Gênesis 27
Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Gênesis 27:27
What advice does Rebekah give? That Jacob should take the skins of the kids and go to his father. The father is expecting the elder and blesses the younger. The Old Testament has the Jews in mind according to its literal meaning, and by the spiritual understanding of it, it is a blessing to Christians. Would your holinesses please concentrate on this great mystery, this great sacrament.Isaac says, "Your brother came with guile" about a man without guile. Isaac undoubtedly knew what was happening since he had the spirit of prophecy, and he himself was acting symbolically. He stakes everything on the sublime truths being symbolically, sacramentally enacted. For if he hadn't known what he was doing, he would surely have been angry with his son for deceiving him. The elder comes and says, "Here, father, eat; I have done just as you ordered me." He says, "Who are you?" He replies, "I am your elder son, Esau." "And who is the one," Isaac says, "at whose hands I have already eaten, and I blessed him, and blessed he shall be?" He seemed to be angry; Esau was expecting from his lips some sort of curse upon his brother. While he is expecting a curse, Isaac confirms the blessing. What splendid anger, what marvelous indignation! But he knew the mystery being enacted. The blindness of his bodily eyes stood for the mental blindness of the Jews. But the eyes of his heart were able to see the sublimity of the mysteries being unfolded. — SERMON 4.21
Gênesis 27:27
"He smelled his clothes and said, 'Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of an abundant field, which the Lord has blessed.' " This field is the church. Let's prove that the church is a field. Listen to the apostle telling the faithful: "You are God's tilled field; you are God's building." Not only is the church a field, but also God is the tiller of the field. Listen to the Lord himself: "I am the vine, you the branches, and my Father is the vinedresser." Toiling in this field as a laborer and hoping for an eternal reward, the apostle claims no credit for himself, except a laborer's due. "I planted," he says, "Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. And so neither the one who plants is anything, nor the one who waters, but God who gives the increase." Notice how Paul safeguards humility to make sure of belonging to Jacob, to that field which is the church, and of not losing the robe whose scent was as the smell of an abundant field. He does not pass over to the pride of Esau, materialistic in thought and abounding in arrogance. So the smell of the field comes from the garment of the son. But this field is nothing in itself. That's why he added, "which the Lord has blessed. And the Lord will give you from the dew of heaven above and from the fruitfulness of the earth, and quantities of corn and wine. And nations will serve you, and you shall be lord of your brother, and the sons of your father shall pay you homage. Whoever curses you shall be cursed, and whoever blesses you shall be blessed." That is the blessing of Jacob. If Esau had not been blessed too, there would be no problem. But he is blessed too, not with this blessing, and yet one not altogether different from this one. — SERMON 4.28
Gênesis 27:30
The other one, you see, comes along in the evening, and brings what his father ordered, and finds his brother has been blessed instead of himself and is not blessed with a second blessing. Because those two men were two peoples. One blessing signifies the unity of the church. But they are two peoples.… But the two peoples who belong to Jacob are represented in other ways. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ, who had come to Jews and Gentiles, was repudiated by the Jews, who belonged to the elder son. However, he chose some of them who belonged to the younger son, who had begun to desire and understand the Lord's promises, not taking that land they desired materialistically but spiritually desiring that city where no one is materially born, because in it no one either materially or spiritually dies. — SERMON 4.17
Gênesis 27:35
What then is guile? Guile is when one thing is done and another pretended. When there is one thing in intention and another in deeds, it is called guile. So guile in the proper sense is reprehensible, just like rock in the proper sense. If you said Christ was a rock in the proper sense, it would be a blasphemy, just as if you said Christ was a calf in the proper sense it would be blasphemy. In the proper sense a calf is a beast; in the figurative sense it is a victim in a sacrifice. In the proper sense a stone is compacted earth; in the figurative sense it is firmness. Guile in the proper sense is deceit; in the figurative sense.… Every figurative and allegorical text or utterance seems to mean one thing materially and to suggest another thing spiritually. So he called this figurative sense by the name of guile. At long last then, what does it mean, "He came with guile and stole your blessing"? The reason it says "He came with guile" is that what was being done had a figurative sense. Isaac, after all, would not have confirmed the blessing on a guileful, deceitful man who more justly would deserve a curse. So it wasn't a case of real guile, especially since he did not in fact lie when he said, "I am your elder son Esau." For that one had already made a bargain with his brother and sold him his rights as firstborn. So he told his father that he had what he had bought from his brother; what that one had lost had passed to this one. The title of firstborn had not been eliminated from Isaac's household. The title of firstborn was still here—but not with the one who had sold it. Where else was it but with the younger brother? Because he knew the symbolic mystery in all this, Isaac confirmed the blessing and said to this other son, "What am I to do for you?" He answered, "Bless me too, father; you do not only have one blessing." But Isaac knew only of one. — SERMON 4.23
