Genesis 12-50

Volume 2

Mark Sheridan, Thomas C. Oden, Mark Sheridan, Thomas C. Oden

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9780830897278
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Genesis 12–50 recounts the history of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. From their mentors Paul, Peter, Stephen, and the author of the letter to the Hebrews, the early fathers learned to draw out the spiritual significance of the patriarchal narrative for Christian believers. The Alexandrian school especially followed Paul's allegorical use of the story of Sarah and Hagar as they interpreted the Genesis accounts. The Antiochene school eschewed allegorical interpretation but still set about to find moral lessons in the ancient narrative. For all of them the events pointed toward the promises of the age to come, the new age revealed in the resurrection of Jesus.Among the principal Greek-speaking commentators included within this Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture volume, readers will find Origen, Didymus the Blind, John Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria. Among the Latin-speaking interpreters they will find Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Caesarius of Arles, and Bede the Venerable. Ephrem the Syrian is the most commonly cited Syriac-speaking interpreter, while the fifth-century Catena on Genesis provides access to such fathers as Eusebius of Caesarea, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Didymus of Alexandria, Epiphanius of Salamis, Irenaeus of Lyons, Eusebius of Emesa, Severian of Gabala, and Theodore of Mopsuestia among others.Varied in texture and nuance, the interpretations cited provide a wealth of ancient wisdom, some appearing here in English translation for the first time, to stimulate the mind and nourish the soul of the church today.

GENESIS 12-50

THE CALL AND THE PROMISE
GENESIS 12:1-3

OVERVIEW: Beginning with Philo, the call and the migration of Abraham came to be interpreted allegorically to represent all those who undertake the spiritual journey (ANTONY THE GREAT). God’s command to leave his country is also connected to Jesus’ call to “follow me” (DIDYMUS THE BLIND). The direct influence of Philo is evident in the interpretation of Abraham as the mind that is commanded to leave behind the passions (AMBROSE). Abraham is also interpreted as a model of faith (AUGUSTINE). In a later development, the allegorical interpretation of Philo already observed in Ambrose is combined with the sacrament of baptism. The command to leave “your kindred” is then interpreted in the same direction as a command to leave behind vices and sins after baptism, and, using the principle of interpreting the Scriptures by means of the Scriptures (see introduction to this volume, pp. xxxiv-xxxvi), “your father’s house” is interpreted to mean the dominion of the devil (CAESARIUS OF ARLES).

The promise to make of Abraham a “great nation” is seen to be fulfilled literally but also spiritually because true greatness lies in virtue (DIDYMUS THE BLIND). The promise to make “your name great” is understood to be fulfilled in the fact that all, including the Jews, claim kinship with Abraham (CHRYSOSTOM). This promise, however, is only an earthly one, while the promise that “all the families of the earth” will be blessed in Abraham is a heavenly one fulfilled in the nation saved in Christ from all the families of the earth. This one man, who abandoned the land of Babel, went forth from it willingly by the order of the Lord, having heard addressed to himself the promise that in one common blessing there would be reunited in him all the peoples divided into various regions and languages (BEDE).

12:1 The Call from God

GUIDED BY THE SPIRIT. ANTONY THE GREAT: Some were reached by the Word of God through the law of promise and the discernment of the good inherent in them from their first formation. They did not hesitate but followed it readily as did Abraham, our father. Since he offered himself in love through the law of promise, God appeared to him, saying, “Go from your country and your kindred and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” And he went without hesitating at all but being ready for his calling. This is the model for the beginning of this way of life. It still persists in those who follow this pattern. Wherever and whenever souls endure and bow to it they easily attain the virtues, since their hearts are ready to be guided by the Spirit of God. LETTER I.1

WHY HE LEFT. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: It is not by chance that God orders Abraham to leave his land and his relatives but because he sees in him something that makes him worthy of being the object of divine concern, that is, his faith in God. But it was not fitting that the one who had faith in God should remain among perverse people—the father of Abraham was in fact an idolater—because the company of the wicked often does harm to zealous people, especially to those whose zeal is new. That is why the Savior also proclaims, “If anyone wishes to follow me and does not hate his father, his brothers, his sisters, and even his wife and children, he cannot be my disciple.”2 The Lord did not say that in order to provoke hatred of one’s relatives, but if one of them becomes an obstacle to virtue, it is necessary to hate him for virtue’s sake. That is what the apostles did, who said, “Look, we have left everything in order to follow you.”3

