tablet, they might apply their minds to finding what was beneficial, and might themselves turn toward choosing what was profitable, and persuade others as well. For they were learning that at times they would not be a people, and would be ranked among those who had not obtained mercy, hard and unwilling to hear, and what sort of ailment had they not suffered, and to what end had they not been exposed? But that the prophet lodged with the harlot was perhaps a type of God, who in a manner had dwelt with the Synagogue of the Jews as with a harlot and most polluted woman, and had chosen from her the generation of children that was hated by her. Considering, then, the ways of the dispensation at various times, we shall reasonably free from blame and reproach both Thamar herself for having played the harlot, I say, and indeed Judas as well; rather, we say that it was an oikonomic union. For she desired freeborn offspring, being deprived of him who had dwelt with her according to the law; and he was already in some way not greatly at fault for coming together with another, if he should choose to, since his first wife had died. And indeed a union of spiritual fellowship and of intellectual offspring—a bodily offspring would in every way depict for us the types in itself. For in this way, and not otherwise, would the human mind be led by the hand toward the truth. 3. Judas therefore went down and came to a man whose name was Hiras. He was a goatherd and a craftsman in pastoral matters.