LIBER GENESIS

• 67B

VERS. 1.-- « In the beginning he created, » etc. He does not say: In the beginning God says, Let heaven and earth be made. But he said: « Let there be light, and light was made, » because under the name of heaven and earth there was to be comprehended universally whatsoever God made, and thereafter it was to be set forth part by part how he made it. Whence there follows: « God said, Let it be made, » that is, by his Word he made it. Or because, when formless matter, spiritual or corporeal, was first coming to be, it was not to be said: « God said, Let it be made; » for it was unfitting that « let it be made » should be said by God, since imperfection does not imitate the form of the Word, save when, by the conversion of its own kind to the Creator, the creature is made perfect; so that when it is said: « God said, Let it be made, » we may understand that he calls back to himself the imperfection of the creature. 67CWhen therefore it is said: « In the beginning God made heaven and earth, » [Vulg. Gen. 1:1 creavit, "created"] there is a commemoration of the Son, because he is the beginning; but when it is said: « God said, Let it be made, » it is commemorated that he is the Word. By "beginning" he notes the origin of the creature that exists from him; by "the Word," the perfecting of the creature called back from him to himself, that it may be formed by imitating the unchangeable form of the Word. For the Word of God has not a formless life, to whom to be is the same as to live; nay rather, to live the same as to live blessedly. But the spiritual creature 68Bhas a formless life, to whom to be is not the same as to live; nor to live the same as to live blessedly: because, turned away from the wisdom of God, it lives foolishly and wretchedly.

« In the beginning, » etc. (BEDA, Hexaem. lib. I, tom. II, col. 13 ª.) Scripture, in intimating the creation of the world, shows by its first word the eternity and the omnipotence of God: for him whom it declares to have created the world in the beginning of times, it signifies to have existed eternally before times. And him whom it relates to have created heaven and earth at the outset of the founding, it declares to be omnipotent by so great a swiftness of working, for whom to have willed is to do. Well therefore is it said: « In the beginning he created, » etc. Both, that is, at once, although both are not uttered at once by a man. Whence the prophet shows the earth to have been made in the beginning, saying, 68Cpsal. CI: « In the beginning thou, O Lord, didst found the earth, » etc.

« In the beginning, » etc. Heaven, not the visible firmament, but the empyrean, that is, the fiery or intellectual heaven, which is so called not from burning but from splendour, and which was straightway filled with angels. Whence in Job XXXVIII: « Where wast thou when the morning stars praised me, » etc. And note that three elements are here commemorated. By the name of heaven we understand the air. By the name of earth, the earth itself and the fire that lies hid in it. Of the fourth, that is, of water, mention is made in what follows.

69A(ALCUIN. in Gen. tom. I.) « In the beginning. » In the Son, by whose being made man it lay open who were the heavenly and who the earthly. Heaven, the spiritual creature, from its beginning perfect and blessed. Earth, corporeal matter, as yet imperfect. Heaven, the formless matter of spiritual life, such as it can exist in itself, not turned to the Creator in whom it is formed. Earth, the corporeal, without any quality that appears in formed matter.

(BEDA in Gen., tom. II, col. 191.) Scripture says: « Who madest the world of formless matter (Sap. XI). » [Vulg. Sap. 11:18 quae creavit orbem terrarum ex materia invisa, "which created the world out of matter unseen"] Matter was made out of nothing. The species of the world, out of formless matter. Accordingly God made two things before all time, the angelic creature and formless matter. For although Solomon says: « Who lives for 69B« ever created all things together (Eccli. XVIII), yet according to origin formless matter goes before formed species. And so God made the world, and the angels, and the soul out of nothing: man and the remaining creatures out of something.

(Ibid., col. 192.) There are seven heavens, whose names are these, air, ether, olympus, the space or fiery region, the firmament, the heaven of the angels, and that of the Trinity. Jerome, however, says that the heaven of the Trinity is the first, that of the angels the second, the firmament the third.

Mystically. « In the beginning God created heaven. » Those, namely, who have borne the image of the heavenly one. « And the earth, » that is, those who afterwards, by growing proud, bearing the earth, that is, the image of the earthly man, made themselves deformed. « But the earth was void, » because 69Cit had laid aside its good form. « And empty, » of the fruit of good work. « And there were darknesses, » the privation, namely, of the true light; « upon the face of the deep, » the hearts, namely, of the proud.

VERS. 2.-- « But the earth was void, » etc. (BEDA, Hexaem. tom. II.) He shows what heaven, or what kind of heaven, was made in the beginning together with the earth. For he subjoins that of the earth which he did not wish to be understood of heaven. For this higher heaven, which is set apart from the world's revolving, as soon as it was created was filled with holy angels: whom the Lord testifies to have been founded in the beginning together with heaven and earth, saying, Job XXXVIII: « Where wast thou when the morning stars praised me, and all the sons of God rejoiced? » He calls the same angels both morning stars and sons of God. For of the heaven in 69Dwhich the luminaries are set, how or when it was made, he tells afterwards.

(STRAB.) « Void and empty. » Useless, namely, and unfruitful, and unordered. For all the elements were mingled and confused, and this whole space of air was full of waters; not such as they now are, but they were like thin clouds, such as those above the heavens still are.

(BEDA ubi supra.) « There were darknesses, » etc. Those are not to be heard who say by way of reproach that God created darkness before light: because he made no darkness in the water or in the air; but by a distinct order of providence he first created the waters together with the heaven, and the earth, and adorned these with the grace of light when he willed. And it is to be noted that with the heaven two elements of the world were created, 70Ainto which two others were inserted, water, namely, and earth, in which are fire and air. And the waters covered the whole surface of the earth with so great a depth that they reached even to those places where until now they partly rest above the firmament. But the earth itself and the water are called formless matter, because all the things which we see took their beginning either from these or out of nothing: and before they came into the light, there was not whence they might have form.

« And the Spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters. » [Vulg. Gen. 1:2 Spiritus Dei, "the Spirit of God"] (AUG., lib. I de Gen. ad lit., c. 5, tom. III.) Either he called the whole corporeal matter water, that he might intimate whence were made and formed all the things which we see formed on the earth out of a moist nature through divers species; or the spiritual life, as it were floating, before the 70Bform of its conversion. The Spirit of God was borne above, because that which he had begun to be formed and perfected lay beneath the good will of the Creator. It is also said, « The Spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters. » Lest, by doing works, God should be thought to love through the necessity of want rather than through the abundance of beneficence. For fittingly is something first intimated to have been begun, over which he might be borne: not in place, but by a power surpassing all things.

« And the Spirit of the Lord was borne, » etc. (HIERON. in Gen. t. III, col. 939.) In the Hebrew it has merahephet, that is, it brooded, or cherished, after the manner of a bird warming eggs with the heat of a living thing. We understand therefore that this is not said of the spirit of the world, as many suppose; but of the 70CHoly Spirit, who is himself the quickener of all things: and if the quickener, also the founder; if the founder, also God. Psal. CIII: « Send forth, he says, thy Spirit, and they shall be created. » [Vulg. Ps. 103:30 Emittes, "Thou shalt send forth"]

« And the Spirit, » etc. In whom, subsisting, we might rest, quickened by his breath and washed by the wave of baptism. « And the Spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters, » etc. As God, namely, and Creator, he presided over the floating and confused matter, that he might distinguish it when he willed. The whole Trinity therefore is understood to have worked here, God, that is, the Father; the beginning, the Son; the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.

« And the Spirit, » etc. (ISID., in Gen.? ) The hearts, namely, that were tossing to and fro, which had lost the quiet of the mind, 70Dbecause the Spirit did not rest upon them, but was borne above them: as one able to call back their nature from confusion into something better. Then throughout the whole text of this Scripture we see certain six laborious ages, though distinguished as it were by neighbouring bounds, so that in the seventh rest may be hoped for; and we see that they have a likeness to the six days in which those things were made which Scripture records God to have made. For the first beginning of the human race, in which it began to enjoy this light, is compared to the first day, on which God made light. This age is as it were the infancy of the whole world, which we think of, by the proportion of its greatness, as one man. For man, when he is first born into the light, passes his infancy, the first age, which extends from Adam to Noah in ten generations: the flood is as it were the evening of this 71Aday, because our infancy is blotted out by the flood of forgetfulness.

VERS. 3.-- « And God said: Let there be light. » (AUG., de Gen. ad litt., lib. I, c. 17, tom. III.) The light made on the first day is understood as spiritual or corporeal, etc., as far as the beginning of a morning to come. (BEDA, Hexaem. ) But if corporeal light was made on the first day, fittingly is the adorning of the world begun from light, by which the rest, which were to be created, might be seen. But if it be asked: where was it made, since the deep covered the whole height of the earth? it is plain that it was made in those parts which the daily light of the sun now illumines. Nor is it a wonder that light can shine in waters, since they are even oftentimes lit up by the working of sailors, who, plunged in the deep, having let oil out of the mouth, light up the waters for themselves: which waters in the beginning were far rarer 71Bthan they now are, because they were not yet gathered into one place.

« And God said: Let there be light. » (AUG. ibid., c. 2.) Not temporally: for if temporally, then changeably also; if changeably, then also through a subject creature, and light is not the first creature. But perhaps, etc., as far as that it may be and that it may abide.

« Let there be light. » (AUG. ibid., c. 4, 5, 9.) On that condition, namely, by which all things subsist timelessly in the wisdom of God before they subsist in themselves. « And light was made, » that is, the angelic and heavenly substance, in itself temporally; as it was in wisdom, so far as regards his unchangeableness, eternally. Or there is noted the formlessness, namely, and the imperfection of this creature before it was formed in the love of its Founder: for it is formed when 71Cit is turned to the unchangeable light of the Word.

« Let there be light. » (AUG. ibid., c. 10, 11, 16.) If light was made corporeally, etc., as far as for there were not yet animals to which this vicissitude might be exhibited.

VERS. 4.-- « And God saw the light, » etc. (STRAB.) God made light and darkness, whence Dan. III. « Bless the Lord, O light and darkness, » when every creature is invited to bless.

(ISID., in Gen., c. 2.) Each one has in his works and in an upright life six distinct days, after which he may hope for rest: on the first day, the light of faith, since he first believes in invisible things, for which faith the Lord deigned to appear.

« And the evening was made. » (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., l. I, c. 4; BEDA, in Hexaem.) The light going down 71Dlittle by little, and after the space of the divine length passing under to the lower parts, the evening was made, as it is now wont to come about by the accustomed circuit of the sun. And the morning was made when the same light returned over the earth and began another day, and one day of twenty-four hours was completed. But it is to be noted that the night in that three days' space was wholly dark, which after the stars were created shone with some light: it was fitting also that the days should begin from light and stretch toward the morning of the following day, so that the works of God might be signified to have been begun from light and completed unto light.

VERS. 5.--. . . . « And the evening was made, » etc. (GREG., l. VIII Moral., c. 6, tom. I.) In no wise in this life is sin so forsaken by the exercise of justice 72Athat one may abide in it unshaken: because, if uprightness drives out guilt, guilt sits at the doors of our thought and knocks, that it may be opened to it. Whence Moses says: « Light was made; » and a little after: « The evening was made. » For the Creator, foreknowing man's guilt, expressed then in time what is now busied in the mind. For the shadow of temptation follows the light of uprightness. But because the light of the elect is not put out by temptation, not night but evening is recorded to have been made, because temptation hides the light of justice, it does not destroy it.

(AUG., de Gen. ad litt., l. IV, c. 22, 23, tom. III, col. 311, 312.) It is to be noted that the other creatures, etc., as far as that the one, namely, may belong to the day, this to the evening.

72BVERS. 6.--. . . « Let there be a firmament, » etc. (GREG., l. XXVII Moral., c. 24.) The angelic powers which stood fast in the love of God received this in retribution, that they should abide in the contemplation of their Founder in everlasting happiness, and should subsist eternally in that wherein they were founded. Whence in Moses the heaven is said to have been made, and the same is afterwards called the firmament, because the angelic nature was first founded subtle in the higher places, and afterwards, that it might never be able to fall, was more wonderfully confirmed.

« Let there be a firmament, » etc. (AUG., l. II de Gen. ad litt., c. 2, col. 264.) It is asked whether that heaven which exceeds the spaces of the air is now made, etc., as far as because its interval divides between certain vapours of the waters and the waters which are on the earth.

72C« Let there be a firmament, » etc. (AUG., ibid., c. 4.) It is to be noted that the firmament is not so called on account of standing still, etc., as far as but in whatever manner they are there, that they are there we do not doubt.

« Let there be a firmament in the midst. » (BEDA, in Hexaem., t. II.) Of the heaven, in which the stars are fixed, etc., as far as But of what sort they are, and for what they are useful, he knows who founded them.

VERS. 7.-- « And God made the firmament, » etc. (AUG., l. II de Gen. ad litt., c. 8, col. 269.) It is asked why, when he had said: « Let there be a firmament, and it was so done, » he afterwards adds: « And God made the firmament, » etc., as far as saying: « And God said, Let it be made, » etc.

(Ibid., c. 1, 3, 5.) Above the air is pure fire, etc., as far as The nearness of the supercelestial waters therefore makes it 72Dcold.

(Ibid.) But it is to be noted that on the first day, when light was made, it was said only: « Let there be light, » and this in the word, and « light was made, » in the work, and straightway the created light clave to the uncreated light, as nearer to it and more capacious than every creature. On the second day there is a certain delay, and a multiplying of words, « let it be made, » and « God made, » and « it was so done » : that we may understand these natures to be prone to fail, and less apt to obey.

(HIERON., l. I contra Jovin., t. II, col. 211.) It is also to be noted that the works of this second day are not said, according to the Hebrews, to be good, although they are good like the rest: which comes about on account of the binary number, the chief of alternation, 73Awhich first departs from unity: and it is set as a figure of bigamy and of many reprehensible things; whence the things which enter into the ark two by two are unclean, an odd number clean. Or they are not said to be good for this reason, that in this work the separation of the water is not made perfect, which is made in the next, where he says: « Let the waters be gathered together, » as will be said there.

(AUG., ubi supra, c. 9.) It is wont to be asked of what shape the heaven is: but the Holy Spirit, although our authors knew, did not will to teach through them save what profits salvation. It is also asked: does the heaven stand still, or is it moved? If it is moved, they say, how is it a firmament? If it stands still, how do the stars fixed in it go round? But the firmament can be so called not on account of standing still, but on account of firmness, or the untransgressible boundary 73Bof the waters. But if it stands still, nothing hinders the stars from being moved and going round. On the second day there was made as it were the firmament of discipline, which distinguishes between carnal and spiritual things, as between the lower and the higher waters.

(ISID., in Gen. c. 2, tom. V, col. 213.) On the second day he set the firmament, that is, the holy Scriptures in the Church. Of which it is said, Isa. XXXIV: « The heaven shall be folded together like a book. » By this firmament he divides the higher waters, that is, the people of the angels, for whom there is no need that they should hear the word of God in reading. But he set that firmament above the infirmity of the lower peoples, that looking up at it they may know how it distinguishes between carnal and spiritual things, as it were between the higher and the lower waters.

73C« And he divided the waters which were, » etc. (AMBR., l. II Hexaem., c. 3, tom. I, col. 148.) When thou hearest these things, why dost thou marvel if above the firmament a wave could be hung? etc., as far as Jordan also, its stream turned back, returns into its own spring.

VERS. 8.--. . . . « And the evening was made, » etc. (ISID., ubi supra.) The morning of the second day begins from Noah, etc., as far as because neither is boyhood apt for generation.

VERS. 9.-- « And God said, » etc. (AUG., lib. II de Gen. ad litt., c. 11, tom. III.) On this day it seems to have been done, etc., as far as Whence the water is gathered together, the earth appears; for water is slippery and flowing, earth stable and fixed.

« Let the waters be gathered together? » (BEDA, in Hexaem. ) The waters which had filled all things between heaven and earth are gathered 73Dinto one place, that the light, which in the two days past had lit up the waters with a clear light, might shine brighter in the pure air; and that the earth might appear, which lay hidden; and that what was slimy with waters might become dry and apt for shoots. If it be asked where the waters were gathered together which had covered all parts of the earth up to the heaven, it could come about that the earth, subsiding, afforded hollow parts by which it might receive the floating waters: it can also be believed that the first waters were rarer, which covered the lands like a cloud, but that by the gathering they were thickened.

VERS. 10.-- « And God called the dry land Earth. » (BEDA, ibid.) Before, for the distinguishing of the waters, he called the whole more solid part of the world earth, saying: « In the beginning God created heaven and earth. » After 74Athe world now begins to be formed, and the face of the earth appears, the waters withdrawing, for the distinguishing of the part which was still pressed down by the waters, the portion which it was permitted to be dry received the name of earth, in that it is trodden by the feet. « And the gatherings together of the waters he called Seas. » For so among the Hebrews all gatherings of waters are called, whether salt or sweet. And because, by the continuity of all the waters which are on the earth, he said that they were gathered into one place, he now calls them in the plural the gatherings of waters, on account of their manifold bays. Although it is agreed that there are many seas, yet he says the waters were gathered into one place, because all are joined to the great sea. If any lakes seem to be shut up in themselves, yet by hidden passages they are rolled back into the sea: the diggers of wells 74Balso prove this, because all the ground is filled with waters through invisible veins, whose beginning is from the sea.

VERS. 11.-- « And he said: Let the earth bring forth, » etc. (AUG., l. II de Gen. ad litt., c. 12.) The governance of the Ordainer is to be marked: although the creature of herbs and of trees is distinct from the kind of the lands and of the waters, so that they cannot be numbered among the elements: yet because, fixed by their roots, they are bound to the earth, he willed them to belong to the same day.

(BEDA, ubi supra.) It is plain from these words that the world was perfected and adorned in the springtime, in which green herbs are wont to appear, and trees laden with fruits. And at the same time it is to be noted that the first shoots of herbs or kinds of trees came forth not from seed, but from the earth: because at one command of the Founder there appeared 74Cthe dry land trimmed with herbs and clothed with groves, which of themselves brought forth the fruits and seeds of their own kind. For it behoved that the form of things should come forth perfect at God's first command: as man, for whose sake are all things, was fashioned in a youthful age.

(AUG., ibid. l. III, c. 18.) It is also asked concerning thorns, and thistles, and certain unfruitful trees, why or when they were created? since God said: « Let the earth bring forth the green herb, » etc. But by the name of fruit a certain usefulness is signified: and there are many usefulnesses, manifest or hidden, of all the things which the earth nourishes by their roots. We can, however, answer without qualification that after sin the earth brought forth thorns and thistles for man's labour: not that they were born elsewhere before, and afterwards in the fields which man tilled: but before and afterwards in the same 74Dplaces, yet before not for man, but afterwards. Whence « it shall bring forth to thee, » that is, that there should begin to be born for thee unto labour the things which before were born only for the food of other animals.

« Making seed. » (BEDA, ibid.) All things were created perfect, and man was perfect in age, and the trees with leaves and fruit: whence this is called a « tree bearing fruit. »

VERS. 12.-- « And the earth brought forth the herb, » etc. (GREG., l. XIX Moral., c. 12; l. VI, c. 16, tom. I.) What history testifies was truly so done, that it might signify something else to be done. For the earth is the Church, which refreshes us with the food of the word, and guards us with the shade of its patronage: by speaking it feeds, by helping it protects; 75Aso that it may bring forth not only the herb of refreshment, but also the tree of protection.-- « And the tree. » The tree brought forth seed according to its own kind, when our mind gathers from the consideration of itself what it should do toward another, and bears the shoot of upright work. Hence a certain wise man says: « What thou wouldest not have done to thee, do not thou to another (Tob. IV). » And elsewhere: « Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also the same to them (Matth. VII). » As if to say, look upon one another as your own species, and know from your own selves what it behoves you to show to others.

Seed. » (STRAB., RAB.) "Sementis" is of crops and of trees; "semen," of men and of animals. "Seminium" or "sementum," the beginning of anything whatever. On the third day, on which a man prepares his mind for the sowing of the 75Bfruits of good works: the taint being separated, and the waves of carnal temptations, he has as it were dry land, temptations being set apart, so that he can say: « I serve the law of God with the mind, » etc. (Rom. VII).

VERS. 13.-- « And the evening and the morning were made. » (ISID. in Gen., tom. V, col. 207.) The morning of the third day begins from Abraham, etc., as far as The evening in the sins of the people, by which they were transgressing the divine commandments, until the wickedness of Saul.

(ISID., ibid.) On the third day he gathered together the lower and salt waters, that is, the unbelievers, shaking themselves with the waves of concupiscences and of temptations: and he set apart from them the dry land, that is, the faithful thirsting for the fountain of faith. But the unbelievers he restrained, lest with the waves of their iniquity they should trouble the dry land, that is, the soul thirsting for God, 75Cbut that it might be free for it to bring forth the fruits of good works, and to love its neighbour, so that it may have in itself seed according to its own likeness; that is, that out of its own weakness it may have compassion on another in need, and may produce a strong fruit-bearing tree, that is, a beneficent one, by rescuing the oppressed and affording him the shade of its protection.

VERS. 14.-- « But God said: Let there be luminaries, » etc. (AUG., de Gen. ad litt., lib. II, c. 13, 14.) Because to the constituting of the visible world two days are assigned, namely to the highest and the lowest part of the world: to the visible and movable parts of the world, which are created within the world, the three remaining ones were allotted, etc., as far as unto the inchoation, or principate, of the night, which comes about when she is full.

And let them divide the day. » (BEDA, in Hexaem.) By that 75Ddivision, namely, that the sun should light the day, the moon the night. For this was added, when the stars were made, to the increase of the first light, that the night also might come forth luminous, irradiated by the splendour of the moon or of the stars, which hitherto had known darkness only. And although the night seems dark because the air which is nearest to the lands is darkened, yet the higher spaces of the air are always bright with the brightness of the stars.

(AUG., lib. II de Gen. ad litt., c. 18.) It is wont to be asked whether these luminaries are bodies only, or have ruling spirits, and are breathed upon by them vitally, as flesh is animated through the souls of animals. But concerning so obscure a matter nothing is rashly to be believed.

« And let them be for signs, » etc. (BEDA, ibid.) Because before 76Athe stars were made, the order of the times was marked by no tokens, neither the midday hour nor any other. The luminaries therefore are « for signs, » etc.; not that from the founding of these the times, or the days, or the years began; but because by their risings, or their passings, the order of times, of days and of years is marked.

VERS. 15.-- « That they may shine, » etc. (BEDA, ibid.) The luminaries always shine in the firmament, but at fitting times they illumine the earth. For sometimes the cloudy air stands in the way: the sun also, having risen, hinders the moon and the stars with its greater light from illumining the earth. Whence it is so called, because, the moon and the other stars being dulled, it alone shines upon the lands by day.

VERS. 16.-- « God made two luminaries. » (BEDA, ibid.) We can take them to be great luminaries, not so much 76Bby comparison with others as in themselves; as the heaven is called great, and the sea great. For the sun is called great, because it fills the globe of the earth with its heat: as does the moon with its light, which, in whatever part of the heaven they may be, illumine the whole earth, and are seen by all. A great argument of their greatness is that to all men the same orb of them appears: for if it were smaller to those placed afar and greater to those near, it would be an indication of littleness.

« The greater luminary, » etc. (BEDA, ibid.) The sun, namely, not only in the form of its body, but in the greatness of its light, because it lights up the lesser luminary and the stars. It is greater also in heat, because it warms the world, whereas in the days past before its creation it had had no heat. But that the moon is discerned to be of equal and of one greatness 76Cwith the sun, they say comes of this, that the sun goes far more distant from the lands and higher than the moon, and therefore the sun's greatness cannot be discerned by us. For all things set farther off appear smaller.

« And the lesser luminary, » etc. And although it sometimes happens that the moon and the greater stars are seen by day, yet it is agreed that they bring the solace of their light not to the day, but to the night.

(AUG., de Gen. ad litt. lib. II, c. 15, tom. III.) For then, at the beginning of the night, the moon is seen, when she is full, at other times not: and by day she begins to be seen before her fulness, and in the progress of the night.

VERS. 17, 18-- . . . . « That they might shine, » etc. These things can be understood of the great luminaries and of the stars; so that what is said, « that they might rule the day, » should belong specially to the sun, 76Dwhat is subjoined, « and the night, » to the moon and the stars; but what is added, « that they might divide the light and the darkness, » should suit all alike; which, wheresoever they go, carry light about them; whence, when they are absent, they leave all things dark. If it be asked what the daylight could have been like before the creation of the stars, we answer, such as we see when the rising of the sun is at hand, but it does not yet appear: when, namely, the day shines with the dulled rays of the stars, but the risen sun by no means blazes forth.

(ISID., in Gen., tom. V, col. 207.) On the fourth day the luminaries glittered in the firmament of heaven, etc., as far as because after good works there comes the illumination by which the species of the supernal truth is seen.

77A(AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., lib. I, c. 24, tom. III, col. 194.) On the fourth day, on which in that firmament of discipline the mind works and distinguishes spiritual understandings, it sees what is the unchangeable truth, which shines like the sun in the soul; and how the soul is made partaker of it, and bestows order and beauty upon the body, as the moon lighting the night. And how all the stars, that is, spiritual understandings, shine in the obscurity of this life as it were in the night.

VERS. 19.-- « And the evening and the morning were made, » etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem., tom. II, col. 13.) In this evening the people of God in Egypt offered the lamb, etc., as far as he might grant hope and faith.

« And the evening was made, » etc. (ISID., ubi supra.) 77BThe morning of the fourth day, the kingdom of David. This age is like to youth, which reigns among all the ages, and is the firm firmament of all the ages: whence it is compared to the fourth day, on which the stars were made in the firmament of heaven. The splendour of the sun indeed figures the excellence of the kingdom, the splendour of the moon shows the people obeying the king, as it were the Synagogue. But the stars are its princes, and all things founded on the stability of the kingdom, as it were in the firmament.

VERS. 20.-- « God also said, » etc. (BEDA, ubi supra.) After the face of heaven had been adorned on the fourth day with luminaries, the lower parts of the world, namely water and air, are adorned on the fifth day with their own living things.

« God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping thing, » etc. (AUG., lib. II de Gen. ad litt., ex c. 1, 2, 3, 4, 77C5 et 6, tom. III.) It behoved, in the creating of the inhabitants of the lower part, etc., as far as Which is not to be understood save of such as have been turned into the nature of the waters by the quality of a thicker air.

« Of a living soul. » (AUG., ibid., c. 8.) That is, the things which are in living souls, as it is said: "The ignoble things of men," that is, those who among men are ignoble. Which some think was said on account of their slowness of sense, or because fishes are of no memory; but it is most certain that they have memory.

(AUG., ubi supra, c. 3, 4.) Concerning the conversion of the elements there is a question. Some say that all things can be turned into all things, etc., as far as for that we feel the waters and the winds by touch; hence it is that the solid earth is mingled with all the elements, but in these thicker ones it is felt 77Dmore.

« Under the firmament » , etc. Even though there lies between an immense space, yet the birds which fly above the earth fly under the starry heaven: just as men who are on the earth are said to be under heaven. Another translation: « Beside the firmament of heaven, » because the spaces of this air which bears up the birds are neighbours to the ether.

(AUG., de Gen. ad litt., l, III, c. 9, 10, tom. III, col. 284.) It is to be noted that certain philosophers have so distributed the animals to each element, etc., as far as yet they have been permitted to hold only the misty places of the air, which is to them as it were a prison until the time of judgment.

VERS. 21.-- « And God created the great whales, » etc. 78A(THEOD. q. 18 in Gen.) Boys need now bugbears, now straps also and rods: by the former we frighten them, by the latter we instruct them: Since therefore God perceived that we too are prone to sloth, he founded the beasts, as it were certain straps and bugbears, that by frightening us with them he might draw us to himself, and that we might implore his help. But as those who are perfect despise bugbears of this sort, and straps; so those who have been brought up in virtue do not dread the onsets of beasts. Indeed the beasts stood by Adam before he had sinned, professing their obedience. And again the lion, the leopard, and all the fiercest of the beasts followed Noah himself as he entered the ark, after the manner of sheep. And the lions were present with Daniel, who, though otherwise famished, yet did not dare to approach him, because 78Bthey beheld in him the characters that bore before them the divine image. Likewise the viper, which had fastened its teeth in the hand of the Apostle, when it had found nothing in him tender or soft to sin, straightway leapt back and cast itself into the fire, exacting after a fashion punishment of itself, because it had attacked a body in no wise suited to it. But we for this cause dread the beasts, because we neglect virtue. Moreover the beasts are not useless to us for other things either: for out of them physicians compound not a few medicines for driving away diseases: let no one therefore, considering the beasts, complain of the Creator, but let him search out their usefulness.

« And every soul, » etc. In distinction from man, who was to be made to the image of God, and, if he kept the commandments, would remain in perpetual unchangeableness. 78CBut the other animals were so made that some should yield to others for nourishment, or should fail through age.

VERS. 22.-- « And he blessed them, » etc. (AUG., lib. de Gen. imp., c. 15, tom. III.) He willed the blessing to avail unto fruitfulness, which appears in the succession of offspring, so that by that blessing by which they were created weak and mortal, they might guard their own kind by being born.

(CHRYSOST., hom. 7 in Gen., tom. IV, col. 66.) The blessing itself, therefore, is to be increased and multiplied in a great number and multitude. For because living creatures were animate, and willed to be perpetually, therefore he subjoined: « Increase. » For that word preserves them even unto the present day. « Increase and multiply, » etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem.) It belongs to both 78Dkinds of living things made out of the waters, that is, to fishes and to birds. For as all fishes cannot live save in the waters, so very many birds; which, if they sometimes rest on the lands and make their young there, yet live not from the land but from the sea, and use the sea more willingly than the land.

Mystically. (ISID. et AUG., ubi supra.) On the fifth day there were made in the waters the creeping things of living souls, that is, men renewed unto life through the sacrament of baptism. There were made flying things, that is, souls flying to the things above. On the fifth day the mind that has advanced begins to work in the actions of a turbulent world, as it were in the waters of the sea, for the profit of brotherly fellowship, and out of the corporeal acknowledgments which belong to the sea, that is, 79Ato this life, to bring forth the creeping things of living souls, that is, works which profit living souls; and great whales, that is, the strongest acknowledgments, by which the waves of the world are broken and despised; and the flying things of heaven, that is, voices preaching heavenly things.

VERS. 23.-- « And the evening and the morning were made, etc. (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., lib. II, c. 23, tom. III.) Mystically, the morning is the passing over into Babylon, when by that captivity the people was lightly settled in a foreign leisure, etc., as far as because they were so blinded that they could not even know Christ.

VERS. 24.-- « God also said: Let the « earth bring forth, » etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem., tom. III, col. 13.) After the heaven was filled with stars and the air with flying things, which on account of its nearness is called heaven, etc., 79Bas far as under the name of four-footed beasts all things are comprehended except the beasts and the creeping things, whether tamed, or wild and of the fields.

« Let the earth bring forth, » etc. (AUG., lib. III in Gen., c. 11, tom. III.) It followed that he should now adorn the earth with its own animals. By saying three times, according to its own kind, etc., as far as And under the name of cattle and of beasts every irrational animal is wont to be comprehended. « In its own kind. » (AUG., ibid. c. 12,) These things are perhaps said according to kind, because they so arose that others are born of them, and preserve by succession the form of their origin. But of man this was not said, because one was being made, of whom the woman also was made. For there were not made many kinds of men, as of herbs and of trees; so that it should be said, according to its own kind, as 79Cif it were said kind by kind, that among things alike, and belonging to one origin of seed, they might be distinguished from the rest.

(AUG., ibid. c. 14.) Concerning certain minute animals there is a question, etc., as far as except that they were fore-sown in them potentially and materially.

(AUG., ibid. c. 15, 16.) Concerning venomous and destructive creatures it is asked, etc., as far as all which, rightly considered, are praised.

(AUG., ibid., c. 17.) This also moves us, etc., as far as but let them not doubt to prepare the numbers of a godly fortitude for all things.

(THEOD., quaest. 18 in Gen.) Let us not despise the beasts, as being altogether unharmed by them, as though they were of no strength. Sometimes God permits two or 79Dthree out of many thousands either to be stung by scorpions or bitten by serpents; that we, fearing lest we should suffer anything like, may call upon God the Creator for help.

(AUG. in Gen., l. III, c. 13.) It is asked why there was not added here what was said of the animals of the waters: « And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, » etc. Perhaps because what had been said of the first creature of a living soul, he left to be understood of the second, especially because in the works of this day he was about to say many other things. But herbs and trees, because they have not the affection of generating, he perhaps judged unworthy of this blessing. Which was of necessity repeated in man, lest anyone should think 80Athat there is sin in the office of begetting sons, as in fornication without wedlock.

VERS. 25.-- « And God made the beasts of the earth, » etc. (BEDA in Hexaem.) It is a change of order. Nor need we care in our own speech which of the creatures we name first in order, since God created all things together.

(ISID., in Gen., tom. V, col. 207.) On the sixth day the earth brings forth the living soul, when our flesh, abstaining from dead works, brings forth living shoots of the virtues, according to its own kind, that is, by imitating the life of the saints. Whence I Cor. IV: « Be imitators of me, » etc. We live according to our own kind when we imitate the saints as our neighbours. The earth brings forth beasts, that is, men growing proud in ferocity. 80BAnd cattle, that is, those living simply. And serpents, namely the crafty, and those who discern good from evil, and who as it were by creeping search out earthly things, through which they may understand the heavenly.

VERS. 26.-- « Let us make man. » (AUG., ibid., c. 19.) There is intimated the plurality of the persons of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and straightway the unity of the deity, when it is said: « And God made man to the image of God, » not the Father to the image of the Son only. For it would not truly be said, to our image; but it was so said: « God made man to the image of God, » as if it were said « to his own image. » But when it is said « to the image of God, » whereas it was said above « to our image, » it is signified that the plurality of persons does not bring it about that 80Cwe should believe in many gods, but that we should receive the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one God.

« Let us make man. » (BEDA, in Hexaem.) It appears why it was said that the rest should be made, etc., as far as but that he might show that he had received back true flesh after death.

« And let him rule, » etc. (AUG., lib. III de Gen. c. 20.) It is also to be noted that, when he had said « to our image, » he immediately subjoined: « And let him rule over the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air. » That we may understand, namely, that man was made to the image of God in this, wherein he excels the irrational creatures. And that is reason, or mind, or understanding, or if it be more conveniently called by another name, that, namely, wherein he cleaves to the truth that is to be contemplated.

80DVERS. 27.-- « And God created man to the image, » etc. (BEDA, in Gen., c. 1.) He who, not by imitating any of the saints whatever, but by gazing upon truth itself, works justice, so that he may understand truth itself and follow it: he has received power over all things, because everyone made spiritual, and like to God, judges all things, and is himself judged by no man.

« And God created, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra, cap. 20, 21, 22.) It is to be noted that, as in the creating of light it is said: « Let there be light, » and straightway there follows, « and light was made; » so when it is said: « Let us make man, » there is brought in, « and God made man to the image of God: » because that nature is intellectual, as that light was: and this is for it to be made, namely 81Ato acknowledge the Word through which it is made. etc., as far as but fore-sown materially.

« Male and female he created them, » etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem. ) Afterwards it is set forth more fully both whence and in what manner men were made, etc., as far as although virginity be preferred.

(BEDA, ISID., ut supra. ) After these things « God made man to his own image and likeness, » a perfect man, namely, etc., as far as whence Paul: « We have sown unto you spiritual things, it is a great matter if we reap your carnal things (I Cor. IX). » [Vulg. 1 Cor. 9:11 Si nos vobis spiritualia seminavimus, a conditional, "If we have sown unto you spiritual things", closing as a question]

VERS. 28.-- . . . . . « And rule over the fishes, » etc. What he had said before of them as it were by counselling, he now says commanding, so that man may have, namely, dominion over all the creatures in the lower part of the world. Which he follows out 81Bone by one.

« And rule over the fishes of the sea. » (BEDA, in Hexaem. ) It is asked with what usefulness man received dominion among the other living things, etc., as far as and that the gaping of beasts and the venom of serpents gave way.

VERS. 29.-- « And God said: Behold, I have given, » etc. (BED., ibid.) It is plain that before the sin of man the earth brought forth nothing harmful, no poisonous herb, no barren tree. For all the herbs and trees were given to men, and to the birds, and to the living things of the earth for food. Whence it is plain that then animals did not live by the eating of animals, but fed harmoniously on herbs and fruits.

VERS. 30.-- . . . . . « And it was so done. » (AUG., de Gen. ad lit. lib. III, c. 13.) It is to be noted that where power is given to man of eating herbs and fruits, there is subjoined, 81C« and it was so done: » wherein it is signified that, when God said this, man knew these things to be granted to him for food, not that he ate them at once. For if we refer to all the aforesaid things what he says, « and it was so done, » it will follow that we say they were already multiplied on the sixth day, which was done after many years.

VERS. 31.-- « And God saw, » etc. (AUG., ibid.) It is asked: since the rest are severally called good, why is man, made to the image of God, said to be this along with the rest? But perhaps God foreknew that he would sin, and would not remain in the perfection of the image. For he who is good severally, is more so with all, but it is not convertible. It was therefore cautiously provided that there should be said what would be true in the present, and would signify the foreknowledge of the future. 81DBut God ordered all things so that, if any severally should by transgressing be deformed, yet always with them the whole should be beautiful.

« And the evening and the morning were made, » etc. (ISID., in Gen., tom. V, col. 207.) The morning of the sixth day is the preaching of the Gospel through Christ, etc., as far as which has no evening.

Morally. (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., lib. I in fine.) On the sixth day the earth brings forth the living soul, that is, man, out of the stability of his mind, where he has spiritual fruits, that is, good thoughts; he governs all the motions of his soul, so that there may be in him a living soul, that is, one serving reason and justice, not earthliness and sin. So man is made to the image and likeness 82Aof God, male and female; that is, understanding and action: by whose coupling a spiritual offspring may fill the earth, that is, may subject the flesh, and the other things which have already been said in the perfection of man. For in these days the evening is the very perfecting of the several works, and the morning the beginning of those that follow.

VERS. 1.-- « Therefore the heavens and the earth were finished, » etc. (ALCUIN., in Gen. tom. I, col. 517.) In no way can it be told how God made heaven and earth. But this exposition, by the order of the days, sets forth as it were a history of things done, yet above all it attends to the foretelling of things to come, etc., as far as which the Lord showed to lie hidden to good purpose.

82B« Therefore the heavens were finished, and the earth, and all the furniture of them. » (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., lib. I, c. ult.) Allegorically. After those works of, as it were, six days, works very good, let man hope for perpetual rest, and let him understand what it is, » and God rested on the seventh day from his works: » because he himself also works these good things in us, who commands that we should work. And he is rightly said to rest: because after all these works he will furnish us with rest, in the way that the master of a household builds a house, when he commands his servants to do it; and afterwards to rest from his works, when, the building finished, he bids them rest.

(AUG., ibid.) Each one of us has in his works and in an upright life these six days, as it were, marked off, after which he ought to hope for quiet: on the first day 82Cthe light of faith, when first he believes things visible, for which faith the Lord vouchsafed to appear visibly. On the second day there was made as it were a firmament of discipline, which distinguishes between carnal and spiritual works, as the firmament between the lower waters and the higher. On the third day, on which he prepares and raises up his mind to bring forth the fruits of good works, the stain and the waves of carnal temptations being set apart, he has his mind dry, as it were, from the disturbances of the sea, so that he can now say: « With the mind I serve the law of God (Rom. VII), » etc.

VERS. 2, 3.-- « And God finished, » etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem. ) Another version: « God completed on the sixth day the works which he made, » which brings no question with it, because the things that were done in it are manifest, etc., 82Das far as for Solomon did some work when he dedicated the temple.

(HIER., Quaest. Hebr. in Gen., tom. III, col. 935.) In the Hebrew it stands « on the seventh day. » We shall therefore press the Jews hard, who glory in the leisure of the sabbath, because already then, in the beginning, the sabbath was loosed, while God works on the sabbath, completing his works on it.

« And God finished, » etc. (AUG., lib. IV de Gen. ad litt., c. 4, tom. III.) It is asked whether, etc., as far as according to him they would not be made perfect.

