Questions on the Octateuch 1 part 5/17

He would not have given him this promise, had He not deemed abundance of offspring to be the greatest good.

For what reason, then, were the women jealous of one another? They were the daughters of an imperfect and impious man, one who called carved images gods.

For this reason God, in legislating, forbids such a marriage;

for He says, ‘You shall not take a wife in addition to her sister, to be a rival to her.’

One must therefore attend not only to the word spoken, but also to the person of the one speaking;

the word 'I have had good fortune,' then, is not a saying of Jacob, but of his wife Leah, who, as I said, had been raised in impiety and was only by degrees being instructed in divine things;

so also her father said, ‘I have learned by divination,’ but the divine law forbids the use of omens.

Let no one, then, suppose that such words belong to the divine Scripture itself;

for the writer sets down what was said by the impious, inasmuch as he is composing a history;

thus the most divine Moses also set down Pharaoh's blasphemous word:

‘I do not know the Lord, and I will not send Israel away.’

But this word is not that of the divine Spirit, but of the impious king.

So again we hear Sennacherib saying:

‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying that the Lord will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand.’ Yet from this we do not learn to blaspheme, but rather to condemn blasphemies.

But Jacob himself also said to Laban:

for he called his coming 'foot';

that is, instead of saying, 'through my coming and my care you have enjoyed God-given goods';

for God, looking upon my piety, deemed all that was entrusted to me by you worthy of every blessing.

For what reason did he peel the rods and set them before the sheep as they drank? Just as he had taken wives desiring to beget children, yet he did not place his hope of begetting children in the marriage itself, but in God, the lawgiver of marriage;

so also he peeled the rods, not trusting in them, but waiting upon divine assistance.

Wherefore he also obtained a divine appearance, and heard Him saying:

‘Lift up your eyes and see the he-goats and rams mounting the she-goats, striped and speckled and ashen-spotted;’

‘for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.’

‘I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God, where you anointed a pillar to me, and where you vowed a vow to me.’

For since the grey and speckled animals had been entrusted to the sons of Laban, and their flocks were three days' journey away from these;

the champion of the wronged shows him speckled rams and he-goats mating, so that by this experience he might learn how great a providence those who have put their trust in the God of all enjoy.

It is fitting to note that, having called the one who appeared above 'angel,' the text also showed the same one to be God;

for He says, ‘I am the God who appeared to you on the way.’

He saw angels ascending and descending by the ladder, but the Lord standing firm above;

this one he here named both angel and God;

God, since He is this by nature; and angel, so that we may know that it was not the Father who appeared, but the only-begotten Son.

For of whom could the Father be a messenger? But the Son is both God and the Messenger of Great Counsel;

for it is He who announced to us the mysteries of the Father;

for He says, ‘What I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.’

Thus he also called the one who called Abraham both angel and God.

What was the purpose of the theft of the idols? Some have said that Rachel, still being attached to them, stole them;

but I suppose the opposite: that, wishing to free her father also from superstition, she carried them off;

for the divine Scripture teaches us her piety;

for it says, ‘God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.’

for having heard from Jacob, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has deprived you of the fruit of the womb?’ it is clear that she offered to God a more earnest prayer, and obtained her request.

And indeed, having given birth, she also manifested her piety;

‘God has taken away my reproach;’

and she called his name Joseph, saying:

‘May God add to me another son.’

How then, holding such a disposition toward God, could she have borne to be enslaved to gods that are not gods? And I think that something else is also indicated by this;

for Jacob bore the type of the God of all;

for God likewise had two peoples: the elder, having a veil upon the heart;

and the younger, clothed about with the beauty of faith.

And Jacob had two wives;

Leah, who had weak eyes, and Rachel, who was beautiful in form and exceedingly fair to look upon; and the elder was fruitful in children, but the younger was barren.

For the church gathered from the Gentiles was also barren of old, but afterward became fruitful in children;

For, he says, 'Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor.'

for the children of the desolate woman are many, more than of her who has a husband.

Since, then, the church, having come to believe in God the Savior, tore out by the root the ancestral error, and Rachel happened to be a type of her, she stole her father’s idols, so that even by this she might sketch out beforehand something of the truth.

What is the meaning of 'Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac'? He called piety 'the fear of Isaac,' that is, the God whose fear he carried about in his soul.

For this very reason he also granted him the victory, as if to say:

'You have conquered me, and do you fear a man?' But so that he might not think great things of himself, supposing he had conquered God, by the touch upon his thigh he made known that the defeat was voluntary;

for by that touch he produced the numbness.

