Glaphyra in Pentateuchum

Observe that nature, even without written laws, is self-taught for clearly knowing what is beneficial. For although he had a son—I mean Ishmael—the divine Abraham called himself childless. Nature therefore knows very clearly that one who springs from counterfeit and illegitimate unions would not even be reasonably called a son at all. For it will not strike root deep, as it is written. And that, even if a child should ever be born to someone from a maidservant, the thing is altogether cold and stale, and would not be inscribed among the joys of free persons, he further demonstrated by saying: "The son of Massek, my household servant, this one is Damascus Eliezer." That is, "Henceforth the one from my household servant will be for me a kiss of blood." For this is what "Damascus" means. And he will be counted for assistance and succor from God. For this again is what "Eliezer" means. It is therefore as if he says clearly: "Instead of genuine blood and love [...] this, a kiss of blood and assistance from God, my household servant will of necessity become for me; and he will also be my heir." What then will you give me? If I should not have a legitimate successor, your Abraham will be wholly and entirely under reproach, O Lord. For he departs bereft of true children from a free woman. But God did not allow the righteous man to grieve for long. For seed was immediately promised in Isaac, which he says will be equal in number to the countless multitude of the stars. And he affirmed that he would be called father of countless nations, even though he was agitated by fears of childlessness. And Abraham, it says, believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Righteousness, then, is a reward for the one who honors the Master of all by faith. For through this he has testified that he is able to accomplish everything. But the unbelieving and negligent man will be boastful and insolent. He will therefore fall under judgment and reason. So Abraham believed in God and was justified by him. He also demands a sign for the confirmation and truth of what was promised, as it will be. Then God, in a providential manner, pretends to be troubled by the oath, not allowing the one who believed to fall into doubt. For it is written thus: He said to him, "I am the God who brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans, in order to give you this land to inherit it." He said, "Master and Lord, by what shall I know that I will inherit it?" He said to him, "Take for me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon." He took all these for himself, and divided them in half, and placed them opposite each other. But he did not divide the birds. Birds came down upon the bodies, upon their halves, and Abraham sat with them. About sunset, a trance fell upon Abraham, and behold, a great dark fear fell upon him. And it was said to Abraham, "You will know by knowing that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not their own, and they will enslave them, and they will oppress them for four hundred years. And the nation to which they are enslaved, I will judge. After these things, they will come out here with much baggage. And you will go to your fathers in peace, having been nourished in a good old age. In the fourth generation, they will return here.

For the sins of the Amorites have not yet been filled up to the present. But when the sun went toward the west, a flame appeared. And behold, a smoking oven and torches of fire, which passed through the midst of these divided pieces. But what indeed this occurrence is, the inquisitive one will examine, and will scrutinize the manner of the oath-taking: what the divided pieces might signify, he says, and what the flight of the birds and the gathering around them, and what indeed this sitting together of Abraham, and what the flame darting through the midst of the divided pieces. We shall then relate. 4. Necessarily, the Chaldeans fulfilled the need of an oath by passing through the midst of the divided animals, and, as it were, proclaiming through the action itself thus: "May I not become like these." So to Abraham, who was of Chaldean race and was just departing from his homeland, the Master of all commanded, in an economic manner, that he perform the customary acts for oaths, skillfully interweaving the mystery of Christ in the sacrificed animals. But when the divided pieces were subsequently spread upon the ground, as if God were about to pass through their midst, "Birds," it says, "ran together upon them in great number, and Abraham sat down with them." That is, having girded himself, he kept watch, so that no harm might occur, and that the things brought forward for the use of the oath might not become food for the unclean birds. But about sunset, it says, astonishment and fear fall upon Abraham. And what again might be understood as the reason for this, I would explain as best I can. It was a custom among the Chaldeans, held in good and entirely blameless repute, to scrutinize carefully the flights of birds.

God therefore, in accordance with his economy, allowed what he knew would happen to be learned from what some were accustomed to do. When the birds gathered upon the divided pieces, the inspired Abraham was terrified, having perhaps understood where and upon whom the sign would fall. For it seemed to be an evil thing, and not without concern, that the most abominable of birds alighted upon the victims. For those accustomed to eat flesh are always somehow unclean. But when he feared for his own head, lest the matter should somehow reach it, he is released from his anxiety concerning these things. For it will not come upon you, he says, the things suspected. But you will know by knowing that your seed will be a sojourner in a foreign land. And there will be very many who wish to do evil, of which the birds that flew upon the victims were a type. Yet having caused little grief, they will pay the penalty. But you will go to your fathers, having been nourished in a good old age. Then he says that when the sun was already at its setting, a flame of fire and an oven and torches passed through the midst of the divided pieces. And again the Divine is conceived in the form of fire, according to the custom of the Chaldeans, fulfilling the oath. Therefore the inspired Paul also accepts the matter as having the force of an oath, and says: But to Abraham, God, having promised, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, swore by himself, saying: Truly, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And he, having been patient, obtained the promise. For men swear by the greater, and for them the end of all contradiction, for confirmation, is the oath.

In which God, wishing to show more fully to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his purpose, interposed with an oath, so that through two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to hold fast to the hope set before us might have strong encouragement. 5. Most economically, then, God made the promise under oath, although he knows not how to speak falsely, so that, as the divine Paul writes, we might have strong encouragement, no longer doubting that it will come to pass entirely and in every way. Therefore (to bring the account back a little), while Hagar was still in labor with Ishmael, Sarah was distressed, unable to bear, I suppose, the boasts and excessive pride of her handmaid over her pregnancy. Then she drives her from the household and ordered her to go wherever she might choose, Abraham, who was lawfully married to her, I mean, having permitted her to do this. But as the sacred text says, An angel of the Lord God found her at the spring of water in the desert on the road to Shur. And the angel of the Lord said to her: "Hagar, handmaid of Sarah, where are you coming from and where are you going?" And she said: "I am running away from the face of Sarah, my mistress." And the angel of the Lord said to her: "Return to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hands." And Hagar withdrew and submitted to the yoke of slavery. And God was already ordaining circumcision for Abraham, saying: "You will keep my covenant, you and your seed after you, for their generations.

And this is the covenant which you shall keep, between me and you, and between your seed for their generations. Every male of yours shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. And a child eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male for your generations. The homeborn and the purchased, from every foreign son who is not of your seed, shall be circumcised by circumcision, the homeborn of your household and the purchased. And my covenant shall be upon your flesh, for an eternal covenant. And an uncircumcised male, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be destroyed from its kindred, because it has broken my covenant. Since it was necessary to yield to the divine laws, the wondrous Abraham was circumcised with his whole household. And he also circumcised Ishmael together with the others. Then the son of the free woman, that is Isaac, was born. And what after this? The bastard son, Ishmael, was no longer tolerable, playing about the hearth, and honored perhaps equally with Isaac. For Sarah saw, it says, the son of Hagar the Egyptian, who was born to Abraham, playing with Isaac her son. Then she approaches, weeping as is likely, and says: "Cast out this maidservant and her son. For the son of this maidservant shall not inherit with my son Isaac." But the word, it says, seemed harsh and very contrary to Abraham concerning his son. And God said to Abraham:

Let the word not be harsh before you concerning the child and the maidservant. Everything that Sarah may say to you, listen to her voice, because in Isaac a seed will be called for you. And the son of this maidservant also, I will make him into a great nation, for he is your seed. Abraham arose in the morning, and took loaves and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, and placed them on her shoulder along with the child, and sent her away. But as she went, she wandered in the desert, by the well of the Oath. The water ran out from the skin, and she threw the child under a fir tree. Then she went and sat opposite him at a distance, about a bowshot away. For she said, "I will not see the death of my child," and she sat opposite him. The child cried out and wept. God heard the voice of the child from the place where he was. And an angel of God called Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is it, Hagar? Do not fear; for God has heard the voice of your child from the place where he is. Arise and take the child, and hold him with your hand." And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of living water, and she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the child to drink. And God was with the child, and he grew. For the divine Abraham, overcome by the laws of love for his children, claimed Ishmael as his own.

Since the divine oracle was calling him to the necessity of attaching himself only to Isaac, as the promise was made concerning him, he dismissed Hagar and ordered her to depart from the master's hearth together with the infant, the type of the law foreshadowing the mystery concerning Christ. 5. And indeed let us say, necessarily bringing the discourse back to the beginning. One could very concisely observe here that the things through Christ are older than those in the law, and that justification by faith has a more ancient prefiguration than circumcision in the flesh. For circumcision was given to Abraham as a sign of faith in the foreskin, according to the utterance of the most wise Paul. Therefore the blessed Abraham was distressed because he had not become the father of a free child. And having a son from the Egyptian woman, I mean Hagar, he remained in a state of great despondency, considering the bastard and unfree offspring as equivalent to childlessness. But since he received the promises concerning the legitimate child, I mean Isaac, and heard clearly that he would be the father of countless and innumerable nations in him, he was justified by believing. And that he would also be in possession of the land shown to him by God—for He said, "I will give you this land"—he was urged to be assured, saying, "Master, by what shall I know this, that I will inherit it?" For this God ordered him to take the divided halves, a three-year-old heifer, a goat, and also a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon. And Abraham divided the four-footed animals, placing them facing each other, that is, in a row. But he did not divide the birds.

He also drove away the birds that sought to destroy. And when the sun was already setting toward the western extremities, God passed through the divided pieces in the form of fire. What spiritual meaning, then, might we apply to such things? We shall say as best we can. 7. For the Israel according to the flesh was first, as it were, a son to the God of all. For he says, "Israel is my firstborn son." Yet he was as from a slave woman and redeemed from Egypt. But God did not deem it worthy to count him among his children from any source (for the nature is freedom-loving and legitimate-offspring-loving); rather, he sought the people who would please him, that is, those through faith in Christ according to the promise, in which also the fathers around the divine Abraham became fathers of many nations. For they inherited the glory in this matter, not in the Israel according to the flesh, but in those from the nations who were saved through faith. And Paul will bear witness, writing: For the promise to Abraham that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For we who have believed in uncircumcision claim Abraham as father, and are justified by God in likeness to him. And Paul, being learned in the law, will very clearly explain the divine mystery to us. For he writes thus after the perfection in Christ, rebuking the Galatians as if they were going backward: "Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one from the slave woman and one from the free woman. But the one from the slave woman was born according to the flesh, and the one from the free woman through a promise." These things are allegorized.

For these are the two covenants: one, from Mount Sinai, giving birth to servitude, which is Hagar. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia; it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, and she serves along with her children. But the upper Jerusalem is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: "Rejoice, barren one who does not bear, break forth and cry out, you who do not labor in childbirth, for the children of the desert are more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband." But we, brothers, are children of promise like Isaac. Yet just as then the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one according to the spirit, so also now. But what does Scripture say? "Cast out the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." We, brothers, are not children of a maidservant, but of the free woman, by the freedom with which Christ freed us. Stand firm, then, and do not again be caught in the yoke of servitude. You understand, then, how it speaks clearly of images of the two covenants, Hagar and Sarah. And it compares the maidservant to the mother of the Jews, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, since she is subject to the laws of servitude and does not shine with a free spirit. But the first and free woman—I mean Sarah, who is also ruling and is interpreted as such—it says that the types of the high and upper Jerusalem are attached to her, and it clearly affirms that she has become the mother of those justified in faith and called by the promise of God to be children of Abraham. For we, it says, are children of promise like Isaac.

We are freed in Christ, through whom and in whom we are enriched with the divine Spirit from above, and we are enrolled among the children of God, and we cry, "Abba, Father," and we have become heirs of the good things promised to the saints, with God, so to speak, having sworn against Himself. For the Son, or the mystery concerning Him, was taken up as if in an oath of the Father. For it is customary to swear by the Father as by the Son's own power, and this is to swear by Himself. Since the Son is not other than He, at least, I mean, in respect of substance and the identity of divinity. And indeed, the inspired Moses, when he shows us God swearing, has introduced Him speaking quite clearly, saying, "I will lift my hand to heaven and swear by my right hand." For the right hand of God and Father is the Son, by which He holds sway over all things, and, as it were, grasps the whole, and in a manner befitting God works, summoning non-existent things to generation, and to those already existing, distributing well-being. Therefore, as if in the need of an oath confirming the heirs in faith of the promise, the mystery of our Savior was taken up. And Christ was typified, indeed, more particularly, as in a heifer, and also in a goat, and a ram, and as in two small birds, namely, a turtledove and a pigeon. And what the meaning of this might be, I will relate as far as possible.

Sometimes, because of his exceeding strength and invincible might—clearly the divine kind—he is compared to a calf. At other times, because of his humanity and because he was placed under the law, he is called a heifer. For the female is always somewhat behind and inferior to the male, as the male is leader and preeminent. The Son is beyond all creation and surpasses the nature and glory of generated beings by incomparable superiority, having his highest root, I mean the Father and God of all. But since he is by nature like us, he was placed under the law as a leader. Therefore he also said, "I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." We will also attribute this to the measures of the incarnation, having chosen to think rightly. For this reason Christ is a heifer, fulfilling the role of the law of Moses, that is, the law defined by him. He is also likened to a goat. For what reason? For he offered himself for our sins, according to the Scriptures. A goat is the sacrifice for sin according to the law. He is also compared to a ram, because he leads the rational flocks. For Christ is our one teacher. And we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand, according to what is written. Since he was made like his brothers in all things, that is, us, lowering himself into the incarnation, he is written as a ram, yet he is understood as the leader. For rams are always the leaders of the flock. Therefore the same one is both a heifer, because he is under the law, and also a goat, as a sacrifice for sin, and further a ram, as the leader.

