each found a nation, if they had but one language? For no doubt the
Hebrew nation propagated from Heber through Abraham, and becoming
through him a great people, is one nation. How, then, are all the sons
of the three branches of Noah's family enumerated as founding a nation
each, if Heber and Peleg did not so? It is very probable that the
giant Nimrod founded also his nation, and that Scripture has named him
separately on account of the extraordinary dimensions of his empire
and of his body, so that the number of seventy-two nations remains.
But Peleg was mentioned, not because he founded a nation (for his
race and language are Hebrew), but on account of the critical time at
which he was born, all the earth being then divided. Nor ought we to
be surprised that the giant Nimrod lived to the time in which Babylon
was founded and the confusion of tongues occurred, and the consequent
division of the earth. For though Heber was in the sixth generation
from Noah, and Nimrod in the fourth, it does not follow that they could
not be alive at the same time. For when the generations are few, they
live longer and are born later; but when they are many, they live a
shorter time, and come into the world earlier. We are to understand
that, when the earth was divided, the descendants of Noah who are
registered as founders of nations were not only already born, but
were of an age to have immense families, worthy to be called tribes
or nations. And therefore we must by no means suppose that they were
born in the order in which they were set down; otherwise, how could the
twelve sons of Joktan, another son of Heber's, and brother of Peleg,
have already founded nations, if Joktan was born, as he is registered,
after his brother Peleg, since the earth was divided at Peleg's birth?
We are therefore to understand that, though Peleg is named first, he
was born long after Joktan, whose twelve sons had already families
so large as to admit of their being divided by different languages.
There is nothing extraordinary in the last born being first named: of
the sons of Noah, the descendants of Japheth are first named; then
the sons of Ham, who was the second son; and last the sons of Shem,
who was the first and oldest. Of these nations the names have partly
survived, so that at this day we can see from whom they have sprung, as
the Assyrians from Assur, the Hebrews from Heber, but partly have been
altered in the lapse of time, so that the most learned men, by profound
research in ancient records, have scarcely been able to discover the
origin, I do not say of all, but of some of these nations. There is,
for example, nothing in the name Egyptians to show that they are
descended from Misraim, Ham's son, nor in the name Ethiopians to show
a connection with Cush, though such is said to be the origin of these
nations. And if we take a general survey of the names, we shall find
that more have been changed than have remained the same.
12. _Of the era in Abraham's life from which a new period in
the holy succession begins._
Let us now survey the progress of the city of God from the era of the
patriarch Abraham, from whose time it begins to be more conspicuous,
and the divine promises which are now fulfilled in Christ are more
fully revealed. We learn, then, from the intimations of holy Scripture,
that Abraham was born in the country of the Chaldeans, a land belonging
to the Assyrian empire. Now, even at that time impious superstitions
were rife with the Chaldeans, as with other nations. The family of
Terah, to which Abraham belonged, was the only one in which the worship
of the true God survived, and the only one, we may suppose, in which
the Hebrew language was preserved; although Joshua the son of Nun tells
us that even this family served other gods in Mesopotamia.[251] The
other descendants of Heber gradually became absorbed in other races and
other languages. And thus, as the single family of Noah was preserved
through the deluge of water to renew the human race, so, in the deluge
of superstition that flooded the whole world, there remained but the
one family of Terah in which the seed of God's city was preserved. And
as, when Scripture has enumerated the generations prior to Noah, with
their ages, and explained the cause of the flood before God began to
speak to Noah about the building of the ark, it is said, "These are the
generations of Noah;" so also now, after enumerating the generations
from Shem, Noah's son, down to Abraham, it then signalizes an era by
saying, "These are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor,
and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah
in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And Abram and Nahor
took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of
Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and
the father of Iscah."[252] This Iscah is supposed to be the same as
Sarah, Abraham's wife.
13. _Why, in the account of Terah's emigration, on his forsaking
the Chaldeans and passing over into Mesopotamia, no mention is
made of his son Nahor._
Next it is related how Terah with his family left the region of the
Chaldeans and came into Mesopotamia, and dwelt in Haran. But nothing
is said about one of his sons called Nahor, as if he had not taken
him along with him. For the narrative runs thus: "And Terah took
Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarah
his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and led them forth out
of the region of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; and
he came into Haran, and dwelt there."[253] Nahor and Milcah his
wife are nowhere named here. But afterwards, when Abraham sent his
servant to take a wife for his son Isaac, we find it thus written:
"And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his lord, and
of all the goods of his lord, with him; and arose, and went into
Mesopotamia, into the city of Nahor."[254] This and other testimonies
of this sacred history show that Nahor, Abraham's brother, had
also left the region of the Chaldeans, and fixed his abode in
Mesopotamia, where Abraham dwelt with his father. Why, then, did the
Scripture not mention him, when Terah with his family went forth
out of the Chaldean nation and dwelt in Haran, since it mentions
that he took with him not only Abraham his son, but also Sarah his
daughter-in-law, and Lot his grandson? The only reason we can think
of is, that perhaps he had lapsed from the piety of his father and
brother, and adhered to the superstition of the Chaldeans, and had
afterwards emigrated thence, either through penitence, or because he
was persecuted as a suspected person. For in the book called Judith,
when Holofernes, the enemy of the Israelites, inquired what kind of
nation that might be, and whether war should be made against them,
Achior, the leader of the Ammonites, answered him thus: "Let our lord
now hear a word from the mouth of thy servant, and I will declare
unto thee the truth concerning the people which dwelleth near thee
in this hill country, and there shall no lie come out of the mouth
of thy servant. For this people is descended from the Chaldeans, and
they dwelt heretofore in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow
the gods of their fathers, which were glorious in the land of the
Chaldeans, but went out of the way of their ancestors, and adored the
God of heaven, whom they knew; and they cast them out from the face
of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia, and dwelt there many
days. And their God said to them, that they should depart from their
habitation, and go into the land of Canaan; and they dwelt,"[255]
etc., as Achior the Ammonite narrates. Whence it is manifest that the
house of Terah had suffered persecution from the Chaldeans for the
true piety with which they worshipped the one and true God.
14. _Of the years of Terah, who completed his lifetime in Haran._
On Terah's death in Mesopotamia, where he is said to have lived 205
years, the promises of God made to Abraham now begin to be pointed
out; for thus it is written: "And the days of Terah in Haran were
two hundred and five years, and he died in Haran."[256] This is not
to be taken as if he had spent all his days there, but that he there
completed the days of his life, which were two hundred and five
years: otherwise it would not be known how many years Terah lived,
since it is not said in what year of his life he came into Haran; and
it is absurd to suppose that, in this series of generations, where it
is carefully recorded how many years each one lived, his age was the
only one not put on record. For although some whom the same Scripture
mentions have not their age recorded, they are not in this series, in
which the reckoning of time is continuously indicated by the death
of the parents and the succession of the children. For this series,
which is given in order from Adam to Noah, and from him down to
Abraham, contains no one without the number of the years of his life.
15. _Of the time of the migration of Abraham, when, according
to the commandment of God, he went out from Haran._
When, after the record of the death of Terah, the father of Abraham,
we next read, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house,"[257]
etc., it is not to be supposed, because this follows in the order of
the narrative, that it also followed in the chronological order of
events. For if it were so, there would be an insoluble difficulty.
For after these words of God which were spoken to Abraham, the
Scripture says: "And Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him;
and Lot went with him. Now Abraham was seventy-five years old when he
departed out of Haran."[258] How can this be true if he departed from
Haran after his father's death? For when Terah was seventy years old,
as is intimated above, he begat Abraham; and if to this number we add
the seventy-five years which Abraham reckoned when he went out of
Haran, we get 145 years. Therefore that was the number of the years
of Terah, when Abraham departed out of that city of Mesopotamia;
for he had reached the seventy-fifth year of his life, and thus
his father, who begat him in the seventieth year of his life, had
reached, as was said, his 145th. Therefore he did not depart thence
after his father's death, that is, after the 205 years his father
lived; but the year of his departure from that place, seeing it was
his seventy-fifth, is inferred beyond a doubt to have been the 145th
of his father, who begat him in his seventieth year. And thus it is
to be understood that the Scripture, according to its custom, has
gone back to the time which had already been passed by the narrative;
just as above, when it had mentioned the grandsons of Noah, it said
that they were in their nations and tongues; and yet afterwards, as
if this also had followed in order of time, it says, "And the whole
earth was of one lip, and one speech for all."[259] How, then, could
they be said to be in their own nations and according to their own
tongues, if there was one for all; except because the narrative goes
back to gather up what it had passed over? Here, too, in the same
way, after saying, "And the days of Terah in Haran were 205 years,
and Terah died in Haran," the Scripture, going back to what had been
passed over in order to complete what had been begun about Terah,
says, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country,"[260]
etc. After which words of God it is added, "And Abram departed,
as the Lord spake unto him; and Lot went with him. But Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran." Therefore it
was done when his father was in the 145th year of his age; for it
was then the seventy-fifth of his own. But this question is also
solved in another way, that the seventy-five years of Abraham when
he departed out of Haran are reckoned from the year in which he was
delivered from the fire of the Chaldeans, not from that of his birth,
as if he was rather to be held as having been born then.
Now the blessed Stephen, in narrating these things in the Acts of the
Apostles, says: "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham,
when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto
him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy
father's house, and come into the land which I will show thee."[261]
According to these words of Stephen, God spoke to Abraham, not after
the death of his father, who certainly died in Haran, where his son
also dwelt with him, but before he dwelt in that city, although he
was already in Mesopotamia. Therefore he had already departed from
the Chaldeans. So that when Stephen adds, "Then Abraham went out of
the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran,"[262] this does not
point out what took place after God spoke to him (for it was not after
these words of God that he went out of the land of the Chaldeans,
since he says that God spoke to him in Mesopotamia), but the word
"_then_" which he uses refers to that whole period from his going out
of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelling in Haran. Likewise in what
follows, "And thenceforth, when his father was dead, he settled him in
this land, wherein ye now dwell, and your fathers," he does not say,
after his father was dead he went out from Haran; but thenceforth he
settled him here, after his father was dead. It is to be understood,
therefore, that God had spoken to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia,
before he dwelt in Haran; but that he came to Haran with his father,
keeping in mind the precept of God, and that he went out thence in his
own seventy-fifth year, which was his father's 145th. But he says that
his settlement in the land of Canaan, not his going forth from Haran,
took place after his father's death; because his father was already
dead when he purchased the land, and personally entered on possession
of it. But when, on his having already settled in Mesopotamia, that
is, already gone out of the land of the Chaldeans, God says, "Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house,"[263] this means, not that he should cast out his body from
thence, for he had already done that, but that he should tear away
his soul. For he had not gone out from thence in mind, if he was held
by the hope and desire of returning,--a hope and desire which was to
be cut off by God's command and help, and by his own obedience. It
would indeed be no incredible supposition that afterwards, when Nahor
followed his father, Abraham then fulfilled the precept of the Lord,
that he should depart out of Haran with Sarah his wife and Lot his
brother's son.
16. _Of the order and nature of the promises of God which were
made to Abraham._
God's promises made to Abraham are now to be considered; for in
these the oracles of our God,[264] that is, of the true God, began
to appear more openly concerning the godly people, whom prophetic
authority foretold. The first of these reads thus: "And the Lord
said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, and go into a land that I will show
thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee,
and magnify thy name; and thou shalt be blessed: and I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee
shall all tribes of the earth be blessed."[265] Now it is to be
observed that two things are promised to Abraham, the one, that his
seed should possess the land of Canaan, which is intimated when it
is said, "Go into a land that I will show thee, and I will make of
thee a great nation;" but the other far more excellent, not about
the carnal but the spiritual seed, through which he is the father,
not of the one Israelite nation, but of all nations who follow the
footprints of his faith, which was first promised in these words,
"And in thee shall all tribes of the earth be blessed." Eusebius
thought this promise was made in Abraham's seventy-fifth year, as if
soon after it was made Abraham had departed out of Haran; because
the Scripture cannot be contradicted, in which we read, "Abram was
seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran." But if
this promise was made in that year, then of course Abraham was
staying in Haran with his father; for he could not depart thence
unless he had first dwelt there. Does this, then, contradict what
Stephen says, "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when
he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran?"[266] But it is
to be understood that the whole took place in the same year,--both
the promise of God before Abraham dwelt in Haran, and his dwelling
in Haran, and his departure thence,--not only because Eusebius in
the Chronicles reckons from the year of this promise, and shows that
after 430 years the exodus from Egypt took place, when the law was
given, but because the Apostle Paul also mentions it.
17. _Of the three most famous kingdoms of the nations, of which
one, that is, the Assyrian, was already very eminent when
Abraham was born._
During the same period there were three famous kingdoms of the
nations, in which the city of the earth-born, that is, the society of
men living according to man under the domination of the fallen angels,
chiefly flourished, namely, the three kingdoms of Sicyon, Egypt, and
Assyria. Of these, Assyria was much the most powerful and sublime;
for that king Ninus, son of Belus, had subdued the people of all Asia
except India. By Asia I now mean not that part which is one province of
this greater Asia, but what is called Universal Asia, which some set
down as the half, but most as the third part of the whole world,--the
three being Asia, Europe, and Africa, thereby making an unequal
division. For the part called Asia stretches from the south through the
east even to the north; Europe from the north even to the west; and
Africa from the west even to the south. Thus we see that two, Europe
and Africa, contain one half of the world, and Asia alone the other
half. And these two parts are made by the circumstance, that there
enters between them from the ocean all the Mediterranean water, which
makes this great sea of ours. So that, if you divide the world into
two parts, the east and the west, Asia will be in the one, and Europe
and Africa in the other. So that of the three kingdoms then famous,
one, namely Sicyon, was not under the Assyrians, because it was in
Europe; but as for Egypt, how could it fail to be subject to the empire
which ruled all Asia with the single exception of India? In Assyria,
therefore, the dominion of the impious city had the pre-eminence. Its
head was Babylon,--an earth-born city, most fitly named, for it means
confusion. There Ninus reigned after the death of his father Belus, who
first had reigned there sixty-five years. His son Ninus, who, on his
father's death, succeeded to the kingdom, reigned fifty-two years, and
had been king forty-three years when Abraham was born, which was about
the 1200th year before Rome was founded, as it were another Babylon in
the west.
