Since the third age begins with Abraham, who is called the father of the faithful living spiritually according to the spirit, just as he was the father of the carnal Jews, something must first be said generally in his commendation for imitation before we descend to his particular deeds.
Obedience was commended to our first parents in the commandment, as Augustine says in Book XIV of The City of God, chapters 12 and 13. This virtue is in a certain way the mother of all virtues in a rational creature and their guardian, for it was said to him, “You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” They would not have arrived at transgression and disobedience to this command unless a hidden pride had first preceded it.
In the same way, so that Abraham might advance in virtue and his perfection might become known to the whole world for imitation, a hard obedience was commanded of him, not an easy one such as was commanded to the first-formed man, who experienced no inclination toward evil. Thus all posterity might receive an example in Abraham: namely, that he should sacrifice his son, circumcise himself at one hundred years of age, and, before these things, depart from his own land when already old and wander as a pilgrim. He obeyed in everything, grounded in humility. Hence, speaking to the Lord, he said, “I shall speak to my Lord, although I am dust and ashes.” Those who live according to the spirit, obeying God, imitate Abraham; those who live according to the flesh—that is, viciously—imitate the disobedient Adam.
Augustine says there: No nature could be depraved by vice unless it were made from nothing. That it is a nature it has from the fact that it was made by God; but that it falls away from what is comes from the fact that it was made from nothing. Man did not so fall away that he became altogether nothing, but, inclined toward himself, he became less than he was when he adhered to Him who supremely is. Therefore, to abandon God and to exist in oneself—that is, to please oneself—is not yet to be nothing, but to approach nothing. Hence the proud, according to the Holy Scriptures, are called by another name, “self-pleasers.”
It is good to have the heart lifted up, yet not toward oneself, which is pride, but toward God, which is obedience and cannot belong to any but the humble. There is therefore something in humility, in a marvelous manner, that raises the heart; and there is something in pride that lowers the heart. This seems contradictory, as though elevation were downward and humility upward. But devout humility makes one subject to a superior. Nothing is higher than God; therefore humility, which makes one nearest to God, exalts. Pride, however, which is a vice, rejects subjection by that very fact and falls away from Him than whom nothing can be higher. Consequently it will be lower, and what is written comes to pass: “You cast them down while they were lifted up.” For to be raised up in oneself is to be cast down.
For this reason humility is now especially commended in the City of God and to the City of God while it journeys in this world, and it is most especially preached in its king, who is Christ. The sacred writings teach that the vice of pride, contrary to this virtue, belongs to His adversary, who is the devil. Thus Augustine there.
Pride is found in the devil’s members, who sometimes are even humbled here, as is evident in Pharaoh. But if the elect at times grow proud for an hour and do not perceive it, they are permitted to fall into some manifest defect so that they may recognize themselves and return. Hence Augustine says in the same Book XIV, chapter 13: “I dare to say that it is useful for the proud to fall into some open and manifest sin, by which they may become displeasing to themselves, since by pleasing themselves they had already fallen.” Peter was more healthfully displeasing to himself when he wept than pleasing to himself when he presumed. Thus Augustine.
Therefore, those who conduct themselves according to the spirit—that is, according to the will of God—imitate Abraham by spiritually departing from their own land, that is, from disordered affection for earthly things; from their kindred, that is, from the concupiscence of the flesh and the practice of the passions; and from the house of their father, the devil, which is the pride of life. For the first father whom we have when born into the world is the devil, since we are born children of wrath.
They come into the promised land through hope, into eternal or heavenly blessedness, and there are blessed by God through grace and multiplied in good works. They withdraw from the wicked by dissent, that is, by not following them in evil. But the reprobate, who live according to the flesh and do not belong to the city of Jerusalem but to the confusion of Babylon, remain in Chaldea worshiping fire—that is, holding concupiscence and covetousness as the highest good. Babylon is at last laid waste, because the world will perish, and its concupiscence with it.
When the Lord promised Abraham that not his servant Eliezer but a son to be born to him would be his heir and that his seed would possess that land, he said to the Lord, “How shall I know this?” and so forth. This statement did not proceed from a defect of faith or from doubt, since it is written there, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as justice”; rather, he asked that some likeness be added to the thing he believed by which he might recognize its manner, says Augustine in Book XVI of The City of God, chapter 24.