We have chosen to follow in his footsteps, and we are eager to be, in a good pasture and in a fertile place, according to the voice of the prophet, and we shall lodge in sacred courts. For he will settle us in the mansions above, being himself both ram and chief shepherd, and as one of us under the law, and above the law, as God himself, the whole justification, even if he was counted among the lawless and endured slaughter for our sake. He is also formed as in a turtledove and a dove. For he is the only intelligible and most vocal turtledove, the truly sweet-voiced sparrow, who from heaven and from above charmed the world beneath with his evangelical proclamations; to whom the bride herself, that is, the Church from the nations, has spoken: Show me your face, and make me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is beautiful. He himself is the simple, guileless, and deceitless dove. For no deceit was found in his mouth, according to what is written. The heifer is three years old, and indeed also the other cattle. For the Lord is perfect. The age of the cattle subtly indicates the perfection of the Only-begotten as in divinity. And the cattle are split; for they are cloven-hoofed. But the pair of birds remains unsplit. And what is the reason? For the Only-begotten Son of God became flesh, and is somehow split, and the account concerning him is expanded into a twofold contemplation. For sometimes we understand his divine and ineffable generation from the Father;

Sometimes, again, we speak of the mystery of the incarnation, unfolding and spreading out, as it were, the deep economy for the knowledge of those who do not know it. But even if the discourse concerning it has become somehow twofold, it is nevertheless entirely one and the same, not divided into two after the union with flesh. Nor is it cut into a duality of sons; for Christ is one and indivisible. A clear type of this would be the undivided nature of the sparrows: "For the birds," it says, "he did not divide." And it was signified as from the earth on account of the human element, as in the calf, and also in the goat and the ram. But it is understood again as from heaven and from above, because he is God through the sparrows. And that, although he willingly underwent slaughter for our sake, his flesh did not see corruption, according to what is written, and that, according to the voice of the Psalmist, "The enemy will not prevail over him, and the son of lawlessness will not add to harm him," the divine Abraham would again clearly demonstrate, as in a type, by keeping away from the divided pieces the birds that wished to corrupt them. And after the future greed in Egypt against those of his blood, that is, Israel, and the miraculous deliverance were foretold to Abraham, it says, "About the setting of the sun, a smoking furnace of fire, and torches of fire, passed through the midst of the divided pieces." For the law through Moses, concerning servitude and also deliverance of those from Israel, had already risen beforehand from the promise, bringing long narratives to the hearers.

In the last times of the age, and as it were toward evening, the Word became flesh. For this, I think, and nothing else, is what it means for the divine and ineffable nature to dart, as in the form of fire, upon the very halves. But there was, it says, a flame of fire, and a furnace of fire, and lamps of fire. For the venerable mystery of the incarnation has truly become, for those who have chosen to disobey and have turned toward the unbridled, both a furnace and a flame, and the most unbearable and ultimate punishment. And indeed, concerning those from Israel who, being foolish and arrogant, were found insulting the mystery of Christ without understanding, David says to the Father and God of all: You will set them as a furnace of fire, at the time of your face; Lord, in your anger you will confound them, and fire will devour them. And the time of the face of the Father would reasonably be understood as that of the incarnation, since the Son is both face and image of God and Father. Therefore, a wild flame and a furnace for those who wish to reject the mystery of the incarnation of the Only-begotten. But for those who have recognized his manifestation, as it is written, a lamp shining in darkness, thinning out the thickness of demonic gloom, and not allowing the multitude of those who revere him to stumble over the obstacles in between. Thus God and Father named the Son for us, also through the voice of Isaiah, saying: For Zion I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem I will not cease, until my righteousness goes forth as light. And my salvation will burn like lamps.

For the Son has become for us salvation and righteousness from God the Father, if indeed it is true that we are justified in him, and, conquering the death that formerly tyrannized us, we run back to incorruption, and are remolded into what nature was in the beginning. That it was necessary, when Emmanuel had already appeared and his mystery had been received in the world, for the types of the Mosaic worship to be subordinated to the evangelical teachings and to yield, as it were, to the better and more perfect commandments, was again sketched out, as in a type, thickly. And what this is, I shall say. For since Sarah did not bear, but Hagar conceived Ishmael, she was then found raising her eyebrow against the free woman. And Sarah did not take the contempt lightly, but indeed maltreated the Egyptian woman. And she fled from the hearth and wandered in the desert. An angel from heaven asked her where she was going and whence she had come again. And she said to this: "I am fleeing from the face of Sarah, my mistress." What then did the inspired angel say? "Return," he says, "to your mistress, and humble yourself under her hands." For the worship according to the law was previously shown to be in labor with Israel. And being a handmaid (for there was no free spirit in her), she virtually conceived beforehand the people from Egypt of the new and evangelical instruction. Therefore she also thought highly of herself, and persecuted those in Christ, and, raising her eyebrow high against the evangelical ordinances, was caught in many ways. For the Synagogue of the Jews rebuked the holy apostles, saying explicitly:

We gave you a strict command not to teach in this name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. Do you see how the Egyptian woman vaunts herself against Sarah, and the maidservant insolently defies the free woman? But she was overcome in time, and in a way she runs away, honoring the rein, and is ordered by the voice of an angel not to abandon the free woman—that is, the education that calls to a free status—but rather to humble herself under her hands. For the service through the law, proceeding through figures and types, is in a way enslaved to the teachings of the Gospel, showing upon itself a dim beauty of the truth. So the law formerly defined through Moses was established through angels, and by the voice of an angel it is as if commanded to bow its neck to the ordinances through Christ, to submit to the free woman, and to yield unwillingly. For this, I think, is the spiritual meaning of Hagar coming under the hand of Sarah. It is necessary to recall that the divine Paul also set these as a pair of covenants, the one giving birth to servitude, corresponding to the present Jerusalem, and the other to a status of freedom—I mean Sarah. And that the time of circumcision in spirit would certainly arise together with the manifest appearance of Christ, the blessed Abraham was clearly taught. For God was instituting the law that circumcision must be fulfilled, revealing spiritual things beforehand through fleshly examples, I think. For he says, "Every male of yours shall be circumcised," and for negligence in this he measured out destruction and ruin as the penalty.

For he said that also an uncircumcised male, who will not be circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul will be destroyed from its kind, because it has broken my covenant. You see that a type of the circumcision in spirit and truth was prefigured as it were in the flesh. For it is performed on the eighth day, on which Christ rose from the dead. And it was already time to partake of the Holy Spirit, and to receive the circumcision in him, not one that grieves the flesh, but one that purifies the spirit; not one that removes bodily filth, but one that releases us from spiritual diseases. For when Christ rose, having destroyed the power of death, then indeed, then he also instilled a kind of firstfruits of the Holy Spirit into the holy disciples. For he breathed on them, it says, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit. And the most wise John will also concur with the word, saying: For the Holy Spirit was not yet present, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. For he has been glorified, having been raised from the dead, on the eighth day. Therefore the Spirit was brought to us as well, and we have been circumcised in him with a circumcision not made by hands and intelligible. For this manner of circumcision is pleasing to God. And indeed the divine Paul says somewhere: For the Jew is not the one in the visible, nor is the circumcision in the flesh the visible one, but the Jew in the hidden, and circumcision of the heart in spirit, not in letter. Whose praise is not from men, but from God.

When the service prescribed by the law was already inoperative, and the new service in Christ was prevailing, and the peoples of faith had been brought forth, who are placed among the children of the free woman, not having a servile spirit (for they have cried out, "Abba, Father"), it was already time to dismiss the band and Synagogue of the Jews, and for the people from it to become disinherited, as it were, from the promise. And yet, that it will return at certain times and be accepted, and will also obtain gentleness from above and from the Father, when it recognizes the Savior and Redeemer of all, the sacred text again indicates. For the boys, namely Isaac and also Ishmael, were playing together, leaping at each other. The manner of the play was, I think, a chase; and Ishmael was pursuing, while Isaac was caught fleeing. But the mind of the free woman, I mean Sarah, was indignant at this. And she indeed said to the divine Abraham, "Cast out this maidservant and her son; for the son of this maidservant shall not inherit with my son Isaac." And the speech was not untroubling in Abraham's ears. But he heard from God that he must comply with Sarah's words. And so, having supplied Hagar with bread and water, he ordered her to depart from the master's hearth together with the child. She went away distressed and in tears; but she wandered in the desert. When the child was in danger and lamenting, God, it says, opened the eyes of Hagar, and she saw a spring of living water, and gave him to drink.

Observe then how not even the plaything of infants, perhaps, is without purpose for the knowledge of the mystery. For Ishmael pursued Isaac. But that at times the one from the handmaid, that is, Ishmael, would pursue the one from the free woman, namely, the people in faith and in Christ, the blessed Paul made clear, speaking thus concerning both Ishmael and Isaac: "But just as then the one born according to the flesh pursued the one according to the spirit, so also now." And since Ishmael had made war on those from the free woman, the Synagogue of the Jews is then sent forth, having a gloomy and squalid provision, bread and water. That is, a measure, as it were, of knowledge and piety was meted out, through which it was likely that they would not utterly perish as was necessary. For God said somewhere, having left behind, as it were, a remnant and a small seed of the equity according to the law in Israel: "And I will be for them a small sanctuary in the lands, wherever they may enter there." He says he will become a small sanctuary for those from Israel, after the dispersion among the nations, because of the not very robust strength of the Jews to be able, I mean, even to complete the law through Moses, and to observe, very little and with difficulty, the circumcision in the flesh, perhaps, and the rest on the Sabbath. With water and bread, then, the one who gives birth into servitude, that is, the Synagogue of the Jews, is barely provisioned. And Abraham was distressed at Hagar's departure, yet he let her go nonetheless at God's command. For it grieved the holy apostles and evangelists, admittedly, that Israel was falling away.

Nevertheless, they were estranged from him, and not willingly, because of what seemed good to God and their love for Christ. Indeed, the divine Paul writes, "For it is a great grief to me, and an unceasing pain in my heart. For I myself prayed to be an anathema from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen by blood, who are Israelites." And the mother of the Jews, having been sent away, wandered for long ages; and she was in danger of being utterly destroyed. But if they should cry out, shouting to God at the right times, they will be pitied in every way and completely. For he will open the eyes of their mind, and they themselves will see the spring of living water, that is, Christ; and indeed, having drunk, they will live in him. And having bathed, they will become clean, according to the voice of the prophet. And that Christ is a spring of life, the Psalmist will make clear, saying to the Father and God in the heavens, "How you have multiplied your mercy, O God! The sons of men will hope under the shelter of your wings; they will be intoxicated with the fatness of your house, and you will water them with the winter torrent of your delight, because with you is the spring of life." And this is none other than Christ. Through whom and with whom glory and power belong to God and Father, together with his holy, consubstantial, and life-giving Spirit, for all the universal and unending ages of ages. Amen.

Concerning Abraham and Isaac. And it came to pass after these words, God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham, Abraham." And he said, "Here I am." And he said, "Take your beloved son, whom you loved, Isaac, and go to the high land, and offer him as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you." Such indeed were the things announced from God. Without delay, therefore, the righteous one, having saddled his donkey, as it is written, and having instructed that only two servants should follow, and having taken his beloved son, set out for the sacrifice. When he arrived at that sacred place on the third day with difficulty, he said to the servants, "Sit here with the donkey; I and the boy will go as far as here, and after worshipping we will return to you." Having loaded the son with the wood for the whole burnt offering, and having persuaded him to walk thus, he followed. When the boy inquired of his father, saying, "Behold the fire and the wood, where is the sheep for the whole burnt offering?" he said, "God will see to a sheep for himself for the whole burnt offering, child." Having built that divine altar, he heaps up the wood. And when he had bound the youth upon it and had already taken hold of the knife, a voice of an angel prevented him, saying that he should not slay the boy, for God already knew the good intention present in him. Then the righteous one, seeing a ram caught by the horns in a Sabek bush, fulfills the sacrifice, offering it instead of the child. And thus he goes down to the servants, bringing them the son safe and sound.

We have cut short the breadth of the history and, having brought together in brief speech what is useful for demonstrating that through these things the mystery concerning our Savior is prefigured, we shall not hesitate to speak, taking up our own ability again. But if not everything set down in the histories should follow the account, let no one blame us. For often the spiritual is hidden in the superfluous part of history; just as, for instance, the most fragrant of the flowers in meadows are clothed outwardly with casual leaves, which, if one should cut them off, one will find the beneficial and useful part bare. So then let the word of allegory enter for us. 2. That the blessed Abraham was tested and ordered to sacrifice his beloved son, being distressed, as is likely, as a parent, and stung by the warm goad of nature toward affection, yet nevertheless preferring the good from the deed—this again clearly reveals to us that very thing spoken by the Savior: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." For if one must say something human too for a clear demonstration of the meaning, God the Father was in a way stung when sending his Son to death for our sake, even if he knew that he would suffer nothing distressing, since he himself was impassible as God. Nevertheless, considering the benefit from the death—the salvation and life of all, I mean—he disregarded the affection befitting a father. Hence Paul also marveled at him, saying:

He did not spare even His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us. On what basis could the wonder of the love of God and Father toward us rightly occur, unless He seemed to endure something even of the undesirable, by giving up His own Son for us? For Paul, by saying "He did not spare," persuades us to understand something of this kind. This would never be said of ordinary matters, but only of those who are daring in some great deed, as in the phrase, "Stretch out your ropes and make your pegs strong, and spread out to the right and to the left; and again, 'Fix it, do not spare.'" And again, "Rescue those being led to death, and saw through those being killed, do not spare." And these things will be said by us concerning, "Take your beloved son." The two servants who accompany and run alongside the old man, even up to the third day, would be a type of the two peoples called to servitude through the law, I mean Israel and Judah. They thought it necessary to follow only the ordinances of God and Father, just as those followed Abraham, not yet understanding the Son through whom all things exist, nor recognizing the heir of the Father, of whom Isaac, small and still lying in the bosom of his own father, and not yet wearing the authority befitting a master, would present to us the finest image. For the Son was and always is Lord and all-perfect God. But because He was not manifest to all, and especially to the impious Jews who look only at the flesh, He was considered to be someone small and ordinary.