18. _Of the repeated address of God to Abraham, in which He
promised the land of Canaan to him and to his seed._
Abraham, then, having departed out of Haran in the seventy-fifth year
of his own age, and in the hundred and forty-fifth of his father's,
went with Lot, his brother's son, and Sarah his wife, into the land of
Canaan, and came even to Sichem, where again he received the divine
oracle, of which it is thus written: "And the Lord appeared unto Abram,
and said unto him, Unto thy seed will I give this land."[267] Nothing
is promised here about that seed in which he is made the father of
all nations, but only about that by which he is the father of the one
Israelite nation; for by this seed that land was possessed.
19. _Of the divine preservation of Sarah's chastity in Egypt,
when Abraham had called her not his wife but his sister._
Having built an altar there, and called upon God, Abraham proceeded
thence and dwelt in the desert, and was compelled by pressure of
famine to go on into Egypt. There he called his wife his sister, and
told no lie. For she was this also, because she was near of blood;
just as Lot, on account of the same nearness, being his brother's
son, is called his brother. Now he did not deny that she was his
wife, but held his peace about it, committing to God the defence of
his wife's chastity, and providing as a man against human wiles;
because if he had not provided against the danger as much as he
could, he would have been tempting God rather than trusting in Him.
We have said enough about this matter against the calumnies of
Faustus the Manichæan. At last what Abraham had expected the Lord to
do took place. For Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who had taken her to him
as his wife, restored her to her husband on being severely plagued.
And far be it from us to believe that she was defiled by lying with
another; because it is much more credible that, by these great
afflictions, Pharaoh was not permitted to do this.
20. _Of the parting of Lot and Abraham, which they agreed to
without breach of charity._
On Abraham's return out of Egypt to the place he had left, Lot, his
brother's son, departed from him into the land of Sodom, without
breach of charity. For they had grown rich, and began to have many
herdmen of cattle, and when these strove together, they avoided in
this way the pugnacious discord of their families. Indeed, as human
affairs go, this cause might even have given rise to some strife
between themselves. Consequently these are the words of Abraham to
Lot, when taking precaution against this evil, "Let there be no
strife between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen;
for we be brethren. Behold, is not the whole land before thee?
Separate thyself from me: if thou wilt go to the left hand, I will
go to the right; or if thou wilt go to the right hand, I will go to
the left."[268] From this, perhaps, has arisen a pacific custom among
men, that when there is any partition of earthly things, the greater
should make the division, the less the choice.
21. _Of the third promise of God, by which He assured the
land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed in perpetuity._
Now, when Abraham and Lot had separated, and dwelt apart, owing to
the necessity of supporting their families, and not to vile discord,
and Abraham was in the land of Canaan, but Lot in Sodom, the Lord
said to Abraham in a third oracle, "Lift up thine eyes, and look
from the place where thou now art, to the north, and to Africa, and
to the east, and to the sea; for all the land which thou seest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy
seed as the dust of the earth: if any one can number the dust of
the earth, thy seed shall also be numbered. Arise, and walk through
the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for unto
thee will I give it."[269] It does not clearly appear whether in
this promise that also is contained by which he is made the father
of all nations. For the clause, "And I will make thy seed as the
dust of the earth," may seem to refer to this, being spoken by that
figure the Greeks call hyperbole, which indeed is figurative, not
literal. But no person of understanding can doubt in what manner
the Scripture uses this and other figures. For that figure (that
is, way of speaking) is used when what is said is far larger than
what is meant by it; for who does not see how incomparably larger
the number of the dust must be than that of all men can be from Adam
himself down to the end of the world? How much greater, then, must
it be than the seed of Abraham,--not only that pertaining to the
nation of Israel, but also that which is and shall be according to
the imitation of faith in all nations of the whole wide world! For
that seed is indeed very small in comparison with the multitude of
the wicked, although even those few of themselves make an innumerable
multitude, which by a hyperbole is compared to the dust of the earth.
Truly that multitude which was promised to Abraham is not innumerable
to God, although to man; but to God not even the dust of the earth
is so. Further, the promise here made may be understood not only of
the nation of Israel, but of the whole seed of Abraham, which may be
fitly compared to the dust for multitude, because regarding it also
there is the promise[270] of many children, not according to the
flesh, but according to the spirit. But we have therefore said that
this does not clearly appear, because the multitude even of that one
nation, which was born according to the flesh of Abraham through his
grandson Jacob, has increased so much as to fill almost all parts
of the world. Consequently, even it might by hyperbole be compared
to the dust for multitude, because even it alone is innumerable by
man. Certainly no one questions that only that land is meant which is
called Canaan. But that saying, "To thee will I give it, and to thy
seed for ever," may move some, if by "for ever" they understand "to
eternity." But if in this passage they take "for ever" thus, as we
firmly hold it means, that the beginning of the world to come is to
be ordered from the end of the present, there is still no difficulty,
because, although the Israelites are expelled from Jerusalem, they
still remain in other cities in the land of Canaan, and shall remain
even to the end; and when that whole land is inhabited by Christians,
they also are the very seed of Abraham.
22. _Of Abraham's overcoming the enemies of Sodom, when he
delivered Lot from captivity and was blessed by Melchizedek the
priest._
Having received this oracle of promise, Abraham migrated, and remained
in another place of the same land, that is, beside the oak of Mamre,
which was Hebron. Then on the invasion of Sodom, when five kings
carried on war against four, and Lot was taken captive with the
conquered Sodomites, Abraham delivered him from the enemy, leading with
him to battle three hundred and eighteen of his home-born servants,
and won the victory for the kings of Sodom, but would take nothing of
the spoils when offered by the king for whom he had won them. He was
then openly blessed by Melchizedek, who was priest of God Most High,
about whom many and great things are written in the epistle which
is inscribed to the Hebrews, which most say is by the Apostle Paul,
though some deny this. For then first appeared the sacrifice which is
now offered to God by Christians in the whole wide world, and that is
fulfilled which long after the event was said by the prophet to Christ,
who was yet to come in the flesh, "Thou art a priest for ever after the
order of Melchizedek,"[271]--that is to say, not after the order of
Aaron, for that order was to be taken away when the things shone forth
which were intimated beforehand by these shadows.
23. _Of the word of the Lord to Abraham, by which it was promised
to him that his posterity should be multiplied according to
the multitude of the stars; on believing which he was declared
justified while yet in uncircumcision._
The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision also. For when
God promised him protection and exceeding great reward, he, being
solicitous about posterity, said that a certain Eliezer of Damascus,
born in his house, would be his heir. Immediately he was promised an
heir, not that house-born servant, but one who was to come forth of
Abraham himself; and again a seed innumerable, not as the dust of
the earth, but as the stars of heaven,--which rather seems to me a
promise of a posterity exalted in celestial felicity. For, so far as
multitude is concerned, what are the stars of heaven to the dust of
the earth, unless one should say the comparison is like inasmuch as
the stars also cannot be numbered? For it is not to be believed that
all of them can be seen. For the more keenly one observes them, the
more does he see. So that it is to be supposed some remain concealed
from the keenest observers, to say nothing of those stars which are
said to rise and set in another part of the world most remote from
us. Finally, the authority of this book condemns those like Aratus
or Eudoxus, or any others who boast that they have found out and
written down the complete number of the stars. Here, indeed, is set
down that sentence which the apostle quotes in order to commend
the grace of God, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him
for righteousness;"[272] lest the circumcision should glory, and
be unwilling to receive the uncircumcised nations to the faith of
Christ. For at the time when he believed, and his faith was counted
to him for righteousness, Abraham had not yet been circumcised.
24. _Of the meaning of the sacrifice Abraham was commanded to offer
when he supplicated to be taught about those things he had
believed._
In the same vision, God in speaking to him also says, "I am God that
brought thee out of the region of the Chaldees, to give thee this land
to inherit it."[273] And when Abram asked whereby he might know that he
should inherit it, God said to him, "Take me an heifer of three years
old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old,
and a turtle-dove, and a pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and
divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another; but
the birds divided he not. And the fowls came down," as it is written,
"on the carcases, and Abram sat down by them. But about the going down
of the sun, great fear fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great
darkness fell upon him. And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that
thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall
reduce them to servitude; and shall afflict them four hundred years:
but the nation whom they shall serve will I judge; and afterward shall
they come out hither with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy
fathers in peace; kept in a good old age. But in the fourth generation
they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is
not yet full. And when the sun was setting, there was a flame, and a
smoking furnace, and lamps of fire, that passed through between those
pieces. In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto
thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great
river Euphrates: the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the
Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Girgashites, and
the Jebusites."[274]
All these things were said and done in a vision from God; but it
would take long, and would exceed the scope of this work, to treat of
them exactly in detail. It is enough that we should know that, after
it was said Abram believed in God, and it was counted to him for
righteousness, he did not fail in faith in saying, "Lord God, whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit it?" for the inheritance of that land
was promised to him. Now he does not say, How shall I know, as if he
did not yet believe; but he says, "Whereby shall I know," meaning that
some sign might be given by which he might know the manner of those
things which he had believed, just as it is not for lack of faith the
Virgin Mary says, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?"[275]
for she inquired as to the way in which that should take place which
she was certain would come to pass. And when she asked this, she was
told, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee."[276] Here also, in fine, a symbol was
given, consisting of three animals, a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram,
and two birds, a turtle-dove and pigeon, that he might know that the
things which he had not doubted should come to pass were to happen in
accordance with this symbol. Whether, therefore, the heifer was a sign
that the people should be put under the law, the she-goat that the same
people was to become sinful, the ram that they should reign (and these
animals are said to be of three years old for this reason, that there
are three remarkable divisions of time, from Adam to Noah, and from
him to Abraham, and from him to David, who, on the rejection of Saul,
was first established by the will of the Lord in the kingdom of the
Israelite nation: in this third division, which extends from Abraham
to David, that people grew up as if passing through the third age of
life), or whether they had some other more suitable meaning, still I
have no doubt whatever that spiritual things were prefigured by them as
well as by the turtle-dove and pigeon. And it is said, "But the birds
divided he not," because carnal men are divided among themselves, but
the spiritual not at all, whether they seclude themselves from the busy
conversation of men, like the turtle-dove, or dwell among them, like
the pigeon; for both birds are simple and harmless, signifying that
even in the Israelite people, to which that land was to be given, there
would be individuals who were children of the promise, and heirs of
the kingdom that is[277] to remain in eternal felicity. But the fowls
coming down on the divided carcases represent nothing good, but the
spirits of this air, seeking some food for themselves in the division
of carnal men. But that Abraham sat down with them, signifies that even
amid these divisions of the carnal, true believers shall persevere to
the end. And that about the going down of the sun great fear fell upon
Abraham and a horror of great darkness, signifies that about the end of
this world believers shall be in great perturbation and tribulation,
of which the Lord said in the gospel, "For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not from the beginning."[278]
But what is said to Abraham, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall
be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall reduce them to
servitude, and shall afflict them 400 years," is most clearly a
prophecy about the people of Israel which was to be in servitude in
Egypt. Not that this people was to be in that servitude under the
oppressive Egyptians for 400 years, but it is foretold that this
should take place in the course of those 400 years. For as it is
written of Terah the father of Abraham, "And the days of Terah in
Haran were 205 years,"[279] not because they were all spent there,
but because they were completed there, so it is said here also,
"And they shall reduce them to servitude, and shall afflict them
400 years," for this reason, because that number was completed, not
because it was all spent in that affliction. The years are said to be
400 in round numbers, although they were a little more,--whether you
reckon from this time, when these things were promised to Abraham,
or from the birth of Isaac, as the seed of Abraham, of which these
things are predicted. For, as we have already said above, from the
seventy-fifth year of Abraham, when the first promise was made to
him, down to the exodus of Israel from Egypt, there are reckoned
430 years, which the apostle thus mentions: "And this I say, that
the covenant confirmed by God, the law, which was made 430 years
after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none
effect."[280] So then these 430 years might be called 400, because
they are not much more, especially since part even of that number
had already gone by when these things were shown and said to Abraham
in vision, or when Isaac was born in his father's 100th year,
twenty-five years after the first promise, when of these 430 years
there now remained 405, which God was pleased to call 400. No one
will doubt that the other things which follow in the prophetic words
of God pertain to the people of Israel.
When it is added, "And when the sun was now setting there was a
flame, and lo, a smoking furnace, and lamps of fire, which passed
through between those pieces," this signifies that at the end of the
world the carnal shall be judged by fire. For just as the affliction
of the city of God, such as never was before, which is expected to
take place under Antichrist, was signified by Abraham's horror of
great darkness about the going down of the sun, that is, when the
end of the world draws nigh,--so at the going down of the sun, that
is, at the very end of the world, there is signified by that fire
the day of judgment, which separates the carnal who are to be saved
by fire from those who are to be condemned in the fire. And then
the covenant made with Abraham particularly sets forth the land of
Canaan, and names eleven tribes in it from the river of Egypt even
to the great river Euphrates. It is not then from the great river of
Egypt, that is, the Nile, but from a small one which separates Egypt
from Palestine, where the city of Rhinocorura is.