Augustine also expounds figuratively the likeness of the things shown to Abraham. The heifer signifies that Jewish people placed under the yoke of the law. The goat signifies the same people destined to become sinful, and the ram that same people destined also to reign. These animals are therefore said to be three years old because there are three notable divisions of time: from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, and from Abraham to David, who, after Saul had been rejected, was the first established by the Lord’s will in the kingdom of the Israelite people. In this third order, extending from Abraham to David and constituting the third age, that people grew to maturity.
Just as the carnal members of that people are signified by the three animals, so the turtledove and dove signify the spiritual persons within that people. Hence it is said, “But he did not divide the birds,” because carnal people are divided among themselves, whereas spiritual people are in no way divided—whether they withdraw from busy occupations, like the turtledove, or dwell among them, like the dove. Yet each bird is simple and harmless. This signifies that even among that Israelite people, to whom the land was to be given, there would be undivided children of the promise and heirs of the kingdom who would remain in eternal felicity.
The birds descending upon the divided bodies signify not something good but the spirits of the air, seeking a certain food of their own from the divisions of carnal people. Abraham’s driving them away signifies that even amid those divisions of the carnal, true believers will persevere to the end.
The terror that fell upon Abraham around sunset, together with a great and darksome fear, signifies that near the end of this world a great disturbance and tribulation will come upon the faithful. Of this the Lord says in the Gospel, namely Matthew 14: “There shall then be a great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world.” When it is said below that, as the sun was now setting, a flame appeared, together with a smoking furnace and lamps of fire that passed through the midst of those divided pieces, it signifies that at the end of the world carnal people are to be judged by fire.
Just as the affliction of the City of God, such as has never been before, which is expected under Antichrist, is signified by Abraham’s darksome fear around sunset, with the end of the world already approaching, so at sunset—that is, at the very end of the world—the day of judgment is signified by this fire. It will separate carnal people, some to be saved through fire and some to be damned in fire.
As for what was said to Abraham, “Know beforehand that your seed shall be a stranger in a land not its own, and they shall reduce it to servitude and afflict it for four hundred years,” this was prophesied concerning the people of Israel, who were to serve in Egypt. It does not mean that the people would remain in servitude under the afflicting Egyptians for four hundred years, since they were afflicted in Egypt for not even two hundred years. Rather, within those four hundred years what was to happen was foretold.
Similarly, it is written of Terah, Abraham’s father, “The days of Terah in Haran were 205 years,” not because all those years were spent there, but because they were completed there after the greater part had already passed in Ur of the Chaldeans. So too they are said to be afflicted in Egypt for four hundred years, not because that entire number of four hundred was spent in Egypt, but because it was completed there. This number of four hundred begins to be counted either from the birth of Isaac, on account of Abraham’s seed, or from the beginning of this vision, which could have occurred some few years before.
§ I
The third age, therefore, begins with the birth of Abraham and lasts until David: 292 years according to the Hebrews, but 1,242 according to the seventy interpreters.
Abraham, having been led by his father Terah out of Ur of the Chaldeans, came to Haran. While he was dwelling there the Lord commanded him, saying, “Go forth from your land and from your kindred and from the house of your father, and come into the land that I shall show you,” and so forth. Obedient to the Lord, he departed from Haran with his household and his nephew Lot when he was seventy-five years old, and entered the land of Canaan. The Lord appeared to him, saying, “To your seed I shall give this land,” and Abraham built an altar there to the Lord.
Clement says of him in Book I: While all others were in error, Abraham, since he was an astrologer by art, was able from the reason and order of the stars to recognize the Creator; he understood that all things were governed by His providence. Hence an angel appeared to him in a vision and instructed him more fully concerning those things that he had begun to perceive. Thus Clement.
When a famine arose, Abraham went down into Egypt. Lest the Egyptians kill him so that after his death they could take Sarah as a wife because of her beauty, Abraham said that Sarah was his sister. Hence she was presented to Pharaoh so that he might take her as a wife. But the Lord struck Pharaoh with plagues, and when the cause was revealed to him he restored Sarah untouched to Abraham, as Genesis 12 relates.