The knowledge of Him is in some way proportionally measured to the minds of all. It is found small in small things, but great in great ones. And indeed the prophets say that He is great and fearsome to all those around Him, that is, to those who have come near Him through great keenness of mind. Paul also labors to bring forth some, until Christ is formed in them. That is, until the great and transcendent characters of His divinity are gently molded into their mind. That the servants followed even until the third day, but were not permitted to bring back the high and sacred one to the earth, but were rather ordered to sit with the donkey, indicates the following of the two peoples through the law toward God, extending even to the third time, that is, the last, in which Christ appeared to us. For the whole age is measured by three times: the past, I say, the present, and the future. Therefore the end is in the third. Indeed, divine Scripture says that Christ came in the last times of the age. So Israel, having followed God through the law, and up to the times of our Savior's coming, did not wish to follow Christ through faith to the death that ascends for all, but rather was prevented by many sins. For a hardening occurred in part for Israel, which is signified by the donkey that was with the servants at that time. For the donkey is an image of extreme unreason, and hardening is the child of unreason.

But that the father should separate himself and withdraw from the servants together with his son, and then say that he will return again—"For I," he says, "and the little child will go as far as this place, and after worshipping we will return to you"—signifies the temporary withdrawal of God from the sons of Israel, and the return that will come to them at the end of the ages, accomplished through faith in Christ. For when the fullness of the nations enters, then all Israel will be saved. And that the blessed Abraham does not say plainly that he is going up to sacrifice his son, but takes as a pretext the phrase "We will go as far as this place," would be a clear sign that the mystery of Christ was not entrusted to the Jewish peoples. And this account will appear true to us when we see Jesus speaking to the Jews as if in parables and through riddles, and also saying to his own disciples, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God; to the rest, in parables." And the little child, that is, Isaac, was loaded with the wood of the holocaust by his father's hand, and arrives at the place of sacrifice. For Christ, bearing his own cross on his shoulder, suffered outside the gate, not compelled to suffer by human force, but by his own will and the purpose of God the Father, according to what was said by him to Pontius Pilate, "You have no authority over me at all, unless it were given to you from above." And Isaac, placed upon the wood, is stolen away from death and suffering. And a ram goes up for the sacrifice, given by God.

For indeed the Word that shone forth from the substance of God and Father was truly in His own temple—I mean the one from the Virgin and nailed to the wood. But being as God impassible and immortal, He withdraws Himself from death and suffering. And He ascends into the fragrance of good odor to God and Father through His own body, which He Himself is said to have received from the Father, according to what is said in the Psalms as from Him: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me, whole burnt offerings, and concerning sin you did not approve. Then I said: Behold, I come. In the heading of a book it is written concerning me: I wished to do your will." And that the things from the history set before us will very well indeed be referred to Christ, He Himself again somewhere bears witness, saying: "In the heading of a book it is written concerning me." For the whole of Moses' most wise composition is a five-part book. And the head, as it were, and beginning of the whole book is the one called Genesis, in which these things are written concerning Christ. And that again the head signifies the beginning in the divine Scriptures, you will be well assured, understanding that which Paul says: "That the head of every man is Christ. And the head of a woman is the man. And the head of Christ is God." For Christ is the beginning of the man, as having brought him from non-being into being. And again the man is the beginning of the woman, because of what is said and truly done: "She shall be called woman, because she was taken from her man.

from the sufferings of the body, He is not harmed by them. For the beginning of Christ, he says, is God Himself, since the Son is from Him by nature, and has as his beginning the one who begot him, who is without beginning, while also co-existing with him eternally. Now then, as I think, the mystery has been most excellently fitted to the words of the history. But it is necessary, I think, that the inspired Abraham be further adorned by us with extraordinary wonder, and be proclaimed glorious and conspicuous everywhere with the highest praises. And in addition to this, the depth of divine skill is clearly to be observed by us. For the inspired Abraham was being tested, not because God was ignorant of what would happen. For nothing could escape the mind that knows all. Therefore he also said: "Who is this that hides his counsel from me, and thinks to conceal from me the words he holds in his heart?" And again through the voice of Isaiah: "For I am God, and there is no other besides me." He announces the end beforehand before it happens, and at the same time it is accomplished. Therefore, it is utterly absurd, and we would count it among the most discordant things if we think rightly, to suppose that the God of all was ignorant of what would happen, and that for this reason He tested Abraham. But it was necessary that the head of the righteous man be not only illumined by the knowledge that is with God, but rather that he acquire the most glorious renown, attested by all through experience itself in all the best things. It was necessary that it be proclaimed also through the sacred writings that there was in him an exceedingly great docility, and that the word of his ordinances was great, or rather that nothing surpassed it.

He came to such a state of mind and eagerness that he disregarded even his love for his child and did not shrink from the charge of child murder. And what is more astonishing, he expected in this way to become the father of many nations. But he knew that God was not false in this promise. Then he brought the child for sacrifice, not in despair of what had been promised, but entrusting to the Lord’s powers the fulfillment of the oath as He might see fit. And the matter was not without profit for him, even though he went through such a bitter experience. For he was taught, from what was about to happen, the miracle of the resurrection from the dead, which surpasses all account and is worthy of hearing, and also the venerable and great mystery of the incarnation of the Only-begotten. And indeed the divine Paul says: “By faith Abraham offered Isaac when he was tested, and the one who received the promises offered his only-begotten son.” To him it was said: “In Isaac a seed will be called for you,” reasoning that God is able to raise even from the dead, whence he also received him back in a type. For since God the Father was in due time to make Emmanuel, who died for the world, the root and origin of countless nations, the righteous man was usefully taught through this very experience the extraordinary and ineffable love of God the Father for us, who did not spare even His own Son, as we have already said, but gave him up for all of us who are justified by faith and counted as children of the forefather Abraham.

If indeed one must infer from human considerations, I would say that the command of God for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac was burdensome and hard to bear for the blessed man. For how do you suppose he was disposed at that time, who was ordered to do this? A man advanced in deep old age, having only one late-born son, deprived by time of the ability to become father of others, and having his wife herself also of advanced age (for Sarah too was an old woman), he was ordered without delay to slaughter this so greatly beloved son, the only-begotten and much-prayed-for. With what hand did the old man expect to drive the sword into the youth and dare such a pitiful slaughter against his own offspring? Is it not then fitting to consider that a bitter and harsh swarm of thoughts was unbearably plundering the soul of the righteous man? And at one time nature was compelling him toward love of his child; at another, the divine oracle was entreating him, and perhaps calling him to unwilling obedience as if from necessity. Great indeed, then, is the wonder of the righteous man, and worthy of all praise is his love of God. For he brought the rational sacrificial victim, and, bidding farewell to the laws of nature, trampling upon the sting of inexorable affection, and setting none of earthly things in opposition to his love for God. Therefore he has been glorified and called a friend of God. And for him the expected outcome has come to pass; the things of hope have been realized. For he has become father of many and countless nations in Christ. Through whom and with whom glory is to God and Father together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Concerning Isaac and Rebecca. a. To those who have been justified in Christ and have acquired unity with him through partaking of the Holy Spirit by the Father's good will, the wise Paul writes: "For I betrothed you to one man, to present a pure virgin to Christ." For the blessed disciples have become like summoners and bridal attendants, bringing those who are still far off near, and almost gluing them to Christ, binding them through the union of the Spirit. And Christ will present the Church to himself, with God the Father raising her up and almost leading her forward, and betrothing her to his own Son, though one would not doubt that the saints act as intermediaries. For the divine David, proclaiming the mystery to us beforehand, says to her somewhere: "Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father; for the king has desired your beauty; for he is your Lord, and you will worship him." And Paul has acknowledged, as I just said, that believers are presented to Christ like a bride. But one could see this august and truly worthy mystery no less in this passage as well. For it is written that Abraham was old, advanced in days, and the Lord blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his household, the steward of all his possessions:

Place your hand upon my thigh, and I will adjure you by the Lord God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell. But you shall go to the land where I was born, and to my tribe. And you shall take a wife for my son Isaac from there. So then, when Abraham had thus commanded, the servant immediately swore an oath, placing his hand upon his master's thigh. Through this, one may understand that the oath was made, so to speak, over all the offspring that would come from him. Then, loading ten camels with many of Abraham's goods, he hastened to the region between the rivers. And he arrived at the city of Nahor; he made the camels kneel outside the city near the well of water, at evening when the women come out to draw water. Having arrived there, he then besought God to reveal the way and to show a maiden who was vigorous and hospitable, and whose hesitation gave way to a greater love. For he said, "The maiden to whom I say, 'Incline your pitcher so that I may drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I will also water your camels until they stop drinking'—this one you have prepared for your servant Isaac." And not long after, the beautiful and most comely maiden, I mean Rebecca, came. When he asked for a drink, she readily offered it. She also promised to water the camels themselves, and she carried out her promises. So then the servant concluded from this that this was the one, and no other. Therefore, taking bracelets and earrings, he brought them to the young woman.

She, however, ordered him to go home and follow her immediately. When this happened, he was entertained by her, and she made a splendid account of her master's wealth. She added that she had one beloved son, Isaac, to whom she had given everything, and that the young man was master of all. Since the bridegroom's agent now wished to depart together with the young woman, they asked Rebecca whether she would accompany the one who had summoned her and willingly make her departure. She readily assented. When she arrived in this way, Isaac willingly took her in; he was greatly comforted, even though his mother had died. The account of the story is long and extensive. However, having abridged it as much as possible, we have said enough. Let the power of the contemplation now come to the very well-crafted point and again display the type of the mystery, as if in faint shadows, yet giving birth to the truth. 2. Abraham did not deem it worthy to take a wife for his beloved, I mean Isaac, from the daughters of Canaan; rather, he ordered his faithful servant to go to the land of the idolaters to procure a wife most suitable for him. For God the Father did not wish to unite the Synagogue of the Jews with Christ, who is signified by Isaac. For Isaac is late-born and beloved. Christ also appeared in the last times and is beloved, a delight and joy; for Isaac is interpreted thus. That the Canaanites might be understood as a type of those from Israel would become clear, and quite easily, from the interpretation of the name. For Canaanites means "ready for humiliation.

To whom would it be fitting to be about to come into humiliation, or rather to have already come, except the Jews? For they have been humiliated, having slipped from the glory in Christ, and have been cast down into every kind of outlandish thing. Therefore, Isaac's bride is not from Canaan, but from between the rivers. For as I said, the Church spiritually united to Christ the Savior is not from the Jews, but from the nations. Yet, by the counsel of the Father, with the mediation of servants who are most faithful and genuine, so that we may understand the disciples, who have become stewards and administrators of the mysteries of Christ God, and who virtually hold in their hands everything in his house. These, having left Judea, just as indeed Abraham's servant left Canaan, went down into the land of the idolaters, in a manner conveying the goods from God the Father, and having their mind full of wisdom from above, and filled with gifts through the Spirit. Observe also that Abraham's servant is nameless, so that the type of the ministry may apply to every faithful and tested disciple. And that servant lodged by the well of water toward evening, and through prayer besought God to be his helper, and wished to test the virgin by the water. And the divine disciples, as I just said, frequented the lands of the nations toward evening, that is, in the last times of the age, and by the waters they tested the spiritual virgin.

The Church is exceedingly well-suited and robustly capable, I say, of drawing the life-giving word from the springs of the Savior, as it is written. And it is not without competence, having the fitness of mind and understanding to supply to others what conduces to life. For Rebecca watered both the servant himself and the camels. And the servant might now be understood as a type of those from Israel. For they are men who already have the law as a tutor, and though still in shadows as it were regarding the mystery of Christ, they are not entirely uninitiated. But those from the nations, who differ in no way from irrational beasts, would fittingly be compared to the camels. For the animal is unholy according to the laws. Such indeed are those who do not yet know God, who is by nature and truly God. So the Church is most sufficient to irrigate with holy and divine streams both those coming from the Jews to choose love for Christ, and those called from the nations. And since the disciples have seen the virgin to be such, they immediately adorned her with bracelets, and also added ornament for the ears; that is, they made her bright and most splendid with the adornments of obedience. For an adorned ear would signify being obedient. And they made her appear conspicuous also through the accomplishments of works, that is, of hands. For I think this is what it means to put bracelets on the hands themselves. And the servant of Abraham related to those in Charran the wealth of his own master, and that he has only one and beloved heir.

The inspired disciples also initiated the nations, proclaiming the wealth of God the Father—hope, life, sanctification—and they declared plainly that Christ is the one and only Son by nature and truly, who has been appointed heir of all things. And the virgin was asked whether she would willingly accompany the servant; she immediately nodded assent. For the Church from the nations is exceedingly ready, and almost burning with love for Christ. And the inspired David bears witness, speaking of the flock from the nations: "Your ear attended to the readiness of their heart." And when Isaac was finally united with Rebecca, it says, "He was comforted concerning his mother." So through this one may understand that Christ was grieved, as if dead, by the faithlessness of the Jewish Synagogue, from which he himself was born in the flesh; but when he became the bridegroom of the Church from the nations, he somehow ceased from his dejection over her. For it has been said somewhere through the voice of the prophets to the Church: "And it shall be, as a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so the Lord will rejoice over you." Through which and with which glory is to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Concerning Esau and Jacob, that they have been set as a type of the two peoples, both of Israel and of those through faith in Christ. a. These are the generations of Isaac the son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebecca, daughter of Bathuel the Syrian from Mesopotamia, sister of Laban the Syrian, as his wife. Isaac besought the Lord concerning Rebecca his wife, because she was barren. God heard him, and Rebecca his wife conceived. The children leaped within her. She said: "If this is how it is to be for me, why is this happening to me?" She went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her: "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your womb. And one people shall surpass the other. And the greater shall serve the lesser." And the days for her to give birth were fulfilled, and she had twins in her womb. The firstborn son came out entirely ruddy, like a shaggy hide. She called his name Esau. And after this his brother came out, and his hand was grasping Esau's heel. And she called his name Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebecca bore them. The youths grew up. And Esau was a man skilled in hunting, rustic. Jacob was a man unpretentious, dwelling at home. Isaac loved Esau, because his hunt was food for him. Rebecca loved Jacob. Jacob cooked a stew. Esau came from the field, fainting. And Esau said to Jacob: "Give me a taste of this red stew, for I am fainting." Because of this his name was called Edom.