25. _Of Sarah's handmaid, Hagar, whom she herself wished to
be Abraham's concubine._
And here follow the times of Abraham's sons, the one by Hagar the bond
maid, the other by Sarah the free woman, about whom we have already
spoken in the previous book. As regards this transaction, Abraham is
in no way to be branded as guilty concerning this concubine, for he
used her for the begetting of progeny, not for the gratification of
lust; and not to insult, but rather to obey his wife, who supposed
it would be a solace of her barrenness if she could make use of the
fruitful womb of her handmaid to supply the defect of her own nature,
and by that law of which the apostle says, "Likewise also the husband
hath not power of his own body, but the wife,"[281] could, as a wife,
make use of him for childbearing by another, when she could not do so
in her own person. Here there is no wanton lust, no filthy lewdness.
The handmaid is delivered to the husband by the wife for the sake of
progeny, and is received by the husband for the sake of progeny, each
seeking, not guilty excess, but natural fruit. And when the pregnant
bond woman despised her barren mistress, and Sarah, with womanly
jealousy, rather laid the blame of this on her husband, even then
Abraham showed that he was not a slavish lover, but a free begetter of
children, and that in using Hagar he had guarded the chastity of Sarah
his wife, and had gratified her will and not his own,--had received
her without seeking, had gone in to her without being attached, had
impregnated without loving her,--for he says, "Behold thy maid is in
thy hands: do to her as it pleaseth thee;"[282] a man able to use women
as a man should,--his wife temperately, his handmaid compliantly,
neither intemperately!
26. _Of God's attestation to Abraham, by which He assures him, when
now old, of a son by the barren Sarah, and appoints him the
father of the nations, and seals his faith in the promise by
the sacrament of circumcision._
After these things Ishmael was born of Hagar; and Abraham might think
that in him was fulfilled what God had promised him, saying, when he
wished to adopt his home-born servant, "This shall not be thine heir;
but he that shall come forth of thee, he shall be thine heir."[283]
Therefore, lest he should think that what was promised was fulfilled
in the handmaid's son, "when Abram was ninety years old and nine, God
appeared to him, and said unto him, I am God; be well-pleasing in my
sight, and be without complaint, and I will make my covenant between
me and thee, and will fill thee exceedingly."[284]
Here there are more distinct promises about the calling of the nations
in Isaac, that is, in the son of the promise, by which grace is
signified, and not nature; for the son is promised from an old man
and a barren old woman. For although God effects even the natural
course of procreation, yet where the agency of God is manifest, through
the decay or failure of nature, grace is more plainly discerned.
And because this was to be brought about, not by generation, but by
regeneration, circumcision was enjoined now, when a son was promised
of Sarah. And by ordering all, not only sons, but also home-born and
purchased servants to be circumcised, he testifies that this grace
pertains to all. For what else does circumcision signify than a nature
renewed on the putting off of the old? And what else does the eighth
day mean than Christ, who rose again when the week was completed, that
is, after the Sabbath? The very names of the parents are changed: all
things proclaim newness, and the new covenant is shadowed forth in the
old. For what does the term old covenant imply but the concealing of
the new? And what does the term new covenant imply but the revealing of
the old? The laughter of Abraham is the exultation of one who rejoices,
not the scornful laughter of one who mistrusts. And those words of his
in his heart, "Shall a son be born to me that am an hundred years old?
and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" are not the words of
doubt, but of wonder. And when it is said, "And I will give to thee,
and to thy seed after thee, the land in which thou art a stranger, all
the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession," if it troubles any
one whether this is to be held as fulfilled, or whether its fulfilment
may still be looked for, since no kind of earthly possession can
be everlasting for any nation whatever, let him know that the word
translated everlasting by our writers is what the Greeks term αἰώνιον,
which is derived from αἰὼν, the Greek for _sæculum_, an age. But the
Latins have not ventured to translate this by _secular_, lest they
should change the meaning into something widely different. For many
things are called secular which so happen in this world as to pass away
even in a short time; but what is termed αἰώνιον either has no end, or
lasts to the very end of this world.
27. _Of the male, who was to lose his soul if he was not
circumcised on the eighth day, because he had broken God's
covenant._
When it is said, "The male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his
foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he
hath broken my covenant,"[285] some may be troubled how that ought to
be understood, since it can be no fault of the infant whose life it
is said must perish, nor has the covenant of God been broken by him,
but by his parents, who have not taken care to circumcise him. But
even the infants, not personally in their own life, but according to
the common origin of the human race, have all broken God's covenant
in that one in whom all have sinned.[286] Now there are many things
called God's covenants besides those two great ones, the old and
the new, which any one who pleases may read and know. For the first
covenant, which was made with the first man, is just this: "In the
day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die."[287] Whence it is written
in the book called Ecclesiasticus, "All flesh waxeth old as doth a
garment. For the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the
death."[288] Now, as the law was more plainly given afterward, and
the apostle says, "Where no law is, there is no prevarication,"[289]
on what supposition is what is said in the psalm true, "I accounted
all the sinners of the earth prevaricators,"[290] except that all
who are held liable for any sin are accused of dealing deceitfully
(prevaricating) with some law? If on this account, then, even the
infants are, according to the true belief, born in sin, not actual
but original, so that we confess they have need of grace for the
remission of sins, certainly it must be acknowledged that in the
same sense in which they are sinners they are also prevaricators of
that law which was given in Paradise, according to the truth of both
scriptures, "I accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators,"
and "Where no law is, there is no prevarication." And thus, because
circumcision was the sign of regeneration, and the infant, on account
of the original sin by which God's covenant was first broken, was not
undeservedly to lose his generation unless delivered by regeneration,
these divine words are to be understood as if it had been said,
Whoever is not born again, that soul shall perish from his people,
because he hath broken my covenant, since he also has sinned in Adam
with all others. For had He said, Because he hath broken this my
covenant, He would have compelled us to understand by it only this of
circumcision; but since He has not expressly said what covenant the
infant has broken, we are free to understand Him as speaking of that
covenant of which the breach can be ascribed to an infant. Yet if any
one contends that it is said of nothing else than circumcision, that
in it the infant has broken the covenant of God because he is not
circumcised, he must seek some method of explanation by which it may
be understood without absurdity (such as this) that he has broken the
covenant, because it has been broken in him although not by him. Yet
in this case also it is to be observed that the soul of the infant,
being guilty of no sin of neglect against itself, would perish
unjustly, unless original sin rendered it obnoxious to punishment.
28. _Of the change of name in Abraham and Sarah, who received the
gift of fecundity when they were incapable of regeneration
owing to the barrenness of one, and the old age of both._
Now when a promise so great and clear was made to Abraham, in which
it was so plainly said to him, "I have made thee a father of many
nations, and I will increase thee exceedingly, and I will make
nations of thee, and kings shall go forth of thee. And I will give
thee a son of Sarah; and I will bless him, and he shall become
nations, and kings of nations shall be of him,"[291]--a promise
which we now see fulfilled in Christ,--from that time forward this
couple are not called in Scripture, as formerly, Abram and Sarai, but
Abraham and Sarah, as we have called them from the first, for every
one does so now. The reason why the name of Abraham was changed is
given: "For," He says, "I have made thee a father of many nations."
This, then, is to be understood to be the meaning of _Abraham_; but
_Abram_, as he was formerly called, means "exalted father." The
reason of the change of Sarah's name is not given; but as those say
who have written interpretations of the Hebrew names contained in
these books, Sarah means "my princess," and Sarai "strength." Whence
it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Through faith also
Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed."[292] For both
were old, as the Scripture testifies; but she was also barren, and
had ceased to menstruate, so that she could no longer bear children
even if she had not been barren. Further, if a woman is advanced in
years, yet still retains the custom of women, she can bear children
to a young man, but not to an old man, although that same old man
can beget, but only of a young woman; as after Sarah's death Abraham
could of Keturah, because he met with her in her lively age. This,
then, is what the apostle mentions as wonderful, saying, besides,
that Abraham's body was now dead;[293] because at that age he was no
longer able to beget children of any woman who retained now only a
small part of her natural vigour. Of course we must understand that
his body was dead only to some purposes, not to all; for if it was
so to all, it would no longer be the aged body of a living man, but
the corpse of a dead one. Although that question, how Abraham begot
children of Keturah, is usually solved in this way, that the gift of
begetting which he received from the Lord, remained even after the
death of his wife, yet I think that solution of the question which
I have followed is preferable, because, although in our days an old
man of a hundred years can beget children of no woman, it was not so
then, when men still lived so long that a hundred years did not yet
bring on them the decrepitude of old age.
29. _Of the three men or angels, in whom the Lord is related to
have appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre._
God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Mamre in three men,
who it is not to be doubted were angels, although some think that
one of them was Christ, and assert that He was visible before He
put on flesh. Now it belongs to the divine power, and invisible,
incorporeal, and incommutable nature, without changing itself at
all, to appear even to mortal men, not by what it is, but by what
is subject to it. And what is not subject to it? Yet if they try
to establish that one of these three was Christ by the fact that,
although he saw three, he addressed the Lord in the singular, as it
is written, "And, lo, three men stood by him: and, when he saw them,
he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and worshipped toward the
ground, and said, Lord, if I have found favour before thee,"[294]
etc.; why do they not advert to this also, that when two of them came
to destroy the Sodomites, while Abraham still spoke to one, calling
him Lord, and interceding that he would not destroy the righteous
along with the wicked in Sodom, Lot received these two in such a
way that he too in his conversation with them addressed the Lord in
the singular? For after saying to them in the plural, "Behold, my
lords, turn aside into your servant's house,"[295] etc., yet it is
afterwards said, "And the angels laid hold upon his hand, and the
hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters, because the
Lord was merciful unto him. And it came to pass, whenever they had
led him forth abroad, that they said, Save thy life; look not behind
thee, neither stay thou in all this region: save thyself in the
mountain, lest thou be caught. And Lot said unto them, I pray thee,
Lord, since thy servant hath found grace in thy sight,"[296] etc. And
then after these words the Lord also answered him in the singular,
although He was in two angels, saying, "See, I have accepted thy
face,"[297] etc. This makes it much more credible that both Abraham
in the three men and Lot in the two recognised the Lord, addressing
Him in the singular number, even when they were addressing men; for
they received them as they did for no other reason than that they
might minister human refection to them as men who needed it. Yet
there was about them something so excellent, that those who showed
them hospitality as men could not doubt that God was in them as He
was wont to be in the prophets, and therefore sometimes addressed
them in the plural, and sometimes God in them in the singular. But
that they were angels the Scripture testifies, not only in this book
of Genesis, in which these transactions are related, but also in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, where in praising hospitality it is said,
"For thereby some have entertained angels unawares."[298] By these
three men, then, when a son Isaac was again promised to Abraham by
Sarah, such a divine oracle was also given that it was said, "Abraham
shall become a great and numerous nation, and all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed in him."[299] And here these two things are
promised with the utmost brevity and fulness,--the nation of Israel
according to the flesh, and all nations according to faith.
30. _Of Lot's deliverance from Sodom, and its consumption by fire
from heaven; and of Abimelech, whose lust could not harm
Sarah's chastity._
After this promise Lot was delivered out of Sodom, and a fiery rain
from heaven turned into ashes that whole region of the impious city,
where custom had made sodomy as prevalent as laws have elsewhere
made other kinds of wickedness. But this punishment of theirs was
a specimen of the divine judgment to come. For what is meant by
the angels forbidding those who were delivered to look back, but
that we are not to look back in heart to the old life which, being
regenerated through grace, we have put off, if we think to escape the
last judgment? Lot's wife, indeed, when she looked back, remained,
and, being turned into salt, furnished to believing men a condiment
by which to savour somewhat the warning to be drawn from that
example. Then Abraham did again at Gerar, with Abimelech the king of
that city, what he had done in Egypt about his wife, and received
her back untouched in the same way. On this occasion, when the king
rebuked Abraham for not saying she was his wife, and calling her
his sister, he explained what he had been afraid of, and added this
further, "And yet indeed she is my sister by the father's side, but
not by the mother's;"[300] for she was Abraham's sister by his own
father, and so near of kin. But her beauty was so great, that even at
that advanced age she could be fallen in love with.