In this deed Abraham did not tell a lie but reasonably concealed the truth by saying that she was his sister. At that time nieces were also customarily called sisters. In this matter Abraham gave us instruction that no one should presume to tempt his God. While one has something that one can do for oneself by wholesome counsel, one should not expect a miraculous result from God. He did what he could, says Augustine, namely by concealing the truth; what he could not do, he entrusted to God, namely by committing his wife’s chastity to Him. Neither faith nor hope failed him. This is in Cause 22, question 2, Quaeritur.
Abraham departed from Egypt with his household and Lot and returned to dwell where he had stayed before, namely between Bethel and Ai. Since Abraham and Lot had so much wealth and so many flocks that the land could not contain them, their shepherds—that is, those of Abraham and Lot—quarreled with one another, according to Genesis 13. To avoid quarrels and disputes between them thereafter, Abraham and Lot separated from one another. Abraham gave Lot the choice of selecting whatever place of habitation pleased him, while Abraham himself would take the other place. Lot went to dwell in Sodom, but Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan. There the Lord appeared to him again, promising that land to his seed and that He would multiply his seed like the dust of the earth.
Augustine says in Book XVI, chapter 2 of The City of God, that when a quarrel arose between the shepherds of the two men, they wished to avoid the fighting discord of their households. Because such are human affairs, some quarrel could thereby have arisen even between Abraham and Lot themselves. Abraham, although the elder, gave Lot the choice of selecting one of the two places proposed. Perhaps from this arose the peaceful custom among people that, when something earthly is to be divided, the elder divides and the younger chooses.
§ II
Abraham returned from the slaughter of the four kings who had fought against five kings—namely, the kings of Sodom and of the other four cities that were afterward consumed by fire and sulfur. Having defeated them, the four kings had carried away much spoil and the people of those cities, including Lot, who dwelt in Sodom, as Genesis 14 relates.
When the spoil had been wrested from them and Lot freed, Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met Abraham. Melchizedek himself offered Abraham bread and wine and blessed him, while Abraham gave him tithes from everything. When the king of Sodom came to meet Abraham and offered him everything that had been recovered except the persons, Abraham was willing to accept nothing except the shares belonging to those who had aided him in the war. Here instruction or teaching is given that it is lawful to assist one’s own people when they are unjustly oppressed in war, as stated in Cause 23, question 3, section 2.
Ambrose says that, although the spoil had come under the victor’s power, Abraham teaches military discipline by preserving everything for the king. He nevertheless affirms that those who had been with him as auxiliaries should receive shares of the profit as a reward for their labor. Because Abraham himself did not seek a reward for himself from man, he received one from God, as is evident from the promise God made to him after this, in Cause 23, question 5, Dicat. Here also is a figure of Christ, the high priest, instituting the sacrament under the species of bread and wine and offering it to the one who has victory over his enemies.
§ III
The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, promising him that his steward Eliezer would not be his heir, as Abraham was piously complaining, but that his own son would be. The Lord also promised that He would multiply Abraham’s seed like the innumerable stars of heaven, and Abraham believed.
When Abraham asked how he could know that his seed would possess that promised land, the Lord commanded him to take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, a ram of three years, a turtledove, and a dove, and from these to make a sacrifice to God. When the sun was setting and Abraham had fallen asleep, it was said to him in a vision that his seed would be a stranger in a land not its own and would be subjected to servitude for four hundred years; but in the fourth generation they would return to the place where Abraham then was and would possess that land, in which there were nine peoples. This is an obscure and marvelous teaching about the mystery of the Incarnation, but it is not to be explained here.
When Sarah was barren, she gave Abraham permission to go in to the maidservant Hagar so that at least from her he might have children. When this had been done, Hagar, seeing that she had conceived, despised her mistress Sarah. When Sarah afflicted her for her pride, Hagar took flight into the desert, as Genesis 16 relates. An angel appeared to her, commanding her to return and submit to her mistress. He signified that she would bear a son whom she should call Ishmael, who would be a wild man: his hand would be against all, and the hands of all against him. Ishmael was therefore born from Hagar when Abraham was eighty-six years old, as is evident in Genesis 16. From Hagar descended the Saracens, or Hagarenes.