« And God rested, etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem. ) Not as though wearied by working, but he rested from the whole work, because he ceased to make a new creature. For to rest is said to be to cease, as in Apocalypse IV: 83A« They had no rest, saying: Holy, holy, holy, » that is, they did not cease to say it.

(BEDA, ibid.) More deeply too he will be understood to have rested from his whole work, etc., as far as but he gave rest in himself to rational creatures.

« And God rested, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra, c. 8.) God did not labour in working, who made by a word alone, saying: « Let it be made. » Nor does a man labour by saying, « Let it be made. » But perhaps he is said to have laboured in thinking what should be made. From which care, things being finished, he is said to have rested. But to be wise in this fashion is to be witless. That God rested, therefore, is that he furnished rest in himself to the rational creature; that is, that we may be borne by desire thither, where we may rest, that is, may seek nothing further. For as he is said to make what we make by his working in us, 83Band to know when we know, so to rest, when by his gift we rest.

(Ibid., c. 11.) It is no wonder if, foretelling in this manner the day on which Christ was to rest in the sepulchre, he said: « On the seventh day he rested, » being thereafter about to work the orders of the ages.

(Ibid., c. 12.) But it can be understood that God rested from making the kinds of creature, etc., as far as and does not cease to govern.

(Ibid., c. 14.) But God was neither wearied by creating nor refreshed by ceasing: rather through his Scripture he exhorts us to the desire of rest, by saying that he sanctified the day on which he rested. For he is not read to have sanctified the other days of his work, as though with him rest avails more than working.

83C(Ibid., c. 15.) It is also a vice of the soul so to delight in its own works, etc., as far as by that rest from which he never withdrew.

(Ibid.) But if he were said to have rested from things to be made, etc., as far as but by him we are blessed.

(Ibid.) But in himself God has always rested: yet in the days in which the completing of things is recounted, he rested on the seventh only, which follows the perfection of things; for he rests from things perfected, who has no need of things perfected that he may be more blessed.

(Ibid., c. 17.) His works we see to be good: but his rest we shall see after our good works. To signify which, he commanded one day of the sabbath to be observed: which in the time of grace has been taken away, in 83Dwhich he keeps a perpetual sabbath who works all good things in hope of what is to come, and does not glory in his good works as though he had not received them.

(Ibid., c. 18.) With him there is to his rest neither morning nor evening, because it is neither opened by a beginning nor closed by an end. But in works perfected it has a morning, and not an evening; because the perfected creature begins to be turned to the quiet of the Creator, but that quiet has no end of its perfection, and so the rest of God is begun not for God himself, but for the perfection of things, and it has a morning in that which is perfected by him: but in its own kind it is ended as by an evening, which in God has no evening, because nothing will be more perfect than perfection itself.

84A(Ibid.) But in those days, etc., as far as which are recorded as created before the luminaries.

(Ibid., c. 20.) It is asked how it is said on the seventh, etc., as far as except that which was created first and called day.

(Ibid., c. 21.) But how could the light go round, etc., as far as and the rest.

(Ibid.) But it is easier that we confess ourselves ignorant, etc., as far as and it will be false that he completed all his works on the sixth day.

(Ibid., c. 22.) But since bodily light, etc., as far as and that by which the creature is known in itself is rightly called evening.

(Ibid., c. 25.) But because the angels so know the creature in itself, etc., as far as Therefore on the seventh day 84Bno evening came on.

(Ibid., c. 28.) Nor let anyone think, etc., as far as and more truly morning?

(Ibid., c. 35.) That first day, therefore, etc., as far as and for this it deserved to be sanctified.

(BEDA, in Hexaem., tom. II, col. 13.) Allegorically. Whence it is said in Exod. XX: « Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. » But this blessing and sanctification signifies a greater blessing and sanctification, etc., as far as Therefore this day is not written to have an evening.

VERS. 4.-- « These are the generations. » (RAB.) He touches those who say that the world always was without a beginning, or who think that it was made by God, but out of matter which he did not make, but which is coeternal with him.

84C« In the day that he made, » etc. He puts the day for the whole time in which the primordial creature was formed, etc., as far as without rain and human labour.

« These are the generations of the heaven, » etc. (ISID., in Gen., t. V.) There are numbered six days in which the whole of the age from beginning to end, etc., as far as if he had not sinned.

« Before it should spring up in the earth. » That is, before he sinned, that is, before he made himself subject to earthly desires. Whence there follows: « For God had not rained upon the earth, » that is, he had not yet, by prophetic or evangelical clouds, the shower of the word being sent forth, made the soul to live, and « there was no man to till the earth, » because after sin man began to labour on the earth, 84Dhe had need of those clouds, whence the shrub, that is the soul, grew green. The fountain of life watered it, that is, the flood of truth, speaking in his understanding, so that it needed no rain from the clouds before he sinned. This was the state of man before sin.

(AUG., l. V, de Genes. ad lit., c. 1, tom. III.) Another version has: « This is the book of the creation of heaven and earth, » etc., as far as it nourishes the great with truth, the little ones with affability.

(AUG., ibid., l. VI, c. 10.) In the first founding of the world, etc., as far as seed from the herb.

VERS. 5.-- « And every shrub, » etc. (AUG., ibid., l. V, c. 4.) The earth is understood to have brought forth herb and tree causally, that is, to have received the power of bringing forth. For in it, as in roots, had been made 85Athe things that were to be through the times to come. He made them, therefore, before they were upon the earth, according to the formability of matter — the things that were to be formed by his word — preceding the forming not in time but in origin.

« For the Lord had not rained, » etc. (AUG., ibid., c. 5.) As though God did not then make in the way he now makes, etc., as far as nor could the creature be moved.

VERS. 6.-- « But a fountain, » etc. (RAB.) By the watering of this fountain, of whatever kind it was, the earth came on already clothed with herbs and trees. One fountain is said to have gone up, for some unity within the bounds of the earth; or the singular is put for the plural.

« But a fountain, » etc. (BEDA, in Gen., c. 2.) Here he seems to intimate what things come to be according to the intervals of times, etc., as far as afterwards, through these things that are known, 85Bto be known in whatever measure.

VERS. 7.-- « He formed, » etc. (AUG.) Mystically. A broader narrative concerning man is unfolded figuratively, etc., as far as that he neither despise what he is, nor claim what he is not.

« The Lord God therefore formed man, » etc. (AUG., de Gen. lib. III, cap. 20 et 25.) First out of the slime of the earth was formed an animal body, etc., as far as for it has the necessity of dying.

(Ibid. c. 27.) The first robe is either justice, from which he fell: or, if it signifies bodily immortality, this he lost, since by sinning he could not attain to it. So then Adam had an animal body, not only before paradise, but in paradise as well (although in the inner man he was spiritual), which he lost by sinning, 85Cand deserved the death of the body — he who by not sinning would have deserved the change into a spiritual body.

« He formed, » etc. (AUG., l. VI de Gen. ad litt., c. I, tom. III.) It must be seen whether it be a recapitulation, so that it is told how man was made, whom we read to have been made on the sixth day. Or whether then, when he made all things together, he made man also among them, so that with the accession of time he should be made in this manner too, in which he leads his life in this visible form? just as the hay, made before it sprang up, with time coming on and with the watering of the fountain, sprang up, so as to be upon the earth.

(AUG., ibid. c. 2, 3.) Let us look first according to recapitulation, etc., as far as but then invisibly, potentially and causally, in the manner in which things to come, not things done, come to be.

85D« He formed, » etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem. ) The making of man, etc., as far as he created that in which he should live.

(AUG., de Gen. ad litt., l. VI, c. 13 et 17.) It is asked whether God made man suddenly in the age of manhood, etc., as far as and therefore it was of necessity to come.

And he breathed into his face the breath of life, and man was made into a living soul. » (AUG., ibid., l. VII, c. 3, 5, 7.) Without doubt, « he blew, or he breathed upon, » is what must be said, etc., as far as a punishment if he should despise it?

(Ibid., c. 26.) It must be said, etc., as far as it is not lawful to doubt.

(Ibid., c. 27.) It is commonly asked whether, if it be unwilling to be embodied, it is compelled, etc., as far as he made them.

86A(Ibid., l. VI, c. 7.) But perhaps to the soul made on the sixth day, where the image of God shines back, etc., as far as which is to be preferred in matters of this kind.

(IRENAEUS.) The habit of life which makes a man animal is one thing; the life-giving Spirit, which works a spiritual man, is another. Whence Isaias: Who gave breath to the peoples upon the earth, and spirit to them that tread upon it; so that God gave breath indeed to every people that is upon the earth, but spirit only to those who tread down earthly desires: so that the breath is for a time, but the spirit eternal, inasmuch as it is properly the gift of God.

VERS. 8.-- « And he had planted, » etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem., tom. III.) From that beginning he planted paradise, etc., as far as and because he was about to speak specially of the tree of life and of the knowledge 86Bof good and evil.

« The Lord planted a paradise in Eden toward the East, » etc. (AUG., de Gen. ad litt., lib. VIII, c. 1.) There are three general opinions concerning paradise. One is of those who will have it understood only bodily, another of those who will have it only spiritually, but a third of those who take paradise in both ways. I confess that the third pleases me: so that the man made of slime, which is the human body, is understood to be placed in a bodily paradise. Adam, although he signifies something else, because he is the figure of him that was to come, is taken in his own nature as a man.

(Ibid.) « And the Lord planted a paradise in Eden. » That is, in delights. Then he recapitulates this, to show how God planted paradise. « And God sent forth out of the earth every tree, » etc. For already 86Cthen the earth had brought forth every tree, namely on the third day. But since out of these kinds the trees were established in paradise, he brought forth openly, and in its own time, what the earth had already brought forth causally on the third day.

(STRAB.) Certain codices have: « Eden toward the Rising. » From which we can conjecture that paradise is set in the East. But wherever it be, we know that it is earthly, and, with the Ocean set between and mountains standing over against it, most remote from our world, set on a height, reaching as far as the lunar circle; whence the waters of the flood by no means came thither.

« In which he placed him. » (AUG., ubi supra, cap. 5.) If anyone thinks that souls stripped of the body are contained in bodily places, etc., as far as by one cake of which God freed a man from hunger for forty days.

86DVERS. 9.-- « And the Lord brought forth the tree of life also. » (AUG., Ibid., c. 4.) Of wisdom it is said: « It is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her. » But there is an eternal Jerusalem in the heavens, etc., as far as which narrated things done in their own times.

« The tree of life also, » etc. (BEDA, in Hexaem., tom. III, col. 13.) In the one there was for man a sign of the obedience which he owed: in the other a sacrament of eternal life, which by obeying he would merit. It was called the tree of life, because it received from God that whoever ate of it, his body should be strengthened with a stable soundness, nor should it slip by any infirmity or age into the worse or into decline.

(STRAB.) Historically. The tree of life had naturally this 87Apower, that whoever ate of its fruit should be clothed with perpetual solidity, to be wearied by no infirmity, or anxiety, or weariness of old age, or feebleness.

« And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. » (AUG. ubi supra, c. 6) It was bodily like the other trees, and not harmful as food, etc., as far as which followed the transgression.

« The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. » (AUG., lib. II de Gen. contra Manich., c. 10.) The mean of the soul and its ordered integrity is signified, in that it was planted in the midst of paradise, and called of the knowledge of good and evil: because the soul, which ought to be stretched out toward God, if, God being forsaken, it be turned to itself, and will enjoy its own power without God, then, punishment following, learns by experience what 87Blies between the good which it forsook and the evil into which it fell: and this will be for it to have tasted of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

VERS. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.-- « And a river went out. » (BED., ubi supra.) To water paradise, etc., as far as and, emerging a little after, to hold their accustomed course.

(AUG., ubi supra, c. 7.) Another version: « A fountain went out of Eden, which watereth paradise, » etc. These rivers to the nations, etc., as far as namely trees fair and fruitful.

(ISID., AUG.) Mystically. The river going out of paradise is the affluence of eternal gladness, etc., as far as by bearing adversities.

(GREG.) Morally. By four rivers going out of paradise 87Cthe earth is watered. Prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice hold together the solid building of our reason: because by these four virtues the whole structure of good work rises up. Four rivers water paradise, because while the heart is flooded with these four virtues, it is tempered from every heat of carnal desires.

« Evilath. » A region of India which after the flood was possessed by Evila, the son of Jectan, the son of Heber, the patriarch of the Hebrews. Evilath is interpreted bringing to birth, because one who speaks the truth is more in travail than he brings forth. Pliny says that the regions of India abound in veins of gold beyond all others.

« Bdellium. » According to Pliny it is an aromatic tree of the size of an olive, whose gum is clear, 87Dbitter to the taste, of a good smell, but more fragrant with an infusion of wine.

« Onyx. » It is a precious stone, so called because it has a whiteness mixed in it after the likeness of a human nail, because a nail is called in Greek ὄνυξ. The ancient version has « carbuncle and prase. » The carbuncle is of a fiery colour, and is said to light up the darkness of night. The prase is green, whence it took its name in Greek from the leek, which is called πράσον.

VERS. 15.-- « The Lord God therefore took, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra, c. 8.) He has already said that man was placed in paradise. Now he recapitulates to what end he was placed there, « that he might dress it, » etc. For it is not credible that God condemned him to labour before sin, 88Aetc., as far as whence Eccli. X: « for the beginning of man's pride is to fall away from God. »

« The Lord God therefore took the man, » etc. (GREG., lib. XIX Moral., cap. 17, tom. I.) It must be weighed that good things cannot profit, if the evils that creep in are not guarded against, etc., as far as but by growing proud under them they sink beneath them.

« And the Lord God took, » etc. (HIERON. Quaest. Hebr. in Gen., tom. III.) For « pleasure » the Hebrew has « Eden. » The Seventy themselves, therefore, have rendered it now « Eden, » now « pleasure. » But Symmachus, who « had before translated it a flowering paradise, here put « pleasantness, » or « delights. »

« And he put him, » etc. (ISID.) Mystically. From that which is added, « And that he should keep it, it is hinted what kind of work 88Bit was: because in the tranquillity of the blessed life, where death is not, all work is to keep what thou holdest. For a precept was given, that they should take of every tree of paradise, but not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: that is, that they should not so enjoy it as to violate the integrity of their nature by usurping what was forbidden.

VERS. 16.-- « And he enjoineth him, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra, c. 13.) He was forbidden from the tree, etc., as far as what lies between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience.

(AUG., ubi supra, c. 17.) It is asked whether to the man alone, or to the woman also, etc., as far as « let them ask their husbands at home. »

(PROCOP. in Gen. ) Some say: If he willed to clothe us with immortality, what need was there of a precept, on account of 88Cwhich we were to sin and then to feel the severe stings of his judgment? I answer: Since he is kind and gentle, and willed to lay claim to the human race for an incorruptible and immortal condition: lest they should set that benefit down to their own or proper power, he acted in this manner, he willed that they should render him thanks, and for them he also appointed the present life as a wrestling-school and, as it were, a schooling for the life to come. Then, bringing in death on account of sin, he willed that we should acknowledge our infirmity, and that thereafter we ourselves should the more desire the gift to come.

« And he commanded him, saying: Of every, etc. (AUG. de Gen. ad litt., l. VIII, 28, tom. III.) If it be asked how he spoke these things, it cannot properly be comprehended by us. For it is certain that he speaks either through his own substance, 88Detc., as far as but through a creature subject to himself.

It is asked: how could they speak, or understand one speaking, who had not learned by growing up among speakers, or by teaching? But God had made them such as could speak, and could learn from others if there were any.

(AUG., ubi supra, c. 14.) Of Christ it is said, Isa. VII: « Before the child knows good or evil, he shall despise wickedness, that he may choose the good. » How does he either despise or choose what he does not know? etc., as far as what he ought not to have lost.

VERS. 17.-- « But of the tree, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra, c. 15.) The tree from this, etc., as far as that is, that they were not about to lose what they loved.

(SEVERIANUS.) There were three differences of trees in 89Aparadise. One indeed had been given him that he might live, another that he might live well, the third that he might live always.

« For in whatsoever day, » etc. He does not say, If thou eat, thou shalt be mortal, but « thou shalt die the death. » For man died in his soul when he sinned, because God withdrew from him, who is the life of the soul: upon which followed the death of the body, the soul departing from him, which is the life of the body; and this befell Adam when he ended the present life. It can be understood thus, that when they sinned, they were at once punished with that death of which it is said in Rom. seven: « Unhappy man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? » and in the same, chapter eight: « The body is dead because of sin; » he does not say mortal, but « dead, » although it is mortal, because it is to die. It is not to be believed that before sin those bodies were so, 89Bbut animal, not yet spiritual, yet not dead — bodies, that is, which must needs die, which came about on the day of the transgression.

« Thou shalt die the death. » A twofold death is signified: that of the soul, the Lord departing, who is its life; or that of the body, which he received at the end of his life. But at once he incurred the necessity of dying.

VERS. 18.-- « The Lord also said, » etc. (AUG., l. IX de Gen., c. 8.) Those who hold that it was not lawful to have intercourse in paradise for the begetting of children, etc., as far as soul from soul, or in whatever other way the soul comes to be.

VERS. 19.-- « He brought them, » etc. (AUG., l. IX de Gen. ad litt., c. 14, tom. III.) Not as hunters do, or fowlers; nor was there a voice of command made out of a cloud, such as rational souls are wont to understand; for this 89Cbeasts or birds do not naturally understand, etc., as far as they are understood to have been created of earth.

(HIERON.) It seems that the first language of the human race was Hebrew, because the names which we read in Genesis until the division of tongues are agreed to be of that language.

VERS. 20.-- « And he called, » etc. (AUG.) Mystically. Signifying the Gentiles who should be saved in the Church through Christ, and should receive the name of Christ, which before they did not have; whence, Isa. LXV: « I will call my servants by another name. »

« But for Adam there was not found, » etc. (AUG., lib. IX de Gen. ad litt., cap. 15 et seq.) It must be seen how the forming of the woman was made, which is mystically called a building, etc., as far as that we may understand that through that ecstasy Adam said these things by God's gift.

89D« But for Adam there was not found a helper. » No faithful just man can be made equal to Christ. Psalm XLIV: « For he is beautiful in form above the sons of men. » For no one could deliver the human race but himself. Whence Apocalypse V: « No one was found worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof, » etc.

« But for Adam there was not found, » etc. (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., l. II, c. 13.) The woman was made for the help of the man, etc., as far as and to subjugate to the dominion of reason, grace cooperating.

VERS. 21.-- « The Lord therefore cast, » etc. (ISID. ex Aug., ut supra, c. 13, 14.) Mystically. These things cannot be seen with bodily eyes. But the further a man withdraws from things visible to the secrets of understanding, as it were by falling asleep, 90Athe better and more sincerely he sees, etc., as far as and to be referred to the Church.

(AUG., lib. X de Gen. ad litt., c. I.) Those who think that the soul is from a soul, etc., as far as which had been said of the man.

(AUG., ibid., c. 19, 20.) If it be asked whence Christ received his soul, I would rather hear men better and more learned; etc., as far as to whom what answer might be made has not yet occurred to me.

« The Lord therefore cast a deep sleep, » etc. (GREG., Moral., l. XXX, tom. II.) We do not attain the summit of contemplation, if we do not cease from the oppression of outward care: nor do we look upon our own selves, so as to know that there is in us one thing rational which rules, another animal which is ruled, unless, betaking ourselves to the secret of silence, 90Bwe are lulled asleep from outward disturbance. Which Adam well figured in his sleeping, from whose side the woman presently came forth. For he who is caught up to the understanding of inward things closes his eyes to visible things, and then understands that there is in himself one thing which ought to rule, as a man; another which should be ruled, as a woman.

VERS. 22, 24.-- « And he built. . . . Wherefore a man shall leave, » etc. (ISID., in Gen., t. V.) What was fulfilled in Adam according to the history, etc., as far as For the serpent prefigures the poisons of heretics.

VERS. 25.-- « And they were both naked. » (AUG.) If anything is said in the words of God or of any prophet whatever which seems absurd to the letter and therefore to have been said figuratively, yet it is not to be doubted that it was said for the sake of its signification. But the bodies of the two human beings 90Cin paradise were naked, and they were not ashamed, because they had felt no law in their members warring against the law of the mind, which followed upon disobedience. They thought nothing was to be veiled, because they had felt nothing was to be restrained.

(AUG., de Civ. Dei, l. XIV, c. 17, tom. VII, col. 425.) Deservedly is there shame chiefly of lust, etc., as far as and it rendered them confounded.

(RUPERT.) That they were naked was not a matter of ignominy, but of honour: that they were not ashamed of their nakedness was not a matter of folly, but of security. For what? did it receive this from its maker, that the workmanship of God is shameful and to be blushed at? Or is it nature, and not rather conscience, that makes confusion of this kind? It is indeed as it were turned into nature, 90Dthis torment of confusion: nevertheless its origin sprouted not from the primeval condition, but from a later fault. For we blush at our nakedness for this reason, that we are conscious to ourselves how great an infirmity, nay how great a rebellion of our own flesh against us, we carry about. But then the conscience of the heart was sound, since no concupiscence of the eyes solicited it; seeing that the concupiscence of the flesh is the punishment of sin, by which the pride of the mind that went before is punished. God, says the Scripture, made man upright. But the uprightness of man lies in this, that the spirit should preside over and command the flesh, as the superior over the inferior: for the rational spirit of man was set midway between God and his own flesh, that it might obey God 91Aand command the flesh. And because that former man disturbed and broke this order, by casting away the precept of God: the spirit, which was superior, was made subject to the lowest flesh, so that by a just punishment he should lie beneath the inferior, who scorned rightly to be beneath the superior. Hence that confusion of the face, breaking out from the secrets of conscience to public eyes, and driving a penal ignominy to go beneath the wretched solaces of coverings. This infirmity, I say, or rebellion of the flesh, was not yet: rightly therefore was each of them naked and they were not ashamed, because they had nothing at which to blush. That security of nakedness being lost, we groan, in that we are despoiled of glory and honour and wrapped about with rags. For so clothed we truly walk naked, even if — which is impossible — we should be clothed as the lilies 91Bof the field are clothed. For not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these. If, I say, we could be clothed as these are clothed, even so are we despoiled and naked. Whence we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowliness, made like to the body of his brightness. For when the just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, shall they be covered with tunics and cloaks? By no means, but to the glory of their maker, whatever vessels of mercy they shall have been, they will lie open to one another with mutual sights of glory, shining without, and joyful within; whole in body, and glad in mind; blessed, I say, in body and soul alike.

« And they were both naked, » etc. (ISID., in Gen., ex Aug. de Gen. contra Manich., lib. II, c. 15.) That 91Cthey were naked and were ashamed, etc., as far as because in consent the conscience is held guilty.

VERS. 1-4.-- « But the serpent also was more subtle than all the living creatures, » etc. (AUG., lib. II de Gen. ad litt. c. 2, 3, tom. III.) Others, « most prudent, » said by transference. Certain codices have « most wise, » not in the proper sense, as the wisdom of God, or of the angels, or of the rational soul, is wont to be taken in a good sense, etc., as far as but the power is from God.

« But the serpent, » etc. (STRAB.) So the devil spoke through the serpent, which knew nothing, as he does through the possessed or the frenzied: for whomsoever he seizes, he takes away understanding and reason. But the good Spirit, whomsoever he has filled with grace, makes them seeing and understanding, 91Dwhence the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.

« Who said to the woman. » (AUG., lib. II de Gen. ad litt., c. 30, et ex capp. 7, 8, 6, 10, passim.) The transgression of the woman is inexcusable, because she was mindful of God's precept. Yet forgetfulness, etc., as far as these c. 10: He foresees that there will be good men and evil, and creates them: furnishing himself to the good for their enjoyment, bestowing many things even upon the evil.

« Why hath he commanded, » etc. (STRAB.) Therefore the crafty enemy asks this, and calls to mind God's command, lest, when she had sinned, she should have an excuse as though she had forgotten it.

« Why hath he commanded, » etc. (GREG. Moral., l. XXIII, tom. II.) The enemy of the human race does the same daily: he labours to tear the words 92Aof God out of the hearts of men, and to make his threats light, and to bring them to believe what he falsely promises, for he invites them to temporal things, that he may make light of the eternal punishments which God threatens. For, pledging the glory of the present life, he says: « Taste, and you shall be as gods, » and touch temporal concupiscence, and appear exalted in this world; and when he tries to remove the fear of the divine sentence, he says as it were: « Why hath God commanded you? »

(AUG., lib. II de Gen. ad litt., c. 4, tom. III.) It is asked why God permitted man to be tempted, etc., as far as or earthly, as is the soul of man.

(Ibid., c. 5.) Nor is it to be thought that man would have been cast down, unless there had gone before in him a certain elation to be repressed, so that through the humbling of sin he might know that he had falsely 92Bpresumed concerning himself, and that a nature once made is not well with itself, if it has withdrawn from its maker. For it is commended what a good God is, when it is well for no one to withdraw from him.

(Ibid., c. 18.) This question concerning the blessed life, etc., as far as less than in the life of the holy angels.

(Ibid., c. 16.) It can be thought not without cause that the devil fell from the beginning of time, etc., as far as to whom God did not give foreknowledge concerning themselves?

(Ibid., c. 14.) But how can they be blessed, to whom their own blessedness is uncertain? etc., as far as but on what ground they assert it does not occur to me.

(Ibid., c. 21.) But it must be thought not without cause that from the very beginning of the creature, etc., as far as foreseeing 92Chow great things he would do out of him in his own goodness.

(Ibid., c. 22.) « But the beginning of the thing formed » is said, etc., as far as as evil men.

(Ibid., c. 23.) Whereas, then, it is thought that the devil never stood in the truth, etc., as far as more things agree with his body.

(GREG., hom. 16, in Evang., tom. II.) The devil tempted the first parent in three ways, etc., as far as by delight we are overcome, by consent we are bound.

VERS. 5.--. . . . . « You shall be as gods, » etc. (STRAB.) Mystically. He frames his words with artful guile, so that, if he cannot overthrow them by contempt of obedience, at least in this, that he has corrupted faith and persuaded to idolatry, he may boast himself the victor: but if he has seduced them by contempt of obedience, he may stand 92Dvictor in both.

(AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., l. II, c. 15, tom. III.) The woman, being questioned, answered, etc., as far as for, with none ruling him, God alone is blessed through his own power.

VERS. 6, 7.-- « She saw therefore, » etc. (ISID. ex Aug. ubi supra. ) How did they see, if their eyes were closed? But it was said so that we may understand that those eyes were opened, after they had eaten of the fruit, with which they saw themselves naked and were displeased: that is, the eyes of craftiness, to which simplicity is displeasing. For when a man has fallen from the inmost light of truth, there is nothing whereby pride would please, save by fraudulent pretences. For hence is born hypocrisy, in which those seem very 93Ashrewd who have been able to deceive whom they would.

« She saw therefore, » etc. (GREG., lib. XXI Moral., cap. 2.) Lest we be turned about in slippery thought, we ought not to gaze upon what it is not lawful to desire, etc., as far as the discipline of the outward senses also must be kept.

« And she gave to her husband, who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, » etc. (ISID. ex Aug. ubi supra, c. 16, 17.) Of whom it was said: « Then they saw that they were naked, » [Vulg. Gn 3:7 cumque cognovissent se esse nudos, "and when they had known that they were naked"] with perverse eyes, namely, to which nakedness, that is simplicity, seemed a thing to blush at. etc., as far as « My soul is troubled within myself. » (Psal. XLI.)

« Who did eat, » etc. (AUG., de Gen., lib. XI, c. 3, tom. III, col. 429.) Namely to lust 93Bafter one another, etc., as far as which would convict the sinner by the deed, and teach the reader by the writing.

« They sewed together fig leaves. » (ALCUIN., in Gen. t. I.) Because they had lost the glory of simple chastity, they fled for refuge to the twofold itch of lust; whence John I: « When thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee, and I came down, » [Vulg. Jo 1:48 cum esses sub ficu, vidi te, with no et descendi] supply « to deliver thee. »

VERS. 8.-- « And when they had heard, » etc. (AUG., l. II de Gen. ad litt., c. 33.) For at that hour it was fitting that such as they should be visited, because they had fallen away from the light of truth, etc., as far as he may be believed to have appeared to the bodily senses by a local and temporal motion.

« He hid himself, » etc. (AUG., ibid.) When God turns away his face within and man is troubled, things like madness come about, through excessive fear and shame, with a hidden 93Cinstinct also not resting: so that unknowing they did things which should signify something to those who came after, for whose sake these things are written.

« At the afternoon air. » Whence at the ninth hour Christ gave up the spirit (Matth. XXVII). He was crucified at the sixth hour, that man might be restored at the same hour at which he was cast out of paradise.

« In the midst of the tree of paradise. » He hides himself who, turned away from the precept of the Creator, lives by the will of his own error and choice.

VERS. 9.-- « And the Lord God called Adam. » (AUG., ubi supra, c. 34.) By rebuking, that is, not by being ignorant, etc., as far as but now we are not reporting things signified, but defending things done.

VERS. 10-11.-- « And he said: I heard thy voice, » etc. 93D(AUG., ubi supra, c. 34.) Historically. It is probable that a human form was wont to appear to the first men through a fitting creature, etc., as far as and there followed that of which they were ashamed.

« Thy voice, » etc. (ISID., in Gen. tom. V.) Mystically. He answers that, having heard his voice, he had hidden himself, etc., as far as and not to obey the precept of God.

« And God called Adam, » etc. (GREG.) Because he saw him fallen into fault, now under sin, as though hidden from the eyes of truth, because he does not approve the darkness of his error, he is as it were ignorant where the sinner is, and calls him and seeks him, saying: « Adam, where art thou? » [Vulg. Gn 3:9 et dixit ei: Ubi es?, without the vocative Adam] While he calls, he signifies that he is calling him back to penance; while he seeks him, 94Ahe intimates that he knows not sinners justly condemned.

VERS. 12.-- « And Adam said: The woman whom thou gavest, » etc. (AUG.) He does not say, I have sinned: for pride has the deformity of confusion, not the humility of confession. But it was written for this, and the questions were put for this, that they might be written truly and profitably, so that we may know with how great a disease of pride they labour who today try to refer evil to the Creator, and, if they do any good, to attribute it to themselves.

« The woman whom thou gavest, » etc. As though she had been given for this, that she herself should not obey the man, and both of them God.

« The woman whom thou gavest, » etc. (GREG., lib. IV Mor., c. 27, tom. I, col. 661.) In four ways is sin committed in the heart, etc., as far as at the last it is nourished by the seduction of false hope, or by the obstinacy of wretched despair 94B.

VERS. 13.-- « And the Lord God said to the woman, » etc. (AUG.) Neither does she confess the sin, but refers it to another — in an unequal sex, with equal haughtiness. Yet David, born of these, says unto the end of the world: « I said: Lord, be merciful to me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee (Psal. XL). » This ought to have been said by those two: but God does not yet regard the necks of sinners: there remained the labours and sorrows of death, and the wearing away of the world, and the grace of God, which comes to help in due time, teaching the afflicted not to presume of themselves.

« The serpent deceived, » etc. As though anyone's persuasion should prevail over God's precept.

« The serpent deceived me, » etc. (AUG., ibid., lib. II, c. 30.) How by these words, etc., as far as since with that 94Cfood he did not see her to be dead.

(AUG., ibid., c. 28.) It is to be noted that the devil was not permitted to tempt the woman, etc., as far as but reason shows that on this account he envied man.

(ALC.) The sin of the angel was left unspoken, that of man laid open, because the one was incurable, the other was cured.

« She saw therefore, » etc. (STRAB.) She is plainly shown to be inexcusable, since it was open to her, under such deliberation, to mark the wiles of the enemy.

VERS. 14.-- « And the Lord God said, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra, c. 36.) This whole sentence is figurative. Where nevertheless it must be believed that all things were said. The serpent is not asked why he did it, because it was not he that did it by his own will and nature, but the devil out of him, and through him, and in him: who already for his impiety and pride had been destined 94Dfor eternal fire. To him, therefore, is referred what is said to the serpent, and it is shown what he will be to the human race.

Mystically. « And the Lord God said to the serpent, » etc. (AUG., de Gen. cont. Manich., lib. II, c. 17.) The serpent, unquestioned, is the first to receive punishment, etc., as far as that he may shut out the very beginning of the evil suggestion.

« Upon thy breast, » etc. (HIERON.) « Belly » the Seventy added, but in the Hebrew there is « breast In the Hebrew it is gahon, which signifies belly and breast. » only, that he might lay open the craft and cunning of his thoughts, that is, that his every step is of wickedness and of fraud.

95A« With breast and belly thou shalt creep. » (GREG., lib. XXI Mor., c. 2.) The evil of lechery is committed either in thought or in deed. For when the enemy is driven out from the accomplishment of the deed, he labours to defile the secret places of thought. He creeps with the belly, when, slippery, through the human members made subject to him, he practises lechery in deed. He crawls with the breast, when he defiles in thought. But because it is through thought that one comes to deeds, he is described as creeping first with the breast and afterwards with the belly.

VERS. 15.-- « I will put enmities between thee and the woman . . . She shall crush thy head, » etc. (GREG. l. I Mor., c. 38.) To crush the serpent's head is to root out the beginnings of his suggestion from the entrance of the heart by the hand of watchful consideration; for when he is caught at the very outset, he contrives to strike the heel, because the man whom he does not strike in the first temptation 95Bhe aims to deceive at the end. But if the heart is corrupted in the temptation, the middle and the end of the action that follows are possessed by the enemy, because he sees the whole tree bearing fruit for him, the tree which he has vitiated at the root with the tooth of his venom.

(HIERON.) « She shall keep thy heel, and thou shalt crush her heel. » [Vulg. Gn 3:15 ipsa conteret caput tuum, et tu insidiaberis calcaneo ejus, "she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel"] It stands better in the Hebrew: « She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt crush her heel, » because both our steps are hampered by the serpent, and the Lord shall crush Satan under her feet.

VERS. 16.-- « To the woman also, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra, c. 37.) These things are better understood figuratively and prophetically, etc., as far as nature will be depraved, and 95Cguilt increased.

« I will multiply thy sorrows, » etc. (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., l. II, c. 19.) It is manifest that the woman's pains were multiplied, etc., as far as but first there was a struggling with grief against an evil habit.

VERS. 17-18.-- . . . « Cursed is the earth, » etc. (AUG. ibid., c. 38.) That these are the labors of the human race upon earth no one is ignorant, and that they would not be, if the happiness which was in paradise were held fast, stands beyond doubt.

(STRAB.) The earth is cursed, not Adam, so that all men for whose sake these things were written might be terrified, lest, doing the like, they should be struck with a like punishment. But Cain himself, because he added fratricide to the first transgression, is cursed when it is said: « Thou shalt be cursed upon the earth, » 95Detc.

(AUG.) He cursed the earth, not the waters, because man ate of the fruit of the earth against the prohibition, and did not drink of the waters, and in the waters the sin contracted from the fruit of the earth was to be washed away. Land animals too have more of the curse than water creatures, because they live more from the cursed earth. Hence Christ after the resurrection ate of fish, not of a land animal.

« Cursed is the earth in thy work. » (GREG., Moral. lib. IV, c. 5, 6.) God curses the sinning man, etc., as far as and the flame burned up the two captains of fifty.

« In labors, » etc. (RAB.) Thorns were there before, but not so as to bring labor upon man: for him they were, after the sin, 96Afor labor and affliction, as were serpents and whatever things are harmful, harmless before. And it is to be noted that on Adam an outward penalty is laid: « Cursed is the earth in thy work; » but on the woman an inward one, when it is said: « I will multiply thy sorrows, » etc., because, having been seduced, she seduced her husband.

VERS. 19.-- « Dust thou art, » etc. (GREG., ubi supra.) Man was so constituted, etc., as far as old age passes over into death.

VERS. 20.-- « And Adam called the name of his wife Eve, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra. ) These were the words of the first man, since she is the mother of all the living, as though he were rendering the reason of the name imposed by himself, namely why he had called her Eve.

Mystically. (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., l. II, c. 21.) 96BAfter the sin and the judge's sentence Adam called his wife Eve, etc., as far as it is expressed in the skins which are stripped from dead bodies.

VERS. 21.-- « He made also, » etc. (AUG., de Gen. lib. XI, c. 39.) This too was done for the sake of signification, and in deeds it is asked what was done and what it signifies, and in words what was said and what it signifies.

(STRAB.) They themselves made girdles for themselves, that they might hide their sin: but God made tunics of skin, with which he clothed their whole body, because he justly condemned them both in body and in soul. But it is a foolish question to ask how, or by whose working, the skins were drawn off from the animals: for he who founded all things out of nothing made these 96Chow and in what manner he willed.

VERS. 22.-- « And he said: Behold Adam is as one of us, » etc. (AUG., ibid., c. 41.) The plural number is used on account of the Trinity, etc., as far as as in the Church men are wont to be removed from the visible sacraments by the Church's discipline.

(AUG., ubi supra, c. 42.) It is a wonder if Adam was spiritual in mind, etc., as far as which thought the false to be true.

« As one of us. » (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., lib. II, c. 21.) It can be understood in two ways, « as one of us, » that is, God, etc., as far as until by God's mercy he should live again who had been dead.

(RUPERT.) Lest he eat of the tree of life, and, this being done, Adam, made such and so wretched, live for ever. For what 96Dif, having been made such, he should live for ever? assuredly nothing but eternal evil. For being already made wretched, if he be also eternal, what will he have but eternal wretchedness? Let us spare him, lest in this way it be ill with him « as one of us; » lest, as each of us is eternal (for the Father is eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal), so he too be eternal, and for this the wicked eye of the devil laugh that he is truthful, who promised him the likeness of God. For it is indeed an evil for him to be temporal, but it would be worst of all to be eternal. Exceedingly evil and false is this likeness of God. Far better is it for him to be wholly unlike God. How? Namely thus, that, because he is wretched, he be also temporal, this is to be wholly unlike God. 97AFor God is both eternal and happy, and his is an eternal happiness, a happy eternity. Of these the devil lost the one, that is, happiness, but eternity he did not lose; and his is an eternal unhappiness, an unhappy eternity. Let us spare the man, I say; and because he has lost happiness, let us cut off eternity also from the unhappy one, that in neither may he be « as one of us; » ours is an eternal happiness, a happy eternity; let his be a temporal misery, or a miserable temporality; that eternity may then be restored to him to his profit, when happiness has been recovered. In great wrath, therefore, the Lord remembered great mercy, in this very thing, that he did not grant the tree of life to wretched man: him indeed whom he willed to be so unlike himself that he should not be in both respects like the devil, that is, that man should not live, equally with the devil, 97Buntil the last judgment, and, equally with him, pass over without temporal death to eternal burning.

VERS. 23.-- « And he sent him forth, » etc. (AUG., de Gen. contra Manich., l. II, c. 22.) Into a place suited to him; as very often a bad man, when he has begun to live among the good, if he has been unwilling to be changed for the better, is driven from the congregation of the good by the weight of his own depraved habit.

VERS. 24.-- « And he cast out Adam. » (HIERON. Quaest. Hebr., tom. III.) LXX: « And he cast him out, and made him dwell over against the paradise of pleasure, and he set the cherubim, and the flaming sword, which is turned about to guard the way of the tree of life. » There is another sense in the Hebrew; for it says, « and the Lord cast out, » namely Adam, « and 97Cmade the cherubim and the flaming sword to dwell before the paradise of pleasure. » Not that he made Adam dwell over against the paradise of pleasure, but that, when Adam had been cast out, he placed the cherubim and the flaming sword before the doors of paradise, that no one might be able to enter.

« And he placed, » etc. (AUG., ut supra. ) This is to be believed to have been done through the heavenly powers even in the visible paradise, so that through angelic ministry there was there a certain fiery guard, yet not in vain, but because it signifies something of the spiritual paradise.