Jacob said to Esau, "Sell me your birthright today." And Esau said, "Behold, I am going to die, and what use are these birthrights to me?" And Jacob said to him, "Swear to me today," and he swore to him. Esau sold the birthright to Jacob. Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rising up, he departed. And Esau disparaged his own birthright. God, who does not know how to speak falsely, promised that the divine Abraham would become the father of many nations, and insisted that the multitude from him would appear beyond number, both above and below. "For it will be like sand," he says, "the countless, and like the stars of the sky in multitude." But the outcome of such manifest glory has turned out not only in Israel alone, but also among the nations' flocks. For they have been called in through faith, and such ones would rather be in Isaac, that is, from promise; and the most wise Paul will bear witness in writing. The Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the nations through faith, proclaimed the good news to Abraham in advance, that "All the nations will be blessed in you." So those from faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. For all who are from the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all that is written in the book of the law to perform them." And that no one is justified by God through the law is clear, for the righteous one will live from faith. But the law is not from faith, but the one who performs these things will live in them. Therefore, it was taken up that the promises were being fulfilled.

And certainly not through those being educated by the law, but through those justified by faith. The commandment through Moses was introduced economically, not because the promise was neglected, but in order to educate and gradually lead toward the calling through faith; and, by exposing the weakness of those who had already entered beforehand, it might somehow demonstrate to all the most necessary and essential grace through faith and justification in Christ. The divine Paul spoke again in this way: "Brothers, I speak in human terms, yet no one annuls or adds a codicil to a human will that has been ratified. But to Abraham the promises were given, and to his seed. He does not say, 'And to the seeds,' as of many, but as of one: 'And to your seed,' who is Christ. And this I call a will ratified by God. The law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not nullify the promise so as to abolish it. For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through promise." He then immediately adds the reason for the prior introduction of the law, speaking thus: "Why then was the law added? For the sake of transgressions, until the promised seed should come, having been ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. But the mediator does not belong to one. And God is one. Therefore, is the law according to the promise of God? Far from it. For if a law capable of giving life had been given, then righteousness would indeed have been from the law. But Scripture has enclosed everything under sin, so that the promise might be given through faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.

Before faith came, we were guarded under the law, being confined until the coming glory was to be revealed. Thus the law became our tutor leading to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. When faith came, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Therefore one would hardly doubt that the law was a reproof of the weakness of those being tutored, and rather a demonstrator of faults and sin. For where there is no law, he says, there is no transgression. And again: I would not have known sin except through the law. And when the commandment came, he says, sin revived, but I died. And again: Until the law, sin was in the world; for sin is not reckoned where there is no law. For the law produces wrath. The law, then, has tutored toward Christ, reproving those who transgress, and teaching by experience those on earth that it is impossible for man, whose inclination to sin is enfeebled, to escape the indictment of the law, but he absolutely needs the salvation through Christ, who justifies by faith and mercies.

It is therefore quite clear that the account of the economy concerning us has shown the command through Moses to be a most necessary kind of prefiguration of the grace that was to run immediately afterward in Christ, bringing into the midst the seed proclaimed beforehand by God's promise, that is, those in Christ through faith. For in this way the divine Abraham became the father of countless numbers. Observe then, observe the pattern of the economy, skillfully fashioned as in a type again by the pair of brothers from Isaac, Esau, I mean, and also Jacob. So it was said by God to the divine Abraham, "In Isaac a seed will be called for you." And Paul, being learned in the law, interpreting the oracle, says, "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed." He does not say "and to his seeds," as of many, but as of one, "and to your seed," which is Christ. Therefore the things promised were accomplished in Christ, and Isaac is somehow placed as an image and type of him. And this kind of calling is interpreted as "joy and exultation." And the divine David also called Christ "exultation," speaking as from the perspective of those thirsting for salvation through him: "My exultation, deliver me from those who surround me." For we have broken through in Christ the uprisings of those who murder, and we have trampled in him scorpions and serpents, and we who have believed have stepped upon the asp and the basilisk. And that Christ is called "exultation" in the divine Scriptures, prophetic speech will also persuade us. For it says thus: "And the Lord will cause righteousness and exultation to rise before all the nations.

For Emmanuel has become not only for those from Israel but also for all nations and peoples throughout the whole world righteousness and exultation. For we have been justified in him, and we have repelled the ill repute from the ancient curse. For we have been clothed, as it were, with gladness and joy, having been freed from death and sin, and what good things from above and from God have we not been enriched with? Therefore we have been taught to give glory, saying: Let my soul exult in the Lord. For he has put on me a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness. And what this tunic of gladness is, the most holy Paul will make clear, saying: For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And again: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and take no thought for the flesh for desire. Therefore Isaac, as a type of Christ, has been most usefully introduced in the matters before us as an exultation. Rebecca became his wife. And she too would be interpreted as very great and abundant patience. But we will also take her person as that of the Church, understanding rightly, whose good repute is in patience. And indeed, for her children, the way of salvation, as it were in faith, I mean, and in spirit, has appeared as patience.

Sacred words have been addressed to them, at one time saying, "In your endurance, acquire your souls," and at another, "For you have need of endurance, so that having done the will of God, you may obtain the promise." Observe then Rebecca, who after a long time and with difficulty was in labor (for she was barren), yet nevertheless gave birth, by the generosity of God and the love of Isaac, to Esau the firstborn, and immediately following him, Jacob. Through these, again, the two peoples would be well depicted for us: both Israel and also that from the nations. And the firstborn is Israel (for he was called in first through the law), and the second, after him, is the one in faith through Christ. One might see the difference between the two peoples, as in character and ways, also from, I think, the names which were in both, and from the form or constitution of their bodies. For Esau is interpreted as "oak," that is, harsh and unbending. It has been said somewhere to Israel by God: "I know that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze." And Jacob is "heel-grabber," that is, a craftsman, or one who knows how to conquer. For one will trip up whomever he defeats. And indeed, the one who conquers is not the people under the law, but the one in Christ through faith, who runs past the accusations from sin and blunts the power of death itself. And Esau was entirely ruddy; for it is written thus: "And like a shaggy hide," while Jacob was a smooth man. The riddle, then, of the ruddiness is of passion and anger, since truly the color is somehow always red in those who are angry.

That it is beastly, the shaggy and the thick, how could anyone doubt? Anyone, I think, would observe that Israel was in such states, at one time governed by passion or by proper reason, but having veered excessively toward the bold and untamed. For this reason they have even killed holy prophets, and have impiously treated even Emmanuel himself in the end. Smoothness, on the other hand, is a clear indication of a humanly decent form. The new people, those in faith, are very gentle and look greatly toward the tame. The refinement of the mouth will be a clear demonstration of the intelligible and inward beauty. Just as, of course, in Esau we have given the thick and red as a sign of wildness. Yet both had one mother, that is, Rebecca. Our Lord Jesus Christ presented the Church to himself as a pure virgin serving, as it were, for the spiritual rebirth of the two peoples. For as far as the purpose of his advent was concerned, he fashioned them into one new man, making peace and reconciling both in one spirit, according to what is written. But Israel was unyielding and discordant with the new people, being the firstborn in time. For I think that even the leaping of the infants in the womb itself signifies something, indicating the future enmity, as it were. That the new one would be better and in more excellent glory than the firstborn Israel, the all-knowing one immediately indicated, speaking thus: "And one people will surpass the other, and the greater will serve the lesser." For the mystery concerning both was proclaimed beforehand even through the voice of the saints.

And that Israel would come after the nations was proclaimed to us in many ways. Since it was a divine matter, and God showed it even in the birth itself, Esau came forth from the womb first, and Jacob followed, indicating that he would trip and conquer his brother by grasping the heel. 3. Let these things be said for now, since the present discourse takes its starting points from the form of the bodies and from the birth itself. But going through other thoughts no less, come, let us say as far as possible what pertains to both. For there will be an indication of each one's character, and the manner of life itself. The young men were of equal age with each other, but not of equal mind, nor of identical purposes. For Esau loved country pursuits and hunting; the other was urban, clearly approachable and sociable, and a man without pretense, dwelling in a house. And one was unrestrained in carnal desires, and, as if casting the finest of his own privileges behind him for the most worthless things, he bartered away cold and cheap necessities for them. The other was an insatiable lover of the best things, seeking from every side whatever would make him splendid. For he bought the birthright when Esau was throwing it away, having carelessly preferred the filling of his belly to his own dignities. For this reason, then, his name was called Edom.

that is, earthly. For truly of an earthly and most base mindset is the clear proof of disregarding the glory inherent in him and making the privileges of knowledge count for nothing, but rather choosing as better and more excellent the temporary pleasure and the immediate delight, crowning it with the superior vote even if it brings great loss. Therefore the divine Paul also fittingly called one who had chosen to live so shamefully a fornicator and profane person, setting forth Esau as a sort of type of those who have sunk into such baseness. And indeed he made the lack of restraint toward carnal and more earthly desires a charge and accusation, saying: "Is there any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for the sake of one meal sold his birthright?" So, accurately contrasting the darkness of the Jewish polity and the sincerity and freedom of the multitude from the nations with the ways of the young men, let us say what is fitting. For Israel was rustic and had a more earthly mind, boastful and warlike, and very much given to bloodshed, like the rustic and beast-slaying Esau. And indeed the prophetic word accused them, saying: "They set snares to destroy men." And Christ himself cursed, saying: "In vain they hid destruction from me in their snare, in vain they reviled my soul. Let the snare which they do not know come upon them, and the hunt which they hid, let it catch them." For they sent some of the Pharisees with those called Herodians (these are tax collectors), testing and saying: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Therefore, Israel is a hunter. But the new and faithful people, according to the divine Jacob, are urbane and home-loving, gentle and settled, simple and guileless, dwelling in a house, as it is written. For it is true to say that the most gentle multitude of those justified in faith has inscribed for itself the Church as a kind of splendid and well-ordered city, and has made the polity and life in Christ a firmly established house, unshaken by those who tempt. And their mind is simple, free from all perversity. They consider it utterly abhorrent to seem to be fabricated in thought and character. And I think the divine David says somewhere about them: The Lord settles the solitary in a house. For the solitary is the one who is simple in Christ, who also is settled in a house. Yet to Israel one of the holy prophets cries out: I have grown weary of your many wanderings. Therefore, those in Christ dwell, as it were, in a house, the polity and life in holiness and sanctification. And they themselves, weaving this thing like a crown for their heads, would be caught, and indeed consider it a way of prosperity. They say, on the one hand, I rejoiced at those who said to me: Let us go to the house of the Lord; and on the other hand, I asked one thing of the Lord, this I will seek. And what is the request? What is the one grace? That I may dwell in the house of the Lord, he says, all the days of my life, to behold the delight of the Lord and to visit his holy temple.

Do you hear how dwelling in the house of God and making one's abode in the divine courts is said to be counted among a bright and exceptional grace? And the dwelling is not bodily, but would rather be understood as in steadfastness of purpose and virtuous life. But, it says, Isaac loved Esau because his hunting was food for him. For the firstborn Israel was deemed worthy of love from above because he brought the achievement of the polity under the law, and the labors for its sake, as a kind of food to God. For there were holy people in Israel, both God-loving and law-abiding. And indeed the prophet Isaiah lamented Jerusalem as having been prostituted. But he said that righteousness at times slept in her, that is, rested and lodged, because many who had taken up the boasts of the polity under the law had come to be in her. Therefore Israel, being firstborn, was in glory with God, yet it did not preserve the honor assigned to its own prerogatives forever. But it yielded the birthright, as it were, to the new people coming after, that is, to those from the nations, having greatly declined into things of flesh and world. And indeed, as was read in the Gospel parables, The king was making a wedding for his son. Then the dinner guests were present, announcing to the banqueters the things from God, that is, Behold, I have prepared my feast, my bulls and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding. But they did not wish to come, it says. But each had his own excuse. For one said, I have married a wife; consider me excused.

He said, "I bought a field, and I cannot come." Do you see, then, how they have imitated Esau, having preferred the enjoyment of temporary and fleshly things to glory with God, and have all but set the birthright before others to take? For those from the Gentiles who believed were immediately called in instead, and they have gained the glory and indeed the blessing owed to Israel, because of their readiness for obedience and their very orderly and alert disposition for fulfilling what pleases God. And the divine David would be a witness for us in this matter, speaking thus about them: "You have heard the desire of the poor, Lord; your ear has attended to the readiness of their heart." For the people in faith are always somehow more ready for obedience, even though those from Israel had previously possessed the training in the law. But even if the multitude of the Gentiles was sick with poverty in divine teachings, yet it became more compliant in faith, and as it quickly inclined its ear to the ordinances through Christ, this has been testified by his own voice. For he spoke thus through the lyre of the Psalmist: "A people whom I did not know served me; they obeyed me at the hearing of the ear." And concerning Israel, as already fallen into estrangement and no longer deigning to walk straight, but with the leg of its mind, as it were, crippled, he says: "Foreign sons lied to me; the foreign sons grew old and went lame from their paths." For the paths are straight and unerring, leading to Christ, and the training through the law and the proclamation of the holy prophets.

Since they have arrived at the end of the law and the prophets, that is, Christ, they have become lame from lack of understanding, not from a sound mind, reviling him and daring to encompass the author of life with death. That the new people in faith have seized the blessing owed to Israel, having a more compliant disposition in yielding to divine decrees, will be evident to us from this. For it is written thus: It happened after Isaac grew old, and his eyes became dim for seeing. And Esau called his firstborn son, and said to him, "My son." And he said, "Here I am." And he said, "Behold, I have grown old, and I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your equipment, your quiver and your bow, and go out into the plain, and hunt game for me, and prepare dishes for me as I like, and bring them to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die." So the father spoke these things to Esau. And he immediately departed from the hearth for the labors of the hunt, and prepared himself vigorously. And what after this? Rebecca persuades Jacob to anticipate Esau and also to seize the blessing. He was initially afraid to do this, but with his mother urging him on, he brings in two young goats from the fields, fine and tender, and set about preparing a meal. And placing the skins on his shoulders, and covering the bare parts of his neck, he well imitated Esau's hairiness and excessive shagginess, so as to deceive his father's hands, should he happen to touch him.