Here it must be noted that Abraham knew the maidservant Hagar not fornicatorily but with marital affection, that is, as a wife. At this point a distinction must be made concerning the plurality of wives whom Abraham, Jacob, and certain others had in the Old Testament. There are two ways of excusing them.
One is easy and expedient: it was never lawful for anyone to have several wives at the same time except by a special revelation or dispensation of the Holy Spirit. This is touched upon in the title On Divorce, Gaudemus. Because these patriarchs, and likewise certain others, are believed to have been dispensed by God in this matter, they did not sin.
The dispensation was granted them for two reasons. The first was so that the people of God, among whom was the worship of the true God, might be multiplied the more. For when all other nations had declined into idolatry, true knowledge of God remained only in the household of Abraham and the patriarchs who followed. Thus the worship of God was multiplied through carnal propagation.
The other reason was figurative. Hence Augustine says that not only the speech but also the life of those men was prophetic, and that the whole great kingdom of the Hebrews was a prophet, because it was the prophet of a certain great reality. Abraham’s having two wives signified that Christ would join to Himself through faith both the Gentile and the Jewish nation. Jacob’s having four wives signified that Christ would unite to Himself through love the nations converted from east and west, north and south. Or it signified that through the ministers of baptism are born good people from evil, evil from good, good from good, and evil from evil, as Augustine notes in Cause 32, question 4, Recurrat.
The other way of speaking is more difficult: before the law it was not prohibited by any divine, natural, or customary law to take several wives, provided this was done for the sake of multiplying offspring and not for satisfying lust. Because the patriarchs did so with this intention, namely to propagate offspring, they did not sin. Hence Augustine says: “Jacob is reproached for his four wives. When it was the custom”—that is, an accepted and lawful act—“it was not a crime,” in Cause 22, question 4, Obiciuntur. Lamech, however, is not excused from adultery, because he is said to have had two wives out of lust. This matter is treated more fully below in the third part, in the title on the sacraments, in the chapter on marriage.
§ IV: Returning to the Deeds of Abraham
The Lord appeared to Abraham when he was ninety-nine years old and promised him that in that year a son would be born to him from Sarah, whom he should call Isaac. He promised to multiply his seed, so that kings would also arise from him. He gave him the name Abraham, meaning “father of many nations,” whereas before he had been called Abram; and He commanded that his wife, previously called Sarai, be called Sarah. He also promised to multiply his son Ishmael, so that twelve leaders would come forth from him.
The Lord commanded that every male in Abraham’s household be circumcised as a covenant between Himself and Abraham, and that an infant of eight days be circumcised, that is, on the eighth day of his birth. Abraham promptly obeyed Him by circumcising himself, Ishmael, who was thirteen years old, and all the males of his household.
Circumcision had its beginning here. It was given as a remedy for original sin, binding only the males descended from Abraham and proselytes. Why circumcision was instituted in that member, together with its rite and signification, is treated in the first part, in the title on the Mosaic law, and in the third part, in the title on the sacraments.
Afterward, while Abraham stood in the valley of Mamre at the entrance of his tent, three men—that is, three angels in human appearance—appeared to him, as Genesis 18 relates. Running to meet them and adoring, he invited them to receive hospitality. When they consented, he prepared a meal for them, first washing their feet and setting before them three measures of fine flour cooked, a calf, and milk. When the meal had been prepared, Sarah was called and a son to be born from her was promised to her.
Sarah herself remained behind the entrance of the tent and laughed at this word. The angel rebuked her for her unbelief, which she also falsely excused out of fear. When the angels departed from there toward Sodom, they foretold the judgment and destruction that would come upon those places.
When Abraham asked that the place be spared if fifty just people should be found in Sodom, pardon for the place was promised if fifty were found. Then Abraham descended to the number forty-five so that mercy might be granted for them; next he spoke of forty, afterward of thirty, after this of twenty, and finally he stopped at the number ten. It was promised him that the whole region would be spared on account of ten just people found there.