And having recognized the power of the one who had appeared, he asked for the blessing;

and he both granted the request and changed his name;

'For,' he says, 'your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, because you have prevailed with God, and you shall be mighty with men.'

And he also showed the cause of the victory:

'Do not fear man,' he says, 'since it is I who have granted you the victory.'

And even after he awoke, his thigh remained numb and limping, so that he would not suppose the vision to have been a mere fancy, but might know more exactly the truth of the dream.

For this reason too, when he asked what name he bore, he not only failed to obtain his request, but was even rebuked, as having overstepped the bounds of his nature;

'Why,' he says, 'do you ask my name?' And this too is a wonder.

And here too one must note that scripture called the very same one both man and God;

for, he said, 'you have prevailed with God.'

And he called the name of that place 'the Form of God,'

for he said, 'I saw God face to face, and my soul was preserved.'

And the sun rose upon him when he had passed by the Form of God.

And through all these things we learn that the Only-Begotten Son, who is also God, appeared here too to Jacob.

What is the meaning of 'This is Anah, who found the waters in the wilderness while he was pasturing the donkeys of Zibeon his father'? The Syrian version says that he found a spring;

for a spring is called 'aina' in the tongue of the Syrians.

From what stock does Job trace his lineage? From Esau;

for this is also what the history concerning him teaches;

for, it says, 'there was a man in the land of Ausitis.'

The blessed Moses also made this clear;

for in writing the succession of those who had reigned as kings from Esau, he spoke as follows:

'And Balak died, and Jobab son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place.'

And these things agree with the account concerning Job.

They were envious, then, seeing him held in greater honor;

and first they tried to put him in bad standing with their father, resorting to many slanders against him;

but failing in that aim, they wished to kill him; then, taking counsel together, they sold him instead.

And the dream of the sheaves foreshadowed the obeisance that would come to pass on account of the grain;

for having gone down into Egypt for the sake of obtaining grain, they bowed down according to the earlier prophecy.

Why in the world did Tamar, putting on the guise of a harlot, deceive her father-in-law? The family of Abraham had become exceedingly renowned on account of the piety it possessed;

Tamar, knowing this, was eager to bear children from that lineage;

she sought the means of childbearing, since she was prevented from obtaining them openly.

And besides this, she also convicts her father-in-law, in that he himself was not being chaste, while compelling her to be chaste.

And he himself, in passing judgment on the matter, made this plain;

for having learned that she was pregnant, he pronounced sentence of death against her;

but when he learned by whom she had conceived, he declared her innocent, and condemned himself instead;

for, he said, 'Tamar has been more justified than I, since I did not give her to Shelah my son.'

And that Tamar contrived this for the sake of childbearing, and not out of love of pleasure, what follows makes clear;

for she was never again joined either to Judah or to anyone else, but was content to be called the mother of the offspring that had sprung from that seed.

Of what were the events concerning Zerah and Perez a sign? Of the two peoples: Perez of the Jews, and Zerah of those from the nations who came to believe;

for indeed, even before the Law there were many who were nurtured in piety, ordering their lives according to faith, not according to Law;

for this reason Zerah put forth his hand first, showing the manner of life that existed before the Law;

and the scarlet thread was a sign of the ancient sacrifices;

for those men too propitiated God with sacrifices — Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Melchizedek, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob;

then, when Zerah withdrew his hand, Perez came out first;

for the Law stands in the middle between the time before the Law and the time after the Law.

Wherefore also the blessed Paul says:

'But the Law came in alongside,' teaching that even before the Law men were justified according to faith, and that after the Law grace shone forth.

And the Lord too, according to the flesh, sprang from Perez;

for, he says, 'whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all.'

For it is quite evident that our Lord Jesus Christ has arisen from Judah;

this the blessed Matthew also taught when he wrote out the genealogy,

so that they might not boast against those from the nations who had believed, as though they alone had kept their noble lineage unstained.

Let us grant that Leah, being imperfect in piety, said, 'I have had good fortune'; but how is it that the historian, in writing the account concerning Joseph, said, 'he was a man who prospered'? Read the statement placed just before, and you will find the solution;

for having said, 'the Lord was with Joseph,' it then adds, 'and he was a man who prospered.'

And it has further added, 'and he was in the house with his Egyptian master.'

And his master knew that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made prosperous whatever he did.