Then, taking the game in his hands, he went in to his father and said, "Father." And he said, "Here I am. Who are you, child?" And Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. As you told me, I have done. Rise up, sit, and eat of my game, so that your soul may bless me." When the old man had consumed what was presented, he said to the youth, "Come near to me and kiss me, child." And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the scent of his garments, and blessed him, and said to him, "Behold, the scent of my son, like the scent of a field full which the Lord has blessed. And may the Lord give you from the dew of heaven and from the fatness of the earth an abundance of grain and wine. And let nations serve you, and rulers bow down to you, and be lord of your brother. And the sons of your father will bow down to you. He who curses you is accursed, and he who blesses you is blessed." So Jacob had already gained the blessing from his father; then later Esau came from the fields, carrying the game. When he presented it to his father, it was too late, and he was informed of what had happened. For he heard at once, "Your brother came and took your blessing by deceit." And when he said, not without tears, "Will there not be one blessing for me, father? Bless me also," Isaac said again, "Behold, from the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling, and from the dew of heaven above, and by your sword you will live, and you will serve your brother. But there will come a time when you take down and loosen his yoke from your neck.

We have set forth the breadth of the history, as briefly as possible, and placed it well before those who will encounter it. But I think it necessary to apply the spiritual meanings to what happened in a perceptible way. We say, then, that even before all others—I mean those called in faith and in Christ—the Master and Father of all commanded Israel to hasten to bring, as a kind of splendid gift, the fruits of gentleness and, as it were, the findings of good labors, the way of life and conduct pleasing to Him, which was prefigured long ago through life under the law, hidden as it were in the types, and like matter concealed by the excess of the letter, yet not inaccessible to those willing to hunt it out through spiritual and precise contemplation. This, I think, is why Isaac desired Esau's hunt. But Israel was commanded, as I said, and indeed promised to accomplish it. For he said at Horeb, when the church was assembled and God descended upon Mount Sinai in the form of fire: "Everything that the Lord God says, we will do, and we will listen." But he was found to be very negligent through his deeds, although ready in promise. And so, passing through the middle, the supplanter Jacob arrives—that is, the new people, as it were, in faith. For he brought to God what was sought, while the firstborn people hesitated and delayed; he produced the fruit of faith first, which the divine nature takes as a kind of food. Indeed, the Savior thus foretold to the holy apostles the conversion of the Samaritans, saying: "I have food to eat which you do not know.

To make the statement clear, he says, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work." That the promise ready for Israel proved fruitless for them, the matter not reaching its fulfillment for them, while the delay in believing harmed the nations not at all, once they had recognized the Redeemer and thereafter honored him with obedience in every good thing, Christ taught us through a parable. For he spoke thus: A certain man had two children, and approaching the first, he said, "Child, go today and work in my vineyard." He answered and said, "I do not wish to." Later, repenting, he went. Approaching the other, he said likewise. He answered and said, "I, Lord," and did not go. Which of the two did the will of the Father? The one who went into the vineyard, evidently, even if a brief weakness crept in between, persuading the promised one to hesitate. Behold then in these things Esau going most readily to the hunt and promising to do this, and Jacob arriving, although at first refusing to do this, yet blessed by the father. Thus also the new people snatch the blessing, having the form of the Jewish polity almost as a disguise. Just as, of course, Jacob cleverly imitated Esau's hairiness with the skins of goats. But he heard the father immediately crying out, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

How then might we apply to the peoples in faith the notion of being in form, and as in an imitation of the Jewish polity, yet having a different voice from them? We say this, that in the divine Scriptures the hand is always a sign of work and of achievements, that is, of practical activity. So far as concerns identity of activity and richness of achievements, those who are mystically and spiritually consecrated in Christ also fulfill the law, offering themselves as a sweet fragrance to God the Father. Indeed, Christ, who explicitly laid down evangelical laws for us, says, "Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one serif shall pass from the law, until all things are accomplished." Do you understand, then, that those in Christ fulfill the law by accepting spiritual circumcision instead of fleshly circumcision? And by entering into the rest of Christ, and sabbatizing in Christ, and showing the hidden and inner Jew. This, I think, is what it means to have the hands of Esau, yet a different voice from him. For we do not employ the loose talk of the Jews, nor are we accustomed to blaspheme by denying the Master who bought us; rather, we join in glorifying the Son together with God the Father, and we call him Lord, Savior, and Redeemer.

5. I think it is worthwhile to examine the power of the blessing in both cases, as it has come to mind to say. For the matter would be beneficial to those who encounter it. So the blessed Isaac said concerning Jacob: "Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed, being full. And may the Lord give you from the dew of heaven and from the richness of the earth an abundance of grain and wine. And may nations serve you, and may rulers bow down to you, and may you be lord of your brother. And may the sons of your father bow down to you. He who curses you is accursed, and he who blesses you is blessed." The account of the history is somehow mixed in these things, and through two persons it comes to one truth, which is attested by the very events. For such things are not concluded entirely in Jacob, but also in Christ, and in those justified in faith, who have become children according to the promise in Isaac. So then the meaning of the prophecy will apply both to the new people and to Christ himself, who is the beginning and the leader. And he is considered a second Adam, and a second root, as it were, of humanity has sprung up. For the creation in Christ is new, and we have been renewed in him for sanctification, incorruption, and life. The word of the blessing signifies, I think, the spiritual fragrance in Christ, like the beautiful and sweet scent of a very blooming field or meadow that emits the fragrance of spring flowers. For thus Christ named himself to us in the Song of Songs, saying: "I am the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys.

For it was a lily and a rose springing from the earth, because of the human element. Yet, not knowing sin, but rather emitting a most God-befitting fragrance from its achievements throughout the whole world. Therefore, he compares Christ to a field blessed by God, and very reasonably so, since it is the fragrance of the knowledge of God and Father. For the divine Paul said again here: "But thanks be to God, who always triumphs over us in Christ, and reveals the fragrance of his knowledge through us in every place." Our Lord Jesus Christ was revealed through the holy apostles as the fragrance of the knowledge of God and Father. For if one has known the Son, one has surely also known the Father, because of the identity of nature, and because it is in every respect perhaps exactly and unalterably the same. Such things, then, will be fitting for Christ, and would appropriately apply also to the new people: "May the Lord give you from the dew of heaven and from the fatness of the earth, an abundance of grain and wine." For the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth is this: the Word from God the Father has been given to us by way of participation, evidently through the Spirit, and we have become partakers of the divine nature through it. And we have received an abundance of grain and wine, that is, of strength and also of cheerfulness. Since the saying is true: "Bread strengthens a man's heart, and wine gladdens." Therefore, bread is a sign of intelligible strength and in spirit; wine, of the other. These have been given to those in Christ through him. How or in what way have we become steadfast in piety and in a manner immovable, knowing how to think rightly and firmly established unshakably?

We have received authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon every power of the enemy. This, I think, is the multitude of wheat. But we have also received wine. For we rejoice in hope and have been made glad, according to what is written. For we look forward to the heavenly abodes, the life in incorruption, the long-enduring existence, to reign together with Christ himself. Let such things also be said by us. For the word fittingly calls us to this. Then the power of the blessing will again be transferred to Emmanuel himself. "Let nations serve you," it says, "and let rulers worship you, and become lord of your brother." For Emmanuel has been designated firstborn, when he became like us, and among many brothers. But not on account of this cause would he slip away from being both God and Lord of all; for we worship him as Master, and he has ruled as God over those called to brotherhood through grace. For who in the clouds, it says, will be made equal to the Lord? And who will be likened to him among the sons of God? Therefore, Emmanuel has ruled as God over those brought into brotherhood, and every knee of the heavenly, earthly, and subterranean beings will bend to him, and every tongue will confess that Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father. And the one who curses is accursed; the one who blesses is blessed. And the meaning is clear. For those who blaspheme him are accursed and hateful to God; but those who bless him, that is, those who proclaim his divine glory, are filled with gifts from above and from God.

This, then, is the blessing of Jacob, having the power of the reference to Emmanuel himself and to those justified in faith. But let us also examine the other, that is, the one made over the firstborn, clearly Israel, for whom Esau is a type. For behold, it says, your dwelling will be from the fatness of the earth and from the dew of the heaven above, and you will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. And it will be whenever you take down and loosen his yoke from your neck; for a blessing has been given to Israel, the law through Moses. For it was the word of Christ ministered through angels. For that he himself spoke to the ancients, the most wise Paul will confirm writing: In many ways and in many forms long ago God spoke to the fathers in the prophets, and in these last days he has spoken to us in the Son. And the Savior himself showed that the law was his own words, saying: Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one serif will pass away from the law, until everything is accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. If, then, it is true that it was the word of Christ, and the law through angels, it has come in the order of a blessing to Israel, and let us understand Christ to be the dew of heaven and the fatness of earth. For just as the multitude of angels revels, watered by the spiritual dews from above, so also the earth, growing fat, delights in the spiritual rains for spiritual fruitfulness. But we who are in Christ have been enriched through faith with both bread and wine. Israel, however, has no share in these.

For this was not added to the blessings of Esau. And the wretched Jews are also otherwise without a share in the mystical blessing, since this was not granted to the worship according to the law, but was rather reserved for the peoples in Christ and in faith. And we are in peace through Christ, while Israel is in wars, and we have perceptibly inherited the land of promise, which is a type of the higher and intelligible land, of which the Savior himself made mention, saying: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." And we are among children through a free spirit, and we admit Christ as one like us and a brother, making a good and willing submission. But Israel is again yoked above and weighed down by the laws of Moses, suffering death as the penalty for transgressions. For Esau heard: "And you shall serve your brother," that is, you shall be subordinate, and not willingly to one who is your equal by nature. And Moses is a man like us, having nothing extraordinary as far as the account of humanity goes. And indeed the Lord of all called Israel the people of Moses, for they made a calf in the desert. Then God said to Moses: "Go, descend quickly from here, for your people, whom you led out of the land of Egypt, have transgressed." Now the inspired Paul attributed the law in writing to the blessed Moses. For he spoke thus: "If anyone sets aside the law of Moses, he dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses." And that Israel was destined to lay aside the yoke through the all-wise Moses, when Christ called them to the grace through faith, he foretold, saying:

It will be when you remove and loosen his yoke from your neck. For those from Israel who believed loosened the yoke of the law from their necks, since it was very burdensome. For they were called to a free status through faith in Christ. Through whom and with whom glory is to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS BOOK FOUR. On the Patriarch Jacob. 1. It is true that all who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. For the sons of lawlessness leap upon them like wild beasts, reckoning the splendor of those accustomed to excel as a kind of indictment and condemnation of their own perversity. For the worse are always somehow exposed by comparison with the better. And things that have the more excellent vote virtually condemn the ugliness of the inferior. What then follows from this? The arrows of envy and the fire of malice smolder in the defeated, becoming a beginning of madness and an occasion of impiety against those who have chosen to live in the best possible way. And even if they should happen to be in struggles and labors, they would not be entirely capturable by those who war against them. For the one who stands before the saints will by no means overlook those who are in danger for his sake. Rather, he will deliver them, and very easily, and will show them more brilliant, having set before them the sweat of endurance as a training. And the divine Paul will also support the argument, having written thus: "But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will make both the trial and the outcome of being able to endure.

And they themselves have cried out in the book of the Psalms, those who have been conversant with struggles and have borne the labors of persecutions not ignobly: "That you have tested us, O God, you have purified us as silver is purified. You have led us into the snare; you have placed afflictions upon our back; you have set men over our heads. We have passed through fire and water, and you have led us out into refreshment." You hear how they have least of all thought to be distressed by the things by which they are tested, but rather rejoice as having been shown to be better, and through experience itself having been known for what they are, and having been attested for their extreme love of God through suffering. For they said they passed through fire. For just as, I think, the most excellent of incenses, when they have been in contact with fire, then make a display of the fragrance inherent in them, so also a holy soul, being purified in a manner through being tried and suffering, makes a more evident manifestation of the manifold virtue inherent in it. Nevertheless, concerning every saint, the inspired David somewhere sings and says, "An angel of the Lord will encircle those who fear him, and will rescue them." And again, the provider of assistance himself says explicitly: "Because he hoped in me, and I will rescue him. He will cry out to me, and I will hear him; I am with him in affliction; I will deliver him, and I will glorify him; I will fill him with length of days, and I will show him my salvation." What then is the salvation of God and Father? The God Logos from him, who for our sake became like us and in the form of a servant by economy. Thus the Father named him, also speaking through Isaiah:

And the nations will see my righteousness, and kings my glory. And my salvation will burn like a torch. For righteousness and glory have come to us from God the Father—the Son, and indeed salvation. For we have been justified in him, and we have been raised to the glory of adoption. And that we have been saved, having fled the bonds of death and running toward incorruption, how could this be doubtful, or from where? For the Son has appeared to us as a torch in night and darkness, instilling divine light in the souls of believers. Therefore he also said: "I am the light of the world." So then, according to the voice of the Savior himself, blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. For they will have a portion in the heavens, and the God and Savior of all will himself defend them. And they will also see the mystery concerning Christ; and from these things one might learn no less than from those concerning the blessed Jacob. But I think it fitting to set forth what is written about him, for the more precise knowledge of those who will encounter it. And it goes like this: And Esau bore a grudge against Jacob concerning the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his mind: "Let the days of mourning for my father draw near, so that I may kill Jacob my brother." And the words of Esau, her elder son, were reported to Rebecca. And she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him: "Behold, your brother Esau threatens to kill you. Now then, my child, listen to my voice, and arise and flee to Mesopotamia, to Laban my brother in Haran.

And dwell with him for some days until the anger and wrath of your brother turn away, and he forgets what you have done to him, and then I will send and summon you from there, lest I be bereaved of both of you in one day. Then she devised a plausible pretext for the journey for her son, and indeed, approaching Isaac, she said: I have become weary of my life because of the daughters of the sons of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of this land, what is life to me? So that the blessed Jacob might not make his departure displeasing to his father and become a cause of grief and anger, the woman skillfully persuaded the old man to permit his son to go abroad. For, it says, Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, saying: You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, flee to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, the father of your mother, and take for yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. And may my God bless you and increase you and multiply you, and may you become gatherings of nations, and may he give you the blessing of Abraham, your father, to you and to your seed after you, to inherit the land of your sojourn, which God gave to Abraham.