Here it should be known that Abraham’s hospitality and generosity are marked out for imitation. Abraham showed himself hospitable toward everyone. If he had been a scrutinizer of those who took refuge with him, he would never have received angels as guests. Perhaps he would not have judged them to be angels, but would have repelled them with the others. But because he received everyone, he also received angels. Thus Chrysostom, in Distinction 42, Quiescamus. Here note the figure of the Trinity, which is to be venerated, and the mercy of God in granting pardon, which is to be marveled at.
§ V
When the two angels came toward Sodom, Lot was staying at the gates of the city, namely in order to invite the poor. On seeing them, he ran to meet them, asking and urging them to accept hospitality with him, since it was evening.
When they had entered his house, all the people of Sodom surrounded Lot’s house and demanded that he bring out those young men to them, intending to abuse them. Lot offered them his two virgin daughters for them to use rather than have them inflict such an injury upon the young men received as his guests. They were unwilling to listen and were, as it were, breaking down the door. The angels brought Lot into the house and struck all those people with blindness so that they could not find the door.
The angels foretold that Sodom would be overthrown. When Lot announced this to his sons-in-law, they despised his warning. At last the angels led Lot, his wife, and his two daughters out of the city, commanding them to save themselves on the mountain and not to look back. As they proceeded, his wife looked back and was changed into a statue of salt. Fire and sulfur rained down from above upon Sodom, Gomorrah, and three other cities. They were overthrown, and the Dead Sea came into being there.
After Lot ascended the mountain and remained there, his daughters made their father drunk. The elder, lying with him while he was drunk, conceived by him and bore a son, Moab. The younger did the same, conceived by him, and bore a son whom she called Ammon.
From the punishment itself, know how detestable the sodomitical vice is; this is treated in the second part, in the title on lust. Know also that Lot, who lived chastely among the very worst people, was delivered because of his generosity and his kinship with Abraham. Yet he offered his daughters to the Sodomites imprudently and unreasonably so that they would not commit a more grievous sin, as Augustine says in Distinction 14, Quod ait.
Augustine says there: Whether a balancing of shameful acts, or of any sins whatever, is to be admitted, so that we commit lesser ones lest another person sin more gravely, such a balancing is to be admitted only with the greatest danger. Hence Lot’s act is attributed not to counsel—that is, determinate reason—but rather to human agitation moved by so great an evil. He is therefore not to be imitated in this.
By punishing the failure of perseverance signified in Lot’s wife, it is shown that remote places do not of themselves suffice to preserve anyone from sins, since Lot was just in the city but sinned on the mountain, as in Distinction 40, Quaelibet. That great crimes follow from drunkenness is suggested by Lot’s incest, in Distinction 35, Sexto. His daughters are not excused from sin, although its gravity is diminished because they did this not from lust but lest the human race should fail, since they thought everyone had perished as had the people of Sodom.
Augustine says that Lot is to be blamed not to the extent merited by that incest, but to the extent merited by his drunkenness, in Cause 15, question 1, Inebriaverunt. Notice also that it is not safe even for a father to sleep with his daughters.
Abraham sojourned in Gerar and, when asked about Sarah, said that she was his sister, according to Genesis 20. Hence Abimelech, king of Gerar, had her brought to him so that he might take her as a wife. But in a dream the Lord threatened Abimelech that he would die because of this. Abimelech excused himself, saying that he did not know she had a husband and had therefore accepted her. At the Lord’s command he restored her to Abraham. When he asked why Abraham had said that she was his sister rather than his wife, Abraham answered that it was to avoid danger of death. Abimelech gave gifts to Abraham, and when Abraham prayed for him, Abimelech, his wife, and his maidservants were healed.
§ VI
In the hundredth year of Abraham, Sarah bore him a son whom he called Isaac, and he circumcised him on the eighth day, according to Genesis 21. On the day of his weaning Abraham made a feast for him.
One day, when Sarah saw Ishmael playing with Isaac, she bore it with such distress that she said to Abraham, “Cast out the maidservant and her son, for he shall not be an heir with him.” Although this seemed hard to Abraham, he was nevertheless admonished by God to acquiesce in Sarah’s request. He sent Hagar out of the house with her son Ishmael, giving them loaves and a skin of water.