Such is the order given now to the patriarch, and God tells him that he will show him a land in which to live, that he will make of him a great nation, that he will bless and magnify his name. ON GENESIS 209.4

ABRAHAM REPRESENTS THE MIND. AMBROSE: Abraham represents the mind. In fact Abraham signifies passage. Therefore, in order that the mind, which in Adam had allowed itself to run to pleasure and to bodily attractions, should turn toward the ideal form of virtue, a wise man has been proposed to us as an example to imitate. Actually Abraham in Hebrew signifies “father,” in the sense that the mind, with the authority, the judgment and the solicitude of a father, governs the entire person. This mind then was in Haran, that is, in caverns, subject to the different passions. For this reason it is told, “Go from your country,” that is, from your body. From this land went forth the one whose homeland is in the heavens. ON ABRAHAM 2.1-2.5

ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD’S PROMISE. AUGUSTINE: The right thing to do, brothers and sisters, is to believe God before he pays up anything, because just as he cannot possibly lie, so he cannot deceive. For he is God. That’s how our ancestors believed him. That’s how Abraham believed him. There’s a faith for you that really deserves to be admired and made widely known. He had received nothing from him, and he believed his promise. We do not yet believe him, though we have already received so much. Was Abraham ever in a position to say to him, “I will believe you, because you promised me that and paid up”? No, he believed from the very first command given, without having received anything else at all. “Go out from your country,” he was told, “and from your kindred, and go into a country which I will give you.” And he believed straightaway, and [God] didn’t give him that country but kept it for his seed. SERMON 113A.10.6

IN BAPTISM OUR LAND IS OUR BODY. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: When the sacred lesson was read just now, we heard the Lord say to blessed Abraham, “Leave your country, your kinsfolk and your father’s house.” Now everything that was written in the Old Testament, dearly beloved, provided a type and image of the New Testament. As the apostle says, “Now all these things happened to them as a type, and they were written for our correction, upon whom the final age of the world has come.”7 Therefore, if what happened corporally in Abraham was written for us, we will see it fulfilled spiritually in us if we live piously and justly. “Leave your country,” the Lord said, “your kinsfolk and your father’s house.” We believe and perceive all these things fulfilled in us, brothers, through the sacrament of baptism. Our land is our body; we go forth properly from our land if we abandon our carnal habits to follow the footsteps of Christ. Does not one seem to you happily to leave his land, that is, himself, if from being proud he becomes humble; from irascible, patient; from dissolute, chaste; from avaricious, generous; from envious, kind; from cruel, gentle? Truly, brothers, one who is changed thus out of love for God happily leaves his own land. Finally, even in private conversation, if one who is wicked suddenly begins to perform good works we are inclined to speak thus of him: He has gone out of himself. Indeed, he is properly said to have gone out of himself if he rejects his vices and delights in virtue. “Leave your country,” says the Lord. Our country, that is, our body, was the land of the dying before baptism, but through baptism it has become the land of the living. It is the very land of which the psalmist relates: “I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living.”8 Through baptism, as I said, we have become the land of the living and not of the dying, that is, of the virtues and not of the vices. However, this is true only if after receiving baptism we do not return to the slough of vices, if when we have become the land of the living we do not perform the blameworthy, wicked deeds of death. “And come,” says the Lord, “into the land which I will show you.” It is certain that then we will come with joy to the land that God shows us if with his hel...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Publisher’s Note Regarding This Digital Edition
• General Introduction
• A Guide to Using This Commentary
• Abbreviations
• Introduction to  Genesis 12-50
• Genesis 12-50
• Appendix: Early Christian Writers and the Documents Cited
• Biographical Sketches & Short Descriptions of Select Anonymous Works
• Timeline of Writers of the Patristic Period
• Bibliography of Works in Original Languages
• Bibliography of Works in English Translation
• Author/Writings Index
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index
• Notes
• Praise for the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture
• About the Editor
• Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright Page