He therefore succeeded in everything, since the Lord was with him;

for it was he himself who made prosperous the things that were done through him.

This too the narrator said when relating the events in the prison;

for, it says, 'everything was done by the hand of Joseph, because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper in his hands.'

How is it that the chief cook, being a eunuch, had a wife? Now indeed they also call both eunuchs and castrated men by the same name;

and it was nothing unreasonable for even one who was a eunuch to have a wife in his house, who took charge of the affairs within.

Why is it that, though so long a time had passed, Joseph neither made known his enslavement to his father, nor did God reveal this to Jacob by any revelation? It was necessary, according to the prophecy made to Abraham, that Jacob should go down into Egypt together with his children and grandchildren.

But if he had known Joseph's circumstances, he would certainly have sent ransom and brought him back.

For this reason he overlooked him while he was despondent, so that he might both fulfill the dispensation and afterward make his life more pleasant.

And Joseph himself teaches his brothers about God's dispensation:

'For God,' he says, 'has sent me before you for life, to preserve a great people.'

'And he called a famine upon the land; he broke every staff of bread; he sent a man before them—Joseph was sold as a slave,' and so on.

But if the patriarch had known of his son's slavery, he would certainly have ransomed him;

and having been ransomed, he would not have dwelt in prison;

he would not have interpreted the dreams for those servants;

and not having interpreted them, he would not have become known to Pharaoh;

and not having become known, he would not have made clear the prediction given through the dreams;

and not having done this, he would not have been entrusted with the reins of Egypt;

and not having received the rule of Egypt, he would not have brought the patriarch with his family into Egypt.

From the outcome, therefore, the purpose of the divine dispensation becomes clear.

Did the brothers, then, not sin, since they served a divine dispensation? Their deed was one of envy and jealousy; but God, being wise, turned their wickedness to the opposite end.

For by the very means through which they tried to prevent the fulfillment of the dreams, through these he brought the dreams to their fulfillment.

Why did he treat his brothers rather harshly as soon as he saw them? Remembering what had been done to him, and not seeing Benjamin, he suspected that he too had suffered the same things at their hands;

but when he saw his brother alive, he deemed them worthy both of forgiveness and of every kind of care.

What is the meaning of 'Psomthomphanech'? He called him 'interpreter of secrets,' since he had made clear the meaning of the dreams.

Why did he order the second, and not the first, of the brothers to be confined? He knew Reuben's intention, and knew clearly how many words he had spoken to his brothers on his behalf, and how much zeal he had shown for his safety.

Since, then, Simeon did not cooperate with Reuben, he very justly ordered him to be confined;

but once the brothers had departed, he deemed him worthy of every attention.

Yet while these things were happening, their conscience would not allow them to keep silent, but reminded them of the transgression committed against their brother;

for it says, 'each said to his brother':

'Yes, we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us, and we did not listen to him.'

'Therefore this distress has come upon us.'

And Reuben, too, brings forward his rebuke at the fitting moment:

for it says, 'he said to them':

'Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not wrong the boy—and you did not listen to me? And behold, his blood is now required.'

From this it is possible to know clearly the unswerving tribunal of conscience;

for it reminds them of the transgression committed twenty-two years before.

And he did not yet know how much zeal Reuben had shown on his behalf.

What does 'he divines by divination with it' mean? Wishing to magnify the charge of the apparent theft, they call the cup an instrument of divination;

and Joseph himself also said this:

'Do you not know that a man such as I can surely divine by divination?' But he said these things not because he actually practiced divination and augury, but shaping his words to fit the matter at hand;

and it is worth admiring the precision of his words.

For even while playing the role of a stranger to his brothers, he did not allow himself to be described as one who practices divination, but attributed it to some other person entrusted with the same office;

for he did not say, 'I divine,' but 'a man such as I can surely divine.'

Why in the world did he stage the drama concerning the cup? He wished to test the disposition of his brothers, and to know clearly whether they would stand by Benjamin when he was falsely accused;

and for this reason he hid the cup in that one's sack.

And when he saw that they were not merely pleading on his behalf but even fighting fiercely for him, he cast off the mask and revealed his brotherly face;

and when they were terrified, and all but wished the earth would open for them, he himself encouraged them, saying:

'Now therefore, do not be afraid, nor let it seem harsh to you that you sold me here.'

'For God sent me before you for life.'

And most graciously, when sending them off, he also exhorted them:

'Do not be angry,' he says, 'on the way'—meaning, do not do such things as you dared to do against me.