As Hagar wandered through the desert, their water failed, and the boy nearly succumbed to thirst. She left him under one of the trees lest she see him die. But the Lord heard the weeping boy. An angel commanded Hagar to take him up again and showed her a well of water, by which they were refreshed. Ishmael dwelt with his mother in the desert and became an archer. He took a wife from the land of Egypt. Abimelech entered into a covenant of peace with Abraham and their descendants, an oath having been sworn.
Different people expound in various ways Ishmael’s playing with Isaac. Some say that he induced Isaac to adore images that he made, as though committing idolatry. Others say that he wished to lead him into wantonness. Others say that he struck him in play. From this know that the wicked persecute the good, and that the sensual appetite plays and thus persecutes the spiritual or rational appetite. Familiarity of this kind must therefore be avoided. Nevertheless, God does not abandon the wicked in their necessities.
Augustine says: In order that Ishmael might be separated from the people of God, his mother’s servile condition did not harm him, but fraternal discord did. Nor did the free condition of the wife whose son he more truly was benefit him, because by her conjugal right he had been begotten in the maidservant and received from the maidservant. This is in Distinction 56.
Jerome likewise says: “He who was born according to the flesh”—that is, Ishmael—“persecuted him who was born according to the spirit,” namely Isaac. The spiritual person, however, never persecutes the carnal, but spares him as a rustic brother, for he knows that he can advance in time. And if ever he sees the son of the Egyptian woman growing angry, he will remember that father who created both oxen and gnats, and that in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware. This is in Cause 23, question 4, Qui secundum.
§ VII
God tested Abraham, according to Genesis 22, not so that He Himself might learn Abraham’s ready obedience and faith, which He did not fail to know, but so that through this trial He might make them known to the world. The Lord called him and commanded him to take with him his only-begotten son Isaac and go to the place He would show him, where he was to sacrifice that son.
Rising at once, Abraham began the journey with his son, his servants, and a donkey. They traveled continually for three days. On the third day the place, namely a certain mountain, was shown to him. He told his servants to wait with the donkey at the foot of the mountain. Abraham himself, carrying the fire and sword, ascended alone with his son, who bore the wood upon his shoulders.
There Abraham arranged the pile of wood and placed Isaac upon it. Isaac, who was already grown, bore this patiently. Abraham stretched out the sword to kill his son, but an angel called to him and prevented him. In Isaac’s place he sacrificed a ram that he saw caught from behind by its horns in the thorns. The Lord swore to him that because of this obedience He would multiply his seed like the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, and that in his seed all nations would be blessed, according to Genesis 22.
Here know that the Passion of Christ is most beautifully prefigured. Nor did Abraham tell a lie when he said, “Wait until we return to you,” because, as Ambrose says, he prophesied what he did not know. He himself intended to return alone after sacrificing his son. Or, better, his faith was so great that he believed his son would be raised by God even after being slain and burned.
When Sarah died in the city of Hebron, Abraham mourned her. He bought from Ephron his field, in which there was a double cave, for four hundred shekels of silver, so that he might bury Sarah there, as Genesis 23 relates. In this deed Ephron is said to have committed simony because he sold the cave’s burial place, where Adam and Eve were already said to have been buried, as in Cause 13, question 2, Ratione illius sepulchri. He had indeed offered it freely, but not from his heart.
Abraham, however, did not commit simony because he paid that price for the field and not for the burial place. In the same way, a person would not sin who bought an estate on which a church stood, provided he did not pay more on account of the church; and a right of patronage passes with the sale of the village in which such a right exists. This is in Cause 13, question 2, Postquam. Jerome says there that the man who was first called Ephron was afterward called Ephran, the letter o having been changed, to indicate that one who could sell the memorial of the dead, or their burial place, was not of consummate virtue.