« He placed, » etc. (STRAB.) That is, through the ministry of angels he established a fiery guard. The flaming sword is the tribulations, griefs and labors of this life, by which we are exercised; or the sentence of just condemnation which was given to man, who was so condemned 97Dthat he could be redeemed by Christ's passion. Whence the sword is called turning, because it can be removed. For it was removed for Enoch and Elias, and daily it is removed for the faithful who pass from this life to the blessedness above. Nor does he say a flame and a sword, but « a flaming sword: » for they who return to paradise must burn away with the fire of the Holy Spirit all the concupiscences of this life, and cut off with the sword of the word of God all things harmful.

« And he placed, » etc. (ISID., in Gen., tom. V.) The cherubim, fullness of knowledge, this is charity, which is the fullness of the divine law. The flaming sword, temporal punishments, which are turning, since times are revolving. To the tree of life, therefore, there is no return 98Aexcept through the cherubim, that is, the fullness of knowledge, that is, charity: and through the turning sword, that is, temporal endurance.

VERS. 1.-- « But Adam, » etc. (AUG., lib. IX de Gen. ad litt., c. 4). In paradise virginity, outside it marriage, etc., as far as but afterwards begotten in exile.

« She conceived and bore, » etc. Cain and Abel, begotten of one mother, are a figure of all men who are propagated into this life from the root of sin; and some are to love the earthly city and its death-bearing delights, and, so far as in them lies, to possess them by ambition; these Cain signifies, who is interpreted possession. Others are to seek the city to come, and, mourning over the miseries of this habitation, 98Bto pass over with all their desire to the glory to come — these Abel signifies, who is interpreted mourning, and is the later: because that which is spiritual is not first, but that which is animal. Hence Cain is called « a husbandman, » that is, one bent upon earthly works; but Abel « a shepherd of sheep, » that is, one loving simplicity and innocence.

Allegorically. (ISID., in Gen. ) The two sons of Adam express two peoples, namely the Jewish, the elder by birth, etc., as far as as though reason did not permit the depraved motion to come to effect, but strove to subdue it.

VERS. 2.-- « And Abel was, » etc. In whom are signified those who mourn over their earthly dwelling. For Abel is interpreted mourning, or vapor, because he was a mourning to his parents, or, like a vapor, quickly vanished away.

98CVERS. 3, 4.-- « And it came to pass, » etc. « Abel also offered, » etc. Because the just man in all that he does strives to please God through faith and charity (from which the other virtues arise, and without which they profit nothing), which is signified in the fat that was offered; whence psal. LXII: « As with marrow and fatness let my soul be filled. » Without charity the soul is lean and languid, and in nothing will it please God.

« And the Lord had respect to Abel, » etc. (HIER., Quaest. Hebr. in Gen., tom. III.) Whence could Cain have known this, unless Theodotion's rendering were true: « And the Lord set fire upon Abel and upon his sacrifice, upon Cain and his sacrifice he did not set fire? » Now we read that fire was wont to come from heaven to devour the sacrifice, as at the dedication of the temple 98Dunder Solomon, and when Elias built an altar on Mount Carmel.

(ISID., ut supra. ) If thou offer rightly, and do not rightly divide, thou hast sinned: because, even though the Jews formerly offered those things rightly, in this they are guilty, that they did not distinguish the New Testament from the Old.

VERS. 5, 6, 7.-- . . . . « In the doors. » (ALC.) That is, sin will accompany thee going in and going out, nor will the Lord keep thy coming in and thy going out.

VERS. 8.-- « And Cain said, » etc. (ISID., Quaest. in Gen., tom. V.) He does not acquiesce in the Lord when he says, Be still, etc., as far as Christ therefore, the head of the younger people, is slain by the elder-born.

VERS. 9.-- « And the Lord said to Cain. » (ISID., ubi 99Asupra.) The Lord questions Cain, not as one ignorant that he may learn, but as a judge that he may punish. To this day the Jews, when we question them out of the Scriptures concerning Christ, answer that they do not know what we say. Cain's lying ignorance is the Jews' false denial: but they would be Christ's keepers, if they believed with the heart and confessed with the mouth.

VERS. 10.-- « The voice of the blood, » etc. Great is the power of justice, which demands vengeance for the blood of the innocent.

VERS. 11.-- « Now therefore thou shalt be cursed, » etc. (RAB.) It is to be noted that in Adam's sin the earth is cursed. But Cain is cursed, because, knowing the condemnation of the first transgression, he added fratricide.

VERS. 11.-- « Now therefore thou shalt be cursed, » etc. By the place are signified the things which are in the place; as though thou shalt be cursed 99Bby those who are upon the earth, who opened their mouth in the confession of sins, to receive the blood which was shed for the remission of them from the hand of the persecutor, who would not be under grace, but under the law, so that he should be cursed by the Church: which understands and shows him to be cursed: for they who are of the works of the law are under a curse.

VERS. 12.-- « When thou hast tilled, » etc. The reference is made to the word, not to the sense, because "earth" is taken here in one way, above in another: there for the Church, here for the earthly working which the Jew still practises; that is, carnal circumcision, the passover, the sabbath, and the like, which have a hidden power of understanding the grace of God, but do not give fruit to the Jews, who are unwilling to pass over to Christ. By "earth" the flesh of Christ can be understood, in 99Cwhich the Jews by crucifying wrought our salvation. « For he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification: » [Vulg. Rom 4:25 Qui traditus est, "who was delivered up"] and because they denied him, they were not justified.

« A vagabond and a fugitive, » etc. (ISID.) Scattered among the nations, a fugitive from Jerusalem. LXX: « groaning and trembling. » Groaning, from the grief of the kingdom he has lost; trembling, at the multitude of the Christian people, lest thou be slain. « My iniquity is greater, » etc. He exaggerates his fault, but confesses it proudly, and does not beg pardon.

VERS. 13.-- « My iniquity is greater. » (ISID.) Adding sins to sins he despairs, and does not believe that he can obtain pardon, which is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is not forgiven in this world nor in the world to come: because he thinks that God either will not forgive, 99Dor cannot, as though either he could not do all things, or begrudged salvation. He does not count it a grievous thing that God is angry with him, but fears that he may be found and killed.

VERS. 14.-- « Every one therefore that shall find me, » etc. (STRAB.) Because from the trembling of the body and the agitation of a frenzied mind, whosoever shall find me will know me to be guilty of death.

VERS. 15.-- « It shall not be so. » That is, thou shalt not die quickly, as thou wishest, for a remedy of thy torment, but he shall be punished impersonally: that is, punishment shall be made of thee sevenfold, because thou shalt live in torment until the seventh generation, in which thou shalt be slain by Lamech; therefore every one who shall kill — supply the word — shall free thee from that torment of an evil conscience. This sense 100Aappears more evidently. According to the LXX. « Every one that killeth Cain shall pay seven vengeances, » that is, whosoever shall kill thee in the seventh generation shall release thee from torment by death, thou who art to be reserved in life until that time, only for punishment, which punishment would be quickly ended if thou wert quickly slain. So he who should punish the Jews with visible death would take away from them the seven vengeances by which they are bound because of the guilt of Christ slain, because he would lighten the miseries and dispersions which they suffer.

« Every one that killeth Cain, » etc. LXX: « Shall pay seven vengeances. » Aquila, « sevenfold; » Symmachus, « sevenfold; » Theodotion, « by a week » — so they render it, wherein it is signified that he shall be punished long and completely, lest any one dare 100Bto repeat a homicide.

« He that killeth Cain, » etc. (HIERON., epist. ad Damas. ) If any one kill thee « he shall be punished sevenfold, » that is, he shall be punished with the heaviest vengeance: a man ought not to have killed him for whom God reserved life, either for his own punishment, or for the correction of others.

« But every one that killeth Cain. » (ISID., ubi supra. ) It is to be read by ellipsis, etc., as far as and that is fulfilled: « Scatter them in thy strength (Psal. LIII). »

(HIER., ubi supra. ) That Aquila put « sevenfold, » etc., as far as and might deserve to be absolved.

« And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, » etc. (ISID., Quaest. in Gen., tom. V.) Though all the nations subdued by the Romans passed over into their rites, the Jewish nation, whether under Gentiles or under Christian kings, 100Cdid not leave the sign of circumcision and of carnal observance, etc., as far as where paradise was planted.

« He dwelt in the land at the eastern quarter of Eden. » (HIER., ubi supra. ) LXX: « He dwelt in the land Ναΐδ Naid, in the Hebrew it is called ( nod ), that is, unstable and wavering, and of uncertain seat. It is not the land Naid, as our common folk think, but the Lord's sentence is fulfilled, while he strays to and fro a fugitive.

VERS. 17.-- « And Cain knew his wife. » (ISID., ibid.) Figuratively the offspring of the impious, seeking a foundation in the very origin of the world, built in this life a city which he called Henoch, which is interpreted dedication, because in their first beginnings they dedicate, while in this life which is before them they plant the root of the heart, 100Dthat here they may flourish to their wish, and wither away from the glory to come. But Abraham dwelt in little cottages, because the saints know themselves to be guests and pilgrims, awaiting the city that has a foundation, whose builder is God.

« And he built a city, » etc. (AUG., lib. XV de Civitate, cap. 8, tom. VII.) It is asked with what helpers he built it, if there were not more men than Scripture says. But it is to be known that there were then far more, because by living long they were able to beget more. Nor is it a wonder, since the children of Israel are read to have been so multiplied in four hundred years that the army could not be numbered.

VERS. 18.-- « Moreover Enoch, » etc. (HIERON.) Not 101Afrom all these are sure mysteries carved out, nor would they be found, unless first certain roots of the history were laid down; nor wouldst thou gather fruit from the branches of the trees, unless thou hadst first planted the trunks.

VERS. 19.-- « Who took two wives, » etc. (ISID., ut supra. ) It is to be noted that the generations from Adam through Cain are terminated in the eleventh, in which transgression is signified. For Lamech is the seventh, to whom three sons and one daughter are added, that the eleventh may be filled out, by which sin is signified: for the generation is closed also by a woman, who was the beginning of sin, through which is the pleasure of the flesh, which resists the spirit. Whence she is called Noema, that is, pleasure. In this offspring Lamech first, against custom, against nature, committed adultery through bigamy.

101BVERS. 20.-- « And Ada bore Jabel, » etc. (HIER. in quaest. Hebr. ) Of bigamy is born Jabel dwelling in tents, which, being changeable, figure the instability of those who are carried about with every wind of doctrine. There is born also Tubal, who was the inventor of music, etc., as far as like Jabel, Tubal and Tubalcain.

VERS. 21.-- « And his brother's name was Jubal. » (RAB.) Josephus writes that he wrote music on two columns, the one of stone, the other of brick, of which the one would not be dissolved by the flood, the other which would not be dissolved by fire: which two judgments Adam had foretold were to come.

VERS. 22.-- . . . « Tubalcain. (RAB.) Who according to Josephus practised the arts of war, and fittingly taught the smith's craft; he also invented certain things which 101Cbelong to the concupiscence of the eyes.

VERS. 23.-- « And Lamech said, » etc. (RAB.) The Hebrews say that Lamech by long living fell into a darkening of the eyes, and had a young man as his leader and the director of his way. Practising the hunt, therefore, he aimed an arrow where the young man pointed, and by chance killed Cain lurking among the bushes; and this is what he says: « I have slain a man to my own wounding, » that is, by the wound which I inflicted I killed not a beast but a man; whence also, kindled with fury, he killed the young man.

VERS. 23.-- . . . « I have slain a man, » etc. (STRAB.) That is, Cain: « to my own wounding, » because for him I shall be wounded, that is, slain; « and a young man to my own bruising, » because for him too I shall be condemned.

VERS. 24.-- « Sevenfold vengeance shall be given, » etc. 101D(ALC.) Allegorically. The sin of Lamech (who is interpreted humbled ) signifies the casting down of the human race, which fell when Adam transgressed, and could not rise, neither by the law, or by circumcision, nor by its own justice, until, after seventy-seven generations according to Luke, Christ, coming into the world, blotted out sin by the shedding of his blood; whence Matth. XVIII:

« I say not to thee seven times, but until seventy times seven times, » that is, that the Jew is to be received after seventy-seven vengeances, if he shall come to himself again and seek Christ's indulgence. The number seven signifies universality: by which, the eleventh being multiplied, there comes the seventy-seventh, in which transgression of every kind is signified; 102Awhich nevertheless in the Gospel is commanded to be forgiven to one who repents.

(HIERON., epist. ad Damas. ) They say that from Adam to Christ there are seventy-seven generations according to Luke. As therefore in the seventh generation Cain's sin was loosed: « For God will not judge twice for the same thing, » and he who has once received in his life will not suffer in death the same torments which he suffered in his life: so also Lamech, that is, the sin of the whole world, shall be loosed by Christ's coming. A certain Hebrew told me that seventy-seven souls came forth from Lamech, who all perished in the flood.

VERS. 25.-- « He knew also again, » etc. Through Seth, who is interpreted resurrection, is signified the life of Christ from the dead: which is signified in the mother's words: 102B« The Lord hath given me another seed, » [Vulg. Gn 4:25 reads Deus, "God"] as though the Church said: I who bore mourning for the dead rejoice over him raised again.

VERS. 26.-- « Whom he called Enos, » etc. Enos is interpreted man: who « began to call upon the name of the Lord, » because through the death of Christ, which Abel signified, and through the resurrection, which Seth signifies, man becomes one confessing the Lord as founder, and as restorer of the life that was lost.

(HIERON.) « Whom he called Enos. » Enos is interpreted man, who « began to call upon the name of the Lord: » as Adam is interpreted man, so also Enos according to the Hebrew truth is man, or husband; and beautifully, because he had this name, it is said that then was the beginning of calling upon the name of the Lord: although very many of the Hebrews 102Cthink that then for the first time idols were fashioned in the name of the Lord and in his likeness.

VERS. 1, 2.-- « This is the book of the generation of Adam. » He was made to the likeness of God. Others, to the likeness of Adam. It is as it were a conclusion from what has gone before, with a recapitulation. « In the day that God created man. » For in the day he was created, because he was set in the brightness of divine contemplation. « To the likeness of God. » Because he gave him reason, by which, discerning good and evil, he might love the things understood, and not hand over the things loved to forgetfulness, and in this retain the likeness of God. But after by disobedience 102Dhe had blotted out this likeness, being made earthly he begot earthly children. Whence, such as the earthly man is, such also are the earthly.

(CHRYSOST., hom. 21 in Gen., tom. IV.) Consider how he used the same words which he used also at the beginning, that he might teach us that he does not deign to remember those generations after this, as having been made reprobate; but from Seth, who has now been born to them, he begins the genealogy, that from this thou mayest learn how great account God takes of the human race, and how he turns away from those whose mind is bloody.

VERS. 3-23.-- « And Adam lived, » etc. (HIERON., in Quaest. Hebr. ). It is to be known that up to the flood, where in our codices someone is said to have begotten at « two hundred » and the years that run beyond, in the Hebrew 103Ait has « a hundred years » and the rest which follow.

« And he begot, » etc. As though he too bore the image of the earthly man, he who was put in the place of the just Abel, and by the interpretation of his name signifies Christ. But all bear the image of the earthly man before that of the heavenly, although many before the coming of Christ had through faith the same grace by which Christians are saved.

(STRAB.) They report that after Abel's death Adam vowed that he would not know his wife further nor beget a son. But at God's bidding he broke the vow, that the Son of God might be born from him, and man be redeemed; for he ought not to be born of the stock of Cain. Whence before Seth he is not read to have begotten any one, but after him it is said; because « he begot sons and daughters. » This reckoning of the genealogies 103Bspreads as it were the branches of the histories, from which in their own places the fruits of the mysteries are gathered. And it is to be noted that in the generation of Seth no woman is set down by name, as in the generation of Cain: for it belongs to the just to do all things manfully, to usurp nothing womanish, nothing frail. This generation also proceeds by the tenth up to Noe, in whom the fulfilling of the commandments is signified, as by the eleventh in the generation of Cain transgression is signified. In the generation of the unjust Enoch is set first, who is interpreted dedication, because the reprobate fix the root of their hope in the present life, and wither away from the love of the unfading inheritance. Of whom it is said, John V: « He saw the fool with a firm root, and cursed his beauty forthwith. » [Vulg. Job 5:3, where the words stand in the first person — Ego vidi … et maledixi, "I have seen … and I cursed"] In the generation of the just Enoch is set seventh from Adam, because these 103Cdo not seek a city that abides here, but stretch out their expectation to the end of time, which is terminated by a sevenfold revolution, when the eighth eternity shall have succeeded. Whence this Enoch, who is set seventh, and was translated because he pleased God, signifies the seventh rest, to which after this life he who perseveringly cleaves to God is transferred without delay. The interpretation also of the names of this generation signifies the same: Adam is interpreted man or red earth; Seth, placing or resurrection; Enos, man; Cainan, lamentation; Malalehel, praising God; Jared, strengthened; Enoch, dedication; Mathusalam, sending forth of death; Lamech, humbled; Noe, rest. Man therefore, proceeding from the earth, rising again from sins, will be a man calling upon God and weeping for his former sins: and so 103Dpraising God, strengthened by the Spirit of God, he is dedicated unto life eternal. And, a conqueror of death, made subject to God, he possesses everlasting rest, which Noe signifies, who is interpreted rest, and is numbered in the tenth place, because through the fulfilling of the commandments the kingdom of heaven is possessed.

VERS. 24.-- « And he walked with God, » etc. (ISID., in Gen.) Enoch, the seventh from Adam, pleasing God, etc., as far as for three times four make it.

(ALCUIN.) Enoch is preserved from death for so long a time, in which it is shown that man would always have lived if he had not sinned.

VERS. 25-30.-- « Mathusala also lived, » etc. (AUG.) It is asked how Mathusala, according to the 104Areckoning of the years, could have lived after the flood, since all perished except those who entered into the ark. But this question the faultiness of the codices has bred: for not only in the Hebrew is it found otherwise, but also in the LXX rendering, in a few codices Mathusala is found to have died seven years before the flood. That according to the LXX the years of Mathusala are reckoned beyond the flood, comes of this, that he signifies Christ, whose life feels no age, so that in the greater ones too he might seem not to have felt the flood.

VERS. 31.-- « And all the days were, » etc. (HIERON., in Quaest. Hebr., tom. III.) « And all the days of Mathusala which he lived were nine hundred sixty-nine years, and he died. » According to a careful computation he is reported to have lived 104Bfourteen years after the flood, etc., as far as in that year, namely, in which the flood began to be.

« But Noe, when he was five hundred years old, » etc. (Ibid.)

Noe is interpreted rest, because under him all the works behind were at rest through the flood.

VERS. 1.-- « And when men had begun to be multiplied upon the earth. » (HIER., in Quaest. Hebr. ) The Hebrew word ( Elohim ) is of both numbers: for it signifies God and gods: therefore Aquila dared to say « sons of gods, » understanding holy gods or angels, whom Symmachus follows, saying: « The sons of the mighty seeing the daughters of men. »

104CVERS. 2.-- « The sons of God seeing, » etc. (STRAB.) By the sons of God are understood the religious sons of Seth, who, overcome by concupiscence, took wives from the daughters of men, that is, from the stock of Cain, and begot mighty men, immense, namely, in body, proud in strength, disordered in manners, who are called giants. It is not incredible that men of this kind were procreated by men, not by angels or by certain demons who are shameless toward women, since after the flood too the bodies not only of men but also of women existed of incredible size.

VERS. 3, 4.-- « And God said: My spirit shall not remain, » etc. (HIER., ibid.) Hebr. ( loiadon ). « My spirit shall not judge men for ever, since they are flesh. » That is, because 104Dthe condition of men is frail, etc., as far as but of those whom he was about to destroy by the flood.

« And his days shall be, » etc. (STRAB.) Before the flood, namely, for the doing of penance. But because they persevered in malice before the appointed term, they were destroyed in the hundredth year.

VERS. 5.-- « And the Lord seeing, » etc. [Vulg. Gn 6:5 reads Deus, "God"] Repentance does not fall upon God, nor grief of heart, whose sentence concerning all things is as fixed as his foreknowledge is certain: but Scripture uses accustomed words, fitting itself to our littleness, that from things known we may come to know things unknown. For God's anger is not a perturbation of mind, but the judgment which is inflicted upon the sinner: and the thought of his heart is the unchangeable reason of things that are to be changed.

105AVERS. 6-8.-- « It repented him that, » etc. (GREG., Moral. lib. V). Very often in sacred discourse the wise draw the counsel of God from the wise men of the world. So now, for man's profit, the very founder of men takes upon himself the voice of human passion, though it is certain that he who beholds all things before they have come to pass has done nothing of which he should repent and change his mind. As therefore it is no wonder if spiritual men very often use the words of carnal men, so neither is it to be wondered at if the creator himself of all things, that he may draw the flesh to his own understanding, keeps or takes up in himself the speech of the flesh.

VERS. 9-12.-- « Noe a just man. » Here by his acts he signifies Christ, who says Matth. XI: « Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart. » He alone is found just, to whom because of his justice seven men 105Bare given. Christ too is just and perfect, to whom seven Churches, enlightened by the sevenfold Spirit, are granted together into one Church. Noe is delivered through water and wood, and his household with him; so the household of Christ through baptism and the cross.

« In his generations. » As though not of consummate justice, but according to his own generation.

VERS. 13.-- « I will destroy them with, » etc. The doctors hand down that the greenness and fruitfulness of the earth was far inferior after the flood; and that therefore the eating of flesh was granted to men, whereas before they lived only on the fruits of the earth.

VERS. 14.-- « Make thee an ark of timber. » Namely of timber strong and indissoluble and well compacted; which another translation calls « square, » so that it should be dissolved neither by the force of the winds 105Cnor by the inundation.

« Little rooms, » etc. (STRAB.) LXX: « Thou shalt make in the ark things of two chambers and of three chambers: of two chambers in the lower parts, of three chambers in the upper. » They were therefore divided into five dwellings: the first, that is the lowest, was the dung-place, into which the dung flowed down, lest those who were in the ark should be harmed by the stench; the second, the storeroom; the third, of the fierce animals and of serpents; the fourth, of the tame; the fifth, that is the highest, of men and of birds. The door, where the two-chambered and the three-chambered parts were joined, that is, between the storeroom and the dwelling of the beasts. (AUG.) In the first dwelling, in the lower parts, the ark was of one chamber, in the second, above the lower dwelling, of two chambers. But in the third, above the second, of three chambers. Others say that in the lower parts 105Dthere were two little rooms, and that so the ark was of two chambers. Of these the lower received the dung, the second the food, which was called the storeroom; in the upper parts it was of three chambers, where men and animals were contained with a fitting distinction.

(ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) Noe built the ark of imperishable timbers, etc., as far as prophesied in the fifth, evangelized in the sixth.

VERS. 15. « Of three hundred cubits, » etc. (ISID., ibid.) In the three hundred cubits the wood of the cross can be shown, etc., as far as because there is one God from whom are all things, and one faith, and one baptism.

(GREG. hom. XVI in Ezech.) The ark which was commanded to be made three hundred cubits in length, fifty 106Ain breadth, thirty in height, etc., as far as and through whom all advance who have known themselves to be sinners.

VERS. 16-18.-- « In a cubit thou shalt finish the top of it. » So the Church, gathered into unity, is lifted up and made perfect; whence Matth. XI: « He that gathereth not with me, scattereth. »

The door of the ark, » etc. For no one enters into the Church except through the sacrament of the remission of sins, which flowed forth from the opened side.

« Upper chambers and third stories, » etc. LXX: « Things of two chambers and of three chambers. » For out of all nations the Church gathers a multitude either two-parted, from the circumcision and the uncircumcision; or three-parted, from the three sons of Noe, by whose offspring the world is filled. But the lower parts 106Bof the ark are divided, because in this earthly life there is a diversity of nations: but at the top all are consummated into one, because Christ is all things and in all.

(ALCUIN.) Fittingly the ark was brought to a point at the top, as with a certain narrow roof, that it might scatter the threats of the rains, and, standing below in the waters four-square with stability, could be neither tilted nor sunk by the driving of the winds, nor by the onset of the waves, nor by the restlessness of the animals that were within.

(GREG. in Moral.) The ark broad in the lower parts, narrow in the upper, etc., as far as great heaps of chaff, which are burned up with fire.

(GREG.) But morally, he who turns himself away from the love of the world builds in his heart the ark of salvation, having in 106Chimself length, that is, the faith of the Trinity, and length of life and of immortality; breadth in charity, by which he can do good even to enemies; height in hope, by which he may raise himself to heavenly things and refer the sum of his acts to the One.

VERS. 19-20.-- « And of all, » etc. (AUG. l. XV de Civit. Dei, c. ult., t. VII.) It is asked concerning the tiniest creatures, so in the Church's sacraments the good and the bad are engaged.

VERS. 21, 22.-- « Take thou therefore, » etc. It is wont to be asked concerning the animals which are thought to feed only on flesh, whether they were there beyond the number without transgression of the commandment, which the necessity of feeding the others had compelled to be shut in; or, what is rather to be believed, whether besides flesh there could have been foods which would suit 106Dall. For many animals, whose food is flesh, feed on fruits and apples, especially on the fig and on chestnuts. A just and wise man, therefore, divinely admonished, was able to find out and lay up the nourishment which suited each, besides flesh. And hunger compels all to feed, and there is nothing which God cannot make sweet and wholesome, who would even grant by divine power that they should live without food.

VERS. 1-3.-- « And the Lord said, » etc. « Of all clean living creatures thou shalt take seven and seven, » etc. (RAB.) Not a doubled seven, that is fourteen, but only seven ought we to 107Aunderstand. Likewise two and two, not four, but only two, the male and the female. And it is to be noted that the clean animals are brought in by an odd number, that is by the number seven, but the unclean by an even one; because an odd number portends the appearance of virtue, but an even one weakness. The clean are the more numerous, that Noah, on going out of the ark, might have what he could offer in sacrifice and eat.

(ISID. in Gen.) « Of all living creatures, » etc. Not that the good are more numerous than the bad, etc., as far as which day is, reckoned from the passion, the third among the days that roll round through all time, and the first, and the eighth.

(AUG. in Gen.) It is asked: could so great an ark be built in a hundred years by four men, that is, by Noah and his three sons? But if it could not, it was no great matter to employ other workmen, although, 107Bonce the wage of their work had been got, they cared not whether Noah was acting wisely or to no purpose, and did not enter into it, because they did not believe what he believed.

VERS. 4.-- « I will rain, » etc. (ISID. Quaest. in Gen., c. 7.) Because every guilt against the decalogue is committed throughout the whole world, which is divided into four parts: and four times ten make forty; whether the guilt be contracted out of prosperity, which pertains to the days; or out of adversity, which pertains to the nights, it is washed away in baptism.

VERS. 5-6.-- « Noah therefore did all things, » etc. « And he was six hundred years old, » etc. (ISID., Ibid). Noah was five hundred years old when the Lord commanded him to make the ark, etc., as far as which is the square of three.

107CVERS. 7-9.-- « Noah went in, and his sons, his wife, » etc. (RAB.) It is to be noted that Noah goes into the ark apart with his sons, and their wives apart. Therefore it is said distinctly: « Noah went in, and his sons, » and it is distinctly added, « his wife and the wives of his sons. » But they went out mingled, the men with the women, for so it is written: « Noah went out, and his wife.[Vulg. Gn 8:18 reads Egressus est ergo Noe, et filii ejus : uxor illius, et uxores filiorum ejus cum eo, "Noah therefore went out, and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him."] For there is a time of embracing and a time of abstaining[Vulg. Ecl 3:5 reads tempus amplexandi, et tempus longe fieri ab amplexibus, "a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces."] (Eccli. III). »

VERS. 10.-- « And when they had passed, » etc. (ISID.) Because we are baptized in the hope of the rest to come, which the seventh day signifies, all flesh outside the ark was consumed by the flood; because outside the Church the water of baptism, though it be the same water, avails not unto salvation, but unto ruin.

107DVERS. 11-14.-- « In the six hundredth year, » etc. Allegorically. It is to be noted that in the six hundredth year the waters of the flood overflowed, because in the sixth age of the world the sacrament of baptism was first entrusted to us, and this on the seventeenth day of the second month, because the number ten signifies the decalogue. The number seven, on account of the Sabbath, signifies the seventh rest, and because in the decalogue the renunciation of vices is seen, whosoever is initiated in baptism professes, for the sake of eternal rest, to renounce all vices.

« The cataracts. » Windows, that is to say clouds, which were opened, that from them unwonted and greater rains might be poured out. But cataracts are properly the mouths of the Nile, though by misuse they are set for all windows.

108A(RAB.) Concerning the ark it is commonly asked: with so great a capacity as is described, could it carry all the animals that are said to have entered, and their food? Origen resolves this by the geometrical cubit, asserting that it was not said in vain that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, who loved geometry, and that the geometrical cubit contains as much as six of ours.

VERS. 15, 16.-- « Two and two, » etc. (AUG. ubi supra.) He commanded above that seven and seven of the clean, and two and two of the unclean, be taken. How then does he now say that two and two entered, whether of the clean or of the unclean? But this is referred not to the number of the clean and the unclean, but to the male and the female. For in all there are two, male and female.

108BBut it is to be noted that what is said, « in which was the spirit of life, » is said not of men only, but of cattle also: because some would have that which is written, « he breathed into his face the spirit of life, »[Vulg. Gn 2:7 reads inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae, "breathed into his face the breath of life."] understood of the Holy Spirit; but certain codices have better, « the breath of life. »

VERS. 17-19.-- « Forty days, » etc. (ALC.) The rain overflowed by the number forty, which shows the tribulation of penance. After forty days Noah opened the window, signifying that heaven is opened to them that fast. Whence Moses, Elias, and the Saviour himself consecrated fasts by the number forty, as being necessary in three times: before the law, under the law, under grace.

VERS. 20-22-- « Higher by fifteen cubits, » etc. 108C(AUG. in Gen.) If the earth of Mount Olympus (as history relates) could reach into the space of the tranquil air, etc., as far as to the holding fast of rest and of faith in the resurrection.

« Fifteen. » There are those who think that neither the quality of the earth nor the height of the mountains was, before the flood, such and so great as it is today.

VERS. 23, 24.-- « They were destroyed from the earth. » (ALC.) Therefore the animals of the land perished rather than those of the water, because they live off the accursed earth.

VERS. 1-3.-- « And God remembered « Noah, » etc. « He brought a spirit over the earth, » etc. (ALCUIN., quaest. in Gen.) It can be understood of that spirit of which it was said, « The Spirit of God was borne over 108Dthe waters: » then it was borne, that, the waters being gathered into their own [Al., unum] place, the earth might appear: now it is brought, that, the waters of the flood being taken away, it might lay bare the face of the earth. By the spirit a wind can be understood, according to that of Psalm CVI: « And the spirit of the storm stood, » by whose blasts, namely, the water would draw back.

VERS. 4.-- « And the ark rested in the seventh month, » etc. (ISID.) It signifies the sevenfold rest, and, because the perfect rest there, the number of the aforesaid squaring is repeated also. For on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the sacrament is committed, and again on the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month it is confirmed, when the ark rested: for what is promised in hope is exhibited in fact.

109A(AUG.) It is asked whether these things were done after the hundred and fifty days, or whether by recapitulation all those things are recalled which began to be done after the forty days of rain, so that this alone pertains to the « hundred and fifty days », that the water was raised as far as the mountains themselves, either from the fountains of the deep, the rain having now ceased, or because it remained at that height with no wind drying it. But the rest of the things that have been said were not all done after the hundred and fifty days, but recalled: things which began to be done from the end of the forty days.

VERS. 5, 6.-- « For in the tenth month. » It is to be noted that in the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared, which the waters of the flood had overtopped by fifteen cubits, because the eminence of the saints understood, through the fulfilling of the precepts, the sacraments of eternal rest and the glory 109Bof the resurrection (which the wisdom of the proud knew not); whence Psalm CXVIII: « By thy commandments I have understood. » And elsewhere, Luke X: « Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. »

VERS. 7.-- « Who went forth, » etc. (ISID.) That the raven did not return after forty days, either cut off by the waters or enticed by a floating carcase, figures those made most foul by the uncleanness of covetousness: and therefore that those too intent upon the things which are outside in the world are either rebaptized, or are seduced and held fast by those whom baptism outside the ark, that is, outside the Church, has slain.

(AUG.) It is asked: did the raven die, or could it in some way live? For if there was earth where it might rest, the dove would likewise have found rest. 109CWhence it is conjectured that the raven could settle on a carcase, which the dove by nature shuns.

VERS. 8.-- « He sent forth also. » (ISID.) The dove sent forth, and returned without having found rest, signifies that through the New Testament rest is not promised to the saints in this world: for it was sent forth after forty days, by which number the life that is passed in the world is designated.

(STRAB.) The ark contains a raven and a dove, and the Church good men and bad. The raven sent out does not return, because the reprobate, clinging to the enticements of the world, perish. The dove returned, bearing a branch of olive with green leaves in her mouth, because the saints, rejoicing in simplicity, bear the gift of peace in their mouth, saying: (Psal. XIX) « With them that hated peace I was peaceable: 109Dwhen I spoke to them, » etc.

VERS. 9.-- « She returned. » (AUG.) It is a question: how did the dove not find where to settle, when the tops of the mountains had already been laid bare, according to the order of the narrative? This can be resolved by recapitulation, so that things narrated later are understood to have been done earlier, or rather, they had not yet been dried.

VERS. 10.-- « Having waited, » etc. After other seven days, the dove being let go on account of the sevenfold spiritual working, brought back a fruitful shoot of olive, signifying that many baptized outside the Church, if the richness of charity be not wanting, are at a later time brought back, in the mouth of the dove, as in the kiss of peace, to the fellowship of unity.

110AVERS. 11.-- « Bearing a branch. » (ALC.) The dove bears a branch of olive to Noah after the flood, the most foul bird having been driven out, because the dove of the Holy Spirit, coming to Christ after his baptism, announces peace with the branch of refreshment and of light.

VERS. 12.-- « And he waited nevertheless other seven days, » etc. (ISID. in Gen.) The dove let go after another seven days, and not returning, signifies the end of the world, when the rest of the saints shall be, not in the sacrament of hope, in which the Church is now joined together, so long as that is drunk which flowed from the side of Christ, but in the perfection of salvation, when the kingdom shall be delivered up to God and the Father, so that in that clear contemplation of truth we may have need of no mysteries.

VERS. 13.-- « In the six hundred and first year, » etc. 110B(Ibid.) Of Noah's life, that is, six hundred years being completed, the roof of the ark is opened, etc., as far as one being added, on account of the bond of unity.

VERS. 14.-- « In the second month. » (STRAB.) Historically. That is, in May, Noah completed a year in the ark, and on the very day on which he had entered, he went out. For he entered on the twenty-seventh day of the second month; does it say that he went out on the seventh and twentieth day of the same month. But it must be known that, if eleven be added to the present day, such as the moon is today, such will it be on that same day a year hence. When therefore Noah entered, it was the seventeenth moon, or the seventeenth day of the second month. Therefore after a year, eleven being added, it was the twenty-seventh day and the seventeenth moon.

« In the second month, » etc. Mystically. As was said above, 110Con the seventeenth day of the six hundredth year the earth was soaked with the waters of the flood, but on the twenty-seventh day of the second month it was dried, when it was commanded that they should go out of the ark and receive a compact, that they should no more perish by the waters of a flood. In which it can be understood that by ten and seven (as above) the state of those beginning can be signified, when vices are renounced; by twenty-seven, the advancement of the perfect in the consummation of the virtues. For if thou add ten to ten and seven, they become twenty-seven. For if to the ten precepts by which sins are renounced thou add the evangelical perfection, by which it is commanded not only not to be angry, but even to love one's enemies, and the like, thou hast come to that age of perfection in which thou needest not even the aforesaid sacraments; and going out 110Dof the ark, that is, passing over from hope to sight, thou shalt find the rest promised in the sacraments.

VERS. 15-19.-- « Go out of the ark, » etc. (ISID.) They go out joined who entered separated, because « now the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. »[Vulg. Gal 5:17 reads Caro enim concupiscit adversus spiritum, spiritus autem adversus carnem, with enim and autem for Migne's nunc and et.] But in the resurrection of the just the body will cleave to the spirit in perfect peace, with no want of mutability or concupiscence resisting.

VERS. 20.-- « And taking, » etc. (AUG.) Clean and unclean animals entered into the ark, but after the going out none are offered to God but the clean. But in that he says: « I will not strike every living soul as I have done, »[Vulg. Gn 8:21 reads non igitur ultra percutiam, "I will therefore no more strike"; Migne's lemma lacks ultra.] and added those things which his goodness grants of its bounty to the unworthy, perhaps the indulgence of the New Testament 111Ais figured, so that the vengeance that is past belongs to the severity of the law, and this to the goodness of grace.

VERS. 21, 22.-- « For the sense, » etc. (GREG., Moral. libr. XXXVIII.) Let no one ascribe it to himself if he has overcome his thoughts: because the evil of corruption, which each one has taken up from the rising of carnal desires, he plies as his age advances; and unless the hand of the divine strength repress it the sooner, guilt devours every good of nature into the depth: « Neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase (I Cor. III). »

VERS. 1.-- « And God blessed Noah and his sons; » etc. « Increase and multiply. » Man is set over 111Bthe rest of the animals for their terror, as a solace for the vengeance that is past, and lest a few men be overwhelmed by the more numerous beasts, and that they may know that they have dominion over the irrational, but not over the rational.

VERS. 2, 3.-- « And your terror, » etc. (GREG. libr. II Moral. c. 11.) In powerful men the virtue of humility is great, etc., as far as by which they seek not their own glory, but the profit of their subjects.

VERS. 4-8.-- « Flesh with blood. » (ISID.) All animals are given them for food, because in the calling of the Gentiles to the faith there is no difference, which is figured in the dish of Peter. They are forbidden to eat blood, lest the former life be held as it were stifled within the conscience, but let it be poured out through confession. The eating of flesh seems to have been granted after the flood, on account of 111Cthe barrenness of the earth and the frailty of man.

VERS. 9-12.-- « Behold, I will establish my compact, » etc. God set a testament between himself and men and every living soul, that he might not destroy it by a flood, the bow, namely, which appears in the clouds, which never shines save from the sun. For those perish not in the flood, separated from the Church, who in the prophets and in all the holy Scriptures, as in the clouds of God, acknowledge the glory of Christ and seek not their own. But lest the worshippers of this sun swell up, let them know that Christ is signified by the sun just as by the lion, by the lamb, by the stone, for the sake of likeness, not by any substance of property.

VERS. 13-17.-- « I will set my bow, » etc. (ALC. in Gen.) God gave the bow for a sign of security, 111Dlest fearful men should dread to be destroyed by another flood, often beholding the overflowing of the rains. This is set in the heaven, that it may be seen by all, and that in whatever tribulation we may lift up to him the eyes of our heart who dwells in the heavens. But because the bow is not save from the rays of the sun and a moist cloud, it seems that before the flood there had been no rains. The earth, however, could be made fruitful from dew and from the overflowing of the springs.

(STRAB.) The bow has two colours, blue and fiery, which express two judgments: one of water, which is past; the other of fire, which is believed to be to come at the end of the world: whence the blue colour is on the outside, but the fiery within.

112AVERS. 18-20.-- « These therefore were the sons of Noah, » etc. (HIER. in Q. Hebr.) Often the Seventy, not being able to turn the letter heth into Greek, because it sounds a double aspiration, added the Greek χ chi, teaching that in words of this kind an aspiration is to be made. Whence they rendered Cham for that which is Ham, from whom Egypt is to this day called Ham in the language of the Egyptians.

VERS. 21.-- « And drinking wine, » etc. Christ also was made drunk, when he suffered; laid bare, when he was crucified. « In his own tabernacle, » that is, among those of his own household by blood, then was the mortality of his flesh laid bare. « To the Jews a scandal, to the Gentiles foolishness, but to them that are called, both Jews and Gentiles, » as it were Sem and Japheth, « the power of God and the wisdom of God: because that which is foolish of God is wiser than men. »[Vulg. 1Cor 1:23–24 reads Judaeis quidem scandalum, gentibus autem stultitiam, ipsis autem vocatis Judaeis, atque Graecis Christum Dei virtutem: Graecis, "Greeks," for Migne's second gentibus, and Christum Dei virtutem in the accusative for his Dei virtus.]