Now as regards the literal sense and what is indicated by the history, it would be fitting to make no small wonder both of Rebecca herself and of the blessed Jacob. For she, as to a husband holding precedence, offered a supplication on behalf of her son, I mean. And he immediately made the law of nature the arbiter of what is fitting, and commanded the son to refuse the marriage that was displeasing to his mother, in a way flattering the one who sprang from him and was piously reared, to follow in the footsteps of his father's virtue. For everywhere we shall find the divine Jacob yielding to the wishes of his parents, and making the matter a manifest and unambiguous indication of piety toward God. But as far as the sense of contemplation goes, I think we must again proceed to the innermost path, and I consider it necessary to recall that point. For the theorem would be quite easily evident here as well. For Rebecca, even before the travail of childbirth, I mean, while carrying the pair of those born from her, received an exceedingly unbearable ill repute, and was already in the very terrors of death, the embryos being in no moderate leaps. Then, what the matter was, she wished not to escape notice, asking God and saying: "If this is how it is to be for me, why is this for me?" And what does God say to this? "Two nations and two peoples will be separated from your womb, and one people will surpass the other," he says, "and the greater will serve the lesser." Therefore let us accept as a type of the two peoples, that of Israel and that through faith, Esau and Jacob.

But Esau, it says, bore a grudge against Jacob, because he had been deprived of the privileges of the firstborn, having sold his birthright and yielded his own honor to another, and also because, having brought the spoils of the hunt second, he missed the blessing. And so he was already in savage designs, and was plotting a murder consonant with envy against his brother. Similarly, the firstborn Israel bore a grudge and raged terribly against those in faith after him, that is, against the new people. For he had been in the first rank with God and counted in the portion of the firstborn, and was full of blessing from above, having richly obtained the grace in Christ through the Spirit. So Israel attacked those in Christ through faith; and as far as it lay in his own judgment and in the power of his undertakings, he became a bitter murderer, inflicting persecutions and wounding with arrows of slaughter and malice. But Rebecca persuaded Jacob to yield his brother the things left at home, and to go to Laban, an idolatrous man. And the divine Isaac himself, Jacob’s father, also urged him to decline a marriage from Canaan, and rather to desire to take a wife from among Laban’s daughters. For when the new people were in danger and persecuted, the Church, of which Rebecca is a type, wisely advised them to yield the wrath of those who were murderous. And the bridegroom of Rebecca, that is Christ, also assents, as it were, to the spiritual kinship being thrust aside by those whose wrath was kindled against the unholy and who were savagely bent on murder. And marriage is a sign of kinship.

They rather chose the women from the house of Laban, that is, from the Gentiles. And we shall find the holy apostles, who became the firstfruits of the faithful and of the new peoples, diligently carrying out the commands given to Jacob. For they separated themselves from the Jewish flock, since it was murderously disposed toward them. And changing both regions and cities, they prudently sought to evade the wrath of their persecutors. For they remembered Christ's injunction when he said, "When they drive us out of this city, flee to the next." And they also spoke to those who, being of the blood of Israel, had chosen to disobey and were recklessly insolent: "It was necessary for the word of God to be spoken first to you; but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For thus the Lord has commanded us." Do you hear how the bridegroom of the Church, that is, Christ, has commanded his own to go to the multitude of the Greeks, and to beget children from there, and to appear as fathers of peoples, as it were? Therefore the most wise Paul also writes to those from the Gentiles who believed through him, saying, "For even if you have a myriad of tutors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, through the Gospel, I begot you." And that God will be with them and will richly bless the faithful peoples, the divine Isaac would also very easily demonstrate, when he crowns Jacob, who is departing from his father's hearth, with blessings from above and says, "And may my God bless you, and increase you, and multiply you; and you shall be for gatherings of nations.

And may he give you the blessing of Abraham your father. For those in Christ are blessed, they have greatly increased, and have become a multitude, and gatherings of nations, and have been appointed co-heirs of the holy fathers. For they will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, according to the voice of the Savior himself. And we are blessed by him again; for he said on our behalf: Holy Father, preserve them in your truth. But if Rebecca is understood as the mother of Esau, this will utterly not harm the interpretations. For we have received Esau as a type of those from Israel; to Rebecca we have given the person of the Church. But those from Israel have themselves become sons of the Church through faith in Christ, no longer counted as that former and ancient people, but rather being transformed into a new people intermixed with those from the nations. For whoever is in Christ is a new creation; he has fashioned both peoples into one new man, making peace, according to the Scriptures, and reconciling both in one spirit to the Father. For he has dissolved the partition wall of the fence, and has abolished the law of commandments in doctrines.

Equipped, then, with the blessings from his father, Jacob’s feet carried him toward the goal of his journey that had been set before him. And what again happened in the meantime, we shall learn from the sacred Scriptures themselves. It reads thus: And Jacob went out from the well of the oath, and journeyed to Charran, and came upon a place, and slept there. For the sun had set; and he took from the stones of the place, and put them at his head, and slept in that place, and had a dream. And behold, a ladder set upon the earth, whose head reaches into heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it. And the Lord was leaning upon it, and said: I am the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; do not fear. The land on which you sleep, I will give it to you and to your seed; and your seed shall be as the sand of the sea. And it shall be spread toward the sea, and the south, and the north, and toward the east. And all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your seed. And behold, I am with you, guarding you on every road wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not abandon you until I have done all that I have spoken to you. And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said: The Lord is in this place, but I did not know. And he was afraid, and said: How fearful is this place! This is nothing other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose in the morning, and took the stone which he had placed there at his head.

And he set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on its top, and called the name of that place, House of God. Now we say that the name of the city is Well of the Oath. For it is written thus concerning it: "And it happened on that day, and the servants of Isaac, having come, reported to him about the well which they had dug, and said, 'We did not find water.' And he called it Oath." Therefore he called the name of the city Well of the Oath, to this day. And if one should choose to learn why we again call it Well of the Oath, it is because there the leaders of the Gerarites, Abimelech and those with him, made an oath of peace with Isaac. So the inspired Jacob departed from his paternal hearth and that very city, and was separated from his kindred. At this he began to be terribly distressed and anxious. For he considered, reasonably enough, that he would be a wanderer and a stranger, and would dwell in a foreign land. And perhaps he would be subject to others and would receive the unfamiliar yoke of servitude. For even the most noble must yield to those in power. But God, who knows hearts and kidneys, immediately intervened and did not allow the soul of the righteous man to be overwhelmed by such bitter despondency. For he revealed that a multitude of angels, darting above and below, easily preserve those who are devoted to God. This, I think, and nothing else, was what he was taught through the dreams; for he saw perceptibly a ladder extending upward. And it was a sign of descent and ascent, even if it was depicted, as it were, in coarse forms.

He also heard his voice, the one who gives orders to the angels, saying that he himself would be the limit of the blessing given to him by his father. "For your seed will be spread," he says, "to east and west, north and south." He also said that he himself would be the one to aid and preserve him everywhere. Having become sleepless, the divine Jacob was in no small amazement, and indeed he said, "The Lord is in this place, and I did not know." But what he might intend to indicate by this, how is it not worthy to see? We will find that the opinions concerning God among the ancients were exceedingly small. For they thought that the divine left all the rest of the earth alone, but was confined, as it were, to that one place alone, to which they had been called, having left their homes and departed from the land of the Chaldeans. For since the worshippers of idols, suffering from polytheistic error, assigned to each of the demons a specific region, as it were, and practically set up as tyrants those worshipped in each city, they supposed that not all could be everywhere and that they ought not to be honored everywhere. Therefore, the blessed patriarchs, having only recently been freed from the customs of idolatry and polytheistic error, and having been persuaded to worship the God who is by nature and truly God, thought that he was not present in every land and every place to assist them, still thinking very small thoughts. So the blessed Jacob is instructed, and he reaped the fruit of his journey, the deficiency in faith. For he learned that the divine is in every place and every land.

He dwells in heaven, yet cares for the whole earth, and has filled the inhabited world, and everything is under him—the spirits in heaven, which are commanded to run to and fro above and below, and have him as their head and overseer. For this reason he marveled, saying, "There is a Lord in this place, and I did not know." And thinking that the stone was the cause of their dreams, he honored it with the things present, anointing it with oil. Indeed, he called the place "House of God" and "Gate of Heaven," and set up the stone. 4. And let these things be said by us again in a rather summary account. For it was necessary to smooth over what seemed harsh in the history. But now, turning the subject to spiritual contemplation, we say again that the new and faithful people, understood as the holy apostles in the beginning, were eager to avoid and escape the raging anger of the murderous Jews. And departing, as it were, from city to city, they courted the herds from the nations, and greatly desired to gather them into themselves, as it were, through spiritual and intelligible communion. Just as, of course, Jacob hastened to the daughters of Laban, while Esau terrified him and savagely attempted murder. But since the faithful people rested upon Christ, who is the chosen stone, the cornerstone, the precious one—for this, I think, is what sleeps upon the stone—we have learned that they will not be alone on earth, but will have the holy angels as helpers and assistants, running to and fro above and below. For Christ said somewhere:

Amen, amen I say to you, from now on you will see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. This, I think, is the ladder, the running to and fro of the holy spirits above and below, sent for service on account of those who are to inherit the kingdom. And Christ was set at the head of the ladder, since the holy spirits reach as far as him, and have him as their overseer—not as being like them, but as God and Lord. And David somewhere said to every person who chooses to dwell in the help of the Most High, that he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will carry you on their hands, lest you ever strike your foot against a stone. You will step upon an asp and a basilisk, and you will trample a lion and a dragon. For we have trodden upon snakes and scorpions, and upon the whole power of the enemy, Christ giving the authority. Worthy, then, of the vision of God are those in Christ, and of being confidently disposed that he will be present and defend, and will preserve everywhere, and will make them fruitful. For behold, he says, I am with us all the days, until the end of the age. And that the blessed disciples have grown rich, and have become fathers of countless nations, I say in the faith in Christ, and as in spiritual generation, is clear to all, Paul saying plainly to those who believed through him: that even if you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, through the Gospel, I begot you.

Their seed therefore became as numerous as the sands. It is also extended to the east and west, and to the right and left—that is, I mean, to the south and north. But the stone was also, as a type, honored and set up, anointed with oil. For Emmanuel has been anointed by God the Father, with the oil of gladness, among his partakers. And he has also been raised from the dead, although he voluntarily descended into death. And this, I think, is what it means for the stone to be set up. And our Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed through the holy apostles as anointed by the Father in the Holy Spirit and raised from the dead. Through whom and with whom glory is to God the Father together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. Again concerning the patriarch Jacob. 1. That we desire divine words and thirst as much as possible to learn something beneficial, that this is the best of all things and crowned with the highest votes by God—how could anyone doubt? And the matter is worthy of the whole discourse and will come to a necessary conclusion for us, and the Savior himself has assured us, saying thus: The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant man seeking beautiful pearls. Who, having found one very precious pearl, went and sold all that he had and bought it. It is therefore necessary for us to seek out beautiful pearls beforehand. For we shall find here the one very precious pearl, that is, Christ.

And who would be the beautiful pearls, possessing a possession worthy of pursuit, which the inquiry brings into the midst? I would say, entirely and in every way, the saints, concerning whom it has been said through the voice of the prophet, "Holy stones roll upon the earth." Therefore, we must thoroughly examine what has been said and done, especially in the case of the more ancient figures. For we will see in them the deep mystery of piety, that is, Christ, as still wisely and skillfully shadow-painted in types. In addition to this, we will also find the economy understood in him, overshadowed by certain obscurities, yet not entirely lacking in clear demonstration. And now, the account will proceed to the matters concerning the inspired Jacob, and how and in what manner he lived will be related. And we will demonstrate the pattern of the entire economy—I mean the evangelical economy—as it is in him, flitting about like bees over the most flourishing parts of the history, and gathering together what is useful in each case for the clarification of the account. But if not everything written about him is admitted into the interpretations, let no one be angry, considering this: that some things are, in a way, particular to the historical events, while others proceed through the innermost concepts and are formed into the power of the mystery.

It is written again here: And Jacob lifted his feet and went to the land of the east, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, brother of Rebecca, mother of Jacob and Esau. And he sees, and behold a well in the plain. And there were three flocks of sheep resting upon it. For from that well they watered the flocks. And there was a great stone upon the mouth of the well, and all the flocks gathered there, and they rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the sheep, and they put back the stone upon the mouth of the well, into its place. And Jacob said to them, Brothers, whence are you? And they said, We are from Charran. And he said to them, Do you know Laban the son of Nachor? And they said, We know. And he said to them, Is he well? And they said, He is well. And behold Rachel his daughter was coming with the sheep. And Jacob said, The day is still long, it is not yet time for the cattle to be gathered. Water the sheep, and go away and graze. And they said, We will not be able until all the shepherds are gathered, and they will roll away the stone from the mouth of the well, and we will water them. While he was still speaking to them, and Rachel the daughter of Laban was coming with the sheep of her father. For she was tending the sheep of her father. And it happened that when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, brother of his mother, he approached and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the sheep of Laban, the brother of his mother.

And Jacob kissed Rachel, and crying out with his voice, he wept, and told Rachel that he was her father's nephew, and that he was the son of Rebecca. And she ran and told her father, according to these words. And it happened that when Laban heard the name Jacob, the son of his sister, he ran to meet him, and embracing him, he kissed him, and brought him into his house. And he related all these words to Laban, and Laban said to him: You are from my bones and from my flesh. After that extraordinary vision of God and revelation—for he saw a ladder reaching to heaven, the Lord standing upon it, and angels running up and down, and he clearly heard that God would be with him and would spread his seed into an immeasurable multitude of peoples—after setting up the stone as a type of Christ, then indeed, then, with confidence and with his hope for the future firmly fixed on God, he presses on toward the goal of his journey, and arrives at the land lying toward the east. And he immediately makes himself known to many shepherds, as being himself one of those highly practiced in shepherding. And he makes it clear that he is a man of experience, saying: The day is still long. Now then, after watering the sheep, go off and graze them. And he makes himself known also to Laban's daughter, offering as a kind of firstfruit and first offering of the goodness within him the fact that he deemed worthy of care the flocks she tended and watered the sheep.