...to the king? For amid the food shortage and famine they were unable either to feed their cattle or to sow the land;

Having taken these things, then, at the time of the famine, he later gave them back, establishing by law that a fifth of the produce should be contributed, so that in times of want they might have resources for life laid up;

but for the service of the king, he left only the priestly land exempt from tax.

Yet the priests of the true God do not enjoy this honor.

So great was the reverence the impious rendered to gods that do not exist.

And Joseph declared this teaching yet more clearly:

'I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and will bring you up out of this land into the land which God swore to our fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.'

And Joseph put the sons of Israel under oath, saying:

'In the visitation with which God will visit you, you shall also carry up my bones from here with you'—so that it is clear that both the one and the other, in foretelling the return, gave commands concerning their burial.

What is the meaning of, 'Israel worshipped upon the top of his staff'? Being an old man and in a weakened condition, he lay upon his bed;

but on learning of his son's arrival, he rose up and sat.

Using a staff, he leaned upon it, grasping its top with his right hand, and resting his face upon it.

Rejoicing, then, over him, and over the promise concerning his burial, he worshipped, bowing his head upon the staff;

and first the dream of Joseph received its fulfillment;

for he had seen the sun and the moon and eleven stars worshipping him.

And in addition to this, he also foretells the kingship of the tribe of Ephraim, and the subjection of the ten tribes;

for the divine apostle also said this:

'By faith Jacob blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshipped upon the top of his staff.'

And he also gave him a double portion;

for he says, 'Ephraim and Manasseh shall be to me as Reuben and Simeon.'

And prophetically he placed Ephraim before Manasseh;

for although Joseph, reserving the rights of the firstborn for Manasseh, had positioned each in proper order, the patriarch crossed his hands and placed his right hand upon the younger, and his left upon the elder.

Then Joseph, supposing that Jacob had done this out of ignorance, and conjecturing that the affliction of his eyes was the cause, said:

'Not so, father, for this one is the elder'; and he heard:

'This one also shall become a people, and this one also shall be exalted; but his younger brother shall be greater than he.'

But it should be noted that everywhere those who come after the firstborn are preferred to them.

For indeed Abel was preferred to Cain, and Shem, though second, was preferred to Japheth.

For it says, 'the brother of Japheth the elder.'

And Isaac was preferred to Ishmael, and Jacob to Esau, and Joseph to Reuben and Judah, and Ephraim to Manasseh.

One might find this also in what follows.

The patriarch Jacob, however, taught the reason for this through his prophecy concerning his burial.

For he says, 'Behold, I am dying, and God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of our fathers.'

How is Jacob said to have blessed his sons, when he cursed some of them? The patriarch's final words are neither curses nor blessings, but prophecies.

For he says, 'Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.'

He also called to mind what certain of them had done.

Not because the descendants were being made to pay the penalty for their fathers' sins, but because he cast his words in the form of curse and blessing, for the common benefit of those who would afterward read them.

To Reuben he imputes self-will and recklessness, and the drunken outrage he committed against his father's marriage-bed.

For this reason he foretells that his descendants would become few.

For this is what 'do not boil over like water' signifies, meaning: 'may you not be heated up into abundant offspring.'

He is also indignant with Simeon and Levi, lamenting the unjust destruction of the Shechemites, and he prays that he might have no part in that transgression.

He curses, however, not them themselves, but their wicked passions—their wrath, their rage.

He called wrath 'desire.'

For it is from this that wrath (ὀργή) derives its etymology.

For the one who is angry longs to avenge himself upon his enemy.

And this very punishment was itself a prophecy.

For he says, 'I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.'

But the tribe of Levi was scattered on account of the highest honor, so that Levites and priests might be present with every tribe, and each tribe might reap the benefit derived from them.

They received no allotment of their own, but in each tribe certain cities were assigned to them, together with a fixed number of cubits of surrounding pasture-land.

The tribe of Simeon, too, had no allotment of its own, but in accordance with the patriarch's prophecy was scattered among the other tribes.

Of Judah he recounts many praises.

'Judah, may your brothers praise you.'

'Your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies.'

'Your father's sons shall bow down to you.'

'From a shoot, my son, you have grown up; you lay down, you slept like a lion, and like a lion's cub.'

'Who shall rouse him?' But none of this fits Judah himself; rather, it fits the tribe that sprang from him.

And it was the mightiest of all the other tribes.

Indeed, even when numbered in the wilderness, they were found to be more numerous than the other tribes.