112B(ALCUIN.) After the flood Noah was made drunk, because perhaps he did not know that one could be made drunk with wine. For neither are men read to have used wine before the flood. Therefore it is said of Noah especially that he planted a vineyard. The uncovering of the thigh follows drunkenness, as lust follows satiety.

VERS. 22.-- « And when he had seen, » etc. (PROCOP. in Gen.) From these circumstances the sin of Cham is enlarged. He holds his parent in contempt, he blabs out how basely his father had lain, nor does he tell it to one of his brothers, but to both: if more had been at hand, he would have uncovered the deed to all: the deed seemed a thing of laughter to him to whom it least ought; that deed was worthy of shame and of caution, lest the infamy of it should spread abroad to the rest: nor does he announce it to those who were of the household, but to outsiders.

112C(ISID.) The Jews, seeing the death of Christ, mocked. But Sem and Japheth, two peoples believing out of the uncircumcision and out of the circumcision, turned away and covered him, etc., as far as « as it were running together into the peace of the corner. »

VERS. 23.-- « But Sem indeed, » etc. (GREG. in Moral.) We are said to turn away from that which we reprove. What then is it that the sons, with cloaks thrown over their backs, covered their father's shameful parts, coming turned away, unless that to good subjects the evils of their superiors so displease that they hide them, once known, from others: they bear the covering turned away, because, judging the deed and revering their master, they will not see what they cover.

VERS. 24, 25.-- « Cursed be Chanaan the boy, »[Vulg. Gn 9:25 reads Maledictus Chanaan, servus servorum erit fratribus suis, with no word answering to puer.] etc. (Ibid.) God does not pass over sins unavenged, but so 112Dbegins judgment in our correction that it rests in the damnation of the reprobate. For judgment begins at the house of God. What then is the end of those who have not believed, who feel no temporal scourges? Because they shall perish for ever; whose wickedness was figured in the sin of Cham. To whom it is said: « Cursed be Chanaan the boy, » etc. The father sinning, the son received the sentence, because the wickedness of the reprobate here prospers long, but perishes hereafter.

VERS. 26.-- « Blessed be the Lord God of Sem. » Though he be the God of all nations, yet even among those nations he is called, as by a proper name, the God of Israel, which is from the blessing of Japheth, because in the people of the Gentiles the Church has taken possession of the world, which was foretold 113Awhen it was said: « God enlarge Japheth. »

« Chanaan. » (STRAB.) From whom the Chananites, who by this curse are prophesied to be driven out of the place of their habitation.

VERS. 27-29.-- « God enlarge Japheth, » etc. (HIERON.) From Sem the Hebrews, from Japheth the Gentiles. Because therefore the multitude of believers is broad, from breadth, which is called Japheth, breadth is named. But that which he says: « And let him dwell in the tabernacles of Sem, » is prophesied of us, who are occupied in the learning and knowledge of the Scriptures, Israel being cast out.

« God enlarge Japheth, » etc. (ISID.) Sem, the elder by birth, is himself the Jewish people, from whom the patriarchs and the prophets and the apostles, etc., as far as that is, their work.

113BVERS. 1.-- « These are the generations, » etc. Two sons of Noah being blessed and the middle one cursed, their generations are woven out, from whom seventy-two generations arose: fifteen from Japheth, thirty from Cham, twenty-seven from Sem. To which the Lord sent seventy-two disciples.

« Sem » (ALC.) Sem, as they reckon, obtained Asia by lot; Cham Africa, Japheth Europe.

« Japheth. » Of the younger son, of whom were born seven sons, who held the northern region from Taurus and Amanus, mountains of Cilicia and Syria, as far as the river Tanais, but in Europe as far as Gadira. Leaving their names to the places and to the nations, of which very many have been changed, while the rest remain.

VERS. 2-6.-- « Gomer. » These are the Galatians, according to 113CJosephus, who in Latin are called Gallograeci.

« Thubal. » The Iberians, who are also the Spaniards, from whom Celtiberia, though some suspect them to be Italians.

« Chanaan. » He obtained the land which the Jews afterwards possessed, the Chananites being cast out.

VERS. 8.-- « Regma and Saba, » etc. (HIERON.) Little by little they lost their ancient names, and what names they now have in place of the old ones is unknown.

« Saba. » Another than the one above, and they differ in the writing: for that one is written with samech, this with schin; for where we say: The kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts, » in the Hebrew there stands [two Hebrew words stand here on Migne's plate; our digitized source has lost both, leaving only the conjunction that stood between them.] scheba and seba.

VERS. 8.-- « Nemrod. » Who wished to pierce heaven beyond nature. He signifies the devil, who says: 113D« I will ascend above the stars of heaven. »[Vulg. Is 14:13 reads In caelum conscendam, super astra Dei exaltabo solium meum, "I will climb up into heaven, above the stars of God I will exalt my throne."] Nemrod, according to Josephus, seized upon tyranny in a new lust of rule, and was the author of the building of the tower which should touch heaven. « He himself began to be mighty, » or « a giant, » according to others. But Scripture records that giants were born before this. But perhaps the newness of the human race to be repaired after the flood is being recorded, « because he himself began to be a giant upon the earth. »

VERS. 9.-- « A stout hunter. » (ALC.) That is, an oppressor and destroyer of men, whom he enticed to build a tower against God.

VERS. 10, 12.-- « Babylon. » It is confusion, because there the division of tongues was made.

VERS. 11.-- « Assur. » The empire of the Assyrians, 114Awhich was first under Ninus, who built Nineveh, which on account of its penitence is called beautiful.

VERS. 13-20.-- « But Mesraim indeed, » etc. (HIERON.) Except the Laabin, from whom the Libyans were afterwards named, who before were called Phutaeans; and the Chasluim, who were afterwards called Philistiim, whom we corruptly call Palestinians, the other six nations are unknown to us, because they were overthrown in the Ethiopian war. But they possessed the land from Gaza as far as the farthest borders of Egypt.

« Ludim and Anamim. Laabim, Nephetuim, » etc. All these are unknown, either because the nations were destroyed in the Ethiopian war, or because it is not known what names they now have.

VERS. 21.-- « Of Sem. » Of him he speaks last, 114Bbecause he pursues his generation, and the line of that generation.

« Heber. » Who nevertheless is the fifth from Sem the son of Noah. Whether because the Hebrews are said to be named from him, or because through him the generation passes over to Abraham? What therefore is the more probable, that the Hebrews are called as it were Heberaeans, or as it were Abrahaeans, is rightly asked.

VERS. 22-24.-- « Assur. » Who built Nineveh.

VERS. 25-30.-- « And there were born sons to Heber, » etc. Heber, a passer-over, from whom the Hebrews, that is, passers-over. They are true Hebrews who pass over from things present to things to come, from things that fall away to things that abide. These nations, from the river Conus, possessed all the region which is called Geria.

114CVERS. 1.-- « And the earth was of one lip, » etc. (AUG., in Gen.) It was said above that the sons of Noah, or of his sons, were distributed through the lands according to their tongues. But this, which was earlier, he afterwards records by recapitulation. Yet he makes obscurity in this, that he so weaves it together by that manner of speech as though the narration of these things followed upon the things which were done afterwards.

VERS. 2.-- « And when they set out. » (CHRYSOST., in Gen.) See how the human race cannot subsist within its own bounds, but, coveting more, always seeks greater things. And this is what destroys the human race, that it will not acknowledge the measure of its own nature, but always desires greater things. Since, « they saw, he says, a plain in the land of 114DSennaar, »[Vulg. Gn 11:2 reads invenerunt campum in terra Senaar, "they found a plain in the land of Senaar."] migrating, and, the former place being left, they dwelt there.

VERS. 3.-- « Come. » They feared a flood again; therefore, Nemrod being the author of it, they wished to set up for themselves a tower in which they should not fear a flood. A foolish and impious boldness, whence followed vengeance and the division of tongues.

(ISID. in Gen.) The tower, the pride of the world, or the dogmas of the heretics, etc., as far as the unity of confession and of faith.

VERS. 7.-- « Come therefore, » etc. He is understood to have said this to the angels; or according to that: « Let us make man to our image and likeness. » For it is subjoined in the singular number: « and he divided 115Athem, » etc., as there: « God made man to his own image and likeness. »[Vulg. Gn 1:27 reads Et creavit Deus hominem ad imaginem suam, "And God created man to his own image," without et similitudinem.]

(GREG. Moral. lib. II, c. 5.) « Come, » etc. It is said to those who cleave to God, « Come, » because never to decrease from the divine contemplation but always to increase, and never to withdraw in heart, is, by a steadfast motion, always to be coming. The angels ascend by beholding the Creator, they descend by pressing down, with the sifting of strictness, the creature that unlawfully lifts itself up. To say therefore, « Let us go down and confound their tongue, » is to show within himself what is rightly done, and, by the force of the inward vision, to breathe with hidden motions into their minds the judgments that are to be displayed.

VERS. 8, 9.-- « He divided them. » (ALC.) In this division of tongues God made nothing new, but divided the 115Bmodes of speaking and the forms of speech among the various nations. Whence we find the same syllables and letters of the same force joined otherwise in different tongues, and often the same nouns or verbs signifying something else; whence, where it is said in Psalm II: « With a rod of iron, » in the Greek there stands ἐν ραβδῳ σιδηρᾶ, in raudo sidera. Therefore in Latin sidera does not signify ferrea, as it does in the Greek, but astra.

(AUG. lib. XVI de Civit. c. 4.) Rightly is the evil affection punished, even that upon which no effect follows. But of what kind was the manner of the punishment? For since the dominion of him who commands lies in the tongue, pride was condemned there, so that he who commanded should not be understood by man, the man who would not understand so as to obey God who commanded.

VERS. 10-25.-- « Sem was a hundred years old. » 115C(BEDA, Hexaem., lib. III, t. II, col. 131.) A great question arises for us according to the letter, how Sem is said to be a hundred years old two years after the flood, when above he is asserted to have been born in the five hundredth year of Noah, and the flood is read to have come in the six hundredth year of the same Noah, etc., as far as « because God took him. »

VERS. 26-30.-- « Thare begot Abram and Nachor. » (AUG. quaest. 25 in Gen.) Not at the same time, but in their own times, from the point at which he began to beget. Nor is the order of birth to be regarded in these, but the signification of the dignity to come, in which Abram excels.

VERS. 31-32.-- « In Ur of the Chaldees. » (HIERON.) In the Hebrew in Ur Chesdim ( )[Migne prints the Hebrew word inside these parentheses; our digitized source has lost it and leaves them empty.], that is, in the fire of the Chaldees. Here the Hebrews tell the tale that Abram was cast into 115Dthe fire because he would not adore the fire which the Chaldees worship, and, delivered by God's help, escaped out of the fire of idolatry. Whence it is said to him: « I am he that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees. »[Vulg. Gn 15:7 reads Ego Dominus qui eduxi te de Ur Chaldaeorum, "I am the Lord who brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees."]

« Aram the father of Melcha. »[Vulg. Gn 11:29 reads Aran patris Melchae; Migne prints the name Aram here and again in the gloss below.] (Ibid.) The same is the father of both. Aram, son of Thare, brother of Abraham and of Nachor, begot two daughters, Melcha and Sarai, surnamed Jescha. Nachor married Melcha, and Abram Sarai. For marriages between uncles and nieces had not yet been forbidden, which in the beginning were celebrated even between brothers and sisters.

« Thare therefore took Abram, » etc., as far as, the days of Thare were two hundred and five years, and he died in Haran. » (AUG.) It is said first, « that 116Awhen Thare was seventy years old he begot Abram, and afterwards remained with all his own in Charan, and died. » And it was said to Abraham that he should go out of Charan, and he went out when he was seventy-five years old. But by recapitulation it is shown that the Lord had given the command while his father was living, etc., as far as from whom the Jews were named, on account of the royal tribe.

VERS. 1.-- « Go out of the land, » etc. (AUG. ubi supra.) The narrative of Stephen on this matter is to be considered, etc., as far as thus therefore Abram was settled in that land, when he lived there until the birth of Jacob.

(STRAB.) It is to be noted that he had already gone out of his own land, but had then gone out in body, not 116Bin mind and will; for he had perhaps a mind of returning, when it was said to him: « Go out, » etc.

(ISID.) Christ left the land and the kindred of the Jews, and was magnified among the peoples of the Gentiles. We too must go out of our land, that is, out of earthly means and riches, and out of our kindred, that is, the converse of the vices, which, cleaving to us from our birth, are joined to us as it were by the affinities of blood; and « out of the house of our father, » that is, out of the memory of the world, that renouncing it we may be enlarged with the people of God, and, when the time shall come, be brought into the land of the heavenly promise.

VERS. 2-3.--And I will make thee into a great nation, » etc. (ISID.) Two things are promised to Abraham, namely, that his seed shall possess the land of Chanaan, when it is said: 116C« And come into the land which I shall show thee. » But the other far more excellent, not of carnal but of spiritual seed, whereof he is to be the father, not only of the Jewish nation, but of all the Gentiles that follow his faith; which is thus promised: « And in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. »[Vulg. Gn 12:3 reads atque in te benedicentur universae cognationes terrae, "and in thee shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed."]

VERS. 4.-- « Seventy-five years old. » (HIERON. in Q. Hebr.) If Thare, the father of Abraham, in the Chaldean region, etc., as far as and tarried there a longer while.

VERS. 8-12.-- « Bethel. » (RAB.) It is interpreted the house of God, which afterwards was called Bethaven, that is, the house of an idol.

« Hai. » Mystically. Hai is interpreted eye or fountain. The patriarch therefore, making for the land of promise, pitched his tent between Bethel 116Dand Hai, because the saints, regenerated by the font of baptism, circumspect in the course of this life, hasten to the tabernacle of God, that is, to the heavenly city.

VERS. 13-14.-- « Say therefore, I beseech thee, » etc. (AUG. lib. XVI de Civ., c. 19.) It is asked why the patriarch was willing to lie, etc., as far as both his own life and his wife's chastity.

VERS. 15-20.-- « The woman was taken up. » (RAB.) Sarai is excused, who is carried into the house of Pharao unwilling, not only in this, that neither body nor soul is defiled save by the consent of the mind, but also in this, that it was done with her husband agreeing and permitting.

(AUG. Quaest. in Gen.) With Pharao she could 117Abe so long untouched, because in Esther it is read that the maidens were not brought in to the kings at once, but were kept for one year, and for six months were anointed with oil of myrrh, and for another six months were among divers perfumes. She could therefore through these delays of time remain untouched. And meanwhile the Egyptians used Abram well, until Pharao, scourged by God and knowing that she was his wife, gave her back untouched.

VERS. 1, 2.-- « Abram therefore went up, » etc. (HIERON. in Q. Hebr.) Delivered out of Egypt, he is rightly read to have gone up, but how could he be exceeding rich? But in the Hebrew verity there stands exceeding heavy: for he was weighed down by the burden of Egypt. And 117Balthough riches of gold and of silver may seem to be riches, yet if they are Egyptian they are heavy to a holy man; nor, as it is read in the Seventy, « He went away whence he had come into the desert as far as Bethel, » but, according to the Hebrew, « He went away on his journey by the south as far as Bethel. » For he set out from Egypt, not that he might seek the desert, which he had left behind in Egypt, but that by the south, which is contrary to the north, he might come to the house of God, where his tabernacle was between Bethel and Hai.

VERS. 3-5.-- « In Bethel, » etc. Now Bethel is a little city at the twelfth milestone from Helia, on the right hand as men go to Neapolis: which formerly was called Luza, that is, Almond, in the tribe of Benjamin: but Hai is in the tribe of Juda, set apart for the priests; Bethel, the house of God; Hai, eye or fountain: rightly therefore, pitching his tabernacle 117Cbetween Bethel and Hai, he built an altar to the Lord, because the saints, withdrawing from the prince of the world and from the pleasures of the age, washed in the holy font of baptism, leading the course of the present life considerately, and offering to God upon the altar of faith the sacrifice of praise and of good work, tend happily to the house of God, that is, to the heavenly Jerusalem.

VERS. 6-9.-- « For their substance was much, » etc. « Let there not be, I pray thee, » etc. Let us also set nothing before concord and charity, but through the right hand of prosperity, or the left hand of adversity, let us persevere in peace and in love. The quarrel between the shepherds of Lot and the shepherds of Abraham signifies the controversy between catholic pastors and heretical subverters. Whence Lot also signifies the heresiarchs, who is interpreted declining; 117Dand about the Jordan, that is, a going down, he chose a region for himself. His shepherds, the heretics and schismatics, who seek out fair and sloping places, and go not up into the mountain with Moses to the Lord, holding peace and unity; and they receive the choice of going whither they will; and fleeing grace, they commit themselves to free will. But the shepherds of Abraham signify catholic teachers, who flee from heretics even in place, according to that to Titus III: « A man that is a heretic, after the first and the second correction, avoid: »[Vulg. Tit 3:10 reads post unam et secundam correptionem, "after one and a second rebuke."] and this among the nations of the Chananite and the Pherezite, that is, in the land of promise, because between catholics and heretics there is wont to be contention whose is the kingdom of heaven.

118A« For we are brethren. » In three ways are men called brethren in holy Scripture: by nature, as Jacob and Esau; by kindred, as Abram and Lot; by nation, as all the Jews. Whence, if thy brother be impoverished and sell himself to thee, etc.

VERS. 10-12.-- « As a paradise, » etc. Hence we learn that there is an earthly paradise, to which the earthly watering is compared. For this region was flat and of open country, and watered by the flowing Jordan, as Egypt by the Nile.

VERS. 13.-- « Before the Lord. » To whom the punishing of the crime is committed: for the crime was manifest to men also, but not to be punished.

VERS. 14.-- « Lift up thine eyes, » etc. As if to say, look through the four regions of the world; the possession of Palestine 118Bis promised to him and to his seed. That in certain codices mare is put for occidente, it comes about because Palestine has the sea on the west.

VERS. 15-17.-- « All the land, » etc. Not this only was promised. For it was not said, I will give thee as much of the land as thou seest; but, I will give thee the land which thou seest. For since land further off was being given on every side, this especially was given which was seen. Whence he added also: « Arise and walk through the land, » etc., namely, that by walking through it he might come to that which, standing in one place, he could not see. But that land is signified which Israel, the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, not according to faith, had received: which was to be as the sand of the sea, because it cannot be numbered.

118C« I will give to thee. » To Christ is promised the inheritance of all nations, who spread his Church through the whole world, to whom the Father says: « Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance (Psal. II). » And in Psalm LXXI: « And he shall rule from sea to sea. »

VERS. 18.-- « In Hebron. » It is a city in the tribe of Juda, which is also called Cariatharbe, that is, the city of four; for CHARIAT in Hebrew is [two Hebrew words stand here on Migne's plate, one before CHARIAT and one before arbe; our digitized source has lost both, which has run his two italic phrases together into one.] a city, arbe four. For there is laid Adam the greatest, and Abram, Isaac and Jacob.

VERS. 1.-- « Amraphel. » He is interpreted he said that it should fall, and he is king of Sennaar, which is interpreted the shaking out of teeth 118Dor their stench. He signifies the heretics, who tend toward a fall, and with deceitful words vomit out a stinking meaning.

« Arioch. » He is interpreted Drunken or drunkenness: he signifies the folly of the Gentiles, who, drunk with iniquity, worship the creature for the Creator, and are rolled about in the enticements of the world. « Chodorlahomor. » He is interpreted A comely sheaf, who is king of Elam, that is, of this world: he signifies hypocrisy, which, although it be vain and pernicious, yet seems comely on the surface, but in the time to come what it was shall appear.

« Thadal. » Knowing the yoke or a scout, who is king of the nations; he signifies avarice, which, shrewd and crafty, subjugates many to itself.

119A« Amraphel, » etc. These four kings figure the four principal vices, contrary to the four principal virtues; which strive to subjugate the five senses signified by the five kings, through the concupiscence of the flesh, through the concupiscence of the eyes, through the ambition of the world.

VERS. 2-13.-- « Balae. » (HIERON.) In Hebrew it is called devouring. The Hebrews hand down that this is elsewhere called Salissam, and a heifer that dismays, because it was swallowed up by a third earthquake. And that from that time in which Sodom and Gomorrha, Adama and Seboim were overthrown by divine fire, it is named the little one. For Segor is translated as little, which in the Syriac tongue is called Zoara. But the valley of the Salt-pits, in which were wells of bitumen, after the wrath of God and the rain of brimstone, was turned into the Dead 119BSea. which by the Greeks is called the lake of Asphalt, that is, of bitumen.

Mystically. Four kings overcome five, while the contrary powers, abusing the five senses of the body, ensnare them with vices and lead them captive.

Allegorically. Such kings overcome first Bara, who is interpreted malice or a creature, and is king of the Sodomites, that is, of blindness, or of a silent beast, when they persuade those who persevere in the old malice to follow the blindness of lust after the manner of beasts. They conquer also Bersa, that is, set in straitness, king of Gomorrha, that is, of a swelling and seditious people, when they overwhelm and cast down those who are straitened by the cares of the world and fear not to work the wickedness of rapine. They conquer likewise Sennaab king of Adama, that 119Cis, of the earthly, when they exhort those who savour earthly things only to remain in luxury, so that they say: « Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die (I Cor. XV). » They conquer Semeber, who is interpreted there destruction, and is king of Seboim, that is, of the girdle of grief, when through anger and envy they deceive the incautious; whence Job V: « Anger killeth the foolish, and envy slayeth the little one. » They conquer also king Bale, when they cast the faint-hearted into despair; for Bale is interpreted a headlong fall or a swallowing up: to this above all the devil strives, that after the fall of sin he may cast into despair.

VERS. 4-6.-- « Twelve, » etc. The number twelve is a superfluous number. In which superfluity our five senses serve the vain superstition which 119DChodorlahomor signifies, and the four vices lying next to it; and when they would withdraw, they suffer a grievous persecution, and are often overcome.

VERS. 7-12.-- « And they smote. » (HIERON.) Another edition has, etc., as far as because there God judged the people.

« Raphaim in Astaroch, »[Vulg. Gn 14:5 reads Raphaim in Astarothcarnaim.] etc. The names of the places and of the nations signify those who live carnally, whom vices easily overcome.

VERS. 13.-- « Hebrew. » The Seventy, one from beyond the river; because, namely, coming from Mesopotamia, the river Euphrates being crossed, he set his seat in the land of Chanaan. Whence Josue the son of Nave: « Why will you serve the gods of your fathers who are beyond the river? »[Vulg. Jos 24:14–15 has no such sentence; it reads auferte deos quibus servierunt patres vestri in Mesopotamia and utrum diis, quibus servierunt patres vestri in Mesopotamia.]

120AVERS. 14-17.-- « And when Abram had heard this, » etc. (ISID.) Mystically. In like manner our faith, when it has been strengthened by the principal Spirit, subjects the five senses of the body as five kings, triumphing by the word of God over the outward man. He overcame his adversaries in three hundred and eighteen, because we, in the sacrament of the cross, which the letter tau signifies, which signifies three hundred, overcome the five carnal senses that before held us captive in divers vices. Eighteen, multiplied out of three and six, signifies the faith of the Trinity and the perfection of work, by which the full victory of the virtues against the vices is accomplished.

(STRAB.) Allegorically. The war of Abraham with the four kings signifies the war of the virtues and of the vices. The father therefore of faith, and the first way of believing, fought for his brother 120BLot and conquered, not in a multitude of an army, but in three hundred and eighteen trained servants of his household. So let each man wage war for his own soul against spiritual wickednesses with three hundred and eighteen servants of his household, that is, with the help of the holy cross: for the letter tau, which has the figure of a cross, expresses three hundred.

Now Dan is one of the springs of the Jordan; for the other is called Jor, which is interpreted a stream; the two springs therefore, which are not far distant from one another, being joined into one streamlet, it is called Jordan.

VERS. 18, 19.-- « But Melchisedech indeed, » etc. (HIER.) Now the Hebrews say that he is Sem the son of Noah, and by the reckoning of the years they show that he lived until Isaac: and that all the firstborn from Noah to 120CAaron were high priests. But Salem was afterwards called Jerusalem; the Apostle, recording Melchisedech « without father and mother, » refers it to Christ, and through him to the Church of the Gentiles, because the glory of the head is referred to the members. Since he blessed Abraham circumcised, and in him Levi, and so Aaron, from whom afterwards the priesthood. From which he would gather that the priesthood of the Church, which has the uncircumcision, blessed the circumcised priesthood of the Synagogue. But because he says: « Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech, » our ministry of the true order is signified, to be consecrated not through Aaron by the immolating of irrational victims, but by the offering of bread and wine, that is, of the body and blood of the Lord.

(STRAB.) Melchisedech, who is interpreted king of justice, 120Dand is called king of peace, signifies Christ, through whom we have been reconciled, and who at the end of the world is to judge justly.

VERS. 20-23.-- « He gave him tithes. » (ISID.) The patriarch therefore, knowing, etc., as far as partly not denying the stipends due to those who fight lawfully.

VERS. 24.-- « Who came, » etc. For faith sometimes uses the testimonies of unbelievers; whence the Apostle to Titus I: « Evil beasts, slothful bellies; » but to the profit of the faithful.

VERS. 1.-- « These things therefore being done, » etc., « Fear not. » When the multitude of vices has been triumphed over, the hope 121Aof every faithful man is strengthened by the Lord, that it may not waver, but may look for its reward.

VERS. 2.-- « And Abram said. (HIERON. in Q. Hebr.) « I go without children, » [Vulg. Gn 15:2 ego vadam absque liberis, "I shall go without children"] etc. as far as from him, they say, Damascus was both named and founded.

VERS. 5-8.-- « Look up to heaven, » etc. Above he said: « Thy seed shall be as the sand of the sea, » because in that people some were carnal and earthly, who are compared to sand, since they are dry and unfruitful of good works; others were as shining stars.

(RAB.) A twofold signification of the promised seed is given. When the stars are shown, it is said to him: « So will I make thy seed, » that is, the Christian nation, whose father thou art to be in faith, namely to glitter 121Bwith the light of the resurrection. But when the sand is shown, it is said: « So shall thy seed be, » etc., that is, the nation of the Jews shall be numerous, but dry and unfruitful.

VERS. 9-10.-- « Take me, said he, » etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) The heifer of three years, the Jewish people set under the yoke of the law, etc., as far as when by fire the good shall be separated from the evil.

« A heifer of three years, and a she-goat of three years, » etc. Because from Adam to Noah, and thence to Abram, and then to David, the people grew up.

VERS. 11.-- « And the birds came down, » etc. (GREG., lib. XVI Moral., c. 20.) Tropologically. In the very sacrifice of prayer importunate thoughts thrust themselves in, desiring to snatch it away or to violate it: but with the hand of holy discretion we ought to guard what we offer without, 121Clest malignant spirits and perverse thoughts snatch it away.

VERS. 12.-- « Dread rushed in, » [Vulg. Gn 15:12 sopor, "a deep sleep"] etc. (AUG. in Quaest. Hebr.) This question is to be handled on account of those who contend that these disturbances do not fall upon the mind of the wise man, etc., as far as a disturbance not to be named.

VERS. 13-15.-- « Know thou beforehand, » etc. (ISID.) The people of Israel is prophesied as about to serve in Egypt: not that it served the Egyptians four hundred years, but because this number was completed in that affliction, since it is reckoned from the time at which these things are promised to Abraham.

« Know thou beforehand, » etc. (AUG. de Civ. lib. XVI, c. 24.) It is not to be so understood, as though the people of God 121Dhad been four hundred years in that most harsh servitude, etc., as far as the people of God was afflicted in Egypt with hard servitude.

VERS. 16-21.-- « But in the generation, » etc. (HIERON. epist. ad Damas.) But Moses says elsewhere, etc., as far as and they arrive at Solomon.

VERS. 1.-- « Now Sarai the wife of Abram, » etc. (RAB.) Abram is no adulterer if, while his wife lives, he is joined to the handmaid, because the Gospel's law of one wife had not yet been promulgated: and he had heard that his stock was to be multiplied, but by what woman he knew not, since he knew Sara to be barren. There was in the intercourse no lustful pleasure, but a devout love of having offspring: 122Ahis wife too willed this and compelled it, she who could not have sons; and therefore she desired to receive from another one whom she might adopt in the place of her own.

VERS. 2-11.-- « Go in to the handmaid, » etc. (HIERON.) Note diligently that the procreation of sons is in the Hebrew called a building up, etc., as far as that, brought back as it were by an angel, she may return into favour and subject herself.

(RAB.) These two women are the two Testaments: Agar, the Old, which in the Synagogue nourished the Jewish people, liable to servitude; Sara, the New, which begot the Christian people into the liberty of faith. The sons of the handmaid were multiplied, so that they could not be numbered for their multitude, who above are compared to sand. That people therefore, a rival by its own fierceness, and contrary to all good things, and most of all when, with envy goading it, it persecutes the Christian people 122Bthroughout the whole world, and scattered far and wide, is burdensome to all by wandering and by trafficking.

VERS. 12.-- « He shall be a wild man. » Or a rustic, according to others. (HIERON.) In the Hebrew there stands phara which is interpreted a wild ass. It signifies that his seed shall dwell in the desert, that is, the Saracens, wandering and of uncertain abodes, who, raiding all the nations to whom the desert is joined on the flank, are assailed by all.

VERS. 13.-- « And Agar called. » Rightly did she so call his name, because he freely takes counsel for the wretched and comforts the lowly. Whence: « Thou considerest labour and sorrow, and to thee is the poor man left, » etc. « Verily here have I seen the hinder parts of him that seeth me. » Of like sort is 122Cthat saying: « Thou shalt see my hinder parts, for my face shall not appear to thee. » [Vulg. Ex 33:23 faciem autem meam videre non poteris, "but my face thou canst not see"] « For man shall not see my face and live (Exod. XXXIII). » [Vulg. Ex 33:20 non enim videbit me homo et vivet, "for man shall not see me and live"] For that manifestation of the wisdom of God no man can see and live. It is that very form for which he sighs who loves God with his whole heart, his whole soul, his whole mind: for the contemplating of which, by loving his neighbour also as himself, so far as he can, he builds up. But his hinder parts, that is, his incarnation, which he took upon him in the last times, we now contemplate by longing, through faith and love, and in the time to come we shall enjoy them in eternal contemplation.

VERS. 14-16.-- « Therefore she called that well, » etc. (HIERON.) To this day the well of Agar is shown in the desert of Arabia, between Cades and Barad, 122Dwhich signifies the Scripture of the old law and of the new, which our Creator, the life of the living, the hope of the dying, gave to mortals out of regard of his loving compassion, that being taught and corrected from their vices they may deserve to be for ever worthy of the vision of God.

VERS. 1-4.-- . . . . . . « And I will set my covenant, » etc. In the Hebrew berith ( ), which signifies not a testament, but a covenant, or a compact.

VERS. 5-7.-- « Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram. » (HIERON.) The Hebrews say that God added out of his own name, which among them is the tetragrammaton, the letter h to Abraham and to Sara. Now he was called 123AAbram, which is an exalted father; afterward he was called Abraham, which is a father of many, for of nations is not had in the name, but is understood. Nor is it to be wondered at that, whereas among the Greeks and among us the letter a seems to have been added, the letter h is said to have been added: for it is the idiom of the Hebrew tongue to write h and to read a: as, on the contrary, to pronounce h and to write a.

VERS. 8, 9.-- « And I will give to thee and to thy seed. . . .and all the land of Chanaan. » Chanaan is interpreted their motion: whose land is received into possession by the faithful, when the mind, first driven about by divers motions, being changed for the better, is afterward stretched out toward the things before with eyes that turn not back

« Into an everlasting possession. » (AUG.) Scripture calls that eternal whose end is not appointed, or that which 123Bis not so done that it is not thenceforth to be done, so far as pertains to the care or the power of the doer; whence: He shall serve for ever who shall not know how to use a little.

VERS. 10.-- « The male among you shall be circumcised, » etc. (STRAB.) For three causes is this enjoined upon Abraham. First, that he might please by the obedience of the commandment, by the transgression whereof Adam had displeased; secondly, that by this sign he might be distinguished from the other nations; thirdly, that being circumcised in that member wherein lust is wont to have dominion, he might know that chastity was to be kept by him and unchastity to be cut away.

VERS. 11-13.-- « The flesh of the foreskin. » (RAB. STRAR.) Circumcision made in one member signifies the spiritual circumcision, which is to be shown forth in the heart and in all 123Cthe senses. The heart is to be circumcised, that we think not hurtful things; the eyes, that we see not vanity; the ears are to be circumcised, that is, to be stopped, that they hear not blood: and so in all the senses circumcision is to be celebrated.

(ALCUIN. in Gen., tom. I.) And circumcision was for this cause commended to Abraham, etc., as far as whence of old transgressors begot unto death.

Allegorically. Even then, because of the pilgrimage to come, lest his seed should be mingled with the nations, the compact of circumcision is given for a sign: because it signifies nature renewed through baptism, after the stripping off of the old man through Christ, who rose again after baptism. But he commanded the home-born servants, and the bought ones also, to be circumcised, that he might teach that the grace of redemption pertains to all 123D. There too the names of the parents are changed, that all things may sound of newness. Abram, an exalted father; Abraham, a father of many nations.

VERS. 14.-- « The male whose flesh of his foreskin, » etc. (ISID.) It is asked: how ought circumcised [circumcisi; read incircumcisi, "uncircumcised"] boys (who did not make void the compact of God, but they who neglected to circumcise them) to perish? But they made void the compact of God not according to their deed, but according to their origin in the first man, in whom all have sinned. For all are born sinners, not properly but originally. Therefore all perish who are not set free through regeneration.

VERS. 15, 16.-- « Sarai thy wife, » etc. 124A(ISID.) The promise concerning the calling of the Gentiles is declared in Isaac, the son of promise, that is, of grace, not of nature, since he is of an aged father and a barren mother: and because this was to be not by generation, as Ismael was, but by regeneration, circumcision was commanded, when the son of Sara is promised in the type of the Church, not when Ismael is, who is the type of the Jews.

(HIERON.-ISID.) They err who think that Sara was at first written with one r, and that afterward another r. was added. And because r among the Greeks signifies a hundred, they surmise many follies about this name, whereas, however they may wish the word to have been changed, it ought to have not a Greek but a Hebrew reckoning. For it is Hebrew. For no one, calling anyone whatsoever in one language, takes the etymology of the word from 124Banother. Sarai therefore was at first called ( ) by scin, res, iod. When therefore the iod was taken away, the letter he was added, which is read for a, and she was called Sara ( ). For before she was called my princess, because she was as it were the mother of one family: afterward, absolutely, a princess, being namely about to be princess of all nations. Some most wretchedly surmise that she was first called leprosy, and afterward a princess, since leprosy is called sarai ( ), which in our tongue seems to have some likeness, but in the Hebrew is utterly different. For it is written by zadich and ain and res and tau; which manifestly differs from the three above, that is, schin, res and he, by which Sara is written.

VERS. 17, 18.-- « Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed in his heart. » (HIERON.) A little after 124Cthere follows: « And thou shalt call his name Isaac: » which laughter is interpreted of the laughter of Abraham, not of the laughter of Sara. For after his son was called Isaac from the laughter of Abraham, Sara is read to have laughed.

« His name Isaac. » It is to be known that four in the Old Testament were called openly by their own names before they were born: Ismael, Isaac, Samson and Josias. Read the Scriptures.

VERS. 19.-- « I will establish my compact, » etc. But the compact of the Lord is with Isaac, that is, with the faithful people, whom mother Church has begotten through faith and baptism. « And an everlasting covenant, » because the possession of eternal life is promised to him alone who with his head, Christ, shall possess the kingdom of heaven for ever.

VERS. 20.-- « Upon Ismael, » etc. Historically. 124DIsmael signifies the people of the Jews, which was multiplied exceedingly; he begot twelve princes, since the multitude of carnal Jews, begotten of the twelve patriarchs, was divided into twelve tribes.

VERS. 21.-- « In the other year. » The other year, wherein Sara bore Isaac, is the times of regeneration, in which the blood of Christ was poured out and the human race restored to life.

VERS. 22.-- « God went up to Abraham, » [Vulg. Gn 17:22 ascendit Deus ab Abraham, "God went up from Abraham"] etc. ( Glossa Graeca. ) Therefore, so to speak, he had come down, and had shown himself humble, in appointing the law of circumcision.

VERS. 23-27.-- « And Abraham took, » etc. God did not intend that only the foreskin of the flesh of Abraham 125Aand of his offspring should be circumcised, but upon him whom he had chosen out of all he was conferring the gifts of the eternal Testament; whence Paul, Phil. III: « For we are the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit. » And elsewhere, Rom. II: « For it is not he that is in the open who is a Jew, neither is that circumcision which is in the open, in the flesh. » Let us therefore circumcise by the word of God our ears, our lips, our heart, our foreskin and all the members of the flesh. Of the circumcision of the ears it is said, Luc. VIII: « He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; » with uncircumcised ears we cannot hear the words of wisdom and of truth. Let us circumcise our lips, that we speak nothing base, or evil, or idle. He circumcises the flesh of the foreskin who uses marriage for the sole cause of posterity, at fixed and lawful seasons: he who does otherwise 125Bdoes not circumcise. But the Church, strengthened by the grace of Christ crucified for her, refrains herself not only from things unlawful, but even from things allowed, and as a virgin spouse of Christ flourishes with chaste virgins, in whom the true circumcision of the foreskin is kept in the flesh. But he who does not commit adultery by obscene desires, or by heretical opinions and blasphemous assertions, but keeps the purity of faith in his conscience, is circumcised in heart: and of him it can be said: « Blessed are the clean of heart (Matth. V), » etc. Let the hands be circumcised, that they do no evil, the feet, that they run not into evil: the sight, that it covet not unlawful things; the taste, that it eat and drink to the glory of God; the smell, that it may take the odour of Christ, and by works of mercy scatter abroad the odour of sweetness. Each several member also, if it serve God in its offices, 125Cis circumcised. If they run riot beyond the law prescribed, uncircumcised.

(HIERON.-STRAB.) It is wont to be asked: how were women saved, who were not circumcised? By faith, namely, and by the offering of victims, as before circumcision holy men were cleansed whence: « Purifying their hearts by faith. »

VERS. 1.-- « And the Lord appeared to him in the vale of Mambre. » (ISID. in Gen. ) Abraham bears a threefold figure: the first, of the Saviour, who leaving his kindred came into the world; the second, of the Father, because he offered up his only Son; the third (which appears in this place), of the saints who received the coming of Christ with joy 125D. The tabernacle of Abraham signifies Jerusalem, where in their season the prophets and the apostles dwelt, and Christ at his coming was received by them that believed, and by them that believed not was hanged upon the tree.

VERS. 2, 3.-- « Three men. » Three men announce the coming of Christ, whom two angels accompany, Moses according to some, and Elias; the one a lawgiver, who in the law showed the coming of the Lord: the other, who is to come at the end, to announce the second coming of Christ and to preach his Gospel. Whence, when the Lord was transfigured on the mountain, they are seen with him. « He saw three, and adored one, » showing namely the Saviour, whose coming he was awaiting. Whence: « Abraham saw my day and was 126Aglad (Joan. VIII). » [Vulg. Jo 8:56 Abraham pater vester exsultavit ut videret diem meum : vidit, et gavisus est, "Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad"] For he foresaw the mystery of the sacrament to come. Whence he washed their feet, that he might show the purification of the laver that was to be at the end of the world; for the feet signify the last things.

« Whom when he had seen. » (GREG., lib. IX Moral., c. 51.) Morally. Abraham ran to meet three angels, because the man and master of the house, that is, the spiritual understanding, ought in the knowledge of the Trinity to pass beyond the barriers of the flesh, and as it were to go out at the door of the lowest dwelling. Let the care of the flesh, which Sara signifies, not appear abroad for ostentation, but behind the man's back, that is, under the discretion of the spirit, intent upon necessary things alone, let it not know how to uncover itself shamelessly, but to govern itself modestly.