§ VIII: How Isaac Took a Wife
When Abraham was already very old, he called the chief steward of his household, namely Eliezer, according to Genesis 24. He told him to place his hand under Abraham’s thigh and swear—namely, by Christ, whom Abraham believed would be born from his thigh—that he would not take a wife for his son Isaac from the daughters of Canaan. Instead, he was to go into Mesopotamia, where Abraham’s brother Nahor dwelt with his household, and take a wife for his son from among them. Eliezer swore to do this, provided that the woman whom he betrothed to Isaac was willing to come.
Then, taking camels and other necessities, he went to Mesopotamia and arrived at a certain spring. Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel and sister of Laban, came to draw water. Eliezer asked her for a drink of the water drawn in her vessel, and she immediately offered it to him and also to his camels, in accordance with the sign he had conceived. When he understood that she was Bethuel’s daughter and therefore Isaac’s blood relation, being the daughter of his cousin, he offered her certain ornaments.
Entering Bethuel’s house, Eliezer disclosed to him the abundance of Abraham’s goods, told him of Isaac, the son Abraham had by Sarah, and explained that he had been sent into those parts to procure a wife for Isaac. He asked whether they were willing for Rebecca to be betrothed to him. When they and Rebecca consented, the steward came with Rebecca to her husband Isaac. When she saw him meditating in the field from afar and understood that he was her husband, she covered herself with a cloak. Thus Isaac brought her into his house.
This betrothal signifies the betrothal between the Son of God and human nature through Gabriel, who was sent by Abraham—that is, by the Father Most High—to the Virgin. For He did not assume the angels who stand with the Father, but the seed of Abraham in a land far distant from the Father. The Virgin, found beside the waters of devotion and of the Scriptures, gave her consent after the angel spoke, and then human nature was joined to God.
The Gentile people, also figured in Rebecca, came to Christ and was made His bride through faith. Modest when shown the man, that is Christ, she descended from the camel, that is, from vices, and covered herself with garments of virtues. He loved her so greatly that He seems, as it were, to have forgotten the sorrow for His dead mother, the synagogue, which died through unbelief.
After Sarah died Abraham took another wife, Keturah, according to Genesis 25. Some say that she was Hagar. By her he had several sons. Abraham afterward distinguished Isaac from his other sons and left his inheritance to him, but gave gifts to the sons of the concubines. They are called concubines because, although they were known with marital affection, they did not have governance of the household as Sarah and others like her did. Finally, when Abraham died in the 175th year of his life, his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the double cave at Hebron.
§ IX
The generations of Ishmael are described next. When Isaac at forty years old had taken Rebecca as his wife and she was barren, he prayed for her. When he was now sixty years old, the Lord granted her conception of two twins at once. When the little ones struck one another in her womb, she was saddened at this and prayed. It was revealed to her that two peoples would proceed from the twins she had conceived; they would fight, and one would overcome the other.
When the time of birth came, the first to emerge was ruddy and altogether shaggy, that is, hairy, for which reason he was called Esau. The other, coming forth, held the sole of his brother’s foot as though wishing to emerge first, for which reason he was called Jacob.
Esau was a hunter loved by his father, because his father frequently ate from his hunting. Jacob, who remained quietly at home, was loved more by his mother. One day Esau returned weary from the field when Jacob had cooked a dish of lentils. Esau asked him for some of that red food. Jacob answered that Esau should sell him his birthright in exchange for such a dish, which Esau did, holding his birthright of little account.
Because the right of primogeniture was spiritual, Esau committed simony by selling it, but Jacob did not commit simony by giving the food, because he redeemed himself from harassment when that right had been given him by God. Esau was overcome more by the vice of gluttony than by necessity. It is also shown that one predestined by God is aided in all things, as in Cause 13, question 4, Obtineri.
Abraham took a wife when decrepit, as Augustine says. From this it is shown that after one’s wife has died it is lawful to marry another even if one is old, as in Cause 32, question 4, chapter 1. It also signifies that, when the synagogue was dead, God betrothed the Gentile people to Himself.
When a famine arose, Isaac went down to Gerar. The Lord commanded him not to go down into Egypt and confirmed the promises He had made to his father Abraham concerning the possession of that land by his seed, the multiplication of his seed, and the blessing of all nations in him.