Gênesis 27:35
So what can it mean when it says, "Your brother came with guile and stole the blessing"?… So what can it mean when it says, "He came along with guile and stole the blessing"?First of all, let us note what guile means, and so see what Jacob ought to do. He is bearing the sins of others, and he is bearing them patiently although they are other people's. That is what it means to have the skins of the kids on him; he is bearing the sins of others, not clinging to his own. In this way all those who put up with the sins of others for the sake of unity in the church are imitating Jacob. Because Jacob too is in Christ, inasmuch as Christ is in the seed of Abraham; as it was said, "In your seed shall all the nations be blessed." So our Lord Jesus Christ, who committed no sin, bore the sins of others. And will those whose sins have been forgiven disdain to bear the sins of others? So if Jacob turns into Christ, he bears the sins of others—that, is the skins of the kids. And where is the guile in that? — SERMON 4.15-16
Gênesis 27:36
"And Esau said, 'Rightly is his name called Jacob.' " Tripping up is what Jacob means. And not even tripping up is empty of meaning, because it is to be taken figuratively, like guile. Jacob, you see, was not yet so malicious as to plan to trip his brother up, when he was given his name. He was called a tripper-up when as his brother was being born he held his foot with his own hand. That is when he was called "Tripper-up." Now tripping up the materialistically minded is the very life of the spiritually minded. All the materialists are tripped up when they envy the spiritual people in the church, and they thereby become worse. Listen to the apostle saying this very thing, especially because he there mentions the smell that Isaac talked about here, saying, "Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of an abundant field, which the Lord has blessed." So the apostle says, "We are the sweet smell of Christ in every place," and he says, "For some indeed the smell of life, for life; for the others the smell of death, for death. And for this who is sufficient?" Sufficient, that is, to understand how we can be the smell of death for the death of other people, without any fault of ours. Spiritual people walk their ways, knowing nothing except how to live a good life. And those who are spiteful about their innocent lives commit grave sins, which is why God will punish them. And thus a person who is a sweet smell for life to others becomes to them a smell for death. For the Lord himself was the first to become a sweet smell for life to believers and a bad smell for death to persecutors. Because so many people had believed him, the Jews were full of spite and committed that enormous crime of killing the innocent one, the saint of saints. If they had not done this, the sweet smell of Christ would not have meant death for them. So Esau was tripped up in his father's blessing. — SERMON 4.28
Gênesis 27:39
But why was it after being "roughly handled" that Isaac gave his blessing? For in the last resort what Isaac said to Esau was spoken under constraint and force: "Behold, your dwelling will be by the fruitfulness of the earth and by the dew of heaven." And in case you should imagine yourself for that reason to be good—"You shall live by your sword and be servant to your brother." But in order that you shouldn't despair of yourself, since you can after all correct yourself—"But the time will come when you will put off and undo the yoke from your neck." There you are, he will receive of the fruitfulness of the earth and of the dew of heaven. But when Isaac is roughly handled, he throws this blessing at him. He does not give it to him. Doesn't it happen now in the church with evil people who want to cause trouble in the church that they are tolerated for the sake of peace, that they are admitted to share in the common sacraments? And sometimes it is public knowledge that they are evil, but for some reason or other they cannot be convicted of it. No proof or conviction can be obtained so that they may be corrected and removed from office, excluded, excommunicated. If someone presses charges, it sometimes comes to the disruption of the church. The church leader is forced in effect to say, "Here you are with the fruitfulness of the earth and the dew of heaven; make use of the sacraments; you are eating judgment to yourself, you are drinking judgment to yourself. "Whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself." "You know that you are being admitted to the sacraments for the sake of the peace of the church; all you have at heart is stirring up trouble and causing divisions. That is why you will live by the sword. For as to what you receive from the dew of heaven and the fruitfulness of the earth, you won't live by that. That gives you no delight; you do not see that the Lord is sweet. If this did give you delight, if you did find the Lord sweet, you would imitate the Lord's humility instead of the devil's pride." So although he receives the mystery of the Lord's humility from the dew of heaven and the fruitfulness of the earth, he does not set aside the pride of the devil (may I have nothing to do with him!) who always takes pleasure in quarrels and dissension. "Yes, you may have this communion in the dew of heaven and the fruitfulness of the earth, but all the same you are living by your sword, and either rejoicing in the quarrels and dissension, or being scared out of your wits by them. So change yourself, and take the yoke from your neck." — SERMON 4.35