(Ibid., lib. XXVIII, c. 4). Abraham could not have seen the angels, received them into his lodging and set food before them, 126Bunless they had taken a body out of air: for they would not appear, they would not take food, unless they had a solid body of a heavenly element. Nor is it strange that now they are called angels, now the Lord, because they are called angels who minister without, and the Lord is shown, who commands them within.

VERS. 4, 5.-- « But I will fetch. » He returns to the offices of hospitality, which can be shown even to angels, when they take a bodily form out of the elements: which Abraham understanding, adored the Godhead in unity, and ministered to the angelic dispensation in visible form.

VERS. 6.-- « Three sata. » These things are said in the type of the Church, which out of the three parts of the world is gathered into the unity of faith, and as bread without leaven 126Cis baked by the fire of the Holy Ghost.

(STRAB.) A satum is a kind of measure. Three sata signify the three sons of Noah, out of whom the whole race of men was sown abroad. Therefore the Church is signified, or the evangelical doctrine that is to be sown throughout the whole world, and to be multiplied in the three parts of the world, Asia, Africa and Europe.

« Three sata, » of which Sara makes the loaves baked under the ashes, signify the three sons of Noah, out of whom the whole race of men was born: who, believing in the divine Trinity, were sprinkled with the water of baptism through Sara, that is, the Church, and were brought together into the one bread of the body of Christ. These are the three sata of meal which the woman in the Gospel leavened: they are unleavened loaves, because without the leaven of malice, and the anguish [ Al., rancore] 126Dof wickedness, and the fervour of perverse doctrine, the unity of believers ought to be.

« Baked under the ashes. » They are baked under the ashes, that being baked by the vapour of the Holy Ghost through repentance for their sins, they may be made food acceptable to God.

VERS. 7.-- « A calf most tender. » The tender and fatted calf is the body of Christ, which for the salvation of the world was offered up upon the tree of the cross. This is the calf that is killed for the prodigal son.

VERS. 8.-- « Butter and milk » he set before them with the flesh of the calf, because milk signifies the old law; whence I Cor. III: « Milk I gave you to drink, not meat, » etc. For he had delivered to them the commandment of the law, as milk pressed out of the breasts of the two tables, that is 127Athe testament of faith, because they could not yet take the solid meat of the evangelical doctrine. The most rich and fat butter is the evangelical testimony, which like oil is given to the faithful for a sign. He set the calf before them with milk and butter, because neither can the body of the Lord be without the milk of the law, nor this without the Gospel. And they sat under the tree in sign of the Lord's passion, whereof they are the preachers.

VERS. 9.-- « Behold she is in the tabernacle, » etc. (STRAB.) Abraham is without with the angels, Sara is in the tabernacle: because it belongs to the strong and the learned to preach openly, to instruct by examples: to the weak and the unwise, to learn and to be subject.

« VERS. 10.--And she shall have a son, » etc. God promises a son to the barren Sara, saying: About this time 127BI will come; he signifies not the time, but the quality of his coming, since through the son promised again the faithful people was to be born. Whence Isa. LIV and Gal. IV: « Rejoice, thou barren, that travailest not, » etc.

« Which when she had heard, etc. (AUG. Quaest in Gen. ) Sara is reproved because she laughed, and not Abraham, although he had laughed in like manner; because Abraham's laughter was of wonder, Sara's of doubt, which he could discern who knows the heart. Sara denies that she laughed, whereas she cannot be hidden from God, but perhaps she thought that they were men. But Abraham understood God, yet in rendering the offices of humanity, which are necessary only to weak flesh; it is strange: unless he first judged them men, but men in whom he understood God to speak, certain signs of the divine majesty appearing: as Scripture often testifies that God 127Cappeared in men, but afterward they knew that they had been angels.

VERS. 11.-- « And they were, » etc. The age of the elderly is less than that of the old, even though the old be called elderly. Whence, according to the physicians, an elderly man cannot get children of an elderly woman, even though the courses of women still flow. According to this Abraham wonders at the power of God concerning the promise of a son, and we can take it that the Apostle set down this miracle. For the body was not altogether dead for generation, if the woman had been of youthful age: but of one of advanced age he could not beget: for of Cethura he afterward begot, because she was young. For the physicians hand down that an old man cannot beget of a woman of more advanced age (even though the courses of women befall her), 127Dbut of a young one he can. Again a woman of advanced age, even though the courses of women still befall her, cannot bear by an elderly man, but by a young one she can. It was therefore a miracle, because both were old and of advanced age, and the courses of women had ceased for Sara.

VERS. 12-14.-- « Shall I give myself to pleasure? » etc. (GREG. lib. IX Moral., c. 51.) The care of the flesh, etc., as far as what else does our mind bring forth than joy?

VERS. 15.-- « I did not laugh, etc. (AMBR.) Or she therefore denied that she had laughed, because she was ignorant; she therefore laughed, because she prophesied.

VERS. 17-19.-- « Can I hide from Abraham what « I am about to do. » Well does the Lord commit his secrets to Abraham, 128Awhom he knew to be a faithful executor of his will and of his secrets; of whom he himself was to be born in the flesh, « in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden (II Cor. II). » He promises also to Abraham not only rewards, but the justice of the obedience of his sons, and that the promises should be fulfilled concerning them. And again Isaac is promised, « about to be a great nation, » and that « in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. » [Vulg. Gn 18:18 benedicendae sint in illo omnes nationes terrae, "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him"] By which words two things are promised him: the Jewish nation according to the flesh, and all the Gentiles through faith.

VERS. 20.-- « The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha, » etc. (AUG. Q. in Gen. ) If we take these words as those not of one doubting, but of one angry and threatening, there is no question. For after the manner of men God speaks 128Bto men, and his anger is without disturbance, because he is unchangeable. But often in threatening we say thus: Let us see whether I do not do it to thee, and whether I shall not be able to do it to thee; or, let me know, that is, let me try whether I cannot. But disturbance does not fall upon God. It is the custom of human speech, to which God fits himself, that he may suit himself to human weakness.

(GREG. lib. V Moral., cap. 7.) But sin with a voice is a fault in action. But sin with a cry is a fault with liberty.

VERS. 21-23.-- « I will go down and see, » etc. (GREG., Moral., c. 33.) Let us not believe men's evil deeds before we prove them. And behold, through angels he came down to know their evils, and finding them wrapped in so great a crime 128C, he as it were passed over his patience, and forestalled them with the fire of judgment before the day of judgment: who judges with tranquillity, that the greater crimes may be slowly believed, and, when truly known, more swiftly punished.

(GREG., lib. I Reg., c. 178, tom. I.) Whither should God go down, that he might know what things had been done? Or what should he not know, who is everywhere? But that he might give to our ignorance an example of discretion, that we ought not to believe grievous evils on hearing them, he says of himself that he goes down to know, of whom it is plain to all that even without going down he would know all things.

(HILAR., lib. IX, de Trin.) We have God not knowing that which nevertheless he is not ignorant of. For since he knows the sins to be exceeding great, he goes down again that he may see whether they are consummated; and if they are not yet consummated 128D, that he may know: we understand that he does not then know them because he was ignorant before; but that he then knows, because it is the time for acting. Therefore for God not to know is not a diminution of ignorance, but the fulness of time.

VERS. 24-26.-- « If there be fifty just men, » etc. (ISID.) The number fifty, from which he descends down to ten, signifies penance. Whence also the fiftieth psalm is penitential. If therefore they had been converted, they would have been saved. But when God sees the offenders unwilling to be converted to penance, straightway he restrains the heat of immoderate luxury with the fire of hell. He said that up to ten just men Sodom should not perish, because if in any man the name of Christ be found through the keeping of the ten commandments, he shall not 129Aperish. For the figure of the number ten signifies also the cross of Christ.

VERS. 27.-- « I will speak to the Lord, » etc. (GREG. lib. XVIII Moral., c. 33.) Mystically. The more the saints look into the inward things of the Godhead, the more do they see themselves to be nothing. Nowhere is Abraham read to have professed himself ashes and dust, save when he deserved to have speech with God. And he said: « I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust, » etc. For perhaps he would have believed himself to be something, if he had not felt the true essence which is above him. Whence David also cries out: « Remember, Lord, that I am dust (Psal. X), » etc.

Morally. Some it lifts up not through the swelling of understanding, but through works of mercy; certain men, while they see themselves 129Bto abound in earthly things, do not seek the true riches, and love not the eternal kingdom, because they think temporal things sufficient. The fault therefore is not in the understanding, but in the affection. For all things which God founded are good. But he who uses good things ill, acts so that through the gluttony of voracity he dies by that bread whereby he ought to have lived. Lazarus the poor man had come to rest, torments were racking the proud rich man (Luc. XVI): yet Abraham had been rich, who held Lazarus in his bosom. Yet he says: « I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes, » etc. How did he value his riches, who accounted himself dust and ashes? Openly we discern in what place he had set himself, who accounted himself dust and ashes even while he spoke with God. With what punishment therefore are they to be struck, who 129Cmake no progress toward the highest things and exalt themselves over the least?

VERS. 28-33.-- « There be five. » Five cities were burned with showers of fire. For all who have handled the five senses of the body lustfully are to be burned in the fire to come.

« What if there be found, » etc. (ALC.) It is not necessary to take this of every place. But of Sodom it could be said, because God knew that there were not even ten there, and therefore it was thus answered to Abraham, to the aggravating of the iniquity of the Sodomites

« Ten. » The number ten designates the cross of Christ, because the letter X, by which ten is expressed, is formed in the figure of a cross.

« He said. » For he knew that there was not even one there besides 129DLot; this is said to the aggravating of their iniquity, as in Jeremias: « See if you find a man doing justice (Jer. V); [Vulg. Jr 5:1 an inveniatis virum facientem judicium, "whether you can find a man doing judgment"] as if to say: Find but one, and I spare them.

VERS. 1.-- « And there came two angels, » etc. It is to be noted that three angels appear to Abraham in an odd number, because God rejoices in an odd number. To Sodom they came in an even number, that is, two, which number is the first that departs from unity, and is the chief of otherness, figuring as it were a womanish softness. They came in the « evening, » because the sun of justice had already set for the Sodomites. « Who when he had seen, » etc. While Lot runs to meet them 130Aand adores, he seems to understand that they are angels; while he invites them to the refreshing of the body, he seems to think that they are men. So of these and of those who appeared to Abraham the same is to be understood. And from this place of Scripture and from many others the virtue of hospitality is commended. Whence Paul, Heb. XIII: « Forget not hospitality: for by this some have pleased God, having received angels to their lodging. » [Vulg. Hbr 13:2 per hanc enim latuerunt quidam, angelis hospitio receptis, "for by this some have entertained angels unawares"]

( Glossa Graeca. ) It is to be noted that where the benefits of God are set forth, God is present; but where punishments are executed, angels are sent; that we may know that to do good is proper to God, delightful and pleasing to God, but that to take vengeance is unwelcome to God.

VERS. 2.-- « Wash. » Which is wont to be done for guests, that the affections, soiled with earthly dust, and with sloth, and 130Bwith faint-heartedness, as with dusty filth, may be cleansed. Whence in monasteries a prayer is celebrated for those who come from the road.

VERS. 3-7.-- « He pressed them. » (ALC.) The angels as though compelled enter the house of Lot, that his charity, being tried and approved, might be rewarded, and that it might be shown how great a good hospitality is. They entered a hospitable house, and set the host free; the fire, entering the houses that were shut to guests, destroyed the sinners.

VERS. 8, 9.-- « I have two daughters. » (AUG., Q. in Gen.) It is deservedly asked: is a balancing of outrages, or of any sins whatever, to be admitted, that we may do evils lest worse be done: or is it to be attributed to Lot's disturbance, and not to his counsel? and doubtless 130Cthis balancing is admitted most perilously. But if it was a disturbance of mind, it is in no wise to be imitated.

VERS. 10.-- « And they brought in Lot to them. » (GREG., l. VI Moral., cap. 16.) While the wicked oppose him, Lot is brought back within the house and fortified: because every just man, bearing the snares of the depraved, returns to his mind, and remains undismayed. The Sodomites cannot find the door in the house of Lot: because the corrupters of minds find no entrance of reproof against the life of the just man. Struck with blindness they go round the house as it were, because in their envy they scrutinize his deeds and words. But because on every side, out of the just man's life, a strong and praiseworthy action meets them, they wander and grope at the wall.

VERS. 11-13.-- « And they struck them with blindness. » (AUG. 130Dubi supra.) In Greek ἀορασία, that is, avidentia, if it may be so called, which causes that a thing be not seen, not all things, but that which is not needful. For how would they fail in seeking the door, if they had been struck with blindness so that they saw nothing? for troubled by their own calamity they would have sought nothing further. With this ἀορασία were they struck who sought Eliseus, and who, walking with Christ after the resurrection, did not know him.

VERS. 14.-- « He went out, » etc. (HIER., in Q. Hebr.) In what follows the daughters of Lot are read to have been virgins; and he himself said to the Sodomites: « Behold I have two daughters who have not known man, » [Vulg. Gn 19:8 Habeo duas filias, quae necdum cognoverunt virum, "I have two daughters who have not yet known man"] etc. But now he is said to have had sons-in-law. But some think that those who had husbands perished in Sodom, and that those who were virgins 131Awent out with their father. But the Hebrew verity has. « Lot went out, and spoke to the spouses who were to receive his daughters: » therefore his daughters, being virgins, had not yet been joined in marriage.

VERS. 15, 16.-- « And when it was morning, » etc. (ISID.) Mystically. Lot, the brother of Abraham, just and hospitable in Sodom, signifies the body of Christ, which in all the saints groans among the wicked, to whose deeds it does not consent, and from whose commingling it shall be set free at the end of the world, when they are condemned to the punishment of eternal fire

VERS. 17-19.-- « In the mountain. » (STRAB.) Morally. The mountain signifies the height of the virtues, to which the angel exhorts, according to that of Marci XIX. « If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, » [Vulg. Mt 19:21 vade, vende quae habes, et da pauperibus, "go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor"] etc. But he who shall see that he cannot climb up, it is better 131Bthat he remain in Segor, that is, in the little one, content with a lay and common life, than that he seize upon the mountain of virtue and return to secular things. Virginity is a high mountain, to which the angel exhorts: if any man sees that he cannot climb up, let him remain in Segor, that is, in lawful wedlock, because it is better to use a middling good than to be hurled down the precipices of lust. Whence I Cor. VII: « Let every man have a wife because of fornication. » « Neither can I in the mountain: » that is, being disturbed he did not believe the Lord, whom he recognized in the angels, as being disturbed he prostituted his daughters.

VERS. 20.-- « There is a city, » etc. (ISID.) Allegorically. Sodom is interpreted blindness, and expresses worldly desires: the height of the mountains, the contemplation of the perfect. But because many flee the enticements of the world, and yet 131Cbeing set in action cannot reach the summit of contemplation, Lot went out from Sodom, but did not come to the mountains. Whence Lot says: « There is this city near, » etc. It is called « Near, » and yet it is safe for salvation, because the active life is neither wholly severed from the cares of the world, nor a stranger to the joy of eternal salvation.

« To which I can, » etc. Those who are not able to ascend to the contemplative life flee to the active life, in which they are saved.

(GREG., Past. III, 28.) Morally. To flee burning Sodom, etc., as far as whence it is said to Lot:

VERS. 21-23.-- « Behold also in this I have heard thy prayers, » because when prayer is poured out to God, such a life of wedlock is not condemned; whence I Cor. VII: « Do not 131Ddefraud one another, » etc.

VERS. 24.-- « And the Lord rained upon Sodom, » etc. (GREG.) Brimstone, the stench of the flesh, fire, the burning of carnal desire; when the Lord had determined to punish the crimes of the flesh, by the quality of the vengeance the stain of the crime was made known. For brimstone stinks, fire burns; they therefore who had burned unto perverse desires with the stench of the flesh, perished justly by brimstone and fire, that from a just punishment they might learn what they had done by unjust desire.

(STRAB.) It is to be noted that the water of the flood destroyed the first sinners, who in like manner had offended God by the concupiscence of the flesh. But the Sodomites perished by a heavier punishment, namely by a flood of fire and brimstone. For although those exceeded the measure, they sinned as it were naturally 132A; but these against nature: therefore they were condemned by the example of the heaviest punishment.

VERS. 25.-- « All the inhabitants. » (ALC.) The infants were burned with their parents in Sodom, lest the most impious deed of the Sodomites could be turned aside, if any trace of their stock remained. And it was provided for them, lest living long they should follow the examples of their fathers and be punished more grievously. The parents also are guilty as much for themselves as for them. For the death of the sons is the crime of the parents. Therefore they shall be their accusers. It is also some kind of benefit, for him who is not glorious, not to be guilty; for it profits him who cannot be a king not to be poor.

VERS. 26-28.-- « And his wife looking back. » (ISID.) Mystically. The wife figures the kind of those who, being called by grace 132B, look back, and strive to return to the things they had left; of whom it is said, Luc. IX: « No man putting his hand on the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. » Therefore it is forbidden them to look back. Wherein it is shown that there is no returning to the old life for those who have been regenerated through grace, if they desire to escape the last burning; the wife looking back was turned into salt, being made namely an example, and a seasoning whereby others may be salted. Whence Christ says, Luc. XVII: « Remember the wife of Lot, » that he might season us as it were with salt, that we should not be negligent, but should beware prudently.

VERS. 29.-- « For when he overthrew, » etc. Scripture intimates that God delivered Lot rather by the merits of Abraham, that we may understand that he was called just in a certain manner, 132Cchiefly because he worshipped the one and true God, and by comparison with the Sodomites, among whom living he could not be bent to the like crime. « He remembered Abraham. » It is plain that Lot was delivered by the merits of Abraham, whom Scripture calls just. And it is to be known that he was just, not as Abraham was, but by comparison with the Sodomites.

VERS. 30.-- « And he went up, » etc. So the married sometimes ascend from the lowliness of the active life to the height of the contemplative.

« And Lot went up from Segor, » etc. (HIER. in Q. Hebr., tom. III.) It is asked why, when at first he preferred Segor to flight into the mountain, etc., as far as he ought not to have doubted.

VERS. 31.-- « And the elder said to the younger, » etc. 132DWhich is said in excuse of the daughters, because they thought that the human race had failed, and therefore lay with their father. But that which follows does not excuse the father, « and he knew not that they had slept with him; » for the Hebrews mark it above with an obelus, as superfluous, as though it were incredible, because the nature of things does not admit that anyone should have intercourse unknowing.

(STRAB.) Lot is inexcusable, first because he did not believe the angel; then because he was made drunk, and sin was the cause of sin.

(HIERON.) So depraved suggestion and delight, like incestuous women, lie in wait for the continent, that, having taken occasion, they may steep with the wine of deceit those who are torpid, and cast them down from the state of uprightness as though unwitting.

133AVERS. 32.-- « Come, let us make him drunk, » etc. (ALC.) The two daughters of Lot had learned that the consummation of the world was to be by fire: but, as girls not perfect, neither did they know that, when the Sodomites had been laid waste by fire, much space remained entire; and they supposed that some such thing had been done as they had heard of in the times of Noah, and that they were left surviving with their father for the repairing of the human race. And although the lying with their father was a great crime, a heavier impiety seemed if, keeping their chastity, they should destroy the hope of posterity. Therefore they take counsel, and soften their father's sadness or sternness with wine, and each on her several night receives conception from him without his knowledge, and they do not repeat it.

VERS. 33-35.-- « They gave, » etc. (ISID.) Lot in this place signifies the law, because certain men begotten of her, 133Band set under her, by understanding ill do in a manner make themselves drunk; and by using her not lawfully, they bring forth the works of unbelief. For the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.

VERS. 36.-- « They conceived therefore, » etc. (HIER.) Moab ( ) is interpreted from the father, and the whole name has its etymology. But Ammon, of whom as it were the reason of the name is rendered, son of my kindred, or, as it is better in the Hebrew, benammi ( ) that is son of my people, is so derived that in part it is the sense of the name, in part the word itself. For Ammon, from whom the Ammonites, is called my people.

VERS. 37, 38. « She called his name Moab, » etc. (THEOD.) This one seems the more shameless, who wished to transmit her incest even to posterity. For Moab 133Csignifies from the father: the other the more modest, who gave her son the name Benammi, that is son of my people.

VERS. 1.-- « Setting forward thence, » etc. Cades, the fountain of judgment; Sur, narrowness; by which patience is figured.

VERS. 2-6.-- « And he said of Sara, » etc. (AUG.) It is commonly asked how at that age Abraham could fear peril on account of Sara's beauty: but the force of her form is to be wondered at, which could still be loved.

« And he said of Sara, » etc. (ISID., in Gen., tom. VI.) He was silent that she was his wife, and said she was his sister, lest he himself should be killed and she be possessed as a captive by strangers, being sure that she would be kept inviolate by God, as at Pharaoh's court, 133Detc., as far as « Call not [any man] father upon earth, for one is your Father who is in heaven. »

« And he said, » etc. (AUG.) As to what is said to Abimelech on Sara's behalf, « And I spared thee, that thou shouldst not sin against me, » [Vulg. custodivi te, "I kept thee"] it is to be observed that God did this when he warned him that she whom he thought a sister was Abraham's wife. And it is to be noted that sin is committed against God when such things are done as men think either not to be sins, or to be reckoned light, as being sins in the flesh.

VERS. 7-11.-- « He shall pray for thee, » etc. (CHRYSOST., hom. 45 in Gen.) But know thou that his prayers shall grant thee life.

VERS. 12.-- « Otherwise also, » etc. (HIERON.) Since 134Ain the Hebrew there stands vegam ( ) that is, also truly « she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, » and it sounds rather that she was Abraham's sister. In excuse we say that such marriages were not yet forbidden by law.

« The daughter of my father. » Another translation, more plainly, « from a father, and not from a mother; » for she was the daughter of Aran, Abraham's brother, and Lot's sister.

VERS. 13.-- « But after God brought me out of my father's house, I said to her, » etc. After the word of God was rejected from Judaea, all the faithful are Christ's brothers and sisters; whence Matth. XII: « Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother. »

134BVERS. 14.-- « He took therefore. » Allegorically Abraham signifies Christ, Sara the Church. Abraham is honored on account of Sara's beauty, and Christ on account of the Church; whence psal. LXVII: « God is wonderful in his saints. » Sara had a husband, but he lay hidden; the Church has Christ, who is not seen in the world, being received into heaven.

VERS. 15.-- « Wheresoever it shall please thee, » etc. They who had once put off believing through fear of princes, at the bidding of those same princes betook themselves to the Church, which is Christ's sister and wife, and spread abroad the glory of Christ and of the Church through all the parts of the world.

VERS. 16.-- « A thousand pieces of silver, » etc. He speaks as though in jest: because she called him her brother who 134Cwas her husband, and he exhorts her to remember this hereafter, lest she afterwards, being caught, incur a like reproach. A thousand pieces of silver are given to Christ when eloquent teachers of the world are taken up out of Gentile converse to hold and to preach the faith of Christ. For the number of a thousand, squared from the number ten, designates the stable and solid doctrine of evangelical preaching.

VERS. 17.-- « And when he prayed. » When the Son prays the Father, the barrenness of worldly men, and of princes, and of subject peoples is healed.

VERS. 1-3.-- « And God visited Sara, » [Vulg. Dominus, "the Lord"] etc. The figure of circumcision is manifold. For it is 134Daccording to the Apostle a seal of the justice of faith, to Abraham and to his seed, and a judgment for chastising those who should belong to this seed and faith; and there arises from this seed a prophecy of the Saviour, who should cleanse us in the present life from all sin through baptism, and in the time to come, after the resurrection, free us from all corruption of death. And the number eight befits the glory of the resurrection: for the Lord rose on the eighth day, that is, after the seventh, the sabbath; and we, after the six ages of this world and the seventh, the sabbath, that is, the rest of souls which meanwhile is passed in the other life, shall rise again as at an eighth season, stripped of all the carnal corruptions and vices of concupiscence (in which lust chiefly reigns).

135AVERS. 4.-- « He circumcised » etc. (STRAB.) Although circumcision was enjoined for many causes, it holds forth in a special way the figure of Christ, who through baptism strips us of the old man, and in the time to come, after the resurrection, will circumcise away all mortality and corruption. And in that Isaac was circumcised on the eighth day, the eighth age of the world is designated, when the resurrection of the saints shall be generally celebrated.

VERS. 8.-- « The child grew therefore, » etc. He grows who, disposing ascents in his heart, comes to the solid food of doctrine. Whence, grow, and thou shalt eat me.

« He grew, » etc. (AUG.) Not on the day of his son's birth, nor on the day of his circumcision, but on the day of his weaning did he make a feast: because great ought to be the joy 135Bof the spiritual age, when a man has been made such as may be fed with solid food, like to those to whom it is said I Cor. III: « I gave you milk to drink, not meat. »

VERS. 9.-- « And when Sara had seen. » etc. (HIER.) This is expounded in two ways: either that he made sport for idols, according to that of Exod. XXXII: « The people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to play. » Or that against Isaac, as standing in the place of the elder in age, he claimed the birthright for himself; which Sara hearing did not bear.

VERS. 10.-- « Cast out this bondwoman, » etc. (BED., c. 21; ISID., c. 17, in Gen.) It is asked: why did Sara before wish to receive a son by the bondwoman, or why does she now bid him be cast out 135Cwith his mother? Which she does not do inflamed with jealousy, but compelled by the mystery of prophecy. For Agar, according to the Apostle, brought forth the carnal people unto bondage; but Sara the spiritual and free people, with which freedom Christ has set us free. It was signified therefore by this mystery that the former people, begotten in bondage, does not remain in the house of Sara, that is, of the Church, for ever, nor is heir or partner of Christians, nor possesses the kingdom of glory together with the noble son, that is, the faithful people.

VERS. 11, 12.-- « He took it hard, » etc. (AUG.) It is asked why Abraham was made sorrowful, since this was a prophecy which he rather than Sara ought to have known: but Sara said from revelation what had first been revealed to her. He however was moved 135Dby a father's affection, to whom the Lord afterwards revealed it. Or perhaps both of them at first knew not what it was, and it was prophesied through Sara who knew it not, when she was moved with a woman's mind on account of the bondwoman's pride.

VERS. 13.-- « For thy seed. » (AUG.) It is to be noted that Ismael also was called by God the seed of Abraham, whereas the Apostle says Rom. IX: « Not the children of the flesh, but the children of the promise shall be counted in the seed. » But this belongs properly to Isaac, who is not the son of the flesh, but of the promise, and is spiritual seed from the promise, not from the flesh.

VERS. 14.-- « Taking bread. » etc. (ALC. EX BEDA, c. 21.) When therefore Abraham cast out Agar, taking bread, he laid it upon her shoulders for this cause, etc. as far as 136Abecause certain of the people are to seek refuge under the shadow of the wood of the cross.

« He took bread and a bottle of water. » [Vulg. tollens, "taking" — the participle Migne's own lemma prints above] (AUG. Q. in Gen. tom. III.) It is asked: how did he lay upon her shoulders a boy so great? For he who, before Isaac was born, had been circumcised at thirteen years old, when Abraham was ninety-nine, and Isaac was born when his father was a hundred; and Ismael was playing with Isaac when Sara was moved, doubtless with a boy somewhat grown, who had already been weaned: assuredly he was more than sixteen years old when he was driven out with his mother. But granting that we take what is said of his playing with the little one as said by recapitulation, before Isaac was weaned; even so a boy of more than thirteen years could not be laid upon his mother's shoulders; 136Bbut it must be supplied, he gave over her boy, etc.

« He laid it on her shoulder. » (HIER. in Q. Hebr.) When Isaac was born, Ismael was thirteen years old, and after his weaning he is driven out with his mother. Among the Hebrews the opinion varies, some asserting the time of his weaning to have been appointed at the fifth year, others at the twelfth. We therefore, that we may choose the shorter age, reckon Ismael to have been cast out with his mother after eighteen years, and that it did not befit one already a youth to have sat upon his mother's neck. But that idiom of the Hebrew tongue is true, that every son is called an infant and a little one in comparison with his parents. At Rome too, even to this day, all sons are called infants.

VERS. 15-21.-- « She cast the boy. » etc. (HIER.) 136CThat which follows: « And she cast the boy under one fir tree, and going away sat over against him afar off, as it were a bowshot. » [Vulg. abjecit puerum subter unam arborum … seditque e regione procul quantum potest arcus jacere, "under one of the trees" … "as far as a bow can shoot"] For she said: I shall not see the death of my little one, and she sat over against him; and at once it is joined. And the boy cried out and wept; and the Lord heard the voice of the boy from heaven, where he was, and the angel said to Agar: Let nothing move. For in the Hebrew this is written first: « I shall not see the death of my boy. » So it is read consequently, that Agar sat over against the boy, and lifted up her voice, and wept, and God heard the voice of the little one. For while the mother wept and awaited the death of her son, God heard the boy, whom he had promised should be for a great nation. For the mother bewails not her own death, but her son's.

(AUG. Q. in Gen., tom. III.) It is asked how 136Dthe mother, etc., as far as as those walking, of whatever age, often do.

VERS. 17.-- « And he heard. » (BED. et ISID. ubi supra.) The boy cries out weeping, and God heard him; and, an angel showing it, she beholds the fountain, and it is said for those who are converted to Christ, and who, weeping for their sins, are heard, and with the eyes of the heart opened see the fountain of water, that is, Christ, who says Joan. VII « He that thirsteth, let him come to me and drink. » [Vulg. Si quis sitit, "If any man thirst"] The angel signifies Elias, through whom the people is to believe. Whence Malach. IV: « Behold I will send you Elias, who shall turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children. » [Vulg. Mal. 4:5-6, two verses joined: Eliam prophetam, antequam veniat dies Domini … Et convertet cor patrum ad filios]

« The angel of the Lord. » [Vulg. angelus Dei, "the angel of God"] (ISID.) In that Scripture pronounces him who speaks to Agar first an angel, afterwards the Lord, 137Ahe is to be believed to have been the Son of God, who spoke through the law and the prophets, who through obedience to the Father's will is called an angel, but according to nature is God.

VERS. 22.-- « At the same time. » (AUG. ubi supra.) It can be asked when Abraham made a compact with Abimelech, etc., as far as which she knew not.

VERS. 23-30.-- « Swear therefore, » etc. Often they who are without, drawn on by the converse of the faithful, desire to be joined to them and to be formed to better things by their examples, that they may take counsel both for themselves and for their neighbours' salvation.

VERS. 31, 32.-- « Therefore it was called, » etc. There is a twofold cause why it was called in Hebrew Bersabee: either because Abimelech received seven ewe-lambs from the hand 137Bof Abraham. For seven are called sabee, or because they swore there, for sabaa signifies an oath. But if we read this cause above this name, it is said by prolepsis; as Bethel and Galgala, which, before they had these names, were called otherwise. It is to be noted from what goes before and from the present passage that Isaac was not born at the oak of Mambre ( Alon in Hebrew, in Latin an oak ) as is had in the Hebrew, but in Gerara, where Bersabee is a town even to this day, which province not long ago was called Salutaris from the division of the governors of Palestine. Whence Abraham dwelt in the land of the Palestinians many days.

VERS. 33, 34.-- « But Abraham, » etc. (AUG.) Abraham (as Stephen says) had not received an inheritance 137Cthere, nor the space of a foot. But the inheritance is to be understood which God was about to give freely, not bought with a price. And the space about the well is understood in reference to that space of purchase for which the seven ewe-lambs had been given, when Abimelech and Abraham swore to one another.

VERS. 1.-- « Which things after they were done, » etc. (AUG., Quaest. in Gen., tom. III.) James says that God tempts no man; but in ordinary usage we say "to tempt" for that which is "to prove". James however speaks of that temptation by which every man is entangled in sin [ Al., peccator]. Whence I Thess. I: « Lest perhaps he that tempteth should have tempted you. » For elsewhere it is written Deut. XIII: « 137DYour God tempteth you, that he may know whether you love him, that is, that he may make you to know. » [Vulg. quia tentat vos Dominus Deus vester, ut palam fiat utrum diligatis eum an non, "the Lord your God, … that it may appear openly whether you love him or not"] For a man knows not the powers of his own love, unless he learns it by experience.

VERS. 2.-- « Take thy son, » etc. (ALC. in Gen., tom. I.) Abraham was not bidden to kill his son at once, but to lead him for three days to the sacrifice, that by the length of the time the temptation might be increased. For through three days, with cares increasing, a father's bowels are tormented, and for a long space the father gazes upon his son, takes food with him, so many nights the boy hangs in his father's embrace, lies in his lap, and at every moment the grief of killing his son is heaped up in a father's love.

« Whom thou lovest, » etc. (BEDA in Gen., c. 22.) By the reminder of love and the recalling of the name the temptation 138Ais heaped up, and a father's affection is stirred at the memory of the promise, because it was said: « In Isaac shall thy seed be called, » as though, if he were killed, the whole hope of the promise would be frustrated.

« Go into the land. » (HIER. Q. Hebr., tom. III.) The Hebrews say that this mountain is that in which the temple was afterwards built, on the threshing-floor of Orna the Jebusite. Whence II, Par. III: « They began to build the temple in the second month, on the second day of the month, in mount Moria, » [Vulg. Et coepit Salomon aedificare domum Domini … Coepit autem aedificare mense secundo, anno quarto regni sui, "Solomon began to build the house of the Lord … in the second month, in the fourth year of his reign"] which is for that cause interpreted illuminating and shining, because there is debir ( ) that is, the oracle of God, and the Spirit who teaches men the truth and inspires prophecies.

VERS. 3.-- « Leading his ass, » etc. (ISID. in Gen., c. 18.) The ass signifies the senseless folly of the Jews, which bore all the sacraments and 138Bknew them not.

VERS. 4.-- « And on the third day. » (HIER. ubi supra.) It is to be noted that from Gerara as far as mount Moria, that is, the seat of the temple, is a journey of three days: and Abraham is said to have arrived there on the third day. Wrongly therefore do they think that Abraham dwelt at that time by the oak of Mambre, since to mount Moria there is scarce a full day's journey. The three days in which they came to the place of the sacrifice signify three ages, before the law, from Abraham to Moses; under the law, from Moses to John; thence to the Lord; and whatever remains, the third day is that of grace, in which third age the sacrifice of Christ was completed.

VERS. 5-8.-- « Stay here, » etc. (ISID. ubi supra.) Hear the Apostle: « Blindness in part happeneth 138Cin Israel, » that is, « with the ass, » that « the fulness of the Gentiles might come in, » that is, « after we have adored. » When the sacrifice of the cross shall have been preached among the Gentiles, that is, « when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, we will return to you, » that is, « and so all Israel shall be saved. » The two servants left behind, and not brought to the place of the sacrifice, are the Jews who, living slavishly and savouring carnally, understood not the humility and passion of Christ. Two indeed, because they were to be divided into two parts, which came to pass when Solomon sinned, when the people was divided in respect of the kingdom, not by the error of impiety, to whom it is said Jer. III: « Israel the adversary, and Juda the prevaricator. » [Vulg. aversatrix Israel, comparatione praevaricatricis Judae, "the backslider Israel, in comparison of the treacherous Juda"]

« I and the boy, » etc. (ALC.) With undoubting mind he willed to slay his son. He is to be praised in the constancy 138Dof offering and in the faith of raising up. For he knew most certainly that God cannot deceive, and that, though the boy were killed, yet the promise of God would remain safe. Whence the Apostle Hebr. XI: « By faith Abraham hesitated not, when he offered up his only-begotten, in whom he had received the promise, believing that God is able to raise up even from the dead. » [Vulg. Hbr 11:17,19 Fide obtulit Abraham Isaac, cum tentaretur, "By faith Abraham offered Isaac, when he was tried"; the opening words are not in Hebrews]

« Abraham said. » (ISID. ubi supra.) Abraham, leading his only son to be sacrificed, signifies God the Father. Abraham received a son in old age, but God grows not old, yet the promise concerning Christ had in a manner grown old when he was born. It began from Adam, when it was said: « They shall be two in one flesh » (Gen. II); and it was completed in the sixth age of the world. 139ASara's old age in the people of God, that is, in the multitude of the prophets, signifies this same thing, because in the end of the times Christ was born of the people of holy souls. Her barrenness signifies that in this world we are saved by hope, and that in Christ, as in Isaac, we are all born, which birth of the Church [ Al., Ecclesia] in the end of the times not nature but grace brought forth. Abraham therefore signifies God the Father, Isaac Christ. For as Abraham offered his only and beloved son as a victim to God, so God the Father delivered up his only-begotten Son for us. And as Isaac carried the wood upon which he was to be laid, so Christ the cross on which he was to be fastened.

VERS. 9-11.-- « And when he had bound, » etc. (ISID. ubi supra.) Isaac with his feet bound is laid upon the altar, 139Band Christ is fastened to the cross. But that which was figured by Isaac was transferred to the ram, because Christ is a sheep. For he is a son, because born; a ram, because sacrificed. The ram sticks fast in the briars, the cross has horns. For if two pieces of wood be joined together, the shape of a cross is produced. Whence Habac. III: « Horns in his hands. » The ram therefore sticking fast by the horns is Christ crucified. But briars are thorns: wicked thorns, which hanged the Lord. For among the thorns of sinners he was hanged. Whence Jer.: « With the thorns of their sins this people hath encompassed me (Jer. XXXVIII.) » Others understand this ram bound in the briars to be Christ crowned with thorns before his immolation.

VERS. 12.-- « Thou hast not spared, » etc. (AUG. ubi supra.) Did Abraham then not spare his son 139Con account of the angel? But in the angel the Lord was figured, who is God and the angel of great counsel. For God was in the angel, and spoke in his person. This will appear the more in what follows, when it is said: « And the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven, saying: By my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord. » For it is not easily found that Christ calls the Father Lord, especially before the incarnation. For according to the flesh this is congruously said, according to which it is said in the second psalm: « The Lord said to me, » etc. But that which is said in the same place, c. 9: « The Lord said to my Lord, » etc., is referred to the prophet who speaks; as that: « The Lord rained from the Lord, » that is, our Lord, namely the Son, from our Lord, namely the Father.

139DVERS. 13.-- « The ram. » (ALC.) Historically. The ram which was sacrificed for Isaac, we have not imagined [it], but it is true. Therefore it is rather thought that an angel brought it from elsewhere, than that the Lord created it there out of the earth after the work of the six days.

« The ram among the briars, » etc. (HIER. in Quaest. Hebr.) Aquila put a briar or a thorn-brake, etc., as far as which is so said in Hebrew.

VERS. 14-19.-- « And he called the name, » etc. (HIER. ubi supra.) For that which is had here, etc., as far as namely through the incarnation.

VERS. 20-24.-- « Melcha. » (HIER. ubi supra.) Of Melcha the wife of Nachor, etc., as far as and in that very name it is read in Isaias.

• 140A

VERS. 1-6.-- « And Sara lived, » etc. « And she died in the city of Arbee, » etc. (HIER. in Quaest. Hebr.) Which is in the valley: this is not had in the authentic books, etc., as far as as is openly shown in the book of Josue.

VERS. 7-15.-- « Abraham rose up, » etc. (AUG., Quaest. in Gen.) It is asked how Abraham adored the people of the land, etc., as far as and therefore the adorer was to be corrected.

VERS. 16.-- « And when he had heard, » etc. (HIER., de locis Hebr.) In the Hebrew, as we have set it down, etc., as far as since he also is reproved who has received unwillingly.

VERS. 17-20.-- « And the field was confirmed, » etc. 140B(GREG., lib. VI Moral., c. 25.) He hints at a double sepulchre, etc., as far as or on account of the urgency of action puts off the things to be contemplated.

« The cave. » And the wooded field round about it is bought for the burial of Sara by the patriarch from the lords of the land for four hundred sicles of silver: because, for being free for wisdom and giving study to action, under the leaves of mystical words, as under fruitful trees, a quiet place is not otherwise acquired for preachers, unless by the evangelical doctrine, shining with the brightness of silver, eternal blessedness be urged upon earthly powers by them. Which is well figured by a hundred taken four times, because it is carried over from the left hand to the right.

• 140C

VERS. 1, 2.-- « And Abraham was old . . . . . And he said to his elder servant: Put thy hand, » etc. (GREG.) He bids him put his hand under his thigh, and swear by the God of heaven, because through that member his flesh was to come down who should be Abraham's son by his humanity, and divine by his divinity; as though he said: Touch my Son, and swear by my God. Yet he bids him put his hand not upon the thigh but under the thigh, because thence was to come down one who should be man, yet above men; whence it was not fitting that he should put his hand upon the thigh, because no flesh is above that flesh.

VERS. 3-8.-- « That thou take not. » (GREG.) Allegorically. A wife of the daughters of the Chanaanites is forbidden to Isaac, 140Dbecause no souls of the reprobate are joined to Christ. A wife is bidden to be taken from his kindred, because the Church of the elect alone was to be wedded to Christ, whom the Only-begotten himself, by predestination and foreknowledge, did not already hold as a stranger. The servant who is sent to bring back the wife is the order of the prophets and apostles, and of all teachers; who, while they perform the word of preaching, become the providers, as it were, of every soul that is to be joined to the only-begotten Son.

VERS. 9.-- « He put therefore, » etc. (HIER. in Quaest. Hebr.) The Hebrews hand down that in his sanctification, etc., as far as and that they should bear bravely the weight of tribulation, which the camels signify.

VERS. 10.-- « Of all his goods, » etc. (GREG.) 141ABecause they who speak of the Lord show in themselves the riches of the virtues, that they may invite men so much the more quickly to follow God, as they show forth in themselves to their hearers the things they tell of.

VERS. 11-13.-- « By the well. » (GREG.) He stood by the fountain, and from a sentence fixed beforehand set forth which one was to be chosen, because holy preachers consider the flowing words. Whence they gather from what hearer, or from what hearers, they may take the confidence of certainty.

VERS. 14-16.-- « The maid therefore, » etc. (AUG., Q. in Gen. ) It is to be asked what unlawful auguries differ from this petition, etc., as far as whereby it is forbidden to tempt God.

« Let down thy pitcher. » Humble thy worldly eloquence to draw up the prophetic word, that 141BI may bend thy will to my persuasion.

VERS. 17-21.-- « And the servant ran to meet her, and said: Give me a little, » etc. (GREG.) Allegorically. Every preacher thirsts for the soul of his hearer, therefore the servant asks, Rebecca gives the drink: because the Church of the elect satisfies the desire of preachers out of the strength of her faith. For she who confesses the God whom she hears, offers to the preacher the water of refreshment and cooling. And it is to be noted that she set down the pitcher, bending it from her shoulder, because that confession is pleasing which proceeds from a good work. Or she supplied water, because in that which she believed she did not remain empty. For at once she preached what she had heard, and by speaking brought forth many preachers out of herself. For the water in the pitcher is the knowledge of preaching in measure. For she studies not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise. 141CThe pitcher on the arm is the measure of preaching in work. And she gives drink not only to all his companions, but to the camels also, because the word of life is preached not only to the wise, but also to the foolish. Rom. I: « To the wise and to the unwise I am a debtor. » Or water is given even to the beasts, when it is ordered how care of the flesh is to be had, that it be not spent upon pleasure, and be not denied to necessity; whence Rom. XIII: « Make not provision for the flesh in its desires; » and Ephes. V: « For no man ever hated his own flesh. »

VERS. 22-24.-- « The man brought forth, » etc. (HIER.) Beka ( ), which is here put for a didrachma, is half an ounce: but Schekel ( ), which in Latin, though corruptly, is called siclus, is an ounce. (GREG.) Because the preacher 141Dadorns the hearing of the Church by obedience, and its hands by work. The earrings are of two sicles, the bracelets of ten, because the first virtue of obedience lies in charity, which is the love of God and of the neighbour; and good work is perfected by the completion of the decalogue, so that when good things have begun to be done, no evil things may be done.

VERS. 25-28.-- « Straw also. » Because the Church, receiving spiritual things, renders earthly stipends to preachers; whence I Cor. IX: « If we have sown unto you spiritual things, it is a great thing if we reap your carnal things.

« A large room. » From the former people the Church showed that she had known the law of nature, and she received the preaching in the ample bosom of charity: for the teacher's spacious 142Adwelling is the breadth of charity in the hearer's heart; whence in the sixth of the second to the Corinthians: « Be not straitened in us, but in your own bowels; » [Vulg. angustiamini autem in visceribus vestris, "but you are straitened in your own bowels"] as if to say, enlarge the room of your mind for receiving doctrine, straiten it for thinking upon carnal things.

VERS. 29-32.-- « He had, » etc. Because carnal men joined to the faithful, while they behold spiritual gifts, hang in wonder, and if not so far as works, yet so far as the receiving of the faith they admit the preaching: for while they consider that good men shine with miracles, they refuse not the things they hear of eternity, although, not following the Church in their morals, they remain in carnal working.

« And he had. » Because there are carnal men joined to the faithful, by whose familiarity they sometimes come forth to hear 142Bthe word, and seeing the gifts of God bestowed on the faithful they marvel, and receive the word in the heart, which they are not at pains to fulfil in good morals.

VERS. 33-36.-- « I will not eat. » Because there are those who are ready to retain teachers out of temporal stipends: but they [the teachers] are unwilling to receive them [the stipends], unless they first obtain eternal things. For if they do not find fruit in souls, they scorn to take stipends for bodies; they wash not the feet, because they relieve the desires of labour with no consolation.

VERS. 37-41.-- « And he made me swear, » etc. (AUG. ubi supra. ) The meaning is the same, the words not all, or the same, or so spoken; which is to be said on account of those who calumniate the evangelists because in some words they do not altogether agree, although the matter and the meaning be the same; 142Cfor one man wrote this book, who could have set down the things he said above, when Abraham gave the charge, or the rest, had he judged them to belong to the matter: since the truth of a narration does not require anything except that there be truth of things and of meanings, whereby the will (for the making known of which words are made) may sufficiently appear.

VERS. 42-52.-- « I came therefore to-day, » etc. (HIERON.) In the Hebrew it is written, etc., as far as let the Jews therefore show alma set down anywhere where it sounds a young girl and not a virgin.

VERS. 53-58.-- « And bringing forth, » etc. (GREG. ubi supra. ) After the servant obtained the cause of the marriage, etc., as far as « He gave them to Rebecca. » Rebecca is not adorned with the gold of Bathuel, because the ornaments of a barbarian and unskilled man are not worthy. From the house of Abraham she receives ornaments, 142Dbecause patience is adorned from the house of wisdom; from Abraham's servant she receives earrings, that is, golden words in the ears; and bracelets, that is, golden works in the hands, and other ornaments; by which are figured the diverse kinds of the virtues.

VERS. 59-60.-- « And her nurse. » It was seemly that a virgin setting out to her wedding without her parents should be cherished with the solace of a nurse.

VERS. 61.-- « Rebecca therefore, » etc. (GREG.) Because the Church has with her souls of lesser merit, who follow her in their morals: but they are not advanced to the couch of contemplation. She had also certain servants in her company, because with the prophets there were men who lived well, even though they had not the spirit of prophecy: 143Aand with the apostles and teachers, men who held to their life, and yet did not preach.

« Who in haste, » etc. The servant returns in haste to his master, because preachers, when they obtain the life of their hearers, present it to God, of whose gift they have it, not to themselves.

VERS. 62.-- « At that time Isaac, » etc. (GREG. ubi supra. ) The Living and Seeing One is the Lord, etc., as far as he bore now a crown of thorns, now a cross.

« He dwelt, » etc. (PATERIUS in Gen. ex dictis GREG.) Isaac, when Rebecca came, was dwelling in the south country, because Christ, when the Church came to him, abode in the minds of those whom not the cold of the body but the fervour of charity held: such as were Anna, Simeon, and some of the people of the Jews.

143BVERS. 63.-- « And he was gone forth, » etc. (HIER.) By the south country he signifies Gerara, whence he had been brought to be sacrificed. He went forth, that he might exercise himself in the field. In the Hebrew it is read: « Isaac went forth to speak into the field, the evening being now come on; » where it is signified that the Lord prayed alone upon the mountain, and that Isaac, who was a type of the Lord, went forth from the house at the ninth hour, or before sunset, to prayer as a just man, and offered spiritual victims to God.

(GREG. ubi supra. ) The field is the world, into which Christ went forth, because he vouchsafed to appear visibly.

Whence Habac. III: « Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people. » Isaac went out into the field to meditate, because Christ, holding forth the form of humility, showed the exercise of long-suffering, 143Cof passion, and examples of patience, as trained young men are wont to meditate in the use of arms. The meditation of arms is the frequenting of the passion. For he who bore stripes, spittings, the lance and the cross, suffered his passion to be frequented in himself even unto death. We call the passions arms, because through them we are freed from our adversaries; whence Luc. XXI: « In your patience you shall possess your souls. »

« The day being now far spent, etc. Because he took upon him the exercises of the passions near the end of the world; whence psal. CXL: The lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. »

VERS. 64.-- « She came down from the camel, » etc. (GREG., lib. I, Moral., c. 14.) Rebecca is brought to Isaac upon a camel, etc., as far as upon the crooked backs of camels they carry riches.

143DVERS. 65, 66.-- « Who is that man, » etc. (GREG. apud Paterium. ) Rebecca, having seen Isaac, learns who he is by asking the servant: because the Church, by the sayings of the prophets and apostles, understands what she ought to believe concerning Christ. And she straightway covered herself with a cloak, because the more she penetrates the mysteries of Christ, the more she is confounded at her past life. Whence she strives to cover her infirmity with a cloak; and she who before was carried freely upon the camel, coming down is covered with shame, to whom it is said as it were more shamefacedly: What fruit therefore hadst thou then in those things of which thou art now ashamed?

« But she, » etc. (HIERON.) Another edition, « teristrum, » which even now is a kind of Arabian garment wherewith the women of that province are veiled.

144AVERS. 67.-- « Who brought her in, » etc. (GREG. ut supra. ) Isaac brought her into his mother's tent, and took her to wife, because in the place of the Synagogue, of which Christ was born, he loves the Church: that she who by kindred, that is, by predestination, had been nearest, may by love be joined as his wife.

« And he loved her so much, » etc. (GREG. ut supra. ) Because from the gain of the Church Christ wiped away the sorrow that came of the loss of the Synagogue, because while the Church, coming out of the Gentile world, is brought to the couch of contemplation, Judaea is held for nothing. Isaac too is called laughter, and Rebecca patience: and laughter comes of gladness, patience of tribulation. And although the Church be now suspended in the contemplation of heavenly joy, yet she has in herself somewhat whereat she may grieve 144Bfor the weight of the flesh. But Isaac and Rebecca are joined together, that is, laughter and patience, according to that of Rom. XII: « Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, » that prosperous things may gladden out of contemplation, adverse things disturb out of tribulation.

VERS. 1, 2.-- « But Abraham took another wife, » etc. (ISID.) Allegorically. Sara being dead, Abraham took Cetura. Not on account of incontinence, since he was already of great age: nor on account of the procuring of children, since seed as the stars of heaven had been promised him from Isaac. But as Agar and Ismael figured the carnal men of the Old Testament, so Cetura and her sons the heretics, who 144Cdeem themselves to belong to the New Testament. But both were concubines, Sara alone the wife; whence Cant. VI: « One is my dove, » etc.

Allegorically. After the assumption of the Church many souls deceived by heretical depravity clave to Christ, and these brought forth not catholics but schismatics, who divided the unity of the Church: whom the sons of Cetura signify, who are numbered below.

(HIER., in Q. Hebr. ) Cetura, in Hebrew, joined, etc., as far as for the more a man is wearied in the flesh, the more robust is he in spirit and the fitter for the embraces of wisdom.

VERS. 3, 4.-- « The sons of Dadan were Assurim, and Lathusim, and Laomim. But of Madian was born Epha and Opher and Henoc and Abida. » (HIER.) They think that Assurim is to be rendered merchants, etc., as far as 144Dand that the regions of India were occupied by very many of the sons of Abraham by Cetura.

VERS. 5-7.-- « And Abraham gave, » etc. (ISID.) Because gifts are given to the sons of the concubines, that is, of carnal men; but heretics, or Jews, do not attain to the promised kingdom, because they follow carnal gains; Isaac alone is the heir, because not the children of the flesh are counted in the seed, but of the promise.

VERS. 8-11.-- « And decaying he died in a good old age, and of advanced years, and full of days, and was gathered to his people. And they buried him, » etc. (HIERON.) it is wrongly added in the LXX: « Abraham decaying died, » because it does not befit Abraham to decay or to be diminished. That also 145Awhich we have set down « in a good old age an old man, » and which is put more fully in the Greek codices, « full of days; » which, though it seem to expound the sense, in that he died full of light and of the works of day, yet makes the more for the anagogy if it be simply set down « full. »

( Glossa Graeca. ) Behold, Moses knew the life of the world to come, for no man can be added to those who are not.

VERS. 12.-- « These are the generations, » etc. These peoples are reckoned before the sons of Isaac, who, although they be of the seed of Abraham, are yet not reckoned in the seed, because that which is animal is first, then that which is spiritual. Whence after the reckoning of the carnal, the genealogy of Isaac is set down, of whom the promise was made, and the succession of the elect to be propagated.

145BVERS. 13-15.-- « And these are the names of his sons in their titles and generations. The firstborn of Ismael Nabajoth, then Cedar, and Abel, » [Vulg. Adbeel] etc. (HIERON.) Twelve sons are born to Ismael, the firstborn Nabajoth, from whom all the region from the Euphrates to the Red Sea is called Nabathea, which is a part of Arabia. For their families, towns, villages and tribes are celebrated by the naming of these. From one of these, Cedar in the desert, and Duma another region, and Thema to the south, and Chedma, otherwise Chethma, to the eastern quarter, is named. As to what we read at the end of the chapter according to the LXX, « he dwelt over against the face of all his brethren, » it is truer which we have set down, « he fell asleep before all his brethren, » that is, he died in the hands of his sons, his children 145Cyet surviving. For sons are called brethren; whence Jacob: « Let it be set before my brethren and thy brethren, and let them judge between us. » [Vulg. Gn 31:37 pone hic … et judicent inter me et te, "put it here … and let them judge between me and thee"] For it is not to be believed that Jacob, apart from his own children, had any brethren with him.

VERS. 16, 17.-- « Twelve princes of their tribes. And the years of the life of Ismael were, » etc. The number twelve, as it is consecrated in the apostles and in apostolic men, so is it execrable in the reprobate against the faith of the Trinity and the Gospel spread abroad through the four quarters of the world.

VERS. 18, 19.-- « And he dwelt from Hevila as far as Sur, which looketh towards Egypt, » etc. The region which Phison went about was so called from Hevila, the grandson of Noe, and it is a wilderness over against the face of Egypt. Sur also 145Dis a wilderness between Cades and Barad, stretching the desert as far as the Red Sea and the borders of Egypt.

VERS. 20.-- « From Mesopotamia the sister of Laban. » A barren region, which is so called in Greek because it lies in the middle between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. For μέσος is said middle, ποταμὸς a river; hence hippopotamus, that is, a river horse.

VERS. 21, 22.-- « And he besought . . . but the little ones struggled in her womb, » etc. (HIER.) For the stirring or the collision the LXX put « they played » or « they kicked back: » Aquila, « the sons fought in her womb. » Symmachus, « they were borne upon the surface after the likeness of a ship. » (GREG., Dial. I, 8.) The things which the saints 146Aeffect by praying, etc., as far as for he in whom God had predestined to multiply the seed of Abraham obtained by prayer that he might have sons.

« Who heard her. » [Vulg. eum, "him" — Isaac, who is the one that prayed] (CHRYSOST.) Think not that he obtained forthwith and at once what he desired: for he continued twenty years praying and beseeching God. For as he taught us how many years he had when he took Rebecca (namely forty), so he assigned to us of how many years Isaac was when sons were born to him. « He was sixty years old, he says, when the little ones were born. »

« And she went, » etc., (AUG., Quaest. in Gen., tom. III.) It is asked: whither did she go, since there were as yet no prophets or priests of the tabernacle or of the temple of the Lord? Perhaps to the place where Abraham set up an altar. 146BBut how answers were given there, Scripture is silent; was it through some priest? And it is a wonder, if there was one, that he was not named, and that no mention of priests was made. Perhaps there, when they had laid their desires before God in prayer, they slept, that they might be admonished through a dream: or Melchisedech was yet living, whose excellence was so great that it was doubted whether he were a man or an angel. Or perhaps even at that time there were men of God, in whom God could be consulted. Whichever of these, or perhaps somewhat else, it was. Rebecca however according to the Scripture consulted the Lord, and deserved his answer.

VERS. 23.-- « Who answering said: Two nations, » etc. (AUG.) By historical propriety the answer is found fulfilled, when for Israel's sake, that is, Jacob's, 146Cthe younger son overcame the Idumeans, that is, the nation which Esau propagated, and made them tributaries through David; which they were for a long time, until king Joram (IV Reg. VIII). For then the Idumeans rebelled, and shook the yoke from their neck, as Isaac had prophesied when he blessed the younger before the elder, and said this same thing to the elder, when he afterwards blessed him.

VERS. 24-26.-- « The time was now come, » etc. (HIER.) Where we have put « hairy », in the Hebrew there stands seyr ( ); whence Esau, as we read elsewhere, was called seyr, that is, hairy.

« Forthwith the other, » etc. (ISID.) That this was done figuratively is known even to the Jews who believe not: how the people of the Church overcame the people of the Synagogue, and the people of the Jews, the greater in time, served 146Dthe lesser people of the Christians.

(BED. in hoc cap., tom. II.) In individual men also this may be said. « Two nations and two peoples » are within us, namely of the vices and of the virtues; the one lesser, the other greater: for the evil are more than the good, and the vices more than the virtues. Yet the people overcomes the people, « and the elder shall serve the younger, » namely the flesh the spirit, and the vices the virtues. Esau goes before, red, and all hairy as a skin: then comes forth Jacob holding his brother's heel; for the former people, polluted with the blood of the prophets and of Christ, was encompassed with the squalor of sin and of wickedness: whose heel the younger held, because the lesser people overcame the greater.

VERS. 27, 28.-- « Esau became, » etc. (GREG.) 147AIt signifies the life of those who, poured out upon outward pleasures, follow the flesh. He is also called a husbandman, because lovers of the world cultivate outward things the more, the more they leave their own inward things untilled.

« Simple. » (GREG.) Because simple men shun to be scattered abroad by outward cares, and abide in thought and in the dwelling of conscience. For he dwells in tents who binds himself within the secret places of the mind, lest, while he gapes outwards after many things, he depart from himself, estranged in thought.

VERS. 29, 30.-- « And Jacob boiled, » etc. (HIERON.) Red or tawny: in Hebrew it is called Edom: and from this, that Esau sold his birthright for red food, he received the name of the tawny, that is, of Edom.

VERS. 31, 32.-- « To whom Jacob said, » etc. (ISID.) 147BThat Esau sold his birthright to his younger brother for food, and was afterwards deprived of the paternal blessing promised him, signifies the Jewish people: who in Exodus is called the firstborn son of God, and for the gains of the world not only lost the honour of his primacy, but also deserved not to obtain the prepared reward of the heavenly kingdom. Whence by way of reproach it is said Matth. XII: « The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to the Gentiles, » [Vulg. Mt 21:43 dabitur genti facienti fructus ejus, "shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof"] etc. But the birthright was a priestly garment, clothed in which the elder-born offered victims to God with their father's blessing, as pontiffs: of which gift, through desire of earthly love, the Jews were bereft, together with the glory of the kingdom to come.

VERS. 33, 34.-- « Esau swore, » etc. (GREG., lib. XXX, Moral., c. 13.) But it is to be known that the vice of gluttony tempts us in five 147Cways, etc., as far as and not the things which the lust of eating suggests.

VERS. 1-7.-- « Now a famine having arisen upon the land, » etc. (AUG., Quaest. in Gen., tom. III.) It is asked when this was done, that Isaac went into Gerara, etc., as far as that we may understand that temporal things can neither be given, nor ought to prosper, save from the one God.

VERS. 8-11.-- « And when they had passed through, » etc. (ISID.) From the time of Christ until the times of Constantine the faith was preached not in the assembly of the peoples, but as it were through hiding-places, and the Christians were gathered together in secret: at length the princes of the world, being now Christians, seeing through the miracles of Christ his majesty tempered 147Dto human infirmity, that they might be joined together and be « two in one flesh, » permitted the sacrament of Christ and the Church to be preached now openly, and grieved that it had long lain hidden.

« He saw him sporting, » etc. (AUG.) What it means, in the sacrament of Christ and the Church, etc., as far as « that he might dwell in us. »

VERS. 12, 13.-- « Now Isaac sowed in that land, » [Vulg. Gen. 26:12 Sevit, "planted"] etc. (HIERON.) Although Isaac sowed in a foreign land, I do not think that so great a fruitfulness of barley was his. Whence I judge it better what is had in the Hebrew, and what Aquila translated: « He found in that year a hundredfold reckoned. » But Scripture, keeping silence as to the kind of crops which yielded a hundredfold, seems 148Ato have shown in him the multiplication of all virtues.

VERS. 14-16.-- « For these things envying, » etc. (ISID.) Isaac, Christ, who first wills to dig wells, etc., as far as « we shall go. »

« The wells they also stopped up, » etc. (GREG.) Morally. Often, when we are intent upon the divine words, we endure the more grievously the snares of demons; which sprinkle upon our mind the dust of earthly thoughts, that they may darken the eyes of our purpose from the light of the inward vision. For we dig wells when we penetrate the deep things of Scripture, which the Allophyli secretly fill up: because they thrust in earthly thoughts and take away the water of divine knowledge, whence in psalm CXVIII: « Depart from me, O malignant ones, and I will search the commandments of the Lord. »

148BVERS. 17.-- « And he departing, » etc. (HIERON.) And Isaac went thence, and came into the valley of Gerara, and dwelt there. In place of valle, torrentem they have in the Hebrew. For never, after he was made great, could Isaac dwell in a valley, but in a torrent. Of which it is written in psalm CIX: « He shall drink of the torrent in the way. » Of which Elias drank in the time of famine; but because he was not perfect as Christ, the torrent dried up for him. But Christ also was delivered up in the torrent, dedicating our regeneration and the sacrament of baptism.

VERS. 18, 19.-- « He dug wells elsewhere, » etc. (ISID. ex Greg.) Isaac dug wells among a foreign nation: wherein we are admonished that in this pilgrimage we penetrate the deep things of our thoughts, and that, until the water of true understanding return, the hand of inquiry grow not sluggish in 148Cdraining out the earthly things of the heart. The Allophyli, lying in wait, fill up the wells, because unclean spirits, when they behold us digging earnestly, thrust the vexations of temptations into our thoughts.

VERS. 20, 21.-- « Against the shepherds, » etc. (HIERON.) Aquila and Symmachus translated « adverse and contrary, » but in the Hebrew there is « Satana; » whence it is plain that Satan is interpreted contrary.

VERS. 22-25.-- « Breadth. » In the Hebrew Rehobot ( ) [Migne prints a Hebrew word within these parentheses; our digitized source has lost it and left them empty. Recovery requires the plate.], breadths. Whence that is proved which was said above in chapter X: « He himself built Ninive » and rabooth, that is, the streets thereof.

« Now he hath enlarged, » etc. Isaac was enlarged, and filled the whole earth with the knowledge of the Trinity: and in the whole 148Dworld he set the breadth of the Church, being nevertheless first known in Judea, and named in Israel: afterwards « their sound went forth into all the earth (Psal. XVIII), » that is, the sound of the apostles, who throughout the universal world dug wells, and by water showed [it] to all, baptizing all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (Matth. XVIII). » The wells of Abraham, which he opened, he called by the same names as his father: for Moses and the prophets are called among us by their own names, nor are the names of these wells changed.

VERS. 26-31.-- « To which place, » etc. (HIERON.) Abimelech has not always peace with Isaac, etc., as far as and there are many other things in which the philosophers disagree with us, or agree.

149AIn place of « Ochozath, » pronubo, there is in the Hebrew « the company of his friends, » so that it may signify both the man and the crowd of friends which had come with the king: among whom was Phicol, the prince of his army.

« Abimelech, and Ochozath, » etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) Two came with Abimelech: Ochozath, his son-in-law, etc., as far as he is a debtor to the wise and to the unwise.

VERS. 32-35.-- « But behold, they came. » (HIER.) I know not how in the LXX « and the servants of Isaac came, telling him of the well which they had dug, and they said to him: We have not found water. And he called the name of it, Oath. » For what etymology there is, that it should for this cause be called Oath, etc., as far as it does not agree 149Bthat Isaac should not find water.

VERS. 1, 2.-- « Now Isaac grew old, » etc. (HIPP. mart., ex Hieron., epist. ad Damasum, tom. I.) Mystically. Isaac bears the image of God the Father, Rebecca of the Holy Ghost, Esau of the former people and of the devil, Jacob of the Church and of Christ. The old age of Isaac signifies the consummation of the world; his darkening eyes, that faith has perished from the world, and that the light of religion has been neglected. Because he is called the elder son, it is the receiving of the law of the Jews. Because the father loved his meats and his hunting: they are men saved from error, whom every just man hunts by his teaching. The word of God, the blessing of the promise, and the hope of the kingdom to come, in which with Christ 149Cthey are to reign, and to celebrate the true sabbath. Rebecca, full of the Holy Ghost, knowing what she had heard before she bore, that « the elder shall serve the younger: » she bears the form of the Holy Ghost, who, what she knew was to be in Christ, beforehand meditated in Jacob, speaks to the younger son. « Go to the flock and bring me two of the best kids; » prefiguring the fleshly coming of the Saviour, in which he should set free those who were held liable to sins. For kids everywhere signify sinners. Two are commanded to be brought, that the taking up of the two peoples might be signified. That is, of a tender and human, that is, of a teachable and innocent soul. The robe of Esau is the faith, that is, the Scriptures of the Hebrews which were first given to them, with which the Gentile people was afterwards clothed; the skins put about 149Dhis arms, the sins of both peoples, which Christ, in the stretching out of his hands, fastened with himself to the cross: for he in his own body bore not his own, but others' sins.

VERS. 2.-- « And he called Esau. » (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) Esau a hunter, and a husbandman, but Jacob, a simple man, dwelt in tents. Esau signifies the Hebrew people, Jacob the Gentile people. But Isaac [signifies] God, who made both peoples sons to himself, the one by the law, the other by faith. Esau was a husbandman, because the Jew served God for earthly things, to whom it was not said that he should be poor in spirit, meek, peaceable, merciful, suffering persecution, that he might have a plentiful reward in the heavens; but: « If 150Ayou keep my commandments, I will give you rains in their seasons, » etc., which pertain to the delights of the flesh. He was also a hunter, because by the pouring out of the blood of rams and of calves, and of goats, he appeased God. « Jacob, a simple man, dwelt in tents, » because the elect of the Gentiles studied to please God by faith and by will. By the tents we understand the divers Churches throughout the world, or the divers orders

VERS. 3-5.-- « Take thy arms, » etc. Isaac loved Esau, because he fed upon his hunting. Rebecca loved Jacob, Isaac [signifies] God; but Rebecca figures the foreknowledge of God, because God loved the people of the Jews, in that he was continually appeased by their oblations. But foreknowing that the people of the Gentiles would be far better, by the grace of his foreknowledge 150Bhe loved them more abundantly. While Esau tarried at the hunt, that he might set meats from the wild beasts before his father and be blessed, the mother brought Jacob to his father to receive the blessing: because the Jews still tarry in the things of the law, and come late to the faith of Christ, the mother, grace, offered the Gentiles, eagerly taking up the faith, to receive the blessing owed to the Jews. But in what manner they earned the gift of the blessing, the works of Jacob bear witness, which he did in order to receive the blessing.

VERS. 6-13. « She said to her son Jacob: I have heard thy father speaking, » etc. Allegorically. By the two kids we may understand the confession of sins of the Gentile people and its penance. The best kids, because the confession of sins and penance is very acceptable to God. 150CWhence Luke XV: « There shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner doing penance, » etc. Historically. By the one sinner he understands the people of the Gentiles, by the ninety-nine just, the Jews, who seemed to themselves just in the observance of the law. Whence Luke XVI: « For what cause do you justify yourselves before men, » [Vulg. Luc. 16:15 Vos estis qui justificatis vos coram hominibus, "You are they who justify yourselves before men" — a statement, not a question] etc.; who are set down in an imperfect number, because the law brought no one to perfection.

VERS. 14.-- « She prepared meats, » etc. (ISID.) Mystically. By the delightful meats which are prepared for Isaac from the kids, we understand the works of penance, etc., as far as it often brings past sins before the eyes of the mind.

VERS. 15-19.-- « And with the garments of Esau, » etc. (HIER.) In this place the Hebrews hand down that the firstborn discharged 150Dthe office of priests, and had a priestly vestment, clothed wherein they offered victims, before Aaron was chosen unto the priesthood.

VERS. 20-24.-- « How, said he, couldst thou find it so quickly, my son? » (HIPPOLYT.) Isaac asks of Jacob why he had come so quickly, marvelling, that is, at the swift faith of believers. Delightful meats are offered, because a victim pleasing to God is the salvation of sinners. Because after the eating the blessing follows, and he enjoys the odour thereof, he openly declares the power of the resurrection and of the kingdom. « Behold the smell of my son as the smell of a full field. » This is the blessing. With the odour of the name of Christ, as a field, the world is filled. The blessing is of the dew of heaven, that is, the rain of the divine word; and of the fatness of the earth, 151Athat is, the gathering together of peoples; of the multitude of corn and wine, this is the multitude which he gathers from the sacrament of his body and blood. Peoples serve him, that is, the converted Gentiles. The tribes of the peoples adore him, believers converted through circumcision. He is the Lord of his brethren, that is, of the Jews. The sons of his mother adore him, because according to the flesh he was born of her: he that shall curse him, shall be cursed; and he that shall bless him, shall be blessed. Christ is blessed from the mouth of a people ignorant of the Father, that is, is truly spoken of, but by the Jews another is thought to be blessed, who is looked for by them that err.

VERS. 25, 26.-- « Which when he had eaten, being offered him, » etc. Mystically. After Isaac had taken food, Jacob offered him wine: so by the food the works of the active life 151Bare signified; by the wine, which estranges the mind, the contemplative is understood, which makes the minds of the elect estranged from the love of the world. After the food and the drink. Jacob is blessed, because they receive the heavenly blessing from God who study to appease him unto the end by good works.

VERS. 27.-- « Blessing him, he said, » etc. (GREG., hom. 6 in Ezech.) The one is sent to hunt, etc., as far as which the elder, going forth abroad, left within.

(GREG., ibid.) Isaac, with darkened eyes, blessed his son Jacob not knowing him; the things that were to come he foresaw, and who stood present he knew not. For it is certain that the Jews, who had fully learned the law, knew the coming of Christ. Whence in Matthew II, Herod inquires of 151Cthe chief priests where Christ should be born; and they answered him forthwith, « In Bethlehem. » Therefore they had known him before, whom, at the time of the passion, while they despised him, they knew not; whose earlier knowledge, and later ignorance, is signified by the darkening of Isaac; who, while he blessed Jacob, foresaw what should befall him in time to come, but knew not that he stood present. So the people of the Jews received the mysteries of prophecy, but held their eyes blind in contemplation, because they saw not him present, of whom they foresaw many things in time to come. For they were not able to discern him set before them, the power of whose coming they had long before announced.

(GREG., hom. 10 in Ezech., tom. II.) Isaac knows not the son whom he blessed, etc., as far as and because through some it rises up into contemplation, through some it grows fat in 151Dthe works of the active life. There follows:

VERS. 28, 29.-- « God give thee of the dew of heaven, » etc. Dew falls from above, and finely, and we receive of the dew of heaven as often as, by the infusion of inward contemplation, we see something finely of the things above. But when we do good works through the body, we are enriched from the fatness of the earth.

« Abundance of corn, » etc. (ISID.) This is the multitude which he gathers from the sacrament of his body and blood.

VERS. 30-32.-- « Esau came, » etc. Late does Esau return to his father, because the former people shall be converted at the end. Whence in psalm LVIII: « They shall return at evening, and shall suffer hunger like dogs, and shall go round about 152Athe city. » And elsewhere: « They opened their mouths, as one that eateth in secret. »

VERS. 33-35. « Isaac was affrighted. » When the elder son sought again the promised blessing, Isaac was affrighted, and knew that he had blessed the one for the other; nor is he indignant, the sacrament being known, but he confirmed the blessing, saying: « And I have blessed him, and he is blessed. » [Vulg. Gen. 27:33 benedixique ei, et erit benedictus, "and I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed"] This is the first blessing of Isaac, given to the lesser people of the Christians. But neither is the elder son altogether despised, because, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, then all Israel shall be saved. Of which second blessing there is a prophecy. « In the fatness of the earth, and in the dew of heaven from above shall be thy blessing. « In the fatness pinguedidine of the earth, » that is, in the fruitfulness of things, and in the power of the kingdom, which was in that people; « and in the dew of heaven, » 152Bthe eloquences of God. For to them were entrusted the eloquences of God, and the testaments of the law. « Thou shalt live by the sword: » because that people, given over to blood, wrought slaughter upon Christ and the prophets, « And thou shalt serve thy younger brother, » [Vulg. Gen. 27:40 et fratri tuo servies, without minori] that is, the Christian people. « And the time shall come, when thou shalt shake off and loose his yoke from thy neck; » that is, when, converted through the knowledge of faith and the grace of Christ, thou shalt have laid down the burden of the law; when then thou shalt no longer serve the younger, but through faith shalt be called brother.

« Isaac was affrighted, » etc. So that a certain alienation of mind should follow, which is called ecstasy, which is wont to come to pass in the revelations of great things. Whence it is to be understood that Isaac was spiritually admonished to confirm the blessing upon Jacob, with whom he ought rather 152Cto have been angry, because he deceived his father. In Adam also an ecstasy went forth, before he said: « They shall be two in one flesh (Gen. II), » which is « a great sacrament in Christ and in the Church. »

« And I have blessed him, » etc. (ALC.) If the will of a just man is good, how is it that Isaac blessed not Esau whom he wished, but Jacob whom he wished not? The will of a just man, as far as pertains to conscience, is good: but God alone judges of things to come. Isaac after the manner of men thought that the elder son was to be blessed: but God, who is the knower of hidden things, showed the younger worthy of the blessing, that he might show the blessing to be not of man, but of God: therefore in Numbers it is said to Moses and Aaron, the priests: « Put my name upon the children of Israel. I the Lord 152Dwill bless them (Num. VI). » [Vulg. Num. 6:27 Invocabuntque nomen meum super filios Israel, et ego benedicam eis, "And they shall invoke my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them"] It belongs to the priest to bless, to God to grant the effect. But when Isaac understood through the spirit of prophecy that the blessing was destined to the younger, he said, « I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed. »

VERS. 36-39.-- « Rightly is his name called Jacob: for he hath supplanted me, » etc. (HIER.) Jacob is interpreted a supplanter. Therefore from this, that he had before deceived his brother, he alluded to the name, who was for this cause called Jacob before, because at his birth he took hold of his brother's heel.

VERS. 40.-- « And thou shalt serve thy brother, » etc. Because the Idumeans were tributaries to Israel, who is called Jacob.

« And the time shall come, when thou shalt shake off and loose his yoke. » , etc. This was fulfilled when the 153AIdumeans rebelled that they might not be under Juda. « And the time shall come, » etc. As if to say: The Jewish people shall at the end be set free from the servitude of sin, so that when « the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, all Israel shall be saved (Rom. XI). »

VERS. 41.-- « And he said in his heart. » Since Scripture says that Esau treated in his heart of his brother's death, how or by whom were these things told to Rebecca? But it is given to be understood that all things were divinely revealed to her. Because of the incurable hatred of the Jews, by the spirit of counsel it was commanded to the apostles that, Judea being left, they should pass over to the Gentiles.

« The days of mourning shall come, » etc. For he would not do this while his father lived, lest he should incur his hatred, and be cursed by him.

(DIOD.) But that which is written, « Esau said in 153Bhis heart, » signifies that Esau longed for his brother's death not with a sudden anger, but with a perfected consent of the mind.

VERS. 42.-- « These things were told to Rebecca, » etc. Here consequently is set down the mother's meeting of it, when it is said, « These things were told. » From which it is plain that Esau did not so hide the aforesaid contrivance in his heart, but that it appeared outwardly in signs and in words.

« Who sending and calling Jacob, » etc. That she might induce him to give place to wrath and to withdraw for a time. There follows:

« Why shall I be deprived of both my sons? » etc. As if she should say: If he assail thee, it may be that you shall both be slain; or if one remain, it will behove that he be a fugitive from me.

153C« Rebecca also said, » etc. Because Jacob could not fittingly withdraw without his father's knowledge, therefore Rebecca turned herself to inducing Isaac to send Jacob his son to Laban, that he might there take a wife, saying.

« I am weary, » etc. That is, because of the wives of Esau: but she did not tell Isaac himself another cause, namely of Esau's contrivance against the life of Jacob, lest in his old age he should be too much afflicted.

« If Jacob take a wife, » etc. As if she should say: If thou lovest my life, send him to the house of my brother, that he may there take a wife.

VERS. 1-9.-- « Isaac therefore called, » etc. (AUG., 153DQ. in Gen.) What the Latin codices have: « Go into Mesopotamia, into the house of Bathuel, » etc., the Greeks have: « Flee into Mesopotamia, » etc., so that it may be understood that Isaac also understood that Esau had thought upon his brother's death.

« And setting out. » (ISID.) Jacob, fleeing the wiles of his brother, leaving his father's house and his parents, goes into a far country, that he may take a wife. In like manner Christ, leaving his parents according to the flesh, that is, the Jews, and his country, that is, Jerusalem, and all the regions of Judea, went away to the Gentiles, that he might take to himself the Church, according to that of Osee II: « I will call that which is not my people, » etc.

VERS. 10.-- « Jacob therefore going forth, » etc. (GREG., 154Alib. V Moral., c. 11, tom. I.) To sleep in the way, etc., as far as « for the Lord is sweet. »

VERS. 11.-- « He took of the stones, » etc. (ISID.) The sleeping of Jacob in the way, the death of Christ on the cross. The stone set under his head is Christ according to his humanity, whom Jacob anointed, that Christ might be signified, for χρίστος in Greek is anointed in Latin. But the head is Christ God. The stone therefore set under the head of Jacob signifies the humanity of Christ joined to the God who assumed it. « For the head of the man is Christ, the head of Christ is God (I Cor. XI.)

VERS. 12.-- « And he saw in his sleep, » etc. (GREG., Regist. l. I, ep. 24.) Jacob signifies preachers, who not only, by contemplating, 154Bseek after the head of the Church, that is, Christ, but descend by compassion to his members: which the angels ascending and descending show forth. Hence Moses frequently enters the tabernacle, and goes out; and he who within is caught up to contemplation, without is pressed by the business of the weak; within he considers hidden things, without he bears the burdens of the carnal. He who in doubtful matters ever runs back to the tabernacle, consults the Lord before the ark of the testament, giving an example to rulers, that when they are in doubt without as to what they should ordain, they may return to the mind as to a tabernacle, and, as it were before the ark of the testament, may consult the Lord concerning the things they doubt of, seeking within themselves the pages of the sacred eloquence.

Morally. To sleep in the way is, in the way of this world, to rest from the hindrance of worldly actions. 154CJacob sleeping saw angels: because they behold divine things who close their eyes from the desire of temporal things: which, being well closed, the devil opened, saying: « In whatsoever day you shall eat, your eyes shall be opened (Gen. III). »

« He saw in his sleep, » etc. (ISID.) The angels ascending and descending by the ladder are the evangelists and the preachers of Christ, ascending to the understanding of the Divinity; passing beyond every creature, that they may find in the beginning the Word with God, by whom all things were made. Descending, that they may find him « made of a woman, made under the law, » etc. In that ladder also from earth to heaven, from flesh to spirit: because in it the carnal, by advancing, as it were by ascending, become spiritual. To whom, to be nourished with milk, 154Dthe spiritual descend, because they cannot speak to them as to spiritual men, but as to carnal. He himself is above in the head, he himself below in his body, that is, the Church; he himself the ladder, who says in John XIV: « I am the way, » etc. To him men ascend, that he may be understood in the heights: and they descend, that he may be nourished in his little members; through him they raise themselves up, that they may look for him on high: and they humble themselves, that they may announce him loftily and with measure.