31. _Of Isaac, who was born according to the promise, whose
name was given on account of the laughter of both parents._
After these things a son was born to Abraham, according to God's
promise, of Sarah, and was called Isaac, which means _laughter_. For
his father had laughed when he was promised to him, in wondering
delight, and his mother, when he was again promised by those three
men, had laughed, doubting for joy; yet she was blamed by the angel
because that laughter, although it was for joy, yet was not full of
faith. Afterwards she was confirmed in faith by the same angel. From
this, then, the boy got his name. For when Isaac was born and called
by that name, Sarah showed that her laughter was not that of scornful
reproach, but that of joyful praise; for she said, "God hath made me
to laugh, so that every one who hears will laugh with me."[301] Then
in a little while the bond maid was cast out of the house with her
son; and, according to the apostle, these two women signify the old
and new covenants,--Sarah representing that of the Jerusalem which is
above, that is, the city of God.[302]
32. _Of Abraham's obedience and faith, which were proved by the
offering up of his son in sacrifice; and of Sarah's death._
Among other things, of which it would take too long time to
mention the whole, Abraham was tempted about the offering up of
his well-beloved son Isaac, to prove his pious obedience, and so
make it known to the world, not to God. Now every temptation is
not blameworthy; it may even be praiseworthy, because it furnishes
probation. And, for the most part, the human mind cannot attain to
self-knowledge otherwise than by making trial of its powers through
temptation, by some kind of experimental and not merely verbal
self-interrogation; when, if it has acknowledged the gift of God,
it is pious, and is consolidated by stedfast grace and not puffed
up by vain boasting. Of course Abraham could never believe that
God delighted in human sacrifices; yet when the divine commandment
thundered, it was to be obeyed, not disputed. Yet Abraham is worthy
of praise, because he all along believed that his son, on being
offered up, would rise again; for God had said to him, when he was
unwilling to fulfil his wife's pleasure by casting out the bond maid
and her son, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." No doubt He then
goes on to say, "And as for the son of this bond woman, I will make
him a great nation, because he is thy seed."[303] How then is it
said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," when God calls Ishmael
also his seed? The apostle, in explaining this, says, "In Isaac
shall thy seed be called, that is, they which are the children of
the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of
the promise are counted for the seed."[304] In order, then, that the
children of the promise may be the seed of Abraham, they are called
in Isaac, that is, are gathered together in Christ by the call of
grace. Therefore the father, holding fast from the first the promise
which behoved to be fulfilled through this son whom God had ordered
him to slay, did not doubt that he whom he once thought it hopeless
he should ever receive would be restored to him when he had offered
him up. It is in this way the passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews
is also to be understood and explained. "By faith," he says, "Abraham
overcame, when tempted about Isaac: and he who had received the
promise offered up his only son, to whom it was said, In Isaac shall
thy seed be called: thinking that God was able to raise him up, even
from the dead;" therefore he has added, "from whence also he received
him in a similitude."[305] In whose similitude but His of whom the
apostle says, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us all?"[306] And on this account Isaac also himself carried to
the place of sacrifice the wood on which he was to be offered up,
just as the Lord Himself carried His own cross. Finally, since Isaac
was not to be slain, after his father was forbidden to smite him, who
was that ram by the offering of which that sacrifice was completed
with typical blood? For when Abraham saw him, he was caught by the
horns in a thicket. What, then, did he represent but Jesus, who,
before He was offered up, was crowned with thorns by the Jews?
But let us rather hear the divine words spoken through the angel. For
the Scripture says, "And Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the
knife, that he might slay his son. And the Angel of the Lord called
unto him from heaven, and said, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And
he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything
unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared
thy beloved son for my sake."[307] It is said, "Now I know," that
is, Now I have made to be known; for God was not previously ignorant
of this. Then, having offered up that ram instead of Isaac his son,
"Abraham," as we read, "called the name of that place The Lord seeth:
as they say this day, In the mount the Lord hath appeared."[308] As it
is said, "Now I know," for Now I have made to be known, so here, "The
Lord sees," for The Lord hath appeared, that is, made Himself to be
seen. "And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham from heaven the
second time, saying, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; because
thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy beloved son for my
sake; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon
the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess by inheritance the cities of
the adversaries: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."[309] In this manner
is that promise concerning the calling of the nations in the seed of
Abraham confirmed even by the oath of God, after that burnt-offering
which typified Christ. For He had often promised, but never sworn. And
what is the oath of God, the true and faithful, but a confirmation of
the promise, and a certain reproof to the unbelieving?
After these things Sarah died, in the 127th year of her life, and
the 137th of her husband; for he was ten years older than she, as he
himself says, when a son is promised to him by her: "Shall a son be
born to me that am an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is
ninety years old, bear?"[310] Then Abraham bought a field, in which
he buried his wife. And then, according to Stephen's account, he was
settled in that land, entering then on actual possession of it,--that
is, after the death of his father, who is inferred to have died two
years before.
33. _Of Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, whom Isaac
took to wife._
Isaac married Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, his father's
brother, when he was forty years old, that is, in the 140th year of his
father's life, three years after his mother's death. Now when a servant
was sent to Mesopotamia by his father to fetch her, and when Abraham
said to that servant, "Put thy hand under my thigh, and I will make
thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth,
that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son Isaac of the daughters of
the Canaanites,"[311] what else was pointed out by this, but that the
Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth, was to come in the
flesh which was to be derived from that thigh? Are these small tokens
of the foretold truth which we see fulfilled in Christ?
34. _What is meant by Abraham's marrying Keturah after
Sarah's death._
What did Abraham mean by marrying Keturah after Sarah's death? Far
be it from us to suspect him of incontinence, especially when he
had reached such an age and such sanctity of faith. Or was he still
seeking to beget children, though he held fast, with most approved
faith, the promise of God that his children should be multiplied out
of Isaac as the stars of heaven and the dust of the earth? And yet,
if Hagar and Ishmael, as the apostle teaches us, signified the carnal
people of the old covenant, why may not Keturah and her sons also
signify the carnal people who think they belong to the new covenant?
For both are called both the wives and the concubines of Abraham; but
Sarah is never called a concubine (but only a wife). For when Hagar
is given to Abraham, it is written, "And Sarai, Abram's wife, took
Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years
in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his
wife."[312] And of Keturah, whom he took after Sarah's departure, we
read, "Then again Abraham took a wife, whose name was Keturah."[313]
Lo, both are called wives, yet both are found to have been
concubines; for the Scripture afterward says, "And Abraham gave his
whole estate unto Isaac his son. But unto the sons of his concubines
Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac, (while
he yet lived,) eastward, unto the east country."[314] Therefore the
sons of the concubines, that is, the heretics and the carnal Jews,
have some gifts, but do not attain the promised kingdom; "For they
which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed, of
whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called."[315] For I do
not see why Keturah, who was married after the wife's death, should
be called a concubine, except on account of this mystery. But if any
one is unwilling to put such meanings on these things, he need not
calumniate Abraham. For what if even this was provided against the
heretics who were to be the opponents of second marriages, so that it
might be shown that it was no sin in the case of the father of many
nations himself, when, after his wife's death, he married again? And
Abraham died when he was 175 years old, so that he left his son Isaac
seventy-five years old, having begotten him when 100 years old.
35. _What was indicated by the divine answer about the twins
still shut up in the womb of Rebecca their mother._
Let us now see how the times of the city of God run on from this point
among Abraham's descendants. In the time from the first year of Isaac's
life to the seventieth, when his sons were born, the only memorable
thing is, that when he prayed God that his wife, who was barren,
might bear, and the Lord granted what he sought, and she conceived,
the twins leapt while still enclosed in her womb. And when she was
troubled by this struggle, and inquired of the Lord, she received this
answer: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall
be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall overcome the
other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."[316] The Apostle
Paul would have us understand this as a great instance of grace;[317]
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or
evil, the younger is chosen without any good desert, and the elder is
rejected, when beyond doubt, as regards original sin, both were alike,
and as regards actual sin, neither had any. But the plan of the work
on hand does not permit me to speak more fully of this matter now, and
I have said much about it in other works. Only that saying, "The elder
shall serve the younger," is understood by our writers, almost without
exception, to mean that the elder people, the Jews, shall serve the
younger people, the Christians. And truly, although this might seem
to be fulfilled in the Idumean nation, which was born of the elder
(who had two names, being called both Esau and Edom, whence the name
Idumeans), because it was afterwards to be overcome by the people
which sprang from the younger, that is, by the Israelites, and was to
become subject to them; yet it is more suitable to believe that, when
it was said, "The one people shall overcome the other people, and the
elder shall serve the younger," that prophecy meant some greater thing;
and what is that except what is evidently fulfilled in the Jews and
Christians?
36. _Of the oracle and blessing which Isaac received, just as
his father did, being beloved for his sake._
Isaac also received such an oracle as his father had often received.
Of this oracle it is thus written: "And there was a famine over the
land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And
Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the
Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; but dwell
in the land which I shall tell thee of. And abide in this land, and I
will be with thee, and will bless thee: unto thee and unto thy seed
I will give all this land; and I will establish mine oath, which I
sware unto Abraham thy father: and I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all this land: and in
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, my
commandments, my righteousness, and my laws."[318] This patriarch
neither had another wife, nor any concubine, but was content with
the twin-children begotten by one act of generation. He also was
afraid, when he lived among strangers, of being brought into danger
owing to the beauty of his wife, and did like his father in calling
her his sister, and not telling that she was his wife; for she was
his near blood-relation by the father's and mother's side. She also
remained untouched by the strangers, when it was known she was his
wife. Yet we ought not to prefer him to his father because he knew
no woman besides his one wife. For beyond doubt the merits of his
father's faith and obedience were greater, inasmuch as God says it
is for his sake He does Isaac good: "In thy seed," He says, "shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed, because that Abraham thy
father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, my commandments, my
statutes, and my laws." And again in another oracle He says, "I am
the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and
will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's
sake."[319] So that we must understand how chastely Abraham acted,
because imprudent men, who seek some support for their own wickedness
in the Holy Scriptures, think he acted through lust. We may also
learn this, not to compare men by single good things, but to consider
everything in each; for it may happen that one man has something in
his life and character in which he excels another, and it may be far
more excellent than that in which the other excels him. And thus,
according to sound and true judgment, while continence is preferable
to marriage, yet a believing married man is better than a continent
unbeliever; for the unbeliever is not only less praiseworthy, but is
even highly detestable. We must conclude, then, that both are good;
yet so as to hold that the married man who is most faithful and most
obedient is certainly better than the continent man whose faith and
obedience are less. But if equal in other things, who would hesitate
to prefer the continent man to the married?
37. _Of the things mystically prefigured in Esau and Jacob._
Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, grew up together. The primacy of
the elder was transferred to the younger by a bargain and agreement
between them, when the elder immoderately lusted after the lentiles the
younger had prepared for food, and for that price sold his birthright
to him, confirming it with an oath. We learn from this that a person
is to be blamed, not for the kind of food he eats, but for immoderate
greed. Isaac grew old, and old age deprived him of his eyesight. He
wished to bless the elder son, and instead of the elder, who was hairy,
unwittingly blessed the younger, who put himself under his father's
hands, having covered himself with kid-skins, as if bearing the sins
of others. Lest we should think this guile of Jacob's was fraudulent
guile, instead of seeking in it the mystery of a great thing, the
Scripture has predicted in the words just before, "Esau was a cunning
hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a simple man, dwelling at
home."[320] Some of our writers have interpreted this, "without guile."
But whether the Greek ἄπλαστος means "without guile," or "simple," or
rather "without feigning," in the receiving of that blessing what is
the guile of the man without guile? What is the guile of the simple,
what the fiction of the man who does not lie, but a profound mystery
of the truth? But what is the blessing itself? "See," he says, "the
smell of my son is as the smell of a full field which the Lord hath
blessed: therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the
fruitfulness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: let nations
serve thee, and princes adore thee: and be lord of thy brethren, and
let thy father's sons adore thee: cursed be he that curseth thee,
and blessed be he that blesseth thee."[321] The blessing of Jacob is
therefore a proclamation of Christ to all nations. It is this which
has come to pass, and is now being fulfilled. Isaac is the law and the
prophecy: even by the mouth of the Jews Christ is blessed by prophecy
as by one who knows not, because it is itself not understood. The
world like a field is filled with the odour of Christ's name: His is
the blessing of the dew of heaven, that is, of the showers of divine
words; and of the fruitfulness of the earth, that is, of the gathering
together of the peoples: His is the plenty of corn and wine, that is,
the multitude that gathers bread and wine in the sacrament of His body
and blood. Him the nations serve, Him princes adore. He is the Lord of
His brethren, because His people rules over the Jews. Him His Father's
sons adore, that is, the sons of Abraham according to faith; for He
Himself is the son of Abraham according to the flesh. He is cursed that
curseth Him, and he that blesseth Him is blessed. Christ, I say, who
is ours is blessed, that is, truly spoken of out of the mouths of the
Jews, when, although erring, they yet sing the law and the prophets,
and think they are blessing another for whom they erringly hope. So,
when the elder son claims the promised blessing, Isaac is greatly
afraid, and wonders when he knows that he has blessed one instead of
the other, and demands who he is; yet he does not complain that he has
been deceived, yea, when the great mystery is revealed to him, in his
secret heart he at once eschews anger, and confirms the blessing. "Who
then," he says, "hath hunted me venison, and brought it me, and I have
eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him, and he shall be
blessed?"[322] Who would not rather have expected the curse of an angry
man here, if these things had been done in an earthly manner, and not
by inspiration from above? O things done, yet done prophetically; on
the earth, yet celestially; by men, yet divinely! If everything that
is fertile of so great mysteries should be examined carefully, many
volumes would be filled; but the moderate compass fixed for this work
compels us to hasten to other things.
38. _Of Jacob's mission to Mesopotamia to get a wife, and of the
vision which he saw in a dream by the way, and of his getting
four women when he sought one wife._
Jacob was sent by his parents to Mesopotamia that he might take a
wife there. These were his father's words on sending him: "Thou
shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites. Arise, fly
to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and
take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's
brother. And my God bless thee, and increase thee, and multiply
thee; and thou shalt be an assembly of peoples; and give to thee the
blessing of Abraham thy father, and to thy seed after thee; that
thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou dwellest, which God gave
unto Abraham."[323] Now we understand here that the seed of Jacob is
separated from Isaac's other seed which came through Esau. For when
it is said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called,"[324] by this seed is
meant solely the city of God; so that from it is separated Abraham's
other seed, which was in the son of the bond woman, and which was
to be in the sons of Keturah. But until now it had been uncertain
regarding Isaac's twin-sons whether that blessing belonged to both or
only to one of them; and if to one, which of them it was. This is now
declared when Jacob is prophetically blessed by his father, and it is
said to him, "And thou shalt be an assembly of peoples, and God give
to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father."