Isaac had said that Rebecca was his sister. One day, when Abimelech, king of Gerar, saw through a window Isaac playing with Rebecca, he understood that she was his wife. He complained to Isaac and commanded that no one should touch her under penalty of death.
Afterward Isaac had wells dug to obtain water, but the Philistines stopped them up several times. When he came to Beersheba, the Lord appeared to him there and confirmed the promises made to his father. Isaac erected an altar to the Lord and dwelt there. Abimelech made a covenant of peace with him.
Digging wells to find living water signifies holy men using their senses and deeds as servants to remove earthly desires from themselves so that they may reach the increasing waters of grace. Or it signifies searching beneath the surface of the letter of the Scriptures for the water of wisdom contained in the divine mysteries. Philistines impede both works through various temptations: demons, heretics, and depraved people.
But the just ought not to abandon good works already begun because of temptations or human persecutions. By continuing, they find what they desire. At last the quarrels of demons or people cease, and sometimes the human attackers themselves are brought back to friendship with the Church and the good. This is in Distinction 43, Scimus.
When Isaac had grown old and his eyes had become dim, according to Genesis 27, he told Esau to bring him food from the hunt so that Isaac might give him his final blessing. When Esau had gone to hunt, Rebecca instructed Jacob to pretend that he was Esau by wrapping his hands and neck in the skins of kids. She told him to bring his father cooked food, namely the kids, so that he might receive the blessing in Esau’s place.
Jacob did so. Bringing Isaac the cooked food and saying that he was Esau, his firstborn, he gave it to him to eat; and when Isaac had eaten, he gave Jacob his blessing. Afterward Esau came with the game prepared and discovered the deception his brother had practiced upon him. Isaac, however, perceived the pious deception and that this had been done by God as a sign. He was not disturbed but confirmed what he had done. Yet when Esau sought a blessing with much weeping, Isaac blessed him also. Because of this Esau threatened to kill his brother Jacob, and Rebecca therefore persuaded Jacob to depart.
Many mysteries and moral teachings must be noted here. First, Jacob did not tell a lie by saying that he was Esau, according to the doctors, because he was Esau not in person but by the right of primogeniture. In the same way John was called Elijah by Christ, not in person but through similarity of conduct, as in Cause 22, question 2, § Item opponitur.
This right of primogeniture was spiritual, because such persons, namely the firstborn, were regarded as priests. This right consisted of six things: the priestly garment; the offering of sacrifices; receiving the father’s final blessing; the blessing by which the firstborn blessed others at solemnities and banquets; receiving a double portion; and being lord over the others.
Jacob did not sin by using such a deception, because the right was owed to him. Nor did Rebecca sin by inducing him to it, because she is believed to have been inspired by God to do this. It signified that the Gentile people, as the younger son of God, would obtain the blessing of eternal salvation rather than the Jewish people, the elder son.
At this time the kingdom of the Argives arose under Inachus, its first king. It endured through fourteen kings until the time of the judges of Israel, Barak and Deborah. Then Perseus, fearing because he had killed Acrisius unintentionally, left Argos and transferred the kingdom to Mycenae. Afterward Eurystheus, Atreus, and others reigned there.
In these times, according to the Master of the Scholastic History, Phoroneus, son of Inachus and Niobe, first gave laws to Greece. He established that cases should be conducted before a judge, and from his own name they called the place designated for the judge phorus.
His sister Isis sailed to Egypt and gave its people certain characters of letters. She also taught them many things about agriculture. Although she was called Io, she was called Isis by them, a word that in their language signifies earth. For this reason she was received among the number of the gods in Egypt after her death. A son of Phoroneus called Apis also sailed to Egypt at that time. They indeed relate that this Apis, son of Phoroneus, was the husband of Isis. He was similarly deified by the Egyptians.
At that time also, beside Lake Tritonis, there appeared a virgin whom the Greeks called Minerva. She invented many arts, especially wool-working. She was also called Pallas, either from Pallene, an island of Thrace where she was reared, or from the giant Pallas whom she killed. At that time what is said in Hosea could deservedly have been spoken: “There is no knowledge in the land,” since almost all nations except the household of Abraham were ignorant of the true God.