If, then, the teachings both of the prophets and of Him Himself shame you, it is better for you to follow God than your foolish and blind teachers, who even to this day permit each of you to have four and five wives, and, if anyone sees a beautiful woman and desires her, they recount the deeds of Jacob who was called Israel and of the other patriarchs, and say that those who do the like do no wrong—being wretched and senseless in this matter too.
For, as I said before, certain dispensations of great mysteries were accomplished in each such deed. For what dispensation and foretelling was accomplished in the marriages of Jacob, I will tell, so that in these things too you may recognise that your teachers never looked to the more divine purpose for which each deed was done, but to the low and corrupting passions. Give heed, therefore, to what I say.
The marriages of Jacob were types of that which was to be accomplished by Christ. For it was not lawful for Jacob to marry two sisters at the same time; and he served Laban for the daughters, and, having been deceived in the matter of the younger, he served again seven years. But Leah is your people and the synagogue, and Rachel is our church. And for these Christ still serves, and for the servants in both.
For since Noah gave the seed of the third into servitude to his two sons, now again Christ has come for the restoration of both the free children and the servants among them, deeming all worthy of the same things—those who keep His commandments—just as those born to Jacob, both from the free women and from the bondwomen, all became sons and of equal honour; but according to rank and according to foreknowledge, what kind each one will be has been foretold.
Jacob served Laban for the speckled and many-formed flocks; and Christ served even the servitude unto the cross for the varied and many-kinded men of every race, purchasing them by the blood and mystery of the cross. Leah's eyes were weak; and indeed the eyes of your soul are exceedingly weak. Rachel stole the gods of Laban and hid them to this day; and to us the ancestral and material gods have perished.
All that time Jacob was hated by his brother; and we now, and our Lord Himself, are hated by you and by all other men absolutely, though all are by nature brothers. Jacob was surnamed Israel; and Israel has also been demonstrated to be Christ, who is and is called Jesus.