When Jacob was going to Mesopotamia, he received in a dream an
oracle, of which it is thus written: "And Jacob went out from the
well of the oath,[325] and went to Haran. And he came to a place,
and slept there, for the sun was set; and he took of the stones of
the place, and put them at his head, and slept in that place, and
dreamed. And behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it
reached to heaven; and the angels of God ascended and descended by
it. And the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the God of Abraham
thy father, and the God of Isaac; fear not: the land whereon thou
sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall
be as the dust of the earth; and it shall be spread abroad to the
sea, and to Africa, and to the north, and to the east: and all the
tribes of the earth shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed. And,
behold, I am with thee, to keep thee in all thy way wherever thou
goest, and I will bring thee back into this land; for I will not
leave thee, until I have done all which I have spoken to thee of. And
Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this
place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful
is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is
the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose, and took the stone that he had
put under his head there, and set it up for a memorial, and poured
oil upon the top of it. And Jacob called the name of that place the
house of God."[326] This is prophetic. For Jacob did not pour oil on
the stone in an idolatrous way, as if making it a god; neither did he
adore that stone, or sacrifice to it. But since the name of Christ
comes from the chrism or anointing, something pertaining to the great
mystery was certainly represented in this. And the Saviour Himself
is understood to bring this latter to remembrance in the gospel,
when He says of Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is
no guile!"[327] because Israel who saw this vision is no other than
Jacob. And in the same place He says, "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of man."
Jacob went on to Mesopotamia to take a wife from thence. And the
divine Scripture points out how, without unlawfully desiring any of
them, he came to have four women, of whom he begat twelve sons and
one daughter; for he had come to take only one. But when one was
falsely given him in place of the other, he did not send her away
after unwittingly using her in the night, lest he should seem to
have put her to shame; but as at that time, in order to multiply
posterity, no law forbade a plurality of wives, he took her also to
whom alone he had promised marriage. As she was barren, she gave her
handmaid to her husband that she might have children by her; and her
elder sister did the same thing in imitation of her, although she
had borne, because she desired to multiply progeny. We do not read
that Jacob sought any but one, or that he used many, except for the
purpose of begetting offspring, saving conjugal rights; and he would
not have done this, had not his wives, who had legitimate power over
their own husband's body, urged him to do it. So he begat twelve sons
and one daughter by four women. Then he entered into Egypt by his son
Joseph, who was sold by his brethren for envy, and carried there, and
who was there exalted.
39. _The reason why Jacob was also called Israel._
As I said a little ago, Jacob was also called Israel, the name which
was most prevalent among the people descended from him. Now this name
was given him by the angel who wrestled with him on the way back from
Mesopotamia, and who was most evidently a type of Christ. For when
Jacob overcame him, doubtless with his own consent, that the mystery
might be represented, it signified Christ's passion, in which the
Jews are seen overcoming Him. And yet he besought a blessing from the
very angel he had overcome; and so the imposition of this name was
the blessing. For Israel means _seeing God_,[328] which will at last
be the reward of all the saints. The angel also touched him on the
breadth of the thigh when he was overcoming him, and in that way made
him lame. So that Jacob was at one and the same time blessed and lame:
blessed in those among that people who believed in Christ, and lame in
the unbelieving. For the breadth of the thigh is the multitude of the
family. For there are many of that race of whom it was prophetically
said beforehand, "And they have halted in their paths."[329]
40. _How it is said that Jacob went into Egypt with seventy-five
souls, when most of those who are mentioned were born at a
later period._
Seventy-five men are reported to have entered Egypt along with Jacob,
counting him with his children. In this number only two women are
mentioned, one a daughter, the other a grand-daughter. But when
the thing is carefully considered, it does not appear that Jacob's
offspring was so numerous on the day or year when he entered Egypt.
There are also included among them the great-grandchildren of Joseph,
who could not possibly be born already. For Jacob was then 130 years
old, and his son Joseph thirty-nine; and as it is plain that he
took a wife when he was thirty or more, how could he in nine years
have great-grandchildren by the children whom he had by that wife?
Now, since Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, could not even
have children, for Jacob found them boys under nine years old when
he entered Egypt, in what way are not only their sons but their
grandsons reckoned among those seventy-five who then entered Egypt
with Jacob? For there is reckoned there Machir the son of Manasseh,
grandson of Joseph, and Machir's son, that is, Gilead, grandson of
Manasseh, great-grandson of Joseph; there, too, is he whom Ephraim,
Joseph's other son, begot, that is, Shuthelah, grandson of Joseph,
and Shuthelah's son Ezer, grandson of Ephraim, and great-grandson
of Joseph, who could not possibly be in existence when Jacob came
into Egypt, and there found his grandsons, the sons of Joseph,
their grandsires, still boys under nine years of age.[330] But
doubtless, when the Scripture mentions Jacob's entrance into Egypt
with seventy-five souls, it does not mean one day, or one year,
but that whole time as long as Joseph lived, who was the cause of
his entrance. For the same Scripture speaks thus of Joseph: "And
Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his brethren, and all his father's
house: and Joseph lived 110 years, and saw Ephraim's children
of the third generation."[331] That is, his great-grandson, the
third from Ephraim; for the third generation means son, grandson,
great-grandson. Then it is added, "The children also of Machir, the
son of Manasseh, were born upon Joseph's knees."[332] And this is
that grandson of Manasseh, and great-grandson of Joseph. But the
plural number is employed according to scriptural usage; for the one
daughter of Jacob is spoken of as daughters, just as in the usage
of the Latin tongue _liberi_ is used in the plural for children
even when there is only one. Now, when Joseph's own happiness is
proclaimed, because he could see his great-grandchildren, it is by
no means to be thought they already existed in the thirty-ninth year
of their great-grandsire Joseph, when his father Jacob came to him
in Egypt. But those who diligently look into these things will the
less easily be mistaken, because it is written, "These are the names
of the sons of Israel who entered into Egypt along with Jacob their
father."[333] For this means that the seventy-five are reckoned along
with him, not that they were all with him when he entered Egypt; for,
as I have said, the whole period during which Joseph, who occasioned
his entrance, lived, is held to be the time of that entrance.
41. _Of the blessing which Jacob promised in Judah his son._
If, on account of the Christian people in whom the city of God
sojourns in the earth, we look for the flesh of Christ in the seed
of Abraham, setting aside the sons of the concubines, we have Isaac;
if in the seed of Isaac, setting aside Esau, who is also Edom, we
have Jacob, who also is Israel; if in the seed of Israel himself,
setting aside the rest, we have Judah, because Christ sprang of the
tribe of Judah. Let us hear, then, how Israel, when dying in Egypt,
in blessing his sons, prophetically blessed Judah. He says: "Judah,
thy brethren shall praise thee: thy hands shall be on the back of
thine enemies; thy father's children shall adore thee. Judah is a
lion's whelp: from the sprouting, my son, thou art gone up: lying
down, thou hast slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp; who shall
awake him? A prince shall not be lacking out of Judah, and a leader
from his thighs, until the things come that are laid up for him; and
He shall be the expectation of the nations. Binding his foal unto
the vine, and his ass's foal to the choice vine; he shall wash his
robe in wine, and his clothes in the blood of the grape: his eyes
are red with wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk."[334] I have
expounded these words in disputing against Faustus the Manichæan; and
I think it is enough to make the truth of this prophecy shine, to
remark that the death of Christ is predicted by the word about his
lying down, and not the necessity, but the voluntary character of His
death, in the title of lion. That power He Himself proclaims in the
gospel, saying, "I have the power of laying down my life, and I have
the power of taking it again. No man taketh it from me; but I lay it
down of myself, and take it again."[335] So the lion roared, so He
fulfilled what He said. For to this power what is added about the
resurrection refers, "Who shall awake him?" This means that no man
but Himself has raised Him, who also said of His own body, "Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."[336] And the very
nature of His death, that is, the height of the cross, is understood
by the single word, "Thou art gone up." The evangelist explains what
is added, "Lying down, thou hast slept," when he says, "He bowed
His head, and gave up the ghost."[337] Or at least His burial is
to be understood, in which He lay down sleeping, and whence no man
raised Him, as the prophets did some, and as He Himself did others;
but He Himself rose up as if from sleep. As for His robe which He
washes in wine, that is, cleanses from sin in His own blood, of which
blood those who are baptized know the mystery, so that he adds, "And
his clothes in the blood of the grape," what is it but the Church?
"And his eyes are red with wine," [these are] His spiritual people
drunken with His cup, of which the psalm sings, "And thy cup that
makes drunken, how excellent it is!" "And his teeth are whiter than
milk,"[338]--that is, the nutritive words which, according to the
apostle, the babes drink, being as yet unfit for solid food.[339]
And it is He in whom the promises of Judah were laid up, so that
until they come, princes, that is, the kings of Israel, shall never
be lacking out of Judah. "And He is the expectation of the nations."
This is too plain to need exposition.
42. _Of the sons of Joseph, whom Jacob blessed, prophetically
changing his hands._
Now, as Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, furnished a type of the
two people, the Jews and the Christians (although as pertains to
carnal descent it was not the Jews but the Idumeans who came of the
seed of Esau, nor the Christian nations but rather the Jews who came
of Jacob's; for the type holds only as regards the saying, "The
elder shall serve the younger"[340]), so the same thing happened in
Joseph's two sons; for the elder was a type of the Jews, and the
younger of the Christians. For when Jacob was blessing them, and laid
his right hand on the younger, who was at his left, and his left
hand on the elder, who was at his right, this seemed wrong to their
father, and he admonished his father by trying to correct his mistake
and show him which was the elder. But he would not change his hands,
but said, "I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and
he also shall be exalted; but his younger brother shall be greater
than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations."[341] And
these two promises show the same thing. For that one is to become
"a people;" this one "a multitude of nations." And what can be more
evident than that these two promises comprehend the people of Israel,
and the whole world of Abraham's seed, the one according to the
flesh, the other according to faith?
43. _Of the times of Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, of the
judges, and thereafter of the kings, of whom Saul was the
first, but David is to be regarded as the chief, both by the
oath and by merit._
Jacob being dead, and Joseph also, during the remaining 144 years
until they went out of the land of Egypt that nation increased to an
incredible degree, even although wasted by so great persecutions,
that at one time the male children were murdered at their birth,
because the wondering Egyptians were terrified at the too great
increase of that people. Then Moses, being stealthily kept from
the murderers of the infants, was brought to the royal house, God
preparing to do great things by him, and was nursed and adopted
by the daughter of Pharaoh (that was the name of all the kings of
Egypt), and became so great a man that he--yea, rather God, who had
promised this to Abraham, by him--drew that nation, so wonderfully
multiplied, out of the yoke of hardest and most grievous servitude
it had borne there. At first, indeed, he fled thence (we are told he
fled into the land of Midian), because, in defending an Israelite,
he had slain an Egyptian, and was afraid. Afterward, being divinely
commissioned in the power of the Spirit of God, he overcame the
magi of Pharaoh who resisted him. Then, when the Egyptians would
not let God's people go, ten memorable plagues were brought by Him
upon them,--the water turned into blood, the frogs and lice, the
flies, the death of the cattle, the boils, the hail, the locusts, the
darkness, the death of the first-born. At last the Egyptians were
destroyed in the Red Sea while pursuing the Israelites, whom they had
let go when at length they were broken by so many great plagues. The
divided sea made a way for the Israelites who were departing, but,
returning on itself, it overwhelmed their pursuers with its waves.
Then for forty years the people of God went through the desert,
under the leadership of Moses, when the tabernacle of testimony was
dedicated, in which God was worshipped by sacrifices prophetic of
things to come, and that was after the law had been very terribly
given in the mount, for its divinity was most plainly attested by
wonderful signs and voices. This took place soon after the exodus
from Egypt, when the people had entered the desert, on the fiftieth
day after the passover was celebrated by the offering up of a lamb,
which is so completely a type of Christ, foretelling that through
His sacrificial passion He should go from this world to the Father
(for _pascha_ in the Hebrew tongue means _transit_), that when the
new covenant was revealed, after Christ our passover was offered
up, the Holy Spirit came from heaven on the fiftieth day; and He is
called in the gospel the Finger of God, because He recalls to our
remembrance the things done before by way of types, and because the
tables of that law are said to have been written by the finger of God.
On the death of Moses, Joshua the son of Nun ruled the people,
and led them into the land of promise, and divided it among them.
By these two wonderful leaders wars were also carried on most
prosperously and wonderfully, God calling to witness that they had
got these victories not so much on account of the merit of the Hebrew
people as on account of the sins of the nations they subdued. After
these leaders there were judges, when the people were settled in
the land of promise, so that, in the meantime, the first promise
made to Abraham began to be fulfilled about the one nation, that
is, the Hebrew, and about the land of Canaan; but not as yet the
promise about all nations, and the whole wide world, for that was
to be fulfilled, not by the observances of the old law, but by the
advent of Christ in the flesh, and by the faith of the gospel. And
it was to prefigure this that it was not Moses, who received the law
for the people on Mount Sinai, that led the people into the land of
promise, but Joshua, whose name also was changed at God's command, so
that he was called Jesus. But in the times of the judges prosperity
alternated with adversity in war, according as the sins of the people
and the mercy of God were displayed.