VERS. 13-15.-- « I am the Lord God of Abraham, » etc. Mystically it signifies the command of the Divinity directed to the humanity of Christ, to whom the land, that is, the Church, is promised; and to his seed, that is, to the Christian people. Whence psalm II: « Ask of me, 155Aand I will give thee the nations for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. »

VERS. 16, 17.-- « And when he had awaked, » etc. Whosoever shall have awaked after the torpor of sloth, and shall have truly risen up through the exercise of good work, shall understand in the Church the surpassing grace of God and the entrance of the heavenly kingdom.

VERS. 18.-- « Rising therefore, » etc. (AUG., Q. in Gen., tom. III.) That Jacob « set up » « the stone which he had put under his head » for a title, and poured oil upon it, he did nothing like to idolatry: because neither then nor afterwards did he frequent the stone by adoring it or by sacrificing to it; but it was a sign and a prophecy pertaining to the anointing, whence Christ is named.

VERS. 19-21.-- « And he called the name of the city 155BBethel., » etc. (HIER., de locis Hebraicis.) From that which was said, « how terrible is this place, » etc., he imposes on the place the name Bethel, that is, the house of God, which before was called Luza, that is, a nut or an almond. Whence certain men ridiculously think that the Hebrew word ulam, is the name of the city: whereas ulam is interpreted before. This therefore is the order of the reading: He called the name of that place Bethel, and before, Luza was the name of the city. But the ancient writings are full of the word ulam or olam, which signifies nothing but before or before the porch, or a lintel, or doorposts, etc.

VERS. 22.-- « And this stone shall be called the house of God, » etc. It is a prophecy of the house of God that was to be there, and there he himself, returning, sacrificed to God.

• 155C

VERS. 1-10.-- « Jacob therefore setting out, » etc. « He saw a well in the field, » etc. The water of the well is the knowledge of the Old Testament: which the stone closed, because the letter of the law hid in it the spiritual sense; but when Christ came the stone was removed, when through the preaching of the New Testament the shadow of the law was shut out and the truth of the Gospel laid open.

Allegorically. By the well baptism, by the field the world is expressed: by the three flocks lying beside the well are signified those who pertain to the receiving of the faith of the Trinity, in humility seeking the grace of baptism.

« The stone. » The hardness of unbelief, which being cast away, the baptism of life is received. But the shepherds are the prelates 155Dof the Church, who, the stone being removed, desire through Jacob to water the flocks: because, when Christ takes away unbelief from the hearts of those whom he has predestined to the sacrament of baptism, they are washed with the wave of purification.

VERS. 11-16.-- « He kissed her. » (AUG.) It was the custom, chiefly in that simplicity of the ancients, that kinsfolk should kiss kinsfolk, and it is done today in many places. But it may be asked: how did she receive a kiss from one unknown, if Jacob afterwards declared the kinship? It is therefore to be understood: either that he, who knew the kinship, confidently rushed to a kiss, or that Scripture afterwards narrated it by recapitulation, since Jacob first declared who he was.

VERS. 16-19.-- « The name of the elder was Lia, » etc. Victorinus 156Athe martyr interpreted Rachel and Lia into the likeness of the Church and the Synagogue. He judges that Lia, the elder by birth, signifies the Synagogue, because she first bore the people of God: who is said to be blear-eyed, because the law given through Moses was wrought together and sealed. Rachel, the younger and the fair, first barren, afterwards fruitful, signifies the Church, which is later in time, but holy in body and in spirit. Her eyes are comely, because they deserved to see the Gospel. But she was long barren while the Synagogue brought forth a people. Jacob served for Rachel, and Lia is put under him in her stead: because Christ, that he might take the Church to himself, first joined the Synagogue to himself.

VERS. 20-35.-- « Jacob therefore served seven years for Rachel. » The servitude of Jacob of seven years for two wives signifies the time of the present life, 156Bwhich is rolled round in seven days; in which the Lord took the form of a servant, obedient to the Father unto death. Jacob served, because « the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (Matth. XX): » He fed sheep, and Christ said (Joan. X): « I am the good shepherd. » He took to himself for a reward the party-coloured flock: Christ gathered to himself the variety of divers nations. He set three rods, the barks being stripped off, in the troughs of the waters, that by the beholding of them the sheep might be multiplied: and our Lord set before the faithful people, in the water of baptism, the names of the three persons, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that he who shall have looked upon this with a full heart may be made a sheep of God.

« And they seemed to him but a few days, » etc. It is to be asked: how was this said, since even a short time 156Cseems long to them that love? It was said therefore because of the labour of the servitude, which love made easy.

(AUG., lib. XXII contra Faustum.) Four wives are cast up against Jacob as a huge crime. But since it was then the custom, it was not a crime; now however it is a crime, because it is not the custom, etc., as far as save the burning of carnal concupiscence.

(ISID., in Gen., tom. V.) There are therefore two free wives of Jacob, for both are daughters of the remission of sins, etc., as far as and he saw in the beginning the Word with God, and wills to bring forth, and cannot, because « who shall declare his generation? » (Act. VIII.)

(ISID.) Two free wives of Jacob, because two lives are preached to us in the body of Jesus Christ, etc., as far as But this cannot be in the land of the dying, which 156Dis signified by these words.

VERS. 26.-- « It is not the custom in our place, » etc. (ID., ibid.) She is called the elder who is the earlier in time, etc., as far as to one thing therefore we must tend, but for this many things must be borne.

(ID., ibid.) Accordingly the life which suits the study of contemplation, etc., as far as whence below in XXX: « Rachel was jealous of her sister. »

(ID., ibid.) Accordingly, because a pure understanding of that divine substance, etc., as far as not because a divine power.

VERS. 14-31.-- « And Ruben going out, » etc. (AUG., lib. XXII contra Faustum.) Why Scripture did not keep silence 157Aabout the thing done, etc., as far as and whatsoever is piously and wisely said of this may be wholesomely, or in part, received without the phantasm of carnal thought.

« And Ruben going out, etc. » (AUG.) Historically. But I know that some suppose of this kind, that, taken as food, it brings forth fruitfulness in barren women, and that Rachel therefore insisted that she should receive it, which I do not think, nor would she thus have conceived then. But now, since, after two other births of Lia from that night, the Lord has given her offspring, there is nothing wherefore we should suspect of the mandrake any such thing as we have experienced in no woman. For when I had myself seen these apples, and rejoiced that, because of this place of the sacred reading, they had fallen to me (for it is a rare thing), I searched out their nature as far as I could, 157Bnot by any knowledge further removed from the common sense, which teaches the powers of roots and the virtues of herbs, but so far as sight, smell and taste report, and I found the thing fair, sweet-smelling, but insipid in savour. Why then the woman desired it so greatly I know not, unless perhaps for the rarity of the fruit and the pleasantness of the odour.

VERS. 32-43.-- « Go round all thy flocks, » etc. (HIER., in Quaest. Hebr.) The sense is much confused among the Seventy, etc., as far as the end is near.

(ALC.) Why Jacob is not accused of fraud in this place, this without doubt he did as a prophet, nor is it to be believed that he did it without spiritual revelation.

• 157C

VERS. 1-11.-- « But after he had heard, » etc. . . . . « He changed the wages, » etc. (HIERON. in Quaest. Hebr.) In place of what we have set down, « he changed my wages ten times, » the Seventy have set « ten years: » whereas the Hebrew word monim sounds a number rather than years; and from what follows this sense is proved, that at every bringing forth he changed the condition upon Laban. If he saw a party-coloured beast born, he would say: I will that in time to come party-coloured ones be born to me; then Jacob did not put the rods in the channels, that the young might be born of one colour: which being done, Laban would say that those cattle ought to fall to his own share; thus up to ten times the condition was changed: and whatsoever Laban had proposed should be born to himself, 157Dwas turned into the contrary colour. But now in six years ten times of bringing forth would seem incredible; but read Virgil, in whom it is said: « Twice pregnant are the flocks. » But the nature of Italian sheep and of those of Mesopotamia is said to be the same.

VERS. 12.-- « For I have seen all things, » etc. From this we learn that Jacob did it by no evil guile, but by divine disposition, or because all things were being done in a figure. Whence he deserved to be strengthened by an angelic vision.

VERS. 13-31.-- « Now therefore arise. » (GREG., Moral. XXX, 16.) After a long servitude the Lord commanded Jacob to return into his own country: then, his father-in-law not knowing it, he hastened away with his wives and his company. But Laban followed after him in mount 158AGalaad, seeking the idols with fury, and found them not. But Laban in this place bears the type of the devil. For he is interpreted a whitening. But the devil, though he be dark, « transformeth himself into an angel of light. » Him Jacob served, that is, the Jewish people on the part of the reprobate, of whom Christ was born according to the flesh.

VERS. 32-39.--. . . . « He knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols. » (HIERON.) Where we read « idols, » in the Hebrew theraphim is written; which Aquila interprets « figures, » or « images ». But I say this for this cause, that we may know what theraphim sounds in the book of Judges.

« Over against mount Galaad, » etc. Not that at that time it was called mount Galaad, but by anticipation 158Bit is called by that name, by which it was afterwards named.

« Who, taking his brethren, pursued, » etc. (GREG.) Historically. By Laban the world can be expressed: which follows Jacob with fury, because it strives to oppress the elect, who are the members of Christ. Jacob took away the daughter of the world or of the devil, when Christ joined to himself the Church out of the Gentiles, to whom it is said through the prophet in psalm XLIV: « Forget thy people, » etc. In the idols avarice is signified, which is the service of idols. Laban, coming to Jacob, found not the idol, because, the riches of the world being shown to our Redeemer, the devil found no traces of concupiscence. But what Jacob had not, Rachel by sitting covered, who is interpreted a sheep, and signifies 158Cthe Church. But to sit is to seek the humility of penance. Whence in psalm CXXVI: « Rise up after you have sat. » Rachel by sitting covers the idols, because the Church, following Christ, has covered over the vice of earthly concupiscence by the humility of penance. Whence in psalm XIII: « Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. » We therefore Rachel signifies, who by sitting press down the idols, if by doing penance we condemn the faults of avarice; which uncleanness of avarice hinders not those that run manfully, but those that walk effeminately are loosed through the blandishments of the world, which is signified by these words: « It hath befallen me according to the custom of women. » For as it were she made known that she suffered the things of a woman.

158D« That I might kiss my sons and daughters. » After the manner of Scripture he calls the sons and daughters of Jacob his own, which calls kinsmen sons or brethren; whence in what follows: « And Jacob said to his brethren: Bring stones. » In the Gospel also the sons of Mary, the maternal aunt of the Lord, are called his brethren, in Matthew XII.

« I feared lest thou wouldst violently take away thy daughters, but as to thy accusing me of theft, » etc. As if to say, therefore I did not make it known to thee, lest by the bitterness of persecution thou shouldst overcome the weak souls, newly snatched from thee.

VERS. 40-45.-- « Day and night I was parched with heat, and with frost. Sleep fled from mine eyes. » The effect of heat and of cold is one.

VERS. 46-52.-- « Bring stones, » etc. (HIERON. 159Ade Loc. Hebr. ) A heap, in the Hebrew tongue, etc., as far as he had changed by the speech in which he dwelt.

(ISID.) Mystically. Among the faithful, both Jews and Gentiles, the witness is a stone standing out into the likeness of Christ; and the heap of stones, which is the multitude of believers.

VERS. 53, 54.-- « Jacob swore, » etc. That is, by the fear wherewith he feared God, whom he commended above, saying, « And the fear, » etc.

VERS. 55.-- « But Laban in the night, etc. » That Laban and Jacob went over the river can signify two peoples coming to the Church through baptism. But Jacob going further forward, Laban returned, because, while the sons of light pass on in the advancement of virtues after baptism, the reprobate, from the dignity they have received, 159Breturn after Satan into apostasy.

VERS. 2-6.-- « These are the camps of God. » Where castra is set, in the Hebrew is mahanaim ; that we may know, if at any time the interpreted word is set in another place, what place it signifies. And beautifully, being about to go to his enemy brother, he is received by the choirs of the angels accompanying him.

VERS. 7-9.-- « Jacob feared, » etc. (AUG., Quaest. in Gen. ) It can be asked how he had faith in the promises of God, in that he said this. But it could come to pass that Esau should overthrow his camps, and that then, after that affliction, he should be present, and should fulfil what he promised. And we are admonished by this example that, although we believe in God, 159Cwe should nevertheless do the things that are to be done for the safeguard of our salvation. The words also of Jacob are to be considered, when he says: « God of my father Abraham, » etc., because in these words both human infirmity and the faith of piety appear.

VERS. 10.-- « I passed over the Jordan, » etc. Through baptism the wall from the Gentiles was joined to that which is from the Jews: yet to the primitive Church the fear of the Jews is not lacking, which Esau signifies.

VERS. 11-19.-- « Deliver me from the hand, » etc. So he prays that he may temper hope by fear, and comfort fear by hope, signifying that we should take counsel by reason for our life and for our household, and nevertheless call upon the help of God.

VERS. 20-27.-- « I will appease him, » etc. These things are interposed 159Dby the writer. For it belongs not to a prudent man to uncover his art, and so to make himself suspected by those with whom he deals.

(GREG. hom. 14, in Evang., tom. II.) Mystically. When Jacob returns to his own parents, etc., as far as that with inward sweetness we may lay hold of God.

« And behold a man, » etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) In this chiefly the image of the Lord's sacrament is figured, etc., as far as that it may no more be able to beget.

VERS. 28, 29.-- « By no means, he says, shall thy name be called Jacob, but, » etc. (HIERON. in Q. Hebr. ) Josephus in the first book of the Antiquities, etc., as far as we are led rather by the authority of Scripture, and of the angel, or of God, 160Awho himself called him Israel, than by that of any secular eloquence.

VERS. 30-32.-- « And Jacob called, » etc. That also which follows, « and he blessed him, and Jacob called the name of that place Phanuel, saying, » etc. In the Hebrew it is called « Phanuel, » that we may know it to be the same place which in the other volumes of Scripture, according to the Hebrews, is read Phanuel.

(GREG., lib. IV Moral., cap. 6.) It is asked: since Truth says: « No man shall see my face; » And: « No man hath seen God at any time, » how does Jacob testify: « I saw the Lord face to face? » [Vulg. Gen. 32:30 Vidi Deum facie ad faciem, "I have seen God face to face"] For human minds, the inward eye being purged, etc., as far as whence I Cor. XIII: « Then shall I know even as I am known. »

• 160B

VERS. 1-9.-- « And Jacob lifting up his eyes. . . . and he divided the children of Lia and of Rachel, » etc. Aquila, he divided them in half, that he might make one company of the handmaids with their little ones, and another of the free women with their sons; and might send the handmaids first, the free women second: he himself running out before them all to adore his brother.

VERS. 10-13.-- « For so I have seen, » etc. (AUG., Q. in Gen. tom. III.) Whether they are the words of a fearful and troubled mind, etc., as far as those who are wont to hear and understand Greek.

VERS. 14.-- « And I will follow, » etc. (AUG.) It is asked whether he promised his brother a lie. For this, as Scripture relates, he did not do; but he went on by that 160Croad which led to his own people. Or did he perhaps promise with a truthful mind, but afterwards, on further thought, choose otherwise?

« Socoth. » (HIERON.) Where we have tabernacles, in the Hebrew is read Socoth [Migne prints a Hebrew word here, and the full stop that closes the sentence; our transcription of the Latin has lost both.] There is moreover to this day a city beyond the Jordan of this name, in the region of Scythopolis, of which we have written in the book of Places.

VERS. 18-20. « And he passed over into Salem, » etc. (HIERON.) A question arises how the city Sichen is called Salem, since Jerusalem, in which Melchisedech reigned, was formerly called Salem. Either then both cities are of one name, which we find of many places of Judaea, so that the same is the name of a city and of a place in one tribe and another. Or we shall say that this Salem, which 160Dis now named instead of Sichem, is interpreted finished and perfect: and that one which was afterwards called Jerusalem, peaceful. This word sounds each of the two, the accent being a little turned aside. The Hebrews hand down that the thigh of the limping Jacob was healed there: and that therefore the city obtained the name of the healed and the perfected.

VERS. 1.-- « And Dina went out, » etc. (GREG. in Pastor., c. 30.) Dina goes out to see the women of a foreign country, when the mind, neglecting its own pursuits and busying itself with the doings of others, strays outside its proper order. Her Sichem, the prince of the land, oppresses, because the devil corrupts her 161Awhom he has found among outward cares. And his soul was knit to her, because he looks upon her as united to himself through iniquity. And because the mind, coming to itself from its fault, is stricken and strives to weep for what it has committed: the corrupter calls up before its eyes an empty hope and security, that he may take away the profit of its sorrow. Whence it is added: « And flattering he soothed her that was sad. » [Vulg. Gen. 34:3 tristemque delinivit blanditiis, "and he soothed her, being sad, with flatteries"] For now he speaks of the deeds of others as heavier; now that what has been done is nothing; now that God is merciful, and he promises time for penance: so that, while the mind is led on deceived by these things, penance may be put off, that then it may receive no good things, it whom evils now make sad: and that it may then be the more fully swallowed up in punishments, it which now rejoices in delights.

VERS. 2-32.-- « And when Sichem had seen her. . . . 161Band slept with her, » etc. (AUG. Quaest. in Gen., tom. III.) And he set his mind upon the soul of Dina the daughter of Jacob, and loved the virgin, and spoke according to the mind of the virgin. How is she called a virgin, if he had already slept with her? unless perhaps "virgin" is a name of age according to the Hebrew manner of speech, or rather, by recapitulation, that is recorded afterwards which was done before. For first he could set his mind upon her soul, and love the virgin, and speak according to the mind of the virgin, and then sleep with her.

« Peaceable. » Where the Seventy have rendered peaceable, Aquila has translated finished, and perfect for which is read in the Hebrew: Selemim. From which it appears that to be true which we said above of Salem.

161C« They consented, » etc. (AUG.) A little before, Jacob, speaking with Esau, signifies that his sons are infants, etc., as far as but his sons are named in this deed as though they were the chief men and the authors of it.

« Having taken up their swords, » etc. (STRAB.) So ought the pastors of the Church to avenge the sin of the flesh or of the soul with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God: ready to avenge all disobedience.

« We are few, » etc. (AUG.) He says this because very many wars could arise, not because he had far fewer than would suffice for the storming of the city.

« Ought they to have abused our sister as a harlot, » etc. (AUG.) The zeal of the sons of Jacob for the avenging of their sister morally admonishes the pastors of the faithful to have care of the souls committed to them, 161Dlest they be violently overcome by a bodily offence, or by spiritual fornication. « And let them be ready to avenge all disobedience, » and let them strike the ravisher with the sword of excommunication, lest he escape unpunished.

VERS. 4-5.-- « They gave him therefore, » etc. (HIER. Q. in Gen., tom. III.) Plainly it is by this order and by these advances that we must go up into Bethel, that is, into the house of God, which is the Church of Christ. The first thing is to renounce our former errors, and to profess the faith of the one true God, which is to put away strange gods: then to be baptized, which is to be cleansed; and thereafter to walk in newness 162Aof life, which is to change our garments. And the earrings signify the trappings of false doctrine, glittering in speech, but empty of the sense of truth.

« And the earrings, » etc. (AUG.) It is asked: of what sort were the earrings, which were ornaments not pertaining to idolatry? but it must be understood that they were phylacteries of strange gods.

VERS. 6-9.-- « Jacob therefore came to Suzam, » [Vulg. Gen. 35:6 Luzam] etc. (AUG.) It is to be noted that three names of this city are recorded, etc., as far as for many causes names are added or changed.

(HIERON.) Behold, it is most manifestly proved that Bethel was formerly called, not Ulam, as was said above, but Luzan, that is, an almond.

VERS. 10.-- « Thou shalt no more be called, » etc. (AUG.) 162BIt is asked: since it was once said, « Thou shalt no more be called Jacob, » etc., why is he afterwards read to have been called Jacob? But this name belongs to that promise in which God is seen as he was not seen before by the fathers, where the old name shall not be: because nothing of oldness shall remain here in the body itself, and the vision of God shall be the highest reward.

(HIERON.) « Thou shalt no more be called Jacob, » etc. For not yet is the name laid upon him by the angel, but it is foretold that it is to be laid upon him by God. What therefore is promised there as to come, is here taught to be fulfilled.

VERS. 11-13.-- « Increase and multiply. » Morally. This promise belongs to the spiritual seed of Jacob, as was already said before of Abraham. 162CFor all who supplant vices, and put off the old man with his deeds, and bend the eyes of the mind upon God, rightly belong to Jacob, whose faith and deeds they imitate. « And kings shall come forth from his loins, » [Vulg. Gen. 35:11 reges de lumbis tuis egredientur, "from thy loins"] that is, the saints who according to the will of God truly rule themselves and their subjects: of whose spiritual seed, that is, by the imitation of faith, they are made fruitful in good works.

VERS. 14, 15.-- « But he set up a stone pillar in the place where he had spoken, » etc. (AUG.) That was done again in this place which had been done before; or that is recorded here which had been done before. But whichever of these it be, Jacob poured his offering upon the stone, not to the stone. Not therefore as idolaters are wont to set altars before a stone, and 162Dto pour offering to the stone as to God.

VERS. 16, 17.-- « Ephrata. » (HIERON.) Ephrata and Bethlehem are the name of one city, under a like interpretation. For it is interpreted fruitful and the house of bread, because of the bread which came down from heaven.

VERS. 18-20.-- « And when she was going forth, » etc. (ISID.) What does it mean that Rachel, when she was in labour, called the same child Bennoni, the son of my sorrow? What but that Paul was to come of that tribe, who should afflict the sons of the Church in the time of his persecution? Otherwise by Benjamin the earthly Jerusalem is figured, which is in the tribe of Benjamin: whose people afflict their mother with grievous sorrow by shedding the blood of the prophets, and by crying out for the death 163Aof Christ: « His blood be upon us, and upon our children (Matth. XXVII).

« And it came to pass, when she was giving up her soul. » [Vulg. Gen. 35:18 Egrediente autem anima prae dolore, "and her soul departing for pain"] (HIERON.) Since indeed she was dying, « she called his name, the son of my sorrow: but his father called his name Benjamin. » [Vulg. Gen. 35:18 vocavit nomen filii sui Benoni, id est, Filius doloris mei : pater vero appellavit eum Benjamin] In the Hebrew a likeness of the name sounds, for son of my sorrow, which name the dying mother laid upon him, is said Bennoni. But son of the right hand, that is, of strength, which Jacob changed it into, is said Benjamin. Whence they err who think that Benjamin is interpreted son of days: for the right hand is called iamin, and ends in n; but a day is called iamim, and is terminated in m.

VERS. 21.-- « Going forth thence, » etc. (HIERON.) The Hebrews will have this place to be, etc., as far as or 163Bwhat is truer, that by a certain prophecy the mystery to come was even then being shown.

VERS. 22-26.-- « Ruben went, » etc. (ISID.) Allegorically. This crime would not be written, were not the coming perversity of the people declared: although in him there was an outrage, in the Scriptures there is a prophecy of things to come, because by Ruben the firstborn people of Israel is figured: who defiled the couch of the concubine, that is, stained the law of the Old Testament by transgressing. And that the concubine signified the Old Testament, Paul shows, saying, Gal. IV: « Abraham had two sons, one of a bondwoman, and the other of a free woman, » [Vulg. Gal. 4:22 unum de ancilla, et unum de libera, "one of a bondwoman, and one of a free woman"] etc.

« And there were, » etc. (AUG.) It is asked how this is true, etc., as far as than that it be taken by synecdoche 163C.

VERS. 27-29.-- « The city Arbee. » (HIERON.) For Arbee the Seventy have a plain, although Hebron is on a mountain. But the same city was anciently called Mambre, from the friend of Abraham.

« The city Arbee, » etc. Of the angels or of the holy souls, to whom he was gathered, no anxiety of temptations remaining, nor peril of sins.

VERS. 6-19.-- « He went into another country. » (STRAB) It may be asked: why is Esau said to have gone away into Seir after his father's death, and to have withdrawn from his brother, when already, when Jacob came, he is said to have dwelt in Seir? 163DBut it could be that, while Jacob was fleeing into Mesopotamia, Esau, from grief at the blessing snatched away, withdrew from his parent, and dwelt in Seir the twenty years in which Jacob was away. Reconciled to him on his return, and having come back again from Seir, he dwelt with his brother so long as their father lived: and when he was dead, he withdrew from his brother, because they were rich, and could not dwell together.

VERS. 20, 21.-- « These are the sons of Seir, » etc. (HIERON. in Q. Hebr. tom. III.) After he had enumerated the sons of Esau, he goes further back to those who before Esau were chief men in the land of Edom, of the race of the Horrites, who are interpreted free men. In Deuteronomy it is written more plainly how the sons of Esau came, and, the Horrites being slain, inherited their land.

164A« The sons of Seir, » etc. (STRAB.) That is, the free men who, as is read in Paralipomenon, first dwelt in mount Seir; and when they were driven out. The Idumeans dwelt in their stead.

VERS. 22, 23.-- « And there was a sister, » etc. (HIER.) This is Thamna, of whom it was said above: And Thamna was the concubine of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, etc. Therefore he makes mention of the Horrites, because the firstborn of the sons of Esau took a concubine of their daughters. And because Theman is named, and Cenez, and Amalec, and the rest, let us know that afterwards names were laid upon the regions and nations of the Idumeans from these.

VERS. 24-28.-- « This is Ana. » etc. (STRAB.) Some say simply that he found hot waters in the desert, which we call thermae.

164B« This is Ana, » etc. (HIERON.) Various things are disputed among the Hebrews concerning this chapter, etc., as far as that mules might be born against nature.

VERS. 29, 30.-- « These are the dukes. » He speaks of those going before, who are of Seir; not of these whom he begins to number, who are of Esau.

VERS. 31-43.-- « And the kings. » It is to be known that he does not record all the kings who were before the children of Ismael had kings, of whom the first was Saul, but only all those who reigned before Moses died. « And the kings. » He records according to the time in which the writer was living, but when Seir, who begot these men, dwelt there, Esau not yet having come into that land, it was called from him the land of Edom.

(AUG., Q. in Gen., t. III.) It is no wonder that to those numbering 164Cfrom Abraham through Esau the father of the nation of Edom, etc., as far as for in that order where more are numbered, they died sooner than here where fewer are.

« Husan. » (HIER.) Whom some suspect to be Job, as is added at the end of his own volume; but the Hebrews affirm that he was begotten of the stock of Nachor, as has already been said above.

VERS. 2.-- « Joseph, when he was sixteen years old, » etc., (AUG. in Q. super Genesin. ) Historically. How can the death of Isaac, etc., as far as yet in Isaac's lifetime Joseph began to be seventeen years old.

« And he was with the sons of Bala, » etc. Joseph, one of 164Dthe twelve sons of Jacob, beloved of his father beyond the rest, signified Christ, whom, born according to the flesh, God the Father preferred to the rest of the brethren begotten of the stock of Abraham. Whence Jacob loved him, « because he had begotten him in his old age. » For when the world was growing old, the Son of God was born of the Virgin, as it were a son of old age.

« And he was with, » etc. In the primitive Church he did not cast off those who clave to him through the preaching of false apostles, whom the handmaids of Jacob signify, whom also he would not forbid, when they wrought miracles in his name.

VERS. 3.-- « And he made him a coat of divers colours. » (HIER.) For a parti-coloured tunic Aquila has rendered 165Aἀστραγάλον, that is, reaching to the ankles, Symmachus sleeved, either because it came down as far as the ankles and was marked out with a wonderful variety by the craftsman's hands, or because it had sleeves: for the ancients used rather colobia, that is, garments without sleeves.

(GREG., hom. XXV in Evang.) Because Joseph is described as having persevered just among his brethren to the end of his life, he alone is said to have had a coat reaching to the ankles. What is a coat reaching to the ankles, but a completed action? For as it were a coat stretched down covered the ankle of the body, when a good action rules us before the eyes of God to the bounds of life. Whence Moses commanded the tail of the victim to be offered, that we may complete with a persevering end the good work which we begin.

VERS. 4-9.-- « And his brethren seeing, » 165Betc. The brethren of Christ according to the flesh are the Jews, of whose kindred he took flesh. But because they saw that the grace of virtues was wrought in him, which bore witness to the Father's especial love, they envied him, and could not speak anything peaceably to him, and again and again attempted snares, and blasphemously said that the Master of the household cast out demons by Beelzebub the prince of demons.

(ISID.) This was spiritually fulfilled in Christ, etc., as far as in the figure of the stars.

VERS. 10, 11.-- « Shall I, » etc. It may be asked according to the letter when he was adored by his father, who is designated by the sun; and by his mother, who is designated by the moon. For neither is Jacob read to have adored him when he went down into Egypt: and his mother was already dead: 165Cbut let us have recourse to the allegory, which is fulfilled in Christ.

VERS. 12-22.-- « And when his brethren, » etc., « in feeding the flocks, » as far as « Bring me word, » etc. (ISID.) Jacob sends his son to take care of his brethren; and God the Father his only-begotten Son, to visit the human race sick with sins. Whence Galatians, chapter four: « God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. » [Vulg. Rom. 8:3 Deus Filium suum mittens in similitudinem carnis peccati; the chapter cited, Gal. 4:4, has Misit Deus Filium suum, factum ex muliere] Joseph was sent to see whether all things were prosperous with the sheep: and Christ says, in Matthew the fifteenth: « I came not but to the sheep that had perished of the house of Israel. » [Vulg. Matt. 15:24 Non sum missus nisi ad oves, quae perierunt domus Israel, "I was not sent but to the sheep that are perished"]

« In Dothaim. » A falling away. For they were in a great falling away, who were thinking of fratricide. « Ruben. » Foreseeing this, the prophetic word, which 165DRuben signifies (who is interpreted the vision of the son ), deterred them by prophetic threatenings, that they might keep themselves innocent of the blood of Christ, their brother according to the flesh.

VERS. 23, 24.-- « They stripped him, » etc. (ISID.) Mystically. The Jews too stripped Christ by death of his bodily coat, and that of divers colours, that is, adorned with the variety of all the virtues. And they sprinkled the coat with the blood of a kid: because, accusing him by false testimonies, they brought him into the odium of sin. Joseph is sent into the cistern, that is, into the pit: and Christ, stripped of human flesh, went down to hell.

VERS. 25-27.-- « They saw travellers, Ismaelites. » (AUG.) It is asked why Scripture [names them] Ismaelites, etc., 166Aas far as who say that Agar and Cetura were one and the same?

VERS. 28-33.-- « Drawing him out. » (ISID.) Allegorically. Joseph, lifted out of the cistern, is sold to Ismaelites that had been sold: and Christ, returned from hell, is bought by all nations in the traffic of faith. The one is sold off for thirty pieces of silver by the counsel of Judas, and this one is sold for the same number by the counsel of Judas Iscariot.

« They sold. » (HIERON.) The Hebrew verity has « pieces of silver. » for neither ought the Lord to have been sold for a baser metal than Joseph.

VERS. 34.-- « And having rent his garments, » etc. (ISID.) Jacob, bewailing the losses of his posterity, mourned as a father for a son that was lost, and as a prophet for the destruction of the Jews (Matth. XXVI). He rent his garment: 166Bwhich in the Lord's passion the chief of the priests did (Luc. XXIII). But the veil of the temple also was rent, that he might prophesy his people stripped bare, and show the kingdom divided.

VERS. 35, 36.-- « I will go down to my son. » etc. It is asked: is this to be understood of the wicked only, or do the good also go down into hell? If the wicked only, how does this man say that he wishes to go down mourning to his son? For it is not credible that he is in the pains of hell. Or are they the words of a troubled and grieving man, magnifying his own evils here also? or is it credible that near hell there were certain hidden places, and less penal, before the Lord's passion, to which the saints also went down? because none could enter paradise, until Christ should take away the flaming 166Csword.

(HIERON.) But the Madianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Putiphar the eunuch, Pharaoh's chief cook. For the most part Scripture puts ἀρχιμαγείρους, that is, chiefs of the cooks, for masters of an army; for μάγειρος in Greek is a cook, and there is said μαγειρειύεν, which is to kill: because cooks kill the beasts that are to be cooked. Joseph therefore was sold to the chief of the butchers, not to Petefre, as it is written in the Latin, but to Putiphar the eunuch. Whereupon it is asked: how is he afterwards said to have a wife? The Hebrews hand down that Joseph was bought by this man for a foul service because of his exceeding beauty, and that afterwards, his manhood being withered by his master, he was chosen according to the custom of the hierophants, that is, of those who speak sacred things, into the pontificate of Heliopolis: 166Dand that Aseneth was this man's daughter, whom Joseph afterwards took to wife.

VERS. 1, 2.-- « At the same time, » etc. (AUG., Q. in Gen.) It is asked: how could these things have come to pass? For if, after Joseph came into Egypt, etc., as far as that he fell into love of her whom he took to wife, Joseph not yet being sold.

« Judas, » etc. He, like the other patriarchs, signifies Christ, who went down from the baptism ab baptismum of John. For Hiras is interpreted seeing God: Odollamite, testimony in water, because John, seeing Christ coming to the baptism, said: « Behold 167Athe Lamb of God, » etc. (Joan. I.) To this testimony the Synagogue clave to Christ, which Sue, the daughter of the Chanaanite, signifies, because to her was to be given the land of humble profession, which is the interpretation of Chanaan. This Synagogue therefore first clave to Christ, when Peter and Andrew, and the rest of John's disciples, were made disciples of Christ. In what order these things were fulfilled the history following signifies, relating how Judas went in to Thamar, who signifies the same as Sue.

VERS. 3, 4.-- « And she conceived, » etc. The Synagogue bore princes, who were set over her as husbands: of whom some were harmful, whom Her signifies, who is interpreted made of skin (for a skin signifies death), because the first parents, clothed with skins, were made over to death; others useless, whom Onan signifies, 167Bwho is interpreted their sorrow, namely to those whom they profit not.

VERS. 5-12.-- « She bore a third also, » etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) The third son, who is not joined to Thamar, etc., as far as and therefore as an Odollamite he bore testimony in water.

« Judas, » etc. From Juda came forth the royal tribe, which long ruled the Jewish people, which Thamar signifies, who is interpreted bitterness, because she showed herself bitter to Christ in his passion.

(ISID.) The Jewish people, to whom kings from the tribe of Juda, etc., as far as yet God slew them both, because he takes away the kingdom from such men.

VERS. 13.-- « To shear the sheep. » (STRAB.) Allegorically. The Lord came to shear the sheep, that is, 167Cto unburden them of their sins, of which it is said: « Thy teeth as flocks of the shorn. » Thamar changes her habit: for she is also interpreted changing; she changes both habit and name, that of the Synagogue there may be a Church. But the name of bitterness remains: not that in which she ministered gall to the Lord, but that in which Peter wept bitterly. For Judas too is called Confession, let bitterness therefore be mingled with Confession, that true penance may be prefigured. This penance is made fruitful, the Church being established among all nations. For it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again, and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations. The habit of a harlot too is the confession of sins: for Thamar signifies the Church called out of the Gentiles; sitting in this habit at the gate of Enaiim 167D, which is interpreted a fountain: because she was running like a hart to the fountains of waters, to come to the seed of Abraham. She is made fruitful, he not knowing it, according to that of Psalm XVII. « The people which I knew not hath served me. » She received in secret the ring, the necklace, and the staff, because she is sealed by vocation, adorned by justification, exalted by glorification. « And whom he predestinated, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified (Rom. VIII); » but in secret, where the conception of holy fruitfulness is made.

VERS. 14-19.-- « Who, having laid aside the garments of her widowhood, » etc. It is to be noted also that in the times of the patriarchs there were fixed garments of widows, and not such as those of married women.

168A« She sat in the crossway. » (HIERON.) « And she sat at the gate of Enaiim, which is in the way to Thamna. » The Hebrew word Enaiim is rendered eyes. It is not therefore the name of a place, and the sense is, « She sat in the crossway, » or at the meeting of the roads, where a traveller ought to look the more carefully where he is going.

VERS. 20-24.-- « And Judas sent. » The promised kid is sent as to a harlot, that is, the reproach of sin, by the Odollamite, as by one rebuking, « brood of vipers, » etc. But the reproach of sin did not find her whom the bitterness of confession had changed. In this deed of Juda it is not the sincerity of justice that is discerned, but the faithfulness of his promise. For if he had kept justice by keeping chastity, he would not have gone in, as he supposed, to a harlot; but what he promised, 168Bhe faithfully sent by the shepherd.

VERS. 25.-- « And when she was led forth, etc. » (ISID.) But afterwards, by the public tokens of the ring, the necklace and the staff, she overcame the Jews who judged rashly, whom Judas already signified; who to this day also say that this is not the people of Christ, nor the seed of Abraham, but, when the proofs of our vocation, justification and glorification are brought forward, they are confounded, and will confess that we rather than they have been justified. For the Church, which is accused by the Jews as an adulteress against the law, declares that she has the pledges: but she shows the staff, the sign of the passion, and the necklace, the lawful things of the law, and the ring, the pledge of immortality.

VERS. 26.--Who, when they were acknowledged, » etc. (HIERON.) « And Judas acknowledged, etc. In the Hebrew it is found: « she is justified from me; » not that she was just, but that 168Cin comparison with him she had done less ill, not in wandering baseness, but in seeking children.

VERS. 27, 28.-- « And when she was in labour, » etc. That the first, who is called Zara, put forth his hand, and the midwife bound the scarlet, and, he himself drawing his hand back, the later, who is called Phares, stretched out his hand, and in being born went before him, signified that Israel would stretch out his hand in the work of the law, and would draw it back defiled with the blood of the prophets and of Christ himself: but that the people of the Gentiles would afterwards break forth, so that « the first should be last, and the last first. »

VERS. 29, 30.-- « Why is the wall divided, » etc. (HIERON.) For a wall Aquila and Symmachus have translated a division, which in Hebrew is said Phares. From this therefore, that he divided the membrane of the afterbirth, he took the name of division 168D. Whence also the Pharisees, who had separated themselves from the people as though they were just, were called Pharisees, that is, divided.

Zara is interpreted the rising. Because he appeared first, or because very many just men were born of him, as is said in Paralipomenon.

VERS. 1, 6.-- « Joseph therefore was brought into Egypt, » etc. (AUG. in Gen.) Scripture returns to the order from which it had departed, that it may relate those things which were done above. « And he was, » etc. (GREG., lib. VI Moral., c. 11 seq.) Many, puffed up with human wisdom, while they look upon the divine judgments as contrary to their own desires, etc., as far as and lightens his burdens, which he bears willingly.

169AVERS. 7-11.-- « And after many days his mistress cast, » etc. (GREG. lib. XXX Moral., cap. 19.) He who is lifted up by the successes of the world, etc., as far as for because pleasure is born of prosperity, let it be struck down by the consideration of the same.

« His mistress cast her eyes, » etc. (ISID.) This is a figure of the Synagogue, etc., as far as for whence he had gone down as though to be punished, thence he set others free.

VERS. 12-23.-- « Who, leaving the cloak in her hand, » etc. So do the allurements of the flesh tempt us, and shake the garment of flesh: but the chaste man had rather break every bond than subject himself to baseness.

Who leaving, » etc. (GREG.) Allegorically. Because, while the Synagogue, believing Christ a mere man, wished to bind him in an adulterous embrace, he cast the covering 169Bof the letter before her eyes, and offered himself to be seen by the Gentiles, that the power of his godhead might be known. Whence to this day, while Moses is read, a veil is upon the eyes of their heart, because the adulteress kept the cloak, and lost naked him whom she was wrongfully holding.

VERS. 1-8.-- « These things being thus done, it happened that two eunuchs sinned, » etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) Joseph found two eunuchs in the prison, etc., as far as he is hanged upon the wood of transgression trangressionis.