He was reflecting, I suppose, as was natural for one reared in the best habits, how utterly unbecoming it would be for Rachel, a virgin of marriageable age, to wait for the gathering of the shepherds, so that after the stone was moved she might water the sheep, yielding to the others on account of both her weakness and the modesty proper to a virgin. Moreover, the law of familial affection called him to be useful, as was necessary, to those of his own blood and kin. So he watered the sheep of Rachel, having alone rolled away the stone from the well. It is necessary to recall that the inspired Moses also, having fled from the land of the Egyptians, arrived in the land of the Midianites. Then, encountering shepherds and finding the daughters of Jethro being wronged, he became known through similar efforts. The account concerning him runs thus: "Moses withdrew from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian. And when he came to the land of Midian, he sat down by the well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, who were pasturing the sheep of their father Jethro. And when they arrived, they drew water until they filled the troughs, to water the sheep of their father Jethro. But the shepherds came and drove them away. Then Moses rose up and rescued them, and watered the sheep of their father. And they went to their father Jethro. And he said to them, 'Why have you come back so quickly today?' And they said, 'An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds, and drew water for us, and watered the sheep.' And he said to his daughters, 'And where is he? Why have you left the man like this?'

Call him, then, to eat bread; and Moses was lodged with the man. Do you see how the thoughts are in a way akin, and the things indicated by them are quite closely related? Yet the inspired Moses, having set aside the greed of the other shepherds, drew water and watered Jethro’s flocks. And Jacob alone rolled away the stone, although very many were accustomed to do this not without sweat, and likewise watered Laban’s flocks. And just as Moses came to the home of an idolatrous man, so also did the inspired Jacob. For Laban was still a worshiper and devotee of idols. Since the word has invested Jacob with the face and form of the faithful peoples, come then, let us speak of the innermost and hidden things, expanding the thickness of the history. Now the people who are being built, according to the Psalmist’s utterance, would be, I think, none other than the new people in Christ, that is, those brought through faith to the glory of the firstborn, while the first and fallen Israel is thrust aside. For the one who was head, that is, preeminent and foreknown, has become a tail, and is called a consequence of the other’s calling. For they are placed at the back and go behind the nations. Therefore the people in Christ through faith are a heel-grasper, and are counted in the order corresponding to the inspired Jacob. And the chorus of the holy apostles might be understood as the firstfruits of such a race, who indeed came from the blood and lineage of Israel.

Since they have been enriched with faith in Christ and have bound upon themselves like a crown the grace from the Holy Spirit, they have come into conflict with those of their own race. Leaving behind these people who are murderously enraged and savagely frenzied, they depart, all but abandoning their ancestral hearth and the very land that bore them—I mean Jerusalem, or the country of the Jews—and they fall upon the nations, having Christ as their helper and partner in every good thing, with angels running alongside them, supported by hopes from above, and expecting to become fathers of many nations, so that toward the east and west, north and south, their seed might be extended—that is, those reborn through faith in spirit and justified in Christ. To these they would address themselves, saying: "You are indeed a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart for possession, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you from darkness into his marvelous light. You who were once not a people are now a people of God in Christ." And that those charged with teaching them are called fathers of peoples in divine Scripture, how could anyone doubt? So they separated themselves from the land of the Jews and, leaving behind the arrogant and insolent people, turned to the nations according to the commands of our Savior. But that they are spiritual shepherds and knowledgeable in godly instruction, they immediately show, not tolerating inaction regarding what is most fitting for them. For they at once bring forward the word of teaching in Christ and persuade them to do what is naturally beneficial.

Just as, of course, the divine Jacob made it clear to the shepherds from Charran that he himself was also a shepherd, saying: "It is still broad daylight, it is not yet time to gather the cattle. Water the sheep, then go off and graze them." Do you hear how he ordered the shepherds to pasture the sheep? This is precisely what the most wise disciple commanded the elders of the people, that is, the bishops, to do. "Elders, then," he says, "I, a fellow elder and witness of Christ's sufferings, and also a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed, exhort you: Shepherd the flock of Christ among you." And passing through country and city, they appointed countless other shepherds to stand over the peoples and to care for the rational sheep, to graze them, as if in a good pasture and a rich place, and to bring them, as it were, to the most flourishing grass, the divinely inspired Scripture. For the word of God is life-sustaining food for the soul. Let it be said, then, to the spiritual shepherds: "Attend to the green fields, and you will cut grass, and gather ripe hay, so that you may have sheep for clothing." And the divine disciples also became, in another way, among the nations, the teachers of those shepherds, that is, of the wise and teachers, showing themselves as guides, introducing a truer education to their hearers. And that they were far more robust and better than those, one might know very easily, considering this: a stone that was very difficult to lift lay upon the well, which a very great gathering of shepherds barely moved. But Jacob alone moved it.

What then the well might signify, and what indeed the stone, let us say as far as possible. For we shall thus learn both the difference in the strength of the shepherds and the preeminence and superiority in understanding of the disciples of the Savior. It is customary for Scripture to liken knowledge about God to water. For that it was life-giving, the Savior testified, saying to the Father in heaven: "This is the eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent." And he once spoke to the woman from Samaria, saying: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, 'Give me to drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." I think he calls his own word and teaching life-giving. And the Lord also said: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." And indeed, through the voice of the prophet, he reproaches some who have ignorantly turned aside to the necessity of admitting other teachers after the instruction in the law, and have deviated to the teachings and commandments of men. He spoke thus: "The heaven was amazed at this, and shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord, because my people did two evil things: they abandoned me, the spring of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water." Water, then, the life-giving, would be the divine word. Yet it lies in great depth, and I think no one could ever obtain it without sweat. For it is not readily available to those who simply wish it. And a heavy and difficult-to-remove stone, as it were, weighs upon it—the obscurity surrounding it, which overcomes the weakness of our understanding.

And indeed, long toil and sweat are necessary for those who tend the intelligible flocks, in order to free the discourse from obscurity, and thus to draw it up, as it were, from the depths and bring it into the open and manifest, and to set it clearly before those who will encounter it for a life-sustaining enjoyment. But the shepherds among the Greeks—that is, their wise and select men—many and running together in a crowd, as it were, only slightly dislodge the truth concerning the doctrines about God; for they hold opinions not correct about him, confessing a divine nature, but distributing the glory of divinity to whatever they might choose. Yet one single shepherd among those in Christ suffices to move the stone from the well, even though the stone—that is, the covering and obscurity cast over the doctrines about God—is exceedingly difficult to transport; whence they make the truth manifest to the nations, and they do not cease to point out the one God, both by nature and truly. And indeed, the blessed Paul, coming to Athens, set the living water before the select men there, saying: "Men of Athens, I observe that you are in every respect extremely superstitious. For going about," he says, "and reviewing your objects of veneration, I found even an altar on which was inscribed: 'To an Unknown God.' The one whom you worship in ignorance, this one I proclaim to you." For see how, although they are leaders of peoples, and shepherds and teachers among them, they barely dislodge the well a little, the burdensome stone, thinking they are pious, through reverence for the divine, but are far astray from the truth.

They built an altar and inscribed upon it, "To an Unknown God," that is, to a deity not known. But those men thought they were choosing the best opinion concerning God. The inspired Paul, however, cleverly manipulates the inscription and, with great skill, leads it to a useful purpose, saying that the God unknown to them is Christ. "For the one," he says, "whom you worship in ignorance, this one I proclaim to you." You see how he uncovered the well, rolled away the stone, and revealed to them life-giving knowledge. Incomparable, then, is the difference in the shrewdness of the shepherds. For the former, though very many, went after the true opinion about God and, overcome by the obscurity of the teachings, were carried away by what seemed plausible. But the latter, though alone, set forth the truth. For Jacob alone rolled away the stone and waters the sheep under Rachel. And indeed, he considered the maiden worthy of love. For he kissed Rachel, it says, and was immediately recognized by Laban, who then made him a member of his household and deemed him worthy of love and embraces as his nephew, and counted him among his nearest kin. For he said, "You are from my bones and from my flesh." Rachel is interpreted as "sheep of God." And one might, quite fittingly, attribute to her the form of the Church from the Gentiles. For she is the sheep of Christ, mingled with the older flocks and enclosed in the folds of the Savior. Therefore, he also said, "I have other sheep which are not from this fold. I must lead them also, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

The blessed disciples also shepherded the Church of Christ, that is, the rational flocks understood under her, and indeed they became her lovers and bridal attendants, presenting her to God as a pure virgin, having no stain, or wrinkle, or anything of the sort, but rather holy and blameless. 5. That the origin of the race, and, as it were, the first offshoots of the root, the people of Israel had from the Gentiles, we shall understand from the words of Laban. For a man who was an idolater embraced Jacob, and says that he came from a kinswoman, clearly Rebecca, and called him his own flesh and bone. For the blessed Abraham was called in uncircumcision, brought up in the land of the Chaldeans with Greek customs and laws, and received circumcision as a sign, a seal of faith in uncircumcision, according to what is written. Therefore the firstborn Israel is also akin to those from the Gentiles, although separated by law, so as to appear to be other. But in Christ the two have become one. For he removed what intervened, abolishing the law in letters and the circumcision that divided. For we were renewed into one new man, the Gentiles being of one body and one soul with those from Israel. And they are now seen, almost, as brought together into identity through communion in spirit. For Christ said somewhere to the Father and God in heaven: "I wish that, just as I and you are one, so also they may be one in us." For he himself is our peace, who dissolved the partition wall of the fence, as I just said, and removed what divides from the midst, and binds us together, as it were, into unity through spirit.

Therefore, it is a sign, and a very clear one, of the faith and spiritual union of the two peoples that Laban embraced Jacob and confessed that he was his bone and flesh. But in addition to this, let us also take another point from the sacred writings themselves. For it says, Laban said to Jacob: "Since you are my brother, you shall not serve me for nothing. Tell me what your wages are." Now Laban had two daughters; the elder was named Leah, and the younger Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and very fair in appearance. Jacob loved Rachel and said: "I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter." Laban said to him: "It is better for me to give her to you than to give her to another man. Dwell with me." And Jacob served for Rachel seven years. And they seemed to him like a few days, because of his love for her. Then Jacob said to Laban: "Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her." Laban gathered all the men of the place and made a wedding. And when evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and brought her in to Jacob. And Jacob went in to her. Laban also gave Zilpah, his maidservant, to Leah his daughter as a maidservant. When morning came, behold, it was Leah. Jacob said to Laban: "What have you done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why have you deceived me?" Laban said: "It is not our custom in this place to give the younger before the elder.

Complete the seven years of this one, and I will give you this one as well in return for the labor you will work for me for another seven years. Jacob did so, and completed the seven years of this one. And Laban gave him Rachel, his daughter, to him as a wife. Laban also gave to Rachel, his daughter, Bilhah, his maidservant, to her as a maidservant, and he went in to Rachel. And he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served him for another seven years. Now, as for the historical account, it would require no word for clarification, for there is nothing at all difficult in it. However, if someone among those accustomed to scrutinize such matters should say this: For it is not considered among us as utterly discordant to have intercourse with two marriages at once, and indeed to bring in a pair of women, and this of sisters. To this we say that for the ancients the whole aim of life was directed toward having many children, and indeed this matter was considered among the highest of all blessings. And it was free from all blame not only to sleep with two, but even with more women, extending the race to an immeasurable multitude. And indeed, they received childbearing as a blessing from God. And the Lord of all himself promised to grant this gift both to the saints before Moses and to those who received the education through the law. For he said, "There will be no barren woman nor widow among the sons of Israel." And we will not receive this utterance in the manner of a law, but we say it is rather a promise. For all things that are within our power are subject to laws, and rightly so.

But those matters whose outcome does not depend on us, but lies in the laws of nature, have no law as their arbiter. It is therefore evident, and not unclear to anyone, that the Creator would not have commanded that there be no barren or childless woman among the sons of Israel. But if they were to be guardians of the law, He promised as God to make them fruitful. Thus, among the ancients, the matter of having many children was considered a matter of zeal and ranked among glorious things. But we, in Christ, are transformed toward the need to be fruitful rather in spirit: not dishonoring marriage, but choosing what is far above it and crowned with the highest vote both in inspired Scripture—namely, to attend to God without distraction and not to be divided toward worldly things. For the unmarried man, says Paul, cares for the Lord's affairs; but the married man cares for worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and is divided. Enough, then, of our discourse on these matters. Come, let us now consider, applying our mind to spiritual reflections, bearing in mind—and quite rightly—that the labor of the holy apostles in their preaching was not without reward, nor their toil without honor. For Laban said to Jacob: "You will not serve me for nothing." And the divine disciples also made the multitude of believers in the early days the subject of splendid boasts. Thus Paul addressed them: "My joy and crown." And I think it necessary to recall what we have most usefully taken up at the beginning.

I said that the person of Jacob, as in spiritual contemplations, sometimes assumes the role of the chorus of the holy apostles, as the firstfruits of those sanctified in spirit and justified in faith; and at other times, again, it assumes that of Christ himself, as the firstfruits of humanity renewed for incorruption, as the firstborn among many brothers, as a second Adam, and as a second root of the race after the first. The discourse, therefore, always turns the aim of the contemplations in whichever direction it is fitting to go. For to miss the appropriate reasoning renders the exposition of the contemplations less beautiful. So, for the present, the person of Jacob will be borne by Emmanuel, the bridegroom from heaven, who took Laban's daughters not without sweat. For it is characteristic of the highest substance of all to accomplish without effort whatever it might choose to do. For the blessed prophet Isaiah said somewhere about it: "That it will not hunger, nor will it labor, nor is there any invention of its wisdom." For in no way is the Divine deficient, but it is completely perfect in itself, not having its power derived from another, nor is it strengthened by the law of bodily foods or drinks; but it is itself power by nature. Therefore, it strengthens the heavens and distributes the ability with authority to whomever it might choose. But just as, although it is not naturally disposed to grieve, it is said to grieve (for it says somewhere to the mother of the Jews, clearly the Synagogue: "And you grieved me in all these things." And the divine Paul also writes somewhere: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in you").