We come next to the times of the kings. The first who reigned was
Saul; and when he was rejected and laid low in battle, and his
offspring rejected so that no kings should arise out of it, David
succeeded to the kingdom, whose son Christ is chiefly called. He was
made a kind of starting-point and beginning of the advanced youth of
God's people, who had passed a kind of age of puberty from Abraham to
this David. And it is not in vain that the evangelist Matthew records
the generations in such a way as to sum up this first period from
Abraham to David in fourteen generations. For from the age of puberty
man begins to be capable of generation; therefore he starts the list
of generations from Abraham, who also was made the father of many
nations when he got his name changed. So that previously this family
of God's people was in its childhood, from Noah to Abraham; and for
that reason the first language was then learned, that is, the Hebrew.
For man begins to speak in childhood, the age succeeding infancy,
which is so termed because then he cannot speak.[342] And that first
age is quite drowned in oblivion, just as the first age of the human
race was blotted out by the flood; for who is there that can remember
his infancy? Wherefore in this progress of the city of God, as the
previous book contained that first age, so this one ought to contain
the second and third ages, in which third age, as was shown by the
heifer of three years old, the she-goat of three years old, and the
ram of three years old, the yoke of the law was imposed, and there
appeared abundance of sins, and the beginning of the earthly kingdom
arose, in which there were not lacking spiritual men, of whom the
turtle-dove and pigeon represented the mystery.
FOOTNOTES:
[221] Gen. ix. 25.
[222] Gen. ix. 26, 27.
[223] See _Contra Faust._ xii. c. 22 sqq.
[224] Song of Solomon i. 3.
[225] 1 Cor. xi. 19.
[226] Prov. x. 5 (LXX.).
[227] Matt. vii. 20.
[228] Phil. i. 18.
[229] Isa. v. 7.
[230] Matt. xx. 22.
[231] Matt. xxvi. 39.
[232] 2 Cor. xiii. 4.
[233] 1 Cor. i. 25.
[234] Augustine here follows the Greek version, which introduces the
name Elisa among the sons of Japheth, though not found in the Hebrew.
It is not found in the Complutensian Greek translation, nor in the
MSS. used by Jerome.
[235] Gen. x. 21.
[236] Gen. xi. 1-9.
[237] Ex. x.
[238] Ps. xcv. 6.
[239] Job xv. 13.
[240] 1 Cor. iii. 9.
[241] Gen. i. 26.
[242] Gen. xi. 6.
[243] Virgil, _Æneid_, iv. 592.
[244] Here Augustine remarks on the addition of the particle _ne_ to
the word _non_, which he has made to bring out the sense.
[245] Gen. i. 24.
[246] Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ vii. 2; Aulus Gellius, _Noct. Att._ ix. 4.
[247] From πυγμή, a cubit.
[248] Gen. x. 25.
[249] Ps. xiv. 3, 4, liii. 3, 4.
[250] Gen. x. 25.
[251] Josh. xxiv. 2.
[252] Gen. xi. 27-29.
[253] Gen. xi. 31.
[254] Gen. xxiv. 10.
[255] Judith v. 5-9.
[256] Gen. xi. 32.
[257] Gen. xii. 1.
[258] Gen. xii. 4.
[259] Gen. xi. 1.
[260] Gen. xii. 1.
[261] Acts vii. 2, 3.
[262] Acts vii. 4.
[263] Gen. xii. 1.
[264] Various reading, "of our Lord Jesus Christ."
[265] Gen. xii. 1-3.
[266] Acts vii. 2.
[267] Gen. xii. 7.
[268] Gen. xiii. 8, 9.
[269] Gen. xiii. 14-17.
[270] Various reading, "the express promise."
[271] Ps. cx. 4.
[272] Rom. iv. 3; Gen. xv. 6.
[273] Gen. xv. 7.
[274] Gen. xv. 9-21.
[275] Luke i. 34.
[276] Luke i. 35.
[277] Various reading, "who are to remain."
[278] Matt. xxiv. 21.
[279] Gen. xi. 32.
[280] Gal. iii. 17.
[281] 1 Cor. vii. 4.
[282] Gen. xvi. 6.
[283] Gen. xv. 4.
[284] Gen. xvii. 1-22. The passage is given in full by Augustine.
[285] Gen. xvii. 14.
[286] Rom. v. 12, 19.
[287] Gen. ii. 17.
[288] Ecclus. xv. 17.
[289] Rom. iv. 15.
[290] Ps. cxix. 119. Augustine and the Vulgate follow the LXX.
[291] Gen. xvii. 5, 6, 16.
[292] Heb. xi. 11.
[293] Heb. xi. 12.
[294] Gen. xviii. 2, 3.
[295] Gen. xix. 2.
[296] Gen. xix. 16-19.
[297] Gen. xix. 21.
[298] Heb. xiii. 2.
[299] Gen. xviii. 18.
[300] Gen. xx. 12.
[301] Gen. xxi. 6.
[302] Gal. iv. 24-26.
[303] Gen. xxi. 12, 13.
[304] Rom. ix. 7, 8.
[305] Heb. xi. 17-19.
[306] Rom. viii. 32.
[307] Gen. xxii. 10-12.
[308] Gen. xxii. 14.
[309] Gen. xxii. 15-18.
[310] Gen. xvii. 17.
[311] Gen. xxiv. 2, 3.
[312] Gen. xvi. 3.
[313] Gen. xxv. 1.
[314] Gen. xxv. 5, 6.
[315] Rom. ix. 7, 8.
[316] Gen. xxv. 23.
[317] Rom. ix. 10-13.
[318] Gen. xxvi. 1-5.
[319] Gen. xxvi. 24.
[320] Gen. xxv. 27.
[321] Gen. xxvii. 27-29.
[322] Gen. xxvii. 33.
[323] Gen. xxviii. 1-4.
[324] Gen. xxi. 12.
[325] Beer-sheba.
[326] Gen. xxviii. 10-19.
[327] John i. 47, 51.
[328] Gen. xxxii. 28: Israel = "a prince of God;" ver. 30: Peniel =
"the face of God."
[329] Ps. xviii. 45.
[330] Augustine here follows the Septuagint, which at Gen. xlvi. 20
adds these names to those of Manasseh and Ephraim, and at ver. 27
gives the whole number as seventy-five.
[331] Gen. l. 22, 23.
[332] Gen. l. 23.
[333] Gen. xlvi. 8.
[334] Gen. xlix. 8-12.
[335] John x. 18.
[336] John ii. 19.
[337] John xix. 30.
[338] Gen. xlix. 12.
[339] 1 Pet. ii. 2; 1 Cor. iii. 2.
[340] Gen. xxv. 23.
[341] Gen. xlviii. 19.
[342] _Infans_, from _in_, not, and _fari_, to speak.
BOOK SEVENTEENTH.
ARGUMENT.
IN THIS BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF GOD IS TRACED DURING THE
PERIOD OF THE KINGS AND PROPHETS FROM SAMUEL TO DAVID, EVEN TO
CHRIST; AND THE PROPHECIES WHICH ARE RECORDED IN THE BOOK OF
KINGS, PSALMS, AND THOSE OF SOLOMON, ARE INTERPRETED OF CHRIST
AND THE CHURCH.
1. _Of the prophetic age._
By the favour of God we have treated distinctly of His promises made
to Abraham, that both the nation of Israel according to the flesh, and
all nations according to faith, should be his seed, and the City of
God, proceeding according to the order of time, will point[343] out how
they were fulfilled. Having therefore in the previous book come down
to the reign of David, we shall now treat of what remains, so far as
may seem sufficient for the object of this work, beginning at the same
reign. Now, from the time when holy Samuel began to prophesy, and ever
onward until the people of Israel was led captive into Babylonia, and
until, according to the prophecy of holy Jeremiah, on Israel's return
thence after seventy years, the house of God was built anew, this whole
period is the prophetic age. For although both the patriarch Noah
himself, in whose days the whole earth was destroyed by the flood, and
others before and after him down to this time when there began to be
kings over the people of God, may not undeservedly be styled prophets,
on account of certain things pertaining to the city of God and the
kingdom of heaven, which they either predicted or in any way signified
should come to pass, and especially since we read that some of them,
as Abraham and Moses, were expressly so styled, yet those are most
and chiefly called the days of the prophets from the time when Samuel
began to prophesy, who at God's command first anointed Saul to be king,
and, on his rejection, David himself, whom others of his issue should
succeed as long as it was fitting they should do so. If, therefore,
I wished to rehearse all that the prophets have predicted concerning
Christ, while the city of God, with its members dying and being born
in constant succession, ran its course through those times, this work
would extend beyond all bounds. First, because the Scripture itself,
even when, in treating in order of the kings and of their deeds and
the events of their reigns, it seems to be occupied in narrating as
with historical diligence the affairs transacted, will be found, if
the things handled by it are considered with the aid of the Spirit of
God, either more, or certainly not less, intent on foretelling things
to come than on relating things past. And who that thinks even a little
about it does not know how laborious and prolix a work it would be,
and how many volumes it would require to search this out by thorough
investigation and demonstrate it by argument? And then, because of that
which without dispute pertains to prophecy, there are so many things
concerning Christ and the kingdom of heaven, which is the city of God,
that to explain these a larger discussion would be necessary than the
due proportion of this work admits of. Therefore I shall, if I can, so
limit myself, that in carrying through this work, I may, with God's
help, neither say what is superfluous nor omit what is necessary.
2. _At what time the promise of God was fulfilled concerning
the land of Canaan, which even carnal Israel got in possession._
In the preceding book we said, that in the promise of God to Abraham
two things were promised from the beginning, the one, namely, that his
seed should possess the land of Canaan, which was intimated when it was
said, "Go into a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a
great nation;"[344] but the other far more excellent, concerning not
the carnal but the spiritual seed, by which he is the father, not of
the one nation of Israel, but of all nations who follow the footsteps
of his faith, which began to be promised in these words, "And in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed."[345] And thereafter we
showed by yet many other proofs that these two things were promised.
Therefore the seed of Abraham, that is, the people of Israel according
to the flesh, already was in the land of promise; and there, not only
by holding and possessing the cities of the enemies, but also by having
kings, had already begun to reign, the promises of God concerning
that people being already in great part fulfilled: not only those
that were made to those three fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
whatever others were made in their times, but those also that were
made through Moses himself, by whom the same people was set free from
servitude in Egypt, and by whom all bygone things were revealed in
his times, when he led the people through the wilderness. But neither
by the illustrious leader Jesus the son of Nun, who led that people
into the land of promise, and, after driving out the nations, divided
it among the twelve tribes according to God's command, and died; nor
after him, in the whole time of the judges, was the promise of God
concerning the land of Canaan fulfilled, that it should extend from
some river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates; nor yet was it
still prophesied as to come, but its fulfilment was expected. And it
was fulfilled through David, and Solomon his son, whose kingdom was
extended over the whole promised space; for they subdued all those
nations, and made them tributary. And thus, under those kings, the seed
of Abraham was established in the land of promise according to the
flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan, so that nothing yet remained to
the complete fulfilment of that earthly promise of God, except that,
so far as pertains to temporal prosperity, the Hebrew nation should
remain in the same land by the succession of posterity in an unshaken
state even to the end of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the
Lord its God. But since God knew it would not do this, He used His
temporal punishments also for training His few faithful ones in it, and
for giving needful warning to those who should afterwards be in all
nations, in whom the other promise, revealed in the New Testament, was
about to be fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ.
3. _Of the threefold meaning of the prophecies, which are to be
referred now to the earthly, now to the heavenly Jerusalem, and
now again to both._
Wherefore just as that divine oracle to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
all the other prophetic signs or sayings which are given in the earlier
sacred writings, so also the other prophecies from this time of the
kings pertain partly to the nation of Abraham's flesh, and partly to
that seed of his in which all nations are blessed as fellow-heirs of
Christ by the New Testament, to the possessing of eternal life and the
kingdom of the heavens. Therefore they pertain partly to the bond maid
who gendereth to bondage, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, which is in
bondage with her children; but partly to the free city of God, that is,
the true Jerusalem eternal in the heavens, whose children are all those
that live according to God in the earth: but there are some things
among them which are understood to pertain to both,--to the bond maid
properly, to the free woman figuratively.[346]
Therefore prophetic utterances of three kinds are to be found;
forasmuch as there are some relating to the earthly Jerusalem, some
to the heavenly, and some to both. I think it proper to prove what I
say by examples. The prophet Nathan was sent to convict king David
of heinous sin, and predict to him what future evils should be
consequent on it. Who can question that this and the like pertain
to the terrestrial city, whether publicly, that is, for the safety
or help of the people, or privately, when there are given forth for
each one's private good divine utterances whereby something of the
future may be known for the use of temporal life? But where we read,
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make for the
house of Israel, and for the house of Judah, a new testament: not
according to the testament that I settled for their fathers in the
day when I laid hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt; because they continued not in my testament, and I regarded
them not, saith the Lord. For this is the testament that I will make
for the house of Israel: after those days, saith the Lord, I will
give my laws in their mind, and will write them upon their hearts,
and I will see to them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall
be to me a people;"[347]--without doubt this is prophesied to the
Jerusalem above, whose reward is God Himself, and whose chief and
entire good it is to have Him, and to be His. But this pertains
to both, that the city of God is called Jerusalem, and that it is
prophesied the house of God shall be in it; and this prophecy seems
to be fulfilled when king Solomon builds that most noble temple.