« The butler of the king of Egypt, and the baker, against their lord, » etc. (HIERON.) Where we have put « the chief of the vintners » in the Hebrew is found masqueh [Migne prints a Hebrew word here; our transcription of the Latin has lost it, leaving the comma that follows standing free.], that 169Cword which we read long since in the name of Abraham's servant, whom we may in the common way call a butler, and to this day among the barbarians it is of the greatest dignity to have handed the cup to the king.

VERS. 9-15.-- « I saw before me a vine, » etc. (HIERON.) « And behold a vine in my sight, and on the vine three stems, and it budding forth three stems. » The Hebrew tongue signifies three shoots, three branches, or layers, which are called by them Sarigim [Migne prints a Hebrew word here; our transcription of the Latin has lost it, leaving the full stop that follows standing free.].

VERS. 16-19.-- « Three baskets. » (AUG. Quaest. in Gen.) Where in the Latin copies is written « three baskets of meal, » etc., as far as and of every kind of baker's work, namely in the same uppermost basket.

VERS. 20-23.-- « The birthday of Pharaoh. » Pharaoh 169Dand Herod kept the day of their birth, because they thought that from the hour of their birth they had been kings.

VERS. 1.-- « After two years Pharaoh saw a dream. He thought that he stood, » etc. (AUG. Q. in Gen., tom. III.) As the servant of Abraham said, etc., as far as where earthly animals dwell.

VERS. 2-8.-- « Out of which came up seven oxen, » etc. (HIERON. Q. Hebr.) Behold, out of the river came up seven kine fair to look upon, etc., as far as they joined the Greek χ.

VERS. 9-16.-- « Then at length the chief of the butlers remembering, » etc. Because the Gentile people at last 170Aby the setting forth of things past brought itself into the hope of things to come.

VERS. 17-32.-- « I thought that I stood, » etc. The seven years, which are shown by the seven full ears, or by the seven fat kine, signify the spiritual gifts by which the plenty of faith overflows with a bountiful loving-kindness. But the seven barren and lean ones, the famine of truth and of justice in the last time.

VERS. 33.-- « Now therefore, » etc. We see this fulfilled in the time of grace: because, apostolic doctrine abounding and being ministered by the sevenfold Spirit, bishops and teachers were ordained by divine disposition through the several cities, who out of the abundance of doctrine divinely bestowed upon them wrote the holy books, wherewith, when famine of the word abounds and teachers fail, we may relieve our need 170B.

VERS. 34-37.-- « And the fifth part of the fruits, » etc. It is to be noted that the Egyptians gather the fifth part of the corn into the granaries of the king: because the sons of darkness, given over to the five senses, care not for heavenly things: but the true Israelites give tithes, because they labour to restore the heavenly country, of which a tenth part fell.

(ISID.) Joseph gathered through seven years all the abundance of the corn: that is, storing the grain of faith in the granaries of the saints, through the seven gifts, as it were through seven years, so that when the seven years of want shall have begun, that is, when the iniquity of the seven capital crimes shall have come under Antichrist, when there shall be a famine of faith and of salvation, then the saints may have a plentiful 170Charvest of justice, lest their faith fail through want of the word.

VERS. 38-40.-- « Who is full of the Spirit of God, » etc. (AUG. Q. in Gen.) For the third time, unless I am mistaken, the Holy Spirit is intimated to us in this book. First where it was said above (cap. I): « The Spirit of God moved over the waters, » secondly where God says above (cap. VI): « My Spirit shall not remain in these men, » [Vulg. Gen. 6:3 Non permanebit spiritus meus in homine in aeternum, quia caro est, "in man for ever, for he is flesh"] etc. Thirdly when Pharaoh says that the Spirit of God is in Joseph: yet we do not yet read of the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 41.-- « And Pharaoh said again, » etc. (ISID.) Allegorically. Joseph, who bore the type of Christ, earned a chariot, and a herald made proclamation before him, and Pharaoh set him over the whole land of Egypt: and our Lord, after he was sold away 170Dby Juda, as Joseph by his brethren, and rose from the prison of hell, ascended the chariot of the heavenly kingdom, of which it is said in psalm LXVII: « The chariot of God is manifold by ten thousands; » and he received from the Father the power of preaching and of judging. Whence Phil. II: « He gave him a name which is above every name, » [Vulg. Phil. 2:9 donavit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen, "he bestowed on him a name"] etc. He received also a ring, that is, the pontificate of faith, wherewith the souls of believers are sealed with the sign of salvation, and upon our foreheads and hearts the image of the eternal king is stamped by the sign of the cross. He is clothed with a robe of fine linen, that is, with holy flesh more shining than fine linen, and with the robe of immortality. He received also a golden collar, that is, a good understanding. A herald goes before him, that is, John the Baptist, who says in Matth. III: « Prepare the way 171Aof the Lord. » He shall have another herald also, because he shall come at the trumpet of the angel.

VERS. 41, 42.-- « Behold, I have set thee over the whole land of Egypt, » etc. Joseph, brought out of the prison, is set over Egypt; and Christ rising again received « a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow (Philipp. II). »

VERS. 43, 44.-- « A herald proclaiming, » etc. (HIER. in Quaest. Hebr. ) « and a herald cried before him, and he set him over all the land of Egypt. » For which Aquila has translated: « And he cried in his sight, To the bending of the knee. » Symmachus, etc., as far as that in respect of the prudence of all he was a father, but in respect of age a most tender youth 171Band a boy.

VERS. 45-49.-- « And he called, » etc. (HIER., ibid. ) And Pharaoh called the name of Joseph, etc., as far as that that suspicion of the Hebrews concerning him, of which we spoke before, may be proved true.

« And he gave him a wife, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra. ) It is wont to be asked of which Putiphar, otherwise Petefre, as very many have it, and corruptly, as was said above, etc., as far as it is not perilous to faith, nor contrary to the truth of the Scriptures.

VERS. 50-58.-- « And there were born to Joseph two sons, » etc. (HIERON.) Observe, because of the question which is to be put afterwards concerning the sons of Joseph, that before the time of the famine, in which Jacob entered into Egypt, Joseph had only two sons, Manasses and 171CEphraim.

VERS. 56, 57.-- « And Joseph opened all the granaries, » etc. Allegorically. Joseph saves Egypt from the want of corn, and Christ frees the world from the famine of the word. Christ opened his granaries into the whole earth, and by the dispensing of his corn subdued all things. Had the brethren not sold Joseph, Egypt had failed: had the Jews not crucified Christ, the world had perished. Joseph is interpreted increase or enlargement: but in that Joseph none had the enlargement save Egypt alone; in ours, the whole world. He dispensed wheat; ours the word of God. « Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth (Psal. XVIII). »

• 171D

VERS. 1-15.-- « And Jacob hearing that food was sold in Egypt, » etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) There is corn in Egypt: God the Father says also, Osee XI: « Out of Egypt I have called my Son. » Ten of the elder brethren go down, that is, the Jews, set under the decalogue; whom he himself knowing, was not acknowledged by them; the Hebrews are known by Christ, and they themselves do not acknowledge him; they gave him money; but Joseph, that is, Christ, gave wheat, and gave back the silver, because it is not with money that Christ is bought, but with grace.

VERS. 16-22.-- « Send one of you . . . . . otherwise, by the health of Pharaoh, you are spies. » 172A(AUG. Quaest. in Gen. ) What is it that Joseph, a wise man, etc., as far as he shall be God, for he shall not be, but shall be accounted

VERS. 22-26.-- « And they knew not, » etc. (Aug., ibid. ) What is it that, when they were speaking among themselves in penitence of Joseph, etc., as far as as they had sold him into foreign provinces.

VERS. 27-34. « And one having opened, » etc. The brethren of Joseph give silver, because the Jews when converted let go the letter that killeth, and receive the spirit that quickeneth: yet the silver is found in the mouth of the sacks, because for the sake of the fruit of spiritual understanding the beauty of eloquence is not forsaken.

VERS. 35, 36.-- « Each of them found, » etc. The brethren of Joseph gave money in the buying of corn, 172Bbut they received it back when they had received the corn, because our Joseph seeks not our goods, but us. For he gives his gifts freely, and in the buying of what is ours makes us richer.

VERS. 37.-- « To whom Ruben answered, » etc. (STRAB.) Ruben says: « Kill my two sons, if I bring him not back to thee, » etc., and yet he did not prevail. But Judas, saying: « I shall be guilty of sin against my father for ever, » [Vulg. Gen. 43:9 ero peccati reus in te omni tempore, "guilty of sin against thee"] obtained it, because Benjamin was committed to him. It is more, therefore, to be guilty of sin than to be slain in the body.

VERS. 38.-- « You shall bring down my grey hairs, » etc. (AUG.) It is asked: does he speak thus of going down to hell because it is with sorrow, or, even if sorrow were absent, as one about to go down to hell by dying? For concerning hell 172Cthere is a great question, and what Scripture holds of it, wherever this is mentioned, must be observed.

VERS. 11-22.-- « A little rosin and honey and storax, » etc. (HIER. Quaest. Hebr., tom. III.) Somewhat of rosin, and of honey, etc., as far as because in him are laid up divers spices.

VERS. 23-28.-- « Your God and the God of your father hath given you treasures, » etc. (AUG.) It seems a lie, but it must be believed to signify something. For the silver, which is given and is not diminished, which also has been called tried, is perhaps that of which it is said in psalm XI: « The words of the Lord are chaste words, silver tried by the fire, proved of the earth, purified 172Dseven times, » that is, tried perfectly.

VERS. 29-31.-- « And Joseph lifting up his eyes saw Benjamin, » etc. (ISID.) In Acts IX a light as it were shone round about Paul, who is the little one, because he did not yet bear the ripe age of faith. Whence he is also read of as a young man, while he kept the garments of those who stoned Stephen. Joseph wept; the blindness of Paul is the weeping of Christ; Christ washed his face, when Paul is baptized, through whom Christ is to be seen by very many.

(AUG.) The affection of a good mind is always prone to piety. Whence in Joseph we may consider an abundance of virtues. He was chaste, when he spurned the shamelessness of his mistress; wise, when with diligent search he explored the minds of his brethren, how they felt 173Atoward their brother by the same mother; he was just in applying discipline to offenders; loving, in the turning back of the penitent.

VERS. 32, 33.-- « And when these were set on, » etc. The dishes were set apart for Joseph as for a stranger, and apart for his brethren, as for men foreign by nation: and for the Egyptians also apart, as for natives, who thought a banquet with foreigners to be profane.

VERS. 34.-- « And they drank and were made drunk, » etc. (AUG.) Drunkards are wont to bring forward this testimony in their own defence, because of Joseph, who is commended as very wise. But this word is put in the Scriptures for fulness, whence in psalm LXIV: « Thou hast visited the earth and hast made it drunk, » because this is set down in praise of blessing, and the gift of God is recorded; it appears 173Bthat this drunkenness signifies fulness: for to be made drunk as drunkards are made drunk is not useful even to the earth itself; since by more moisture than suffices it is corrupted; like the life of a drunkard, who fills himself not with satiety, but drowns himself in a flood.

VERS. 5-14.-- « The cup which you have stolen, » etc. (ISID.) What does it mean that Joseph's cup was found in Benjamin's sack, but that in Paul's heart the eloquence of heavenly doctrine already shone forth, while he was learned in the law? But because he was not subject to God, the cup was within the sack, doctrine within the law, the lamp within the bushel. Yet Ananias, being sent, laid his hand upon him, loosed the purse, and the silver 173Cshone out, and, the scales falling away as it were fetters, the sack being loosed, that is, the veil of the law laid aside, he obtained the liberty of grace, and with unveiled face of speech preaches the Gospel.

VERS. 15.-- « Know you not that there is none like me in the science of divining? » (AUG. Quaest. in Gen., tom. III.) What this may mean is wont to be asked. Whether because it was said not in earnest but in jest, etc., as far as the brother being recognized, whom they thought lost to them.

VERS. 16-34.-- « To whom Judas, » etc. (AUG., ubi supra. ) Many things in the narration of Judas are said otherwise than as Joseph had dealt with them, etc., as far as but he who knew that he knew it was inserting into the narration, that he might bend him to mercy.

• 173D

VERS. 7-9.-- « God sent me, » etc. (AUG. Quaest. in Gen., tom. III.) What is it that according to other copies is read thus: « For God sent me before you, that your remnant should remain upon the earth, and that he might nourish up a great seed of your remnant? » For this does not agree in every point, etc., as far as « and so all Israel should be saved. »

VERS. 10-15.-- « Thou shalt dwell in the land of Gessen, » etc. (HIERON.) In the Hebrew there stands Gosen ( )[Migne prints a Hebrew word within these parentheses; our digitized source has lost it and left them empty.]. Whence the error grew up that the land of Gessen is in Arabia. Further, as it stands in our codices, it is written with a final m, Gessem, which by no means pleases me, as signifying a land rained upon. For Gessem is turned into rain 174A, where also in very many copies Gessem is found.

VERS. 16-21.-- « And Pharao was glad, » etc. These words of Pharao, which he spoke to Joseph concerning Jacob and his sons, signify the joys of the Gentile people over the conversion of the Jews. For great is the devotion of the Church of the Gentiles that the people of Israel should come to the faith, to whom, if they be converted and become partakers of the faith, he promises the spiritual riches of the virtues, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, which he that receives shall not labour under want of good.

VERS. 22-28.-- « But to Benjamin he gave, » etc. Three hundred pieces of silver are given to Benjamin, which he received from Christ who preaches the Trinity, or the cross of Christ. Whence Paul says in the first to the Corinthians, II: « I judged not myself 174Bto know any thing among you, but Christ Jesus, and him crucified. » He received five robes, that is, the wisdom of all the senses. Paul therefore excels in the abundance of his merits: but his brethren also, that is, the other preachers, have their own grace, that is, two robes apiece, that they may confess Christ to be God and man. Whence Prov. XXXI: « All her household are clothed with double garments, » that is, with mystical and moral understanding. Gifts too are sent to the father, and Christ invites his people with gifts promised. Asses bear the gifts, that is, the Gentiles, useless and toilsome: but now, useful, they bear gifts in the type of Christ, in the Gospel the bestower of gifts.

(ISID.) Jacob was afraid, that is, the unbelieving people: but after he came to know the deeds of Christ, his spirit 174Crevived, and he who seemed dead is quickened by faith in the resurrection of Christ. The people of the Jews therefore is called by his sons, that is, by Peter, Paul and John, unto grace. Judas meets him, who is interpreted confession, because confession goes before those whom faithlessness possessed before: and so Joseph, that is, Christ, meets him, to take up at the last time the people of the Jews, now aged in years, not according to merits, but according to the election of grace, and to lay his hand upon his eyes, and take away his blindness; which he deferred, that he should believe last who before did not think that it was to be believed. Whence to the Romans in the eleventh chapter: « Because blindness in part is made in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved. »[Vulg. Rom 11:25 quia caecitas ex parte contigit in Israel, "because blindness in part hath befallen Israel."]

• 174D

VERS. 26.-- « All the souls that went in with Jacob into Egypt, » etc. (AUG.) It must be considered what answer is to be made to those who by this testimony maintain that souls are propagated from parents together with bodies: for that "souls" is said for "men," by a figurative manner of speech naming the whole from a part, no one doubts. But how we are to alienate that very part, that is, the soul by whose name the whole man is signified, from that which is said, « they came forth out of his thighs, »[Vulg. Gn 46:26 egressae sunt de femore illius, "went out of his thigh."] so as to take it that flesh only was born of him (although souls alone are named), the modes of speech in the Scriptures must be sought out.

VERS. 27.-- « And the sons of Joseph, » etc. (HIERON. 175AQuaest. Hebr., tom. III.) All the souls of the house of Jacob, etc., as far as although very many hand down that Luke, as a proselyte, was ignorant of Hebrew letters.

VERS. 28-31.-- « And he sent Judas, » etc. (HIER., ibid. ) But Judas he sent before him to Joseph, etc., as far as they suppose that the Arsenoite district was so called of old.

VERS. 32-34.-- « And they are men that are shepherds, » etc. (AUG. Q. in Gen., tom. III.) It is commended in the patriarchs that they were feeders of cattle from their childhood, etc., as far as at the end they shall have a most ordered and everlasting happiness.

VERS. 9, 10.-- « The days of my pilgrimage, » etc. (AUG. Q. in Gen., tom. III.) What is it that Jacob says 175Bto Pharao, etc., as far as they do not abide in the house for ever.

VERS. 11.-- « But Joseph to his father and his brethren . . . Ramesse. » It must be asked whether the land of Ramesses is itself Gessen: for this they had sought, and Pharao had commanded that it be given.

(ISID.) Allegorically. Joseph handed over to his father and his brethren the best land, Gessen, providing them with victuals, because famine had oppressed the land: so also the Lord, to his kindred, that is, to the patriarchs and prophets, of whom he is according to the flesh, or to all the saints, of whom he says in the Gospel, Matth. II: « These are my brethren, who do the will of my Father, »[Vulg. Mt 12:50 Quicumque enim fecerit voluntatem Patris mei, qui in caelis est, ipse meus frater, et soror, et mater est, "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother."] to these he gives the best land, of which it is said, psal. XXVI: « I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. »

175CVERS. 12-15.-- « Providing victuals, to every one, » etc. Joseph measured out wheat to his own father, and yet his father did not adore him, neither when he saw him nor when he received the wheat: how then do we think the dream fulfilled, unless it contain the prophecy of a greater thing.

VERS. 16-19.-- « Bring your cattle, and I will give you, » etc. It is asked, since Joseph was gathering the corn whereby men might live, whence the cattle were living, when so great a famine had grown strong, and the brethren of Joseph said to Pharao: « There is no pasture for the cattle of thy servants, »[Vulg. Gn 47:4 non est herba gregibus servorum tuorum, "there is no grass for the flocks of thy servants."] etc. If therefore in that famine the pastures had failed in the land of Chanaan, why had they not failed in Egypt, since the same famine was everywhere? Or could it be, as is reported by those who know the places, that in the many marshes of Egypt pastures might well not be wanting, even 175Dwhen there was a famine of the corn which is wont to come forth by the inundation of the Nile: those marshes are said to bring forth pasture more fruitfully when the water of the Nile rises less.

VERS. 20, 21.-- « He bought therefore, » etc. Joseph is not accused of injustice or of iniquity, since his fidelity is even commended from this, that he accepted the favour of no person, but weighed out with an even balance according to the buyer's price.

But mystically it signifies that all who are in the spiritual Egypt and court her riches are slaves. For no Egyptian is free, who is carnal, and sold under sin: for Pharao made them subject; whence perhaps it is said, Exod. XX: « I am the Lord thy God, 176Awho brought thee out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. »[Vulg. Ex 20:2 qui eduxi te de terra Aegypti, "who brought thee out of the land of Egypt."] Whence Rom. VI: « Let not sin reign in your mortal body. » etc. And in the same place: « You are the servants of him whom you have obeyed, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto justice. »[Vulg. Rom 6:16 servi estis ejus, cui obeditis, sive peccati ad mortem, "you are the servants of him whom you obey, whether of sin unto death."] But the Egyptians were brought by violence into slavery, the Hebrews indeed by violence into service. The Egyptians, however, sold their own selves, and it is no fault of the steward where what is deserved is repaid according to merits. This Paul also did, when he delivers to Satan that man who was unworthy of the number or the fellowship of the saints (I Cor. V). Let no one therefore say that Paul acted too harshly, who cast the man out of the Church, that being expelled he might learn not to blaspheme: for the will of man is iniquitous, when, loving earthly things, it despises the heavenly, and for covetousness subjects itself to the devil. But God's 176Bpermission is just, when he leaves to his own choice, that he may fall, the man who, despising better things, has chosen worse. « He bought therefore, » etc. Allegorically the purchase of Joseph, who bought the land of Egypt with corn, signifies that Christ redeems the world by doctrine and by the price of his blood. And as to what he says: « Take seed, and sow the fields that you may have corn, » etc., the seed is the word of God, the fields are the bodies which, ploughed up by the evangelical share and sown with spiritual seed, bring forth the fruit of the virtues. The fifth part, which was given to the king, is the tribute of the five senses, which is to be paid to Christ the king. The four remaining are left to the possessors for seed and for food, because the use of the active life is granted to every one, that he may sow the works of the virtues and reap the fruit of justice unto life eternal, which is bestowed on us by Christ. Whence 176Cit is said to Joseph: « Our salvation is in thy hand, » because the salvation of the world is in the power of Christ.

VERS. 22-28.-- « Except the land of the priests, » etc. This signifies that the land of the Church, in which are the true priests, is free from worldly tribute, which is fed unceasingly by the divine word, and shall suffer no loss of the spiritual bread.

VERS. 29, 30.-- « And when he saw that the day of his death drew near, » etc. (AUG., Quaest. in Gen., tom. III.) He binds his son by that oath, etc., as far as who appeared in baptism about the thirtieth year.

VERS. 31.-- « He swearing. » (AUG., ubi supra. ) That which the Latin codices have, « He adored upon the head of his rod, » some have more correctly: « He adored 176Dupon the head of his own rod, » or « on the head of his own rod, » or « on the top, or upon the top of his own rod. » And therefore it is rightly asked what it is that has been said, etc., as far as where the figure of a thing to come was prefigured.

(HIERON.) « And Israel adored toward the top of his rod. » In this place also certain men vainly pretend that Jacob adored the top of Joseph's sceptre: namely, that honouring his son he adored his power, whereas in the Hebrew it is read far otherwise: « And Israel adored at the head of the bed; » because after his son had sworn to him, being secure of his request, he adored God, turned toward the head of the bed. For a holy man, and one given over to God, weighed down by old age, kept his little bed 177Aso placed that the very posture of one lying down was, without any difficulty, ready for prayer.

VERS. 1.-- « These things being thus done . . . . taking his two sons Manasses and Ephraim. » (HIERON.) And he took his two sons with him, Manasses and Ephraim. From this appears what we said above, that Joseph up to that time had only two sons, Ephraim and Manasses. But if, after many years, when Jacob was dying, he brought only two to the blessing, then assuredly at that time, when his sons could not yet beget, being little ones and at the breast, at the coming in of his father and his brethren, he could not have grandsons of them.

VERS. 2-4.-- « Who being strengthened, » etc. (HIERON.) 177BAnd Israel being strengthened sat upon the bed. Why the Seventy have given out the same word now one way and now another I do not know, but I say boldly that the same word mittha, which here they translated a bed, above, where he said that Jacob adored, they named a rod.

VERS. 5, 6.-- « Two sons therefore who were born, » etc. (HIERON., Quaest in Gen.) It is plain that seventy souls went into Egypt, etc., as far as but they shall be mingled into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasses as appendages.

VERS. 7-11.-- « For when I came from Mesopotamia, Rachel died and I buried her, » etc. He points out to Joseph, as to one who did not know, where and when he had buried his mother, perhaps prophetically recalling that his mother was buried in the place where Christ was to be born.

177CVERS. 12-15.-- « And when Joseph had taken them from his father's lap, » etc. (Isid. in Gen., tom. V.) As was done in Esau and Jacob, the Lord saying: « The elder shall serve the younger, » so also in the sons of Joseph, etc., as far as and the younger from the left hand to the right.

VERS. 16-21.-- « Let my name be called upon them. » (AUG.) It is to be noted from this place that not only a being heard, but an invoking also, is spoken of, which are not God's but men's.

VERS. 22.-- « I give thee one portion, » etc. (HIERON. in Gen., tom. III.) « I have given thee Sichem as a chief portion above thy brethren, which I received out of the hands of the Amorrhites with my sword and my arrow. »[Vulg. Gn 48:22 reads Do tibi partem unam extra fratres tuos, quam tuli de manu Amorrhaei in gladio et arcu meo — "I give thee one portion beyond thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorrhite with my sword and bow."] Sichima is declined 177Daccording to Greek and Latin usage, etc., as far as and his tomb is beheld there to this day.

(AUG.) As to Jacob's saying that he gives Sichem as a chief portion to his son Joseph, and his adding that he had possessed it with sword and bow, it is asked how this may agree to the letter with Gen. XXXIV. For he bought that possession with a hundred lambs, he did not take it by right of war. Or was it because his sons had stormed Salem, the city of the Sichemites, and it could become his by right of war, so that the war might seem just against those who first did the injury by defiling his daughter? Why then did he not give it to his elder sons, who did this? Then, if he now gives it to Joseph as glorying of the victory, why did the sons who committed it displease him at that time? Why, lastly, when he was blessing them, did he mention it by way of reproach? 178AThere lies hidden here therefore a prophetic sacrament, because Joseph by a certain special signification signified Christ: and to him is given that land where Jacob buried the strange gods (Gen. XXXV), that Christ may be understood as about to possess the Gentiles who renounce the gods of their fathers and believe in Christ.

(ALBIN.) In the blessings of Jacob the history is to be held and the allegory searched out: the history concerning the division of the land of promise, the allegory concerning Christ and the Church, which is to be revealed in the last times; yet first the foundations of the history must be laid.

VERS. 3, 4.-- « Ruben my firstborn, » etc. (HIERON., Quaest. in Gen.) « Ruben my firstborn 178B, thou art my strength, » and the beginning of my sons,[Vulg. Gn 49:3 et principium doloris mei, "and the beginning of my sorrow."] etc., as far as thou hast lost the order of the firstborn.

VERS. 5.-- « Simeon and Levi, » etc. (HIERON., ubi supra. ) LXX: « Simeon and Levi brethren have accomplished the iniquity of their own devising, » etc., as far as « let not my soul go into their counsel. »

VERS. 8.-- « Juda, they shall praise thee, » etc. (HIERON., ubi supra. ) Because Juda is interpreted confession or praise, etc., as far as in other words the Church is shown according to the same sense, of which it is said, Matth. V: « A city cannot be hid, set upon a mountain. »

VERS. 9.-- « The whelp of a lion is Juda: to the prey, 178Cmy son, thou art gone up: resting thou hast couched as a lion, » etc. (ISID.) Or, the lion's whelp rested in sleep, because not of necessity but of power. Whence: « I have power to lay down my life, and no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down (Joan. X). »[Vulg. Jo 10:18 Nemo tollit eam a me : sed ego pono eam a meipso, et potestatem habeo ponendi eam, "No man taketh it away from me: but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down."] But as to what he adds, « and as a lion's whelp, »[Vulg. Gn 49:9 et quasi leaena, "and as a lioness."] for thence he died whence he was born. Naturalists say that the whelp of a lion, when it has been born, sleeps three days and three nights. Then the place of its lair, shaken by the roaring of its father, rouses the sleeper: Christ also, lying three nights in the lair of the sepulchre, fulfilled the sleep of death. Well therefore did Christ rest as a lion, who overcame not only the bitterness of death but its dominion also, and as a lion's whelp, because on the third day he rose again. Whence it is added.

178D« Who shall rouse him up? » etc. None, understand, save he himself who says, Joan. II: « Loose this temple, and in three days' space I will raise it again. »

VERS. 10.-- « The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, » etc. For so long were there kings of the seed of Juda among the Jews, until Christ should be born of the Virgin. For the first foreign king in the nation of the Jews was Herod, when Christ was already born. He therefore who denies that Christ has come, let him show a king of the tribe of Juda in the nation of the Jews.

VERS. 11.-- « Tying his colt to the vineyard, » etc. The Gentiles whom he joined to himself. Whence Ezech. XVIII: « As I live, saith the Lord, unless I put on these men as a garment. »[Vulg. Is 49:18, whose words these render, reads Vivo ego, dicit Dominus, quia omnibus his velut ornamento vestieris, "as I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament"; Ez 18, the chapter Migne cites, has si erit ultra vobis parabola haec in proverbium in Israel.] For Christ cleansed us in the blood 179Aof the grape when he hung like a cluster on the wood of the cross, and out of his side there went forth water for washing, and blood for redemption.

VERS. 12.-- « Fairer the eyes, » etc. (ISID.) Because their doctrine surpasses the austerity of the old law, and the evangelical precepts are clearer than the commandments of the law.

« With milk, » that is, the doctrine of the law, which fed the carnal or little people with milk: but « whiter, » the doctors of the Church, who eat and distribute the strong and solid food of the word. Whence Hebr. V: « Strong meat is for the perfect, » who are well called « whiter than milk, » because they are white, pure and free from every stain.

VERS. 13.-- « Zabulon on the shore, » etc. That he may show a refuge 179Bto them that believe and a haven of faith to them that are in peril. Made firm against all the ends of the world, she awaits the shipwreck of the Jews and the storms of the heretics: who are carried about with every wind of doctrine, thence also were some of the apostles taken: there the Lord often taught. And he reaches as far as Sidon, that is, he comes as far as the Gentiles. Whence Isa. IX: « The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, » etc.[Vulg. Is 9:1 Primo tempore alleviata est terra Zabulon et terra Nephthali : et novissimo aggravata est via maris trans Jordanem Galilaeae gentium, "at the first time the land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthali was lightened: and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded"; the wording Migne prints is that of Mt 4:15.] Sidon, hunting: and out of those places were taken the hunters, of whom it is said Jer. XVI: « I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt you in every mountain. »[Vulg. Jr 16:16 mittam eis multos venatores, et venabuntur eos de omni monte, "I will send them many hunters, and they shall hunt them out of every mountain" — eos, "them," not vos, "you."]

VERS. 14, 15.-- « Issachar. » (HIERON. Quaest. Hebr. ) He desired the good, resting in the midst of the clergy, etc., as far as and therefore let all the tribes serve him, 179Cas bearing gifts to a master.

« Couching between the borders, » etc. To couch is to rest with the end of the world awaited, and to seek nothing of worldly things, but to long for the last things. The strong ass saw rest, and the best land: when the simple Gentile world raised itself up to the strength of the work, because it tends toward the country of life.

VERS. 16-18.-- « Dan shall judge his people, » etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) Others think that by these words Antichrist is foretold as to come of the tribe of Dan, etc., as far as and after the benefits of a feigned sweetness he plies the horns of power.

« Dan shall judge his people as one of the sceptres of Israel. Let Dan be a serpent in the way, a basilisk in 179Dthe path, biting the hoofs of the horse, and let his rider fall backward. I will look for thy Saviour, O Lord. »[Vulg. Gn 49:16-18 sicut et alia tribus in Israel … cerastes in semita … ut cadat ascensor ejus retro. Salutare tuum expectabo, Domine, "as another tribe in Israel … a horned serpent in the path … that his rider may fall backward. I will look for thy salvation, O Lord."] (HIERON., ubi supra. ) Samson, the judge of Israel, was of the tribe of Dan, etc., as far as and he himself shall be the expectation of the nations.

VERS. 19, 20.-- « Gad. » (HIERON.) A robber shall rob before him,[Vulg. Gn 49:19 Gad, accinctus praeliabatur ante eum, "Gad, being girded, fought before him."] etc., as far as and, his enemies overcome, he fought bravely.

« Gad girded shall fight before him. » (ISID.) Christ shall fight before and behind against Antichrist: before, by the hidden coming of his humility; after, by the manifested glory of his majesty. Whence Moses, Deut. XXXIII: « Blessed in breadth is Gad, he hath rested as a lion: and he took the arm and the crown, and he saw his principality. » For Christ rested in the sepulchre, and humbled the crown 180Aand pride of the lofty, and to him was given the principality, and honour, and a kingdom.

VERS. 21.-- « Nephthali. » (HIERON.) Allegorically. A shoot let loose, giving beauty to the nation,[Vulg. Gn 49:21 Nephthali, cervus emissus, et dans eloquia pulchritudinis, "Nephthali, a hart let loose, and giving words of beauty."] etc., as far as because there most of all he taught, as is written in the Gospel too.

« Nephthali a hart let loose, » etc. (ISID.) For the apostles and preachers, leaping forth swiftly like harts, overleap the hindrances of the world, and meditating on lofty things, give words of beauty, that is, they preach the doctrine of the Saviour.

VERS. 22-26.-- « Joseph a growing son, » etc. (HIERON., ubi supra. ) « A son growing above a fountain, »[Vulg. Gn 49:22 filius accrescens et decorus aspectu, "a growing son and comely to behold."] etc., as far as ruling also over the ten tribes of Israel.

180BVERS. 27. « Benjamin a ravening wolf, » etc. (HIERON., ibid. ) « In the morning he shall eat the prey, and at evening he shall divide the food. »[Vulg. Gn 49:27 mane comedat praedam, et vespere dividet spolia, "in the morning let him eat the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil."] Although the prophecy is most manifestly of Paul, in that in his youth he persecuted the Church, and in his old age was a preacher of the Gospel, etc., as far as concerning the priests who, serving the altar, should live by the altar (I Cor. IX).

« Benjamin a ravening wolf, » etc. (ISID.) A certain one of the doctors referred this to Jerusalem, etc., as far as then shall he divide the food, understanding that the letter is to be divided from the spirit, because « the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth (II Cor. III). »

VERS. 28-31.-- « All these in the tribes, » etc. It is asked: why did Jacob appoint all whom he begot of free women and of handmaids 180Csons and heirs with equal honour? because, as Christ bestows heavenly rewards with like honour and glory upon all who are joined to his body through faith. « For there is no distinction there whether one be Jew or Greek, Barbarian or Scythian, bond or free: because through all things and in all things » is Christ,[Vulg. Col 3:11 ubi non est gentilis et Judaeus, circumcisio et praeputium, Barbarus et Scytha, servus et liber : sed omnia, et in omnibus Christus, "where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all."] who put on the form of a servant, and served both for the free man and for the servant, that he might bestow an equal gift upon all. For whosoever earns the faith of the Lord is darkened by no stains of carnal birth. Whence Joel. II: « I will pour forth of my spirit upon all flesh. »[Vulg. Joel 2:28 effundam spiritum meum super omnem carnem, "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh"; the wording Migne prints is that of Act 2:17.]

VERS. 32.-- « And being gathered, » etc. (STRAB.) It must be asked: of what people is this said? For concerning the fathers there is no question. For it is known that he was gathered to Abraham and Isaac, but a people is a multitude. 180DThose, however, being so few, could not be called a people. It is to be understood therefore that this is said of the angels also, to whose fellowship the saints, passing out of the world, are gathered. Whence Hebr. XII: « You are come to mount Sion, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of angels, »[Vulg. Hbr 12:22 accessistis ad Sion montem, et civitatem Dei viventis, Jerusalem caelestem, et multorum millium angelorum frequentiam, "you are come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels."] etc.

VERS. 1-3.-- « Which when Joseph saw, he fell . . . . forty days passed. » (STRAB.) Which number befits penance and humility. Whence in the law and in the Gospel it was observed by the prophets and by the Lord himself.

(AUG.) The forty days of burial which the Scripture records perhaps signify the penance whereby sins are buried. For not in vain were forty days 181Aof fastings appointed, on which Moses, and Elias, and the Lord himself fasted, and the Church calls the chief observance of fastings Lent. Whence also concerning the Ninivites it is written in Jonas: « Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed (Jon. III), that through so many days, fitted, that is, to the humbling of the penitent, they may be understood to have wept for their own sins in fastings, and to have obtained mercy. Nor does this number befit the mourning of penitents only. For forty days after the resurrection the Lord was with his disciples, going in and going out, eating and drinking, and those were days of gladness. Nor are the seventy Interpreters to be believed to have erred, who said: « Three days, and Ninive shall be destroyed: » for, endowed with a greater authority than the office of interpreters is, by the prophetic spirit (by which also they are affirmed to have agreed with one mouth in their interpretations, which was a great miracle) they set down 181B« three days, » although they were not ignorant that « forty days » was read in the Hebrew; that in the glorification of Christ sins might be understood to be dissolved and abolished, « who was delivered up for our offences, and rose again for our justification. » But the glorification of the Lord is known in his resurrection and ascension. Whence here, although he gave one and the same Spirit: first after he rose again, secondly after he ascended; and because after three days he rose again, but after forty days ascended: the one of these, which was done later, the Hebrews signify by the number of forty days; but the other, of the three days, which 181Cbelongs to the same matter, the Seventy record, not by the servitude of interpretation, but by the authority of prophecy. Let us not therefore say that one of these is false, and let us not wrangle for some interpreters against others; since they who interpret out of the Hebrew prove that what they interpret is written; and the authority of the Seventy, which is commended by so great a miracle divinely wrought, is confirmed by so great an antiquity in the churches.

« Seventy days. » (STRAB.) The heathen bewailed their dead nine days. Whence also the ninth day was called the novendial, when they were buried. The worshippers of God celebrated the obsequies for seven days. Whence Eccli. XXII: « The mourning for the dead is seven days: but the mourning of a fool is all the time of his life. »[Vulg. Sir 22:13 Luctus mortui septem dies : fatui autem et impii omnes dies vitae illorum, "the mourning for the dead is seven days: but for the fool and the ungodly, all the days of their life."] For the number seven signifies rest. Whence the seventh day is called the sabbath, 181Dthat is, rest. They celebrate therefore the seventh day of the dead, wishing that they may rest with the Lord from the labours of the present life. Hence therefore it is said: « Egypt wept for him seventy days, » which is the sevenfold number multiplied by ten. For seven times ten are seventy. It may also be said that, as the third day of a dead man is kept by the faithful, that the soul, which is of a threefold nature, may rest; so the seventh day is celebrated, that the soul, which sinned at the enticement of the flesh, may be reconciled to the body. In the number seven also there are three and 182Afour; the number three belongs to the soul, which is irascible, and concupiscible, and rational; the number four to the body, which consists of four elements.

VERS. 4-21.-- « And when the time of the mourning was expired, » etc. (AUG.) As to what Joseph enjoined upon the great men of Egypt, that they should say to Pharao in his name: « My father made me swear, saying: In the monument which I made for myself in the land of Chanaan, there thou shalt bury me; »[Vulg. Gn 50:5 eo quod pater meus adjuraverit me dicens : En morior : in sepulchro meo, quod fodi mihi in terra Chanaan, sepelies me, "for that my father made me swear, saying: Behold I die: thou shalt bury me in my sepulchre which I dug for myself in the land of Chanaan" — fodi, "dug," which is the very word the gloss below reasons from, where Migne's lemma prints feci, "made."] it is asked how this may be true, since these words of his father, when he gave charge concerning his burial, are not read. But the words are to be referred to the sense, as other things above were likewise repeated. For words must serve a will that is to be uttered and brought to knowledge. But that Jacob dug himself a sepulchre is nowhere read above, yet assuredly, unless he had dug it, it would not now be said.

182BVERS. 10.-- « And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, » etc. This place is beyond the Jordan, and is distant from Hebron seventy thousand paces. They passed by, therefore, the place in which they were to bury him, and afterwards, the Jordan being crossed, returned to the place of the double cave. Whence it may be asked why they did this. If any one says that they feared wars, as the children of Israel were led about through the desert for forty years, until, the Jordan being passed, they came to the land of promise. But this was done for the sake of a greater signification. For in the place which is called the threshing-floor of Arad, afterwards the multitude of the children of Israel, murmuring against the Lord, was consumed by divine fire. With so great a mourning, therefore, not so much the death of Jacob as the coming ruin of the people was bewailed.

VERS. 22, 23.-- « And he lived a hundred and ten years. » 182C(AUG., in Gen., tom. III.) Since the Scripture says that Joseph, while he lived, saw these sons of his sons or grandsons of his sons, how does it join them to the sixty-five souls with whom it says that Jacob entered Egypt, etc., as far as which was propagated while he lived, through whom it came about that he entered in.

VERS. 24.-- « Carry away my bones, » etc. (STRAB.) Joseph, like his father, desired with his whole mind the land of promise, and detested the sojourn in Egypt. He instructs us each morally also, that so long as we are in this world we should always desire the land of promise, that is, of the living, and should wish to rest there: which is well done, if we imitate in our manners the number of Joseph's years. For he died when a hundred and ten years of his life were completed: let us also study 182Dto come, through the keeping of the decalogue, to the eternal blessedness which the number one hundred signifies.

VERS. 25.-- « Embalmed with spices. » (STRAB.) Happy is the soul which, seasoned with the spices of the virtues while it dwells in the little coffer of the body, is kept by daily profiting for the everlasting life. For if it shall have been guarded in faith, hope and charity, it will deserve to come, by the grace of Christ, to the sight of the divine contemplation, whose adoption is perfect gladness; whence psal. XV: « Thou shalt fill me with joy with thy countenance. »