Thus, even if it is said that he labored, we do not mean that he experienced the sensation of toil; rather, we say that if it had been his custom to labor, he would have suffered, accomplishing the most immense and exceptional deeds, and those for which it would have been fitting to endure terrible and bitter labors, if he were one of us. Therefore, proceeding from human conceptions to the highest thoughts, we would almost see, as if intoxicated with toil and sweat, the care for us of the pure nature. Yet we must necessarily exempt that nature itself from laboring, since it is not like us, but rather, above all creation, it abides and is firmly established in its own preeminences. Not without reward, then, nor without sweat, did Christ first gather together the Jewish Synagogue, which we will take up in the figure of Leah. For she is interpreted as "laboring and being renewed." It had labored, weighed down by the greed of the Egyptians and bearing the unbearable yoke of slavery. And indeed it was renewed to the ancestral reverence. It was reshaped, as it were, from idolatrous worship to henceforth knowing who is by nature and truly God. For he proclaimed to them through Moses: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one," and, "You shall have no other gods besides me." But Christ desired Rachel from the beginning, that is, the Church from the nations. Therefore he said concerning the Jewish Synagogue to the hierophant Moses: "I have spoken to you once and twice, saying: I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

Let me destroy them, and I will wipe out their name from beneath the firmament of the sky, and I will make you into a great and powerful nation, far more so than this one. But it was necessary that those who still had a light and easily swayed mind among themselves should not immediately rush to perfection and to the instruction beyond mind and the wisdom derived from it—I mean the evangelical instruction—but rather be pre-catechized through the inferior means, making the Law, so to speak, a preliminary exercise for life in Christ. Therefore, the heavenly bridegroom desired the younger woman at the beginning, that is, the Church from the Gentiles. But he first brings in the older woman, as it were, not without toil. For Jacob served for Leah. And that Israel was delivered from Egyptian slavery by many and great labors is not unclear. For the whole creation fought against them. So the servitude of Jacob, accomplished certainly not without hardship, is a sign that Israel was not redeemed without sweat and thereafter became God's through the worship of the Law. When the seven years of the older woman were completed, he took Rachel, that is, the younger woman, the one desired from the beginning. For the Church from the Gentiles is called in second after the first, the sheep of God; for Rachel is interpreted thus, as I have already said. And that Christ toiled in a certain way also for her, the divine Jacob again demonstrated to us, having endured the seven-year labor also for Rachel.

For if it were possible for the Son, though being God by nature, to grow weary, how would he not have done so in this, when he endured Herod's persecution in the beginning, the plots of the Pharisees, the false accusations of the rulers, the spitting, the slaps, the blows on the back, the insolence of the soldiers, and finally death on the cross? But Laban's daughters, Leah and Rachel, were of a man still idolatrous. For they are named from the nations: the first is the Synagogue of the Jews—for even the divine Abraham himself came from a Greek root and lineage—and the second, after the first, is the younger, that is, the Church. And Leah's eyes were weakened and feeble, while Rachel was beautiful in form and exceedingly lovely in appearance. And concerning the Jews, Christ said somewhere to the holy apostles: "Let them be; they are blind guides of the blind." But "Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear." Therefore, the feebleness of the Jewish Synagogue with regard to the contemplation of God would fittingly be signified through Leah's eyes. But the wisdom and intelligence, and the great adornment in understanding of those in faith in Christ, and indeed also the conspicuousness in deeds, were prefigured through Rachel's beauty. And to the mother of the Jews, let the prophetic word cry out: "Behold, your eyes are not, nor is your heart good." And let Christ call the Church from the nations and say about her: "Your eyes are like doves." For he desired her beauty, according to the voice of the Psalmist.

Therefore, Christ first made the Jewish Synagogue his cohabitant, with Moses acting as the bridal escort and angels as mediators; and then, as a second, the Church from the Gentiles, with the blessed Baptist taken up as a mediator for her. For this reason he also said, indicating this intelligible and divine marriage: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the voice of the bridegroom. So this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, and I must decrease. Mercy and faith are the dowry for the bride." For somewhere, through the voice of the prophets, the bridegroom coming from above and from heaven said to the Church from the Gentiles: "And I will betroth you to myself forever, and I will betroth you to myself in righteousness and judgment, and in mercy, and in compassions. And I will betroth you to myself in faith, and you will know the Lord." For he took, as I just said, the elder before the Church from the Gentiles. But the manner of the betrothal and the power of the union did not last forever. For he said again somewhere about her: "She is not my wife, and I am not her husband." And again: "I placed a bill of divorce in her hands." For she has been cast off as one who has committed fornication, and condemned for the most offensive things. For he said somewhere about her: "If a man sends away his wife, and she goes away from him, and becomes the wife of another, will she, not returning, ever return to him? Will not that woman be polluted, being polluted? And you have committed fornication with many shepherds, and you return to me, says the Lord.

Lift your eyes straight ahead and see where you have been cast out. You sat on the roads like a desolate crow, and you defiled the land with your fornications and your wickednesses, and you had many shepherds to your own detriment. The face of a harlot became yours; you were shameless before all. Did you not call me your own, and father, and originator of your virginity? Will it not remain forever? But in these matters the elder; Rachel, however, betroths the younger, that is, the Church from the Gentiles, to herself, and this continually. And the phrase "to myself" is to be understood in the following manner. For he betrothed the Synagogue of the Jews, but through the mediator Moses. He was united, as it were, to the Church from the Gentiles, calling her to this with his own words, and being seen as a man on earth one by one. For he nodded to the bride crying out, "Show me your face, and let me hear your voice." For those of old also heard him speaking, but through Moses or the prophets. In the last times of the age, however, the Son himself has spoken to us through himself, as the wise Paul has testified.

It is also worthwhile to examine the generation of the sons born from Jacob—how many they were and from whom they sprang. Now Leah first bore four: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Since Rachel was still barren and childless, being greatly distressed and at a loss, she devised a scheme against the misfortune of childlessness. For she persuaded Jacob, saying, "Behold, my maidservant Bilhah. Go in to her, and she will bear upon my knees, and I too will have children through her." When this was carried out, two sons were born to Jacob, Dan and Naphtali. Leah, moreover, by bringing her maidservant Zilpah to his bed, made him father of two others, Gad and Asher. And what after this? "Reuben went," it says, "in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to her sister Leah, 'Give me some of your son's mandrakes.' And Leah said, 'Is it not enough that you have taken my husband, that you should also take my son's mandrakes?' And Rachel said, 'Not so; let him sleep with you this night in exchange for your son's mandrakes.' And Jacob came in from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, 'You will come in to me today, for I have hired you in exchange for my son's mandrakes.'" When this happened, Leah again bore Issachar, and after him Zebulun. When the number of those from Israel had already reached this point, "God remembered Rachel," it says, "and the Lord heeded her, and opened her womb, and she conceived and bore a son to Jacob.

Then Rachel said, “My God has taken away my reproach,” and she called his name Joseph, saying, “God has added another son for me.” In addition to this, she bore Benjamin. And the things written about her are as follows: “It happened that when Chabratha was near to coming into the land of Ephratha, Rachel gave birth, and she had a difficult labor in the childbirth. And it happened that while she was giving birth with difficulty, the midwife said to her, ‘Take courage, for this is indeed a son for you.’ And it happened that as she was giving up her spirit (for she was dying), she called his name ‘Son of my pain.’ But his father called him Benjamin.” So Rachel, having had a difficult labor at the end, departed from our midst in the very throes of childbirth. Thus, then, stands the generation of the sons from Jacob. But as for what the innermost meaning of these writings might be, the one who knows all things would know it—in whom are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, according to what is written. But let us look with keen eyes, and, as far as possible, thinning the thickness of the mist in them, let us say to the one who enlightens the blind, “Uncover my eyes, and I will contemplate the wonders from your law.” Therefore (for I will return to what I said at the beginning and recall again what I stated), Leah, the elder, is to be compared very well to the Synagogue of the Jews, and Rachel herself we will suppose to be the Church of the Gentiles. Having laid this as a foundation, as it were, for our words, let us add the rest.

Lea then first bore four, and then in between there came from the two handmaidens, Balla and Zelpha, another four. And when they had divided among themselves the mandrakes found in the fields by Roubeim, Lea and Rachel both became mothers; and Lea, in addition to those four, bears Issachar, which means "reward"; then Zabulon, which again, when interpreted, signifies "blessing" and "prosperity." And Rachel bore Joseph, which is "addition of God." And after him, at the end, Benoni, which is "son of pain." For the one who is older in time, that is, the Synagogue, first bore children to God, the multitude of the Jews. And that God called those born from her "sons," you will understand very well, when he says to Moses: "My firstborn son Israel." And through the voice of Esaias: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten sons and raised them up, but they have rejected me." Yet they were born from free women on account of the fathers, upon whom he did not impose the yoke of the law; for the freedom of the fathers was also shown to us by the divine Paul, saying: "But I once lived without law." He attributes the "I" to the root of the race, connecting it to the heads of the fathers. And that they were destined, even if born from free women, to undergo the yoke of servitude according to the law, would be shown to us enigmatically by the neighboring and yoked birth of the four, who were born from handmaidens. But there is also a mystery in them. For those from Balla, Dan and Nephthaleim, were assigned to Rachel.

The children of Zelpha, Gad and Asher, were assigned to Lea, and they were younger than those of Balla. But, I think, someone might certainly be perplexed, and quite reasonably, how the children of a handmaiden, I mean Balla, could be assigned to Rachel, even though they fulfill the type of the Church from the Gentiles. What then do we say to this? That in the beginning the blessed prophets were counted among the children of the servile Jerusalem, but were in a manner sons of the Church from the Gentiles. For they thought as she did, declaring that the mystery of Christ would be revealed and shine forth in due time, and prefiguring it through countless forms, almost bringing it before the eyes of the ancients. But those after them, again born into servitude, did not accept Christ, the giver of freedom. And that the first were better than those after them is easy to see, from God speaking through the voice of Isaiah: "How has the faithful city of Zion become a harlot, full of judgment, in which righteousness slept in her, but now murderers?" Do you understand how he says that Jerusalem, or Zion, was full of judgment, that is, of righteousness, and a dwelling place of the just, but later filled with murderers?

One might see, and quite clearly, even from the names themselves, if one wished, that those through Balla would be nurslings of the Church, while those from Zelpha would rather be enemies. For Dan is interpreted as "judgment," and Nephthaleim as "broadening." This became the proclamation of the prophets. For that Christ was about to judge the inhabited world in righteousness, and to condemn Satan as one who had taken advantage and destroyed us, but to save us and to transfer our heart from great constriction into a broad space, as it were, is nothing difficult to demonstrate again. For the blessed Psalmist cried out, as from the person of those in Christ and sanctified in spirit: "I ran the path of your commandments when you broadened my heart." And the most wise Paul, wishing to oppose the yoke of those from Corinth who had believed, writes, saying: "Our mouth opened toward you, Corinthians, our heart has been broadened. You are not constricted in us, but you are constricted in your own bowels; and I say the same recompense to you as to children. Be broadened yourselves, do not become yoked with unbelievers." That a right and just judgment has occurred from Christ, the blessed David himself will again make clear, putting on himself the person of those who have been taken advantage of, and saying to the Savior of all, Christ: "Arise, Lord, and attend to my judgment, my God, my Lord, to my case." And the Savior himself makes this evident, saying: "Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out; and if I am raised from the earth, I will draw all to myself.

You see that the prophets were proclaiming in advance a judgment that would be just for us and an enlargement of heart, speaking the mystery concerning Christ. So from Balla came Dan and Nephthaleim, that is, judgment and enlargement; and from Zelpha came Gad and Aser; and Gad is interpreted as "piratical band," while Aser is "wealth." Were not, then, these latter peoples, after the first ones of the Jews, of such a sort? And then how is it disputed? For one might perceive this from the events that occurred concerning Christ. For some tested him along with the so-called Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are truthful, and you care about nothing; for you do not look at a person's face, but you teach the way of God in truth. Is it permitted to give tribute to Caesar or not?" They approached testing him, in order to ensnare him. For the divine evangelist has so testified. But others, for the sake of gains and love of profit, did not accept the Son. For they said among themselves, it is said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, so that the inheritance may become ours." And that the Pharisees and the unholy band of Scribes were exceedingly fond of wealth and profit, one might perceive, and very readily, by applying one's mind to what has been written about them. For our Lord Jesus Christ declared that it was necessary for those who have chosen to think of higher things to sell off earthly wealth and to distribute their possessions to the poor, so that they might gain the heavenly treasure. But, as the evangelist says, the Scribes and the Pharisees, being lovers of money, heard these things and mocked him.

And that they reached even to the most trivial matters, with great precision devoting themselves to subtle distinctions, not yielding even a little to those who did not bring the appointed tithes according to the law—although they cared little for the law—the Lord made it entirely clear to them, saying: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and you have neglected the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith." So then, Gad is a testing-place, and Asher is wealth. And both were born from the handmaid Zilpah, after Dan and Naphtali, who were from Bilhah. But in these things, let the time before the advent of our Savior be written for us, during which Rachel was still barren—that is, the Church from the Gentiles. That she will bear many and will be the nurse of countless ones, Isaiah proclaimed beforehand, saying: "Rejoice, barren one who does not bear. Break forth and cry out, one who does not labor in childbirth, for the children of the desert are more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband." And the divine David himself made it clear, speaking about God: "He who settles a barren woman in a house, a mother rejoicing over her children." And the Lord and God of all said somewhere to her: "Lift your eyes around 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 you please, let us examine when and how the barren one gave birth. So then, after those who were born from the handmaids, Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, finds mandrakes in the field and brings them to Leah, his own mother.