For these things both happened in the earthly Jerusalem, as history
shows, and were types of the heavenly Jerusalem. And this kind of
prophecy, as it were compacted and commingled of both the others in
the ancient canonical books, containing historical narratives, is
of very great significance, and has exercised and exercises greatly
the wits of those who search holy writ. For example, what we read
of historically as predicted and fulfilled in the seed of Abraham
according to the flesh, we must also inquire the allegorical meaning
of, as it is to be fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to
faith. And so much is this the case, that some have thought there
is nothing in these books either foretold and effected, or effected
although not foretold, that does not insinuate something else which
is to be referred by figurative signification to the city of God
on high, and to her children who are pilgrims in this life. But
if this be so, then the utterances of the prophets, or rather the
whole of those Scriptures that are reckoned under the title of the
Old Testament, will be not of three, but of two different kinds.
For there will be nothing there which pertains to the terrestrial
Jerusalem only, if whatever is there said and fulfilled of or
concerning her signifies something which also refers by allegorical
prefiguration to the celestial Jerusalem; but there will be only
two kinds, one that pertains to the free Jerusalem, the other to
both. But just as, I think, they err greatly who are of opinion
that none of the records of affairs in that kind of writings mean
anything more than that they so happened, so I think those very
daring who contend that the whole gist of their contents lies in
allegorical significations. Therefore I have said they are threefold,
not twofold. Yet, in holding this opinion, I do not blame those who
may be able to draw out of everything there a spiritual meaning,
only saving, first of all, the historical truth. For the rest, what
believer can doubt that those things are spoken vainly which are such
that, whether said to have been done or to be yet to come, they do
not beseem either human or divine affairs? Who would not recall these
to spiritual understanding if he could, or confess that they should
be recalled by him who is able?
4. _About the prefigured change of the Israelitic kingdom and
priesthood, and about the things Hannah the mother of Samuel
prophesied, personating the Church._
Therefore the advance of the city of God, where it reached the times
of the kings, yielded a figure, when, on the rejection of Saul,
David first obtained the kingdom on such a footing that thenceforth
his descendants should reign in the earthly Jerusalem in continual
succession; for the course of affairs signified and foretold, what is
not to be passed by in silence, concerning the change of things to
come, what belongs to both Testaments, the Old and the New,--where the
priesthood and kingdom are changed by one who is a priest, and at the
same time a king, new and everlasting, even Christ Jesus. For both the
substitution in the ministry of God, on Eli's rejection as priest, of
Samuel, who executed at once the office of priest and judge, and the
establishment of David in the kingdom, when Saul was rejected, typified
this of which I speak. And Hannah herself, the mother of Samuel, who
formerly was barren, and afterwards was gladdened with fertility, does
not seem to prophesy anything else, when she exultingly pours forth
her thanksgiving to the Lord, on yielding up to God the same boy she
had born and weaned with the same piety with which she had vowed him.
For she says, "My heart is made strong in the Lord, and my horn is
exalted in my God; my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; I am made
glad in Thy salvation. Because there is none holy as the Lord; and none
is righteous as our God: there is none holy save Thee. Do not glory
so proudly, and do not speak lofty things, neither let vaunting talk
come out of your mouth: for a God of knowledge is the Lord, and a God
preparing His curious designs. The bow of the mighty hath He made weak,
and the weak are girded with strength. They that were full of bread are
diminished; and the hungry have passed beyond the earth: for the barren
hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The
Lord killeth and maketh alive: He bringeth down to hell, and bringeth
up again. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich: He bringeth low and
lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the
beggar from the dunghill, that He may set him among the mighty of
[His] people, and maketh them inherit the throne of glory; giving the
vow to him that voweth, and He hath blessed the years of the just: for
man is not mighty in strength. The Lord shall make His adversary weak:
the Lord is holy. Let not the prudent glory in his prudence; and let
not the mighty glory in his might; and let not the rich glory in his
riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, to understand and know
the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in the midst of the earth. The
Lord hath ascended into the heavens, and hath thundered: He shall judge
the ends of the earth, for He is righteous: and He giveth strength to
our kings, and shall exalt the horn of His Christ."[348]
Do you say that these are the words of a single weak woman giving
thanks for the birth of a son? Can the mind of men be so much averse
to the light of truth as not to perceive that the sayings this
woman pours forth exceed her measure? Moreover, he who is suitably
interested in these things which have already begun to be fulfilled
even in this earthly pilgrimage also, does he not apply his mind, and
perceive, and acknowledge, that through this woman--whose very name,
which is Hannah, means "His grace"--the very Christian religion, the
very city of God, whose king and founder is Christ, in fine, the very
grace of God, hath thus spoken by the prophetic Spirit, whereby the
proud are cut off so that they fall, and the humble are filled so
that they rise, which that hymn chiefly celebrates? Unless perchance
any one will say that this woman prophesied nothing, but only lauded
God with exulting praise on account of the son whom she had obtained
in answer to prayer. What then does she mean when she says, "The
bow of the mighty hath He made weak, and the weak are girded with
strength; they that were full of bread are diminished, and the hungry
have gone beyond the earth; for the barren hath born seven, and she
that hath many children is waxed feeble?" Had she herself born seven,
although she had been barren? She had only one when she said that;
neither did she bear seven afterwards, nor six, with whom Samuel
himself might be the seventh, but three males and two females. And
then, when as yet no one was king over that people, whence, if she
did not prophesy, did she say what she puts at the end, "He giveth
strength to our kings, and shall exalt the horn of His Christ?"
Therefore let the Church of Christ, the city of the great King,[349]
full of grace, prolific of offspring, let her say what the prophecy
uttered about her so long before by the mouth of this pious mother
confesses, "My heart is made strong in the Lord, and my horn is
exalted in my God." Her heart is truly made strong, and her horn
is truly exalted, because not in herself, but in the Lord her God.
"My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies;" because even in pressing
straits the word of God is not bound, not even in preachers who are
bound.[350] "I am made glad," she says, "in Thy salvation." This is
Christ Jesus Himself, whom old Simeon, as we read in the Gospel,
embracing as a little one, yet recognising as great, said, "Lord, now
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation."[351] Therefore may the Church say, "I am made glad in Thy
salvation. For there is none holy as the Lord, and none is righteous
as our God;" as holy and sanctifying, just and justifying.[352]
"There is none holy beside Thee;" because no one becomes so except
by reason of Thee. And then it follows, "Do not glory so proudly,
and do not speak lofty things, neither let vaunting talk come out of
your mouth. For a God of knowledge is the Lord." He knows you even
when no one knows; for "he who thinketh himself to be something when
he is nothing deceiveth himself."[353] These things are said to the
adversaries of the city of God who belong to Babylon, who presume in
their own strength, and glory in themselves, not in the Lord; of whom
are also the carnal Israelites, the earth-born inhabitants of the
earthly Jerusalem, who, as saith the apostle, "being ignorant of the
righteousness of God,"[354] that is, which God, who alone is just,
and the justifier, gives to man, "and wishing to establish their
own," that is, which is as it were procured by their own selves,
not bestowed by Him, "are not subject to the righteousness of God,"
just because they are proud, and think they are able to please God
with their own, not with that which is of God, who is the God of
knowledge, and therefore also takes the oversight of consciences,
there beholding the thoughts of men that they are vain,[355] if they
are of men, and are not from Him. "And preparing," she says, "His
curious designs." What curious designs do we think these are, save
that the proud must fall, and the humble rise? These curious designs
she recounts, saying, "The bow of the mighty is made weak, and the
weak are girded with strength." The bow is made weak, that is, the
intention of those who think themselves so powerful, that without the
gift and help of God they are able by human sufficiency to fulfil the
divine commandments; and those are girded with strength whose inward
cry is, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak."[356]
"They that were full of bread," she says, "are diminished, and the
hungry have gone beyond the earth." Who are to be understood as full of
bread except those same who were as if mighty, that is, the Israelites,
to whom were committed the oracles of God?[357] But among that people
the children of the bond maid were diminished,--by which word minus,
although it is Latin, the idea is well expressed that from being
greater they were made less,--because, even in the very bread, that
is, the divine oracles, which the Israelites alone of all nations have
received, they savour earthly things. But the nations to whom that law
was not given, after they have come through the New Testament to these
oracles, by thirsting much have gone beyond the earth, because in them
they have savoured not earthly, but heavenly things. And the reason why
this is done is as it were sought; "for the barren," she says, "hath
born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble." Here
all that had been prophesied hath shone forth to those who understood
the number seven, which signifies the perfection of the universal
Church. For which reason also the Apostle John writes to the seven
churches,[358] showing in that way that he writes to the totality of
the one Church; and in the Proverbs of Solomon it is said aforetime,
prefiguring this, "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath strengthened
her seven pillars."[359] For the city of God was barren in all nations
before that child arose whom we see.[360] We also see that the temporal
Jerusalem, who had many children, is now waxed feeble. Because,
whoever in her were sons of the free woman were her strength; but now,
forasmuch as the letter is there, and not the spirit, having lost her
strength, she is waxed feeble.
"The Lord killeth and maketh alive:" He has killed her who had many
children, and made this barren one alive, so that she has born seven.
Although it may be more suitably understood that He has made those same
alive whom He has killed. For she, as it were, repeats that by adding,
"He bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up." To whom truly the apostle
says, "If ye be dead with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."[361] Therefore they are
killed by the Lord in a salutary way, so that he adds, "Savour things
which are above, not things on the earth;" so that these are they who,
hungering, have passed beyond the earth. "For ye are dead," he says:
behold how God savingly kills! Then there follows, "And your life is
hid with Christ in God:" behold how God makes the same alive! But does
He bring them down to hell and bring them up again? It is without
controversy among believers that we best see both parts of this work
fulfilled in Him, to wit, our Head, with whom the apostle has said our
life is hid in God. "For when He spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all,"[362] in that way, certainly, He has killed Him.
And forasmuch as He raised Him up again from the dead, He has made Him
alive again. And since His voice is acknowledged in the prophecy, "Thou
wilt not leave my soul in hell,"[363] He has brought Him down to hell
and brought Him up again. By this poverty of His we are made rich;[364]
for "the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich." But that we may know what
this is, let us hear what follows: "He bringeth low and lifteth up;"
and truly He humbles the proud and exalts the humble. Which we also
read elsewhere, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the
humble."[365] This is the burden of the entire song of this woman whose
name is interpreted "His grace."
Farther, what is added, "He raiseth up the poor from the earth," I
understand of none better than of Him who, as was said a little ago,
"was made poor for us, when He was rich, that by His poverty we might
be made rich." For He raised Him from the earth so quickly that His
flesh did not see corruption. Nor shall I divert from Him what is
added, "And raiseth up the poor from the dunghill." For indeed he who
is the poor man is also the beggar.[366] But by the dunghill from which
he is lifted up we are with the greatest reason to understand the
persecuting Jews, of whom the apostle says, when telling that when he
belonged to them he persecuted the Church, "What things were gain to
me, those I counted loss for Christ; and I have counted them not only
loss, but even dung, that I might win Christ."[367] Therefore that poor
one is raised up from the earth above all the rich, and that beggar is
lifted up from that dunghill above all the wealthy, "that he may sit
among the mighty of the people," to whom He says, "Ye shall sit upon
twelve thrones,"[368] "and to make them inherit the throne of glory."
For these mighty ones had said, "Lo, we have forsaken all and followed
Thee." They had most mightily vowed this vow.
But whence do they receive this, except from Him of whom it is here
immediately said, "Giving the vow to him that voweth?" Otherwise they
would be of those mighty ones whose bow is weakened. "Giving," she
saith, "the vow to him that voweth." For no one could vow anything
acceptable to God, unless he received from Him that which he might
vow. There follows, "And He hath blessed the years of the just," to
wit, that he may live for ever with Him to whom it is said, "And
Thy years shall have no end." For there the years abide; but here
they pass away, yea, they perish: for before they come they are not,
and when they shall have come they shall not be, because they bring
their own end with them. Now of these two, that is, "giving the vow
to him that voweth," and "He hath blessed the years of the just,"
the one is what we do, the other what we receive. But this other
is not received from God, the liberal giver, until He, the helper,
Himself has enabled us for the former; "for man is not mighty in
strength." "The Lord shall make his adversary weak," to wit, him who
envies the man that vows, and resists him, lest he should fulfil
what he has vowed. Owing to the ambiguity of the Greek, it may also
be understood "his own adversary." For when God has begun to possess
us, immediately he who had been our adversary becomes His, and is
conquered by us; but not by our own strength, "for man is not mighty
in strength." Therefore "the Lord shall make His own adversary weak,
the Lord is holy," that he may be conquered by the saints, whom the
Lord, the Holy of holies, hath made saints. For this reason, "let
not the prudent glory in his prudence, and let not the mighty glory
in his might, and let not the rich glory in his riches; but let him
that glorieth glory in this,--to understand and know the Lord, and to
do judgment and justice in the midst of the earth." He in no small
measure understands and knows the Lord who understands and knows that
even this, that he can understand and know the Lord, is given to him
by the Lord. "For what hast thou," saith the apostle, "that thou hast
not received? But if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as
if thou hadst not received it?"[369] That is, as if thou hadst of
thine own self whereof thou mightest glory. Now, he does judgment and
justice who lives aright. But he lives aright who yields obedience to
God when He commands. "The end of the commandment," that is, to which
the commandment has reference, "is charity out of a pure heart, and
a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." Moreover, this "charity,"
as the Apostle John testifies, "is of God."[370] Therefore to do
justice and judgment is of God. But what is "in the midst of the
earth?" For ought those who dwell in the ends of the earth not to do
judgment and justice? Who would say so? Why, then, is it added, "In
the midst of the earth?" For if this had not been added, and it had
only been said, "To do judgment and justice," this commandment would
rather have pertained to both kinds of men,--both those dwelling
inland and those on the sea-coast. But lest any one should think
that, after the end of the life led in this body, there remains a
time for doing judgment and justice which he has not done while he
was in the flesh, and that the divine judgment can thus be escaped,
"in the midst of the earth" appears to me to be said of the time
when every one lives in the body; for in this life every one carries
about his own earth, which, on a man's dying, the common earth takes
back, to be surely returned to him on his rising again. Therefore "in
the midst of the earth," that is, while our soul is shut up in this
earthly body, judgment and justice are to be done, which shall be
profitable for us hereafter, when "every one shall receive according
to that he hath done in the body, whether good or bad."[371] For when
the apostle there says "in the body," he means in the time he has
lived in the body. Yet if any one blaspheme with malicious mind and
impious thought, without any member of his body being employed in it,
he shall not therefore be guiltless because he has not done it with
bodily motion, for he will have done it in that time which he has
spent in the body. In the same way we may suitably understand what we
read in the psalm, "But God, our King before the worlds, hath wrought
salvation in the midst of the earth;"[372] so that the Lord Jesus
may be understood to be our God who is before the worlds, because by
Him the worlds were made, working our salvation in the midst of the
earth, for the Word was made flesh and dwelt in an earthly body.