But the exact fulfillment of the prophecy came about in the Lord Christ, who arose from a shoot, according to the patriarch Jacob and according to the prophet Isaiah.

'A rod came forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower rose up from the root.'

'He lay down, he slept like a lion' fits him, and 'like a lion's cub' fits him as well.

For just as the lion, even while sleeping, is fearsome, so the Lord's death became fearsome even to death itself and to the devil.

He called him a lion and a lion's cub, as king and king's son, as God and Son of God.

And 'who shall rouse him?' shows his ineffable power.

For he raised himself, according to his own prophecy.

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'

He also foretells the time of his coming.

'A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he comes for whom it is reserved, and he is the expectation of the nations.'

This is the clearest sign of the Lord's coming.

For among the Jews not only the kings failed, but also the high priests and the prophets, so that the fulfillment of the prophecy might be shown.

For when our Savior was about to be born, foreign kings held sway over them, so that the eternal king might be shown to be the expectation of the nations, in accordance with the promise given by the God of all to the patriarchs.

For indeed the God of all promised Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that in their seed he would bless all the nations of the earth.

This is what the patriarch Jacob indicated here when he blessed Judah.

'A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he comes for whom it is reserved, and he is the expectation of the nations.'

Then, showing the people formed from the nations and from the Jews.

'Binding his foal to the vine, and to the tendril of the vine the foal of his donkey.'

That Israel was called a vine, all the prophets teach.

'You transplanted a vine out of Egypt,' and so forth.

And Isaiah: 'A vineyard was made for the beloved one on a horn, in a fertile place.'

And through Jeremiah the God of all said.

'I planted you as a fruitful vine, entirely true.'

'For their vine is of the vine of Sodom.'

And the Lord in the holy Gospels.

'A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it out to farmers, and went away on a journey.'

He calls the people from the nations a 'foal,' as being untamed and never having had a colt-breaker.

For this too the Lord hinted at to the apostles when he commanded them to go into the village opposite and untie the donkey that was tied, and her foal, on which, he says, no man had ever sat.

For neither patriarch nor lawgiver nor prophet took thought for the salvation of the nations.

But the divine apostles, having been commanded to make disciples of all the nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, untied the donkey—that is, the nature of mankind, bound by the chains of sin.

They also untied the foal, the people that had sprung from her.

And having placed their own garments upon it, that is, the grace which they had received.

'For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.'

And they made the untamed foal obedient to the rein, and set the Lord upon it, and bound it to the vine, that is, to themselves.

For the apostles were from the Jews.

And not only they, but also the seventy disciples, and the three thousand whom the first of the apostles caught all at once in his net, and the five thousand, and the many tens of thousands concerning whom the thrice-blessed James spoke to the most divine Paul.

Not only, then, were those who had believed joined to the apostles, but also to the disciples of the apostles.

And foreseeing this, the patriarch said.

Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his donkey to the tendril of the vine

Then he also foretells the Passion:

'He will wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape; his eyes are cheerful from wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.'

And he calls his body 'robe,' and his blood 'wine':

since the Master himself also called the mystical wine 'blood':

And we also hear the evangelist John teaching that when the soldier pierced his side, blood and water came out.

And these streams flowed forth through the body:

For this reason the patriarch says:

'He will wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.'

Then he shows the gladness that would come after the Passion:

'his eyes are cheerful from wine'

For the saving Passion is the joy of the whole world:

And that he called it 'the Passion' in this way, the Lord himself is witness, saying:

'Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.'

So too he said to the sons of Zebedee:

'Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?' The 'cheerfulness' of the eyes, then, signifies the joy that would come after the Passion:

for after the Passion and the resurrection, the disciples were sent into the whole world, bringing salvation to those who believe.

And the clarity and transparency of the teaching he likened to the whitest teeth:

for, he says, 'his teeth are whiter than milk.'

So much did the patriarch foretell in blessing Judah;

and of Zebulun he foretold the coastal dwelling;

and of Issachar, the tilling of the land:

for he was of this tribe;

and he was also numbered among the judges:

and for this reason, he says, he said:

But some say that he foretold the events concerning Laish, now called Paneas,

for suddenly some, setting out from this tribe, attacked this city, took it by force, dwelt in it, and gave it their own name:

But I think that the divine Spirit, having foretold beforehand through the patriarch the things concerning our Savior, also spoke through this prophecy the things concerning the Antichrist:

and indeed the things written apply to him exceedingly well: