Gênesis 26
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Gênesis 26:12
And after these things the text says, "Isaac sowed barley and found a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man was magnified, and by his progress he became greater until he became very great."Why is it that Isaac "sowed barley" and not wheat, and [why] is [he] blessed because he sows "barley," and [why] is [he] magnified "until he becomes great"? It appears, therefore, that he was not yet great until after "he sowed barley" and gathered "a hundredfold." Then he became "very great." Barley is the food especially of beasts or of peasants. For it is a harsher species and would seem to prick one who touches it as if with some kind of barbs. Isaac is likened to the Word of God. This Word sows barley in the law but wheat in the Gospels. He provides the one food for the perfect and spiritual, the other for the inexperienced and natural, because it is written, "Men and beasts you will preserve, O Lord." Isaac, therefore, the Word of the law, sows barley, and yet in that very barley he finds "fruit a hundredfold." For even in the law you find martyrs, whose "fruit" is "a hundredfold." But also our Lord, the Isaac of the Gospels, said certain things that were more perfect to the apostles, but to the crowds he said things which were plain and common. But do you wish to see that even he presents barley to beginners? It is written in the Gospels that he fed the crowds a second time. But those whom he feeds the first time, that is, the beginners, he feeds "with barley loaves." But later, when they had progressed by this time in the word and teaching, he presents them loaves of wheat. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.5
Gênesis 26:13
Isaac was insignificant in the law, but with the passing of time he becomes great. He becomes great, with the passing of time, in the prophets. For while he is in the law alone he is not yet great, since indeed it too is covered with a veil. He grows, therefore, now in the prophets; but when he has arrived at this point that also he may cast aside the veil, then he will be "very great." When the letter of the law has begun to be separated like the chaff of its barley and it has appeared that "the law is spiritual," then Isaac will be magnified and will become "very great."For notice that also the Lord in the Gospels breaks a few loaves, and notice how many thousand people he refreshes "and how many baskets" of leftovers remain. While the loaves are whole, no one is filled, no one is refreshed, nor do the loaves themselves appear to be increased. Now consider, therefore, how we break a few loaves: we take up a few words from the divine Scriptures and how many thousand men are filled. But unless those loaves have been broken, unless they have been crumbled into pieces by the disciples, that is, unless the letter has been discussed and broken in little pieces, its meaning cannot reach everyone. But when we have begun to investigate and discuss each single matter, then the crowds indeed will assimilate as much as they shall be able. But what they haven't been able to digest should be gathered and preserved, "lest anything be lost."9 We also, therefore, preserve whatever the "crowds" cannot receive and gather it into baskets and hampers.… Let us see what fragments we have diligently collected lest they be lost, and what we are preserving in baskets until the Lord command what also should become of them. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.5
Gênesis 26:13
Do you want to know how "grow" should be understood? Listen to what Isaac did. Scripture says of him, "Isaac progressed and became greater, until he became great, and very much so." His will always tended toward the better and kept making progress. His mind kept contemplating something more divine, and he kept exercising his memory, to store up more in his treasure house and retain it more securely. So this is the way it came about. Isaac cultivated all his virtues in the field of his soul, and thus he fulfilled the command that ordered him to "grow." — HOMILIES ON LUKE 11.2
Gênesis 26:13
But now, as much as possible, let us either eat of the bread or draw water from the wells. Let us attempt to do also that which wisdom admonishes, saying, "Drink the waters of your own springs and wells, and let your spring be your own."Therefore you also attempt, O hearer, to have your own well and your own spring, so that you too, when you take up a book of the Scriptures, may begin even from your own understanding to bring forth some meaning, and in accordance with those things which you have learned in the church, you too attempt to drink from the fountain of your own abilities. You have the nature of "living water" within you. There are within you perennial veins and streams flowing with rational understanding, if only they have not been filled with earth and rubbish. But get busy to dig out your earth and to clean out the filth, that is, to remove the idleness of your natural ability and to cast out the inactivity of your heart. For hear what the Scripture says: "Prick the eye, and it will bring forth a tear; prick the heart, and it brings forth understanding." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 12.5
Gênesis 26:15
Isaac therefore digs also new wells; no, rather, Isaac's servants dig them. Isaac's servants are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; his servants are Peter, James, Jude; the apostle Paul is Isaac's servant. These all dig the wells of the New Testament. But those who "mind earthly things" nor permit new things to be established nor old things to be cleansed also quarrel for these wells. They oppose the gospel wells; they resist the apostolic wells. And since they oppose in all things, since they quarrel in all things, it is said to them, "Since you have made yourselves unworthy of God's grace, henceforth now we go to the Gentiles." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.2
Gênesis 26:15
This Isaac, therefore, our Savior, when he has come into that valley of Gerar, first of all wishes to dig those wells that the servants of his father had dug; he wishes to renew the wells of the law, of course, and the prophets, which Philistines had filled with earth.Who are those who fill the wells with earth? Those, doubtless, who put an earthly and fleshly interpretation on the law and close up the spiritual and mystical interpretation so that neither do they themselves drink nor do they permit others to drink. Hear our Isaac, the Lord Jesus, saying in the Gospels: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, since you have taken away the key of knowledge, and you yourselves have not entered, nor have you permitted those who wish to enter." Those therefore are the ones who have filled with earth the wells "which the servants of Abraham had dug;" those who teach the law carnally and defile the waters of the Holy Spirit; who hold the wells for this purpose, not that they might bring forth water but that they might put earth in them. Isaac therefore undertakes to dig these wells. And let us see how he digs them. When the servants of Isaac, who are the apostles of our Lord, were passing through grain fields on the sabbath, Scripture says, "they plucked the ears and ate, rubbing them in their hands." At that time, therefore, those who had filled his father's wells with earth said to him, "Behold, your disciples are doing that which is not lawful on the sabbath day." In order to dig out their earthly understanding, Jesus says to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him, how he went in to Abiathar the priest and ate the consecrated bread, he and his servants, which it was not lawful to eat but for the priests only?" And he adds these words: "If you knew what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would certainly never have condemned the innocent." But what do those men reply to these words? They quarrel with his servants and say, "This man is not of God who does not keep the sabbath." In this way, therefore, Isaac dug the wells "which the servants of his father had dug." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.2
Gênesis 26:19
For who is able worthily to explain either the mysteries of such great wells or of those things that are related to have been done for the wells, unless we invoke the Father of the living Word and he should deign to put the word in our mouth so that we may be able to draw a little "living water" for you who thirst from those wells which are so copious and numerous?There are, therefore, wells that the servants of Abraham dug, but the Philistines had filled these with earth. Isaac therefore undertakes first to clear these wells. The Philistines hate water; they love earth. Isaac loves water; he is always seeking wells; he cleans old wells, he opens new ones. Consider our Isaac, who "has been offered as a sacrifice for us," coming into the valley of Gerar, which means "wall" or "hedge." [He is] coming, I say, that "he might destroy the middle wall of hedge, the enmities, in his flesh." [He is] coming to remove the wall that is between us and the heavenly virtues, that he might make "both one" and carry back to the mountains "on his shoulder" the lamb which had strayed and restore it to the other "ninety-nine which had not strayed." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.1-2
Gênesis 26:22
Consider therefore that perhaps even in the soul of each of us there is "a well of living water," there is a kind of heavenly perception and latent image of God, and the Philistines, that is, hostile powers, have filled this well with earth. With what kind of earth? With carnal perceptions and earthly thoughts, and for that reason "we have borne the image of the earthly." At that time, therefore, when we were bearing "the image of the earthly," the Philistines filled our wells. But now, since our Isaac has come, let us receive his advent and dig our wells. Let us cast the earth from them. Let us purge them from all filth and from all muddy and earthly thoughts, and let us discover in them that "living water" that the Lord mentions: "He who believes in me, from within him shall flow rivers of living water." Behold how great the Lord's liberality is: the Philistines filled our wells and hindered our small and trifling veins of water, and in place of these, springs and rivers are restored to us.If therefore you also hearing these words today should faithfully perceive what is said, Isaac would work also in you; he would cleanse your hearts from earthly perceptions. And seeing these mysteries that are so great to be lying hidden in the divine Scriptures, you progress in understanding, you progress in spiritual perceptions. You yourselves will also begin to be teachers, and "rivers of living water" will proceed from you. For the Word of God is present, and this now is his work, that he might remove the earth from the soul of each of you and open your spring. For he is within you and does not come from without, just as "also the kingdom of God is within you." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.3-4
Gênesis 26:22
So therefore the wells that Abraham dug, that is, the Scriptures of the Old Testament, have been filled with earth by the Philistines, or evil teachers, scribes and Pharisees, or even hostile powers; and their veins have been stopped up lest they provide a drink for these who are of Abraham. For that people cannot drink from the Scriptures but suffer a "thirst for the word of God" until Isaac should come and open them that his servants may drink. Thanks therefore to Christ, the son of Abraham—of whom it is written, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham"57—who has come and opened the wells for us. For he opened them for those men who said, "Was not our heart burning in us when he opened to us the Scriptures?" He opened therefore these wells and "called them," the text says, "as his father Abraham had called them." For he did not change the names of the wells.And it is astonishing that Moses is called Moses even among us, and each of the prophets is addressed by his own name. For Christ did not change the names in the Scriptures but the understanding. And he changes it there that now later we might not pay attention "to Jewish fables" and "endless genealogies," because "they turn their hearing away from the truth indeed but are turned to fables." Christ opened therefore the wells and taught us, that we might not seek God in some one place but might know that "sacrifice is offered to his name in every land." For it is now that time "when the true worshipers worship the Father" neither in Jerusalem nor on Mt. Gerazim "but in spirit and truth." God therefore dwells neither in a place nor in a land, but he dwells in the heart. And if you are seeking the place of God, a pure heart is his place. For he says that he will dwell in this place when he says through the prophet, "I will dwell in them and walk in them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God," says the Lord. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.3
Gênesis 26:22
But also each of us who serves the Word of God digs wells and seeks "living water," from which he may renew his hearers. If, therefore, I too shall begin to discuss the words of the ancients and to seek in them a spiritual meaning, if I shall have attempted to remove the veil of the law and to show that the things which have been written are "allegorical," I am indeed digging wells. But immediately the friends of the letter will stir up malicious charges against me and will lie in ambush for me. They will contrive immediately hostilities and persecutions, denying that the truth can stand except upon earth.But if we are servants of Isaac, let us love "wells of living water" and springs. Let us withdraw from those who are contentious and contrive malicious charges and leave them in the earth, which they love. But let us never cease digging "wells of living water." And by discussing now indeed things that are old and again things that are new, let us become like that scribe in the Gospel, of whom the Lord said, "He brings forth from his treasures new things and old." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.3
Gênesis 26:22
After these things, then, Isaac dug a third well and "called the name of that place 'Room-Enough,' saying, 'Now the Lord has given us room and has increased us on the earth.' " For truly now Isaac is given room and his name is increased on all the earth since he has fulfilled for us the knowledge of the Trinity. For then "God was known" only "in Judea" and his name was named in Israel, but now "their sound has gone forth into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world." For the servants of Isaac going throughout the whole world have dug wells and have shown "the living water" to all, "baptizing all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." For "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.3
Gênesis 26:24
We have also already said previously that the embellishment of the temple and of those divine services which were performed therein was an ascent of the law. The increase of the prophets also can be called an ascent of the law. And for this reason perhaps Isaac is said to have gone up to the well of the oath and there the Lord is said to have appeared to him. For through the prophets "the Lord has sworn and he will not repent, that he is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." God appeared to him, therefore, "at the well of the oath" confirming the fulfillment of the promises made to him. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.2
Gênesis 26:24
As therefore the Lord himself accommodates his form in correspondence to the place and time and certain individual conditions, so also the saints, who prefigured him, should be believed to have represented types of mysteries in correspondence to places and times and conditions. [This] also we see now to be the case in Isaac, of whom we have heard it read, "He went up," the text says, "from there to the well of the oath, and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father; fear not. For I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed because of Abraham your father."The apostle Paul set forth two figures of this Isaac to us. One, about which he said that Ishmael indeed, the son of Hagar, represented the people according to the flesh, but Isaac the people who are of faith. The other, about which he said, "He did not say, and to his seeds, as of many, but to his seed, as of one, which is Christ." Isaac therefore represents the people and Christ. Now it is certain that Christ is spoken of as the Word of God not only in the Gospels but also in the law and prophets. But in the law he teaches beginners; in the Gospels he teaches the perfect. And Isaac therefore represents now the Word that is in the law or the prophets. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.1
Gênesis 26:25
Isaac builds indeed an altar even now in the law and pitches his tent, but in the Gospels he does not pitch a tent but builds a house and establishes a foundation. For hear Wisdom saying of the church: "Wisdom," Scripture says, "has built herself a house and has set up seven columns." Hear Paul also saying about this: "For no man can lay a foundation but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus."80Where, therefore, there is a tent, even if it should be pitched, it is doubtless to be folded up. But where there are foundations and a house is built "upon a rock," that house is never destroyed, "for it has been founded on a rock." Nevertheless Isaac digs a well there too, nor does he ever cease digging wells until "the fountain of living water" arises and "the stream of the river makes the city of God joyful." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.2
Gênesis 26:26
This Abimelech, as I see it, does not always have peace with Isaac, but sometimes he disagrees, at other times he seeks peace. If you remember how, in what precedes, we said of Abimelech that he represents the learned and wise of the world who have comprehended many things even of the truth through the learning of philosophy, you can understand how he can be neither always in dissension nor always at peace with Isaac, who represents the Word of God in the law. For philosophy is neither opposed to everything in the law of God nor in harmony with everything.For many of the philosophers write that there is one God who has created all things. In this they agree with the law of God. Some also have added this, that God made and rules all things by his Word and it is the Word of God by which all things are directed. In this they write in harmony not only with the law but also with the Gospels. Indeed, almost the total philosophy that is called moral and natural holds the same views we do. But it disagrees with us when it says matter is coeternal with God. It disagrees when it denies that God is concerned about mortal things but that his providence is confined beyond the spaces of the lunar sphere. They disagree with us when they appraise the lives of those being born by the courses of the stars. They disagree when they say this world is permanent and is to have no end. But there are also many other things in which they either disagree with us or are in harmony. And therefore in accordance with this figure, Abimelech is sometimes described as being at peace with Isaac and sometimes as disagreeing. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.3
Gênesis 26:26
But also I do not think that this was of idle concern to the Holy Spirit, who writes these things, to relate that two others "came with Abimelech, that is, "Ahuzzath his kinsman and Phicol the leader of his army."Now Ahuzzath means "containing" and Phicol "the mouth of all," but Abimelech himself means "my father is king." These three, in my opinion, figuratively represent all philosophy, which is divided into three parts among them: logic, physics, ethics, that is, rational, natural, moral. The rational is that which acknowledges God to be Father of all, that is, Abimelech. The natural is that which is fixed and contains all things, as depending on the forces of nature itself, which Ahuzzath, which means "containing," professes to be. The moral is that which is in the mouth of all and pertains to all and is situated in the mouth of all because of the likeness of the common precepts. Phicol, which means "the mouth of all," signifies this. All these therefore come to the law of God in the learning of instructions of this kind and say, "We certainly saw that the Lord is with you, and we said, 'Let there be an oath between us and you and let us establish a covenant with you, lest you do evil with us, but as we have not cursed you, so also you are blessed by the Lord.' " Those three, who seek peace from the Word of God and desire to anticipate his fellowship with a covenant, can indeed represent the magi who come from parts of the East learned in the books of their fathers and in the instruction of their ancestors and say, "We certainly saw" "the one born king," "and we have seen that God is with him," "and we have come to worship him."6 But also if there is anyone who has been instructed in learning of this kind, seeing that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" and who has admired the majesty of his works, let him say, "We certainly saw that the Lord is with you, and we said, 'Let there be an oath between us.' " For approaching the law of God he says necessarily, "I have sworn and am determined that I shall keep your commandments." — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.3
Gênesis 26:30
For it is certain that he who serves the Word "is debtor to the wise and the unwise." Because, therefore, he is producing a feast for the wise, for this reason it is said that "he made" not a small but "a great feast."And you, if you should not still be "a little child" and in need of "milk" but should bring your "senses exercised" and should come more capable to an understanding of the Word of God after very much instruction has been set before you, there will also be "a great feast" for you. The "vegetables" of the weak will not be prepared for you as food, nor will you be nourished with milk with which "little children" are nourished, but the servant of the Word will make a "great feast" for you. He will speak to you the "wisdom" that is offered "among the perfect." He will offer you the "wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew." He will reveal Christ to you in this respect, that in him "all the treasures of wisdom are hidden."15 He makes you therefore "a great feast," and he himself eats with you if he should not find you to be such that he should say to you, "I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to little ones in Christ." He says this to the Corinthians, to which he also adds, "For when there are contentions and dissensions among you, are you not carnal and walk in a human way?" Paul did not "make a great feast" for these, insofar that when he was with them and was in need, he was a burden to no one. Nor did he eat bread he did not pay for from anyone, but laboring night and day, his own hands served himself and all who were with him. The Corinthians therefore were so far from having a "great feast" that the preacher of the Word of God could have not even the least or a little feast with them. But there is a great feast for those who know how to hear more perfectly, who bring their "senses" instructed and "exercised" for hearing the Word of God. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.4