Then after Hannah has prophesied in these words, that he who glorieth
ought to glory not in himself at all, but in the Lord, she says, on
account of the retribution which is to come on the day of judgment,
"The Lord hath ascended into the heavens, and hath thundered: He
shall judge the ends of the earth, for He is righteous." Throughout
she holds to the order of the creed of Christians: For the Lord
Christ has ascended into heaven, and is to come thence to judge the
quick and dead.[373] For, as saith the apostle, "Who hath ascended
but He who hath also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He
that descended is the same also that ascended up above all heavens,
that He might fill all things."[374] Therefore He hath thundered
through His clouds, which He hath filled with His Holy Spirit when
He ascended up. Concerning which the bond maid Jerusalem that is,
the unfruitful vineyard is threatened in Isaiah the prophet that
they shall rain no showers upon her. But "He shall judge the ends
of the earth" is spoken as if it had been said, "even the extremes
of the earth." For it does not mean that He shall not judge the
other parts of the earth, who, without doubt, shall judge all men.
But it is better to understand by the extremes of the earth the
extremes of man, since those things shall not be judged which, in
the middle time, are changed for the better or the worse, but the
ending in which he shall be found who is judged. For which reason
it is said, "He that shall persevere even unto the end, the same
shall be saved."[375] He, therefore, who perseveringly does judgment
and justice in the midst of the earth shall not be condemned when
the extremes of the earth shall be judged. "And giveth," she saith,
"strength to our kings," that He may not condemn them in judging.
He giveth them strength whereby as kings they rule the flesh, and
conquer the world in Him who hath poured out His blood for them.
"And shall exalt the horn of His Christ." For He of whom it was said
above, "The Lord hath ascended into the heavens," meaning the Lord
Christ, Himself, as it is said here, "shall exalt the horn of His
Christ." Who, therefore, is the Christ of His Christ? Does it mean
that He shall exalt the horn of each one of His believing people,
as she says in the beginning of this hymn, "Mine horn is exalted in
my God?" For we can rightly call all those christs who are anointed
with His chrism, forasmuch as the whole body with its head is one
Christ.[376] These things hath Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the holy
and much-praised man, prophesied, in which, indeed, the change of the
ancient priesthood was then figured and is now fulfilled, since she
that had many children is waxed feeble, that the barren who hath
born seven might have the new priesthood in Christ.
5. _Of those things which a man of God spake by the Spirit to Eli
the priest, signifying that the priesthood which had been
appointed according to Aaron was to be taken away._
But this is said more plainly by a man of God sent to Eli the priest
himself, whose name indeed is not mentioned, but whose office and
ministry show him to have been indubitably a prophet. For it is
thus written: "And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said, Thus
saith the Lord, I plainly revealed myself unto thy father's house,
when they were in the land of Egypt slaves in Pharaoh's house; and I
chose thy father's house out of all the sceptres of Israel to fill
the office of priest for me, to go up to my altar, to burn incense
and wear the ephod; and I gave thy father's house for food all the
offerings made by fire of the children of Israel. Wherefore then hast
thou looked at mine incense and at mine offerings with an impudent
eye, and hast glorified thy sons above me, to bless the first-fruits
of every sacrifice in Israel before me? Therefore thus saith the Lord
God of Israel, I said thy house and thy father's house should walk
before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for
them that honour me will I honour, and he that despiseth me shall be
despised. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thy seed, and
the seed of thy father's house, and thou shalt never have an old man
in my house. And I will cut off the man of thine from mine altar, so
that his eyes shall be consumed, and his heart shall melt away; and
every one of thy house that is left shall fall by the sword of men.
And this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon these thy two
sons, Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.
And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according
to all that is in mine heart and in my soul; and I will build him
a sure house, and he shall walk before my Christ for ever. And it
shall come to pass that he who is left in thine house shall come to
worship him with a piece of money, saying, Put me into one part of
thy priesthood, that I may eat bread."[377]
We cannot say that this prophecy, in which the change of the ancient
priesthood is foretold with so great plainness, was fulfilled in
Samuel; for although Samuel was not of another tribe than that which
had been appointed by God to serve at the altar, yet he was not of
the sons of Aaron, whose offspring was set apart that the priests
might be taken out of it. And thus by that transaction also the same
change which should come to pass through Christ Jesus is shadowed
forth, and the prophecy itself in deed, not in word, belonged to the
Old Testament properly, but figuratively to the New, signifying by
the fact just what was said by the word to Eli the priest through the
prophet. For there were afterwards priests of Aaron's race, such as
Zadok and Abiathar during David's reign, and others in succession,
before the time came when those things which were predicted so long
before about the changing of the priesthood behoved to be fulfilled
by Christ. But who that now views these things with a believing eye
does not see that they are fulfilled? Since, indeed, no tabernacle,
no temple, no altar, no sacrifice, and therefore no priest either,
has remained to the Jews, to whom it was commanded in the law of
God that he should be ordained of the seed of Aaron; which is also
mentioned here by the prophet, when he says, "Thus saith the Lord
God of Israel, I said thy house and thy father's house shall walk
before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, That be far from me;
for them that honour me will I honour, and he that despiseth me
shall be despised." For that in naming his father's house he does
not mean that of his immediate father, but that of Aaron, who first
was appointed priest, to be succeeded by others descended from him,
is shown by the preceding words, when he says, "I was revealed unto
thy father's house, when they were in the land of Egypt slaves in
Pharaoh's house; and I chose thy father's house out of all the
sceptres of Israel to fill the office of priest for me." Which of
the fathers in that Egyptian slavery, but Aaron, was his father,
who, when they were set free, was chosen to the priesthood? It was
of his lineage, therefore, he has said in this passage it should
come to pass that they should no longer be priests; which already
we see fulfilled. If faith be watchful, the things are before us:
they are discerned, they are grasped, and are forced on the eyes of
the unwilling, so that they are seen: "Behold the days come," he
says, "that I will cut off thy seed, and the seed of thy father's
house, and thou shalt never have an old man in mine house. And I
will cut off the man of thine from mine altar, so that his eyes
shall be consumed and his heart shall melt away." Behold the days
which were foretold have already come. There is no priest after the
order of Aaron; and whoever is a man of his lineage, when he sees
the sacrifice of the Christians prevailing over the whole world, but
that great honour taken away from himself, his eyes fail and his soul
melts away consumed with grief.
But what follows belongs properly to the house of Eli, to whom these
things were said: "And every one of thine house that is left shall fall
by the sword of men. And this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come
upon these thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die
both of them." This, therefore, is made a sign of the change of the
priesthood from this man's house, by which it is signified that the
priesthood of Aaron's house is to be changed. For the death of this
man's sons signified the death not of the men, but of the priesthood
itself of the sons of Aaron. But what follows pertains to that Priest
whom Samuel typified by succeeding this one. Therefore the things which
follow are said of Christ Jesus the true Priest of the New Testament:
"And I will raise me up a faithful Priest that shall do according to
all that is in mine heart and in my soul; and I will build Him a sure
house." The same is the eternal Jerusalem above. "And He shall walk,"
saith He, "before my Christ always." "He shall walk" means "he shall be
conversant with," just as He had said before of Aaron's house, "I said
that thine house and thy father's house shall walk before me for ever."
But what He says, "He shall walk before my Christ," is to be understood
entirely of the house itself, not of the priest, who is Christ Himself,
the Mediator and Saviour. His house, therefore, shall walk before Him.
"Shall walk" may also be understood to mean from death to life, all the
time this mortality passes through, even to the end of this world. But
where God says, "Who will do all that is in mine heart and in my soul,"
we must not think that God has a soul, for He is the Author of souls;
but this is said of God tropically, not properly, just as He is said to
have hands and feet, and other corporal members. And, lest it should
be supposed from such language that man in the form of this flesh is
made in the image of God, wings also are ascribed to Him, which man has
not at all; and it is said to God, "Hide me under the shadow of Thy
wings,"[378] that men may understand that such things are said of that
ineffable nature not in proper but in figurative words.
But what is added, "And it shall come to pass that he who is left in
thine house shall come to worship Him," is not said properly of the
house of this Eli, but of that Aaron, the men of which remained even
to the advent of Jesus Christ, of which race there are not wanting
men even to this present. For of that house of Eli it had already
been said above, "And every one of thine house that is left shall
fall by the sword of men." How, therefore, could it be truly said
here, "And it shall come to pass that every one that is left shall
come to worship him," if that is true, that no one shall escape the
avenging sword, unless he would have it understood of those who
belong to the race of that whole priesthood after the order of Aaron?
Therefore, if it is of these the predestinated remnant, about whom
another prophet has said, "The remnant shall be saved;"[379] whence
the apostle also says, "Even so then at this time also the remnant
according to the election of grace is saved;"[380] since it is easily
understood to be of such a remnant that it is said, "He that is left
in thine house," assuredly he believes in Christ; just as in the time
of the apostle very many of that nation believed; nor are there now
wanting those, although very few, who yet believe, and in them is
fulfilled what this man of God has here immediately added, "He shall
come to worship him with a piece of money;" to worship whom, if not
that Chief Priest, who is also God? For in that priesthood after the
order of Aaron men did not come to the temple or altar of God for the
purpose of worshipping the priest. But what is that he says, "With
a piece of money," if not the short word of faith, about which the
apostle quotes the saying, "A consummating and shortening word will
the Lord make upon the earth?"[381] But that money is put for the
word the psalm is a witness, where it is sung, "The words of the Lord
are pure words, money tried with the fire."[382]
What then does he say who comes to worship the priest of God, even
the Priest who is God? "Put me into one part of Thy priesthood, to
eat bread." I do not wish to be set in the honour of my fathers,
which is none; put me in a part of Thy priesthood. For "I have
chosen to be mean in Thine house;"[383] I desire to be a member, no
matter what, or how small, of Thy priesthood. By the priesthood he
here means the people itself, of which He is the Priest who is the
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.[384] This people
the Apostle Peter calls "a holy people, a royal priesthood."[385] But
some have translated, "Of Thy sacrifice," not "Of Thy priesthood,"
which no less signifies the same Christian people. Whence the Apostle
Paul says, "We being many are one bread, one body."[386] [And again
he says, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice."[387]] What,
therefore, he has added, to "eat bread," also elegantly expresses
the very kind of sacrifice of which the Priest Himself says, "The
bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."[388]
The same is the sacrifice not after the order of Aaron, but after
the order of Melchisedec:[389] let him that readeth understand.[390]
Therefore this short and salutarily humble confession, in which it is
said, "Put me in a part of Thy priesthood, to eat bread," is itself
the piece of money, for it is both brief, and it is the Word of God
who dwells in the heart of one who believes. For because He had said
above, that He had given for food to Aaron's house the sacrificial
victims of the Old Testament, where He says, "I have given thy
father's house for food all things which are offered by fire of the
children of Israel," which indeed were the sacrifices of the Jews;
therefore here He has said, "To eat bread," which is in the New
Testament the sacrifice of the Christians.
6. _Of the Jewish priesthood and kingdom, which, although promised
to be established for ever, did not continue; so that other
things are to be understood to which eternity is assured._
While, therefore, these things now shine forth as clearly as they
were loftily foretold, still some one may not vainly be moved to
ask, How can we be confident that all things are to come to pass
which are predicted in these books as about to come, if this very
thing which is there divinely spoken, "Thine house and thy father's
house shall walk before me for ever," could not have effect? For we
see that priesthood has been changed; and there can be no hope that
what was promised to that house may some time be fulfilled, because
that which succeeds on its being rejected and changed is rather
predicted as eternal. He who says this does not yet understand, or
does not recollect, that this very priesthood after the order of
Aaron was appointed as the shadow of a future eternal priesthood; and
therefore, when eternity is promised to it, it is not promised to the
mere shadow and figure, but to what is shadowed forth and prefigured
by it. But lest it should be thought the shadow itself was to remain,
therefore its mutation also behoved to be foretold.