From the calling of Abraham the third millennium of the world begins, and the third part of Genesis, in which Abraham, a most excellent man, is set before us as a type. As he enters upon the path of virtue up to chapter 17, and as he progresses and advances in it up to chapter 22, and then as perfected up to chapter 25. Concerning his praises Philo and St. Ambrose composed entire books. In this chapter is contained the promise made to him by God and a double pilgrimage: one into Canaan, the other into Egypt.
Gen 12:1 Certain heretical forerunners falsely imagine that Abraham was not immediately called by God or by an angel, but that God indicated this to Shem, and that Shem (that is, Melchizedek) reported it to Abraham and so called Abraham. He invented this because he thought it certain that Shem was Melchizedek, from which, however, he has no suitable foundation for this fiction. Moreover, what he invents is alien to the words of Sacred Scripture in this place and in Acts 7:2: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land,’” and so forth. It was not Shem who appeared, but God to Abraham, nor was this said to anyone else than to him to whom He appeared.
Long ago Luther’s false fiction of this kind was refuted by Paphnutius, which you will find in Cassian at the beginning of Conference 3. I follow St. Augustine here (City of God, Book 16, chapter 15; and on Acts 7:2), that there was one single calling of Abraham, and that while he was still in Chaldea. Of this calling Stephen speaks at length in verse 2. For there he uses “Mesopotamia” for neighboring Chaldea, which is also in agreement with Pliny (Book 6, chapter 26), where he numbers Babylon as part of Mesopotamia; nor does Achior in Judith 5:9 obscurely indicate this, when he says that God commanded them to go out and dwell in Haran. Therefore He commanded this before they went out from Chaldea.
With his son Abraham, Terah went out, to whom the expedition is attributed for the sake of paternal honor. How long Abraham remained in Haran with his father I cannot know with certainty; I think not many years. Lot alone clung to him when he departed, as we shall soon have in verse 4, which occurred in the seventy-fifth year of Abraham, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year of Terah. It is therefore necessary that he departed sixty years before the death of Terah. For Terah begot Abraham when he was seventy years old, and afterward died in the two hundred and fifth year of his age. Therefore Calvin is mistaken when he writes in his Commentary on Acts that Abraham waited in Haran for the death of Terah.
Objections are raised against our opinion. First, because Moses narrates these things after the death of Terah. I reply that Moses uses a prolepsis, so that what pertained to Terah is narrated in one connected account. But in this place, because he is about to write the history expressly concerning Abraham’s departure, he adds this command of God, so that no one may suspect that this journey was undertaken out of any lightness or curiosity.
Second, St. Stephen openly says that Abraham was transferred after the death of Terah, Acts 7:4: “After his father died, He transferred him into this land in which you now dwell.” St. Augustine responds that he is said to be transferred, not because he then first migrated there, or was then first commanded by God to migrate, but because, having departed while his father was still alive, he chose there, after his father’s death, more deliberately and more firmly to establish his dwelling.
It can also have this sense, that Abraham is said to be transferred into that land when God promised possession of the land to his seed, and when, having accepted it in the name of his seed, he built an altar there and pitched his tent near Bethel (below, verse 7), which is not read of him before.
Third, they argue against us by the authority of the Fathers, because St. Chrysostom (Homily 31) says that he was not called by God out of Haran until Terah had died. Ambrose in On Abraham (Book 2) wishes these things to be understood of the departure from Haran, which Diodorus of Tarsus also confirms in the Catena. But these Fathers did not examine the almost inexplicable difficulty which occurs here in the reckoning of times, as Jerome and Augustine did, whom I follow.
Other lighter arguments are objected and solved by Pererius here (Disputation 1), and he strongly attacks Abulensis, but he presses no argument which either forces me or draws me away from Abulensis, whom I follow only on account of that calculation of years and because I do not like to invent two departures of Abraham from Haran, one before and one after the death of Terah.
A great man among ours, in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 11, follows Tostatus, but he did not touch that chronological difficulty.
“He said.” This is a Hebraism: the perfect is used for the pluperfect.
“Go out.” In Hebrew: “Go for yourself,” that is, plainly, with all who are yours. A Hebraism: the perfect for the pluperfect—having gone out, not to return—as the Spaniards say: vete de assiento, no boluer yamas (“go decisively, not to return anymore”).
“Your land.” Chaldea, by native soil.
“Your kindred.” Idolaters who touch you by kinship, according to Hebrew usage.
“Your house.” If they wish to remain, leave your brother and even your father himself and your wife.
“Which I will show you.” Which I will point out to you. For this reason Paul commends the faith of Abraham, that he left his homeland though it was unknown to him where he was hastening (Hebrews 11:8). Seek the anagogical sense in St. Augustine, Sermon 51 on Time, and in Cassian, Conference 3, chapters 3, 6, and 10.
Gen 12:2. This benefit which follows God commends by the prophet: “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone and blessed him and multiplied him” (Isaiah 51:2).
Wandering and uncertain pilgrimage is accustomed to hinder the begetting of children, to diminish wealth, to stain reputation, to dissolve friendships—yet against all these things God promises to Abraham, as a reward for obedience to one who is about to wander, first a copious posterity, not only carnal but also spiritual, and in it the Messiah.
“I will make you into a great nation.” That from you a very great nation may arise, equal in number to the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, heaped with riches, honor, and dignity, both of the Law and of the true faith (Deuteronomy 4:7). Finally, I will give that from it there shall be born a Savior, who is at the same time God and man and Lord of the Jews. On these things I agree with Rupert; but lest the more recent Jews grow proud, I note here that they are called גוי גדול (gōy gādōl, “a great nation”), and therefore they foolishly confess their own stupidity when they insult Christians by calling them goyim, as if that meant impious Gentiles.
“I will bless you.” I will give you a son and the goods of fortune, of nature, and of grace. For in Sacred Scripture the blessing of God denotes this.
“And you shall be blessed.” Men bless and curse, and beyond what they do they have no power. I, whatever I will, whatever I pronounce, I accomplish. In Hebrew it is imperative: “Be a blessing,” the imperative used for the future on account of certainty, and the abstract for the concrete, which in blessings is a sign of abundance, and by the abstract of a collection of future goods.
“I will magnify your name.” That through all ages and throughout the whole world it may be so clear and noble. See Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, Book 9. And that your descendants may set you before themselves as a mirror of every virtue and glory that they spring from you. Jews, Saracens, and Christians do this: Christians truly as spiritual sons; Saracens carnally; Jews carnally in truth, but spiritually falsely.
Gen 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you.” I will do good to those who deserve well of you, Abraham. Those who do evil to you I will punish with evils, because they will be either friends or enemies to me who do to you what is proper to a perfect covenant. To this Balaam alludes: “He who blesses you will himself be blessed, and he who curses you will be counted as accursed” (Numbers 24:9). And to teach that those who curse will be fewer than those who bless, in Hebrew you have “him who curses” in the singular.
Tropologically, from here let the powerful of the world note how good it is to have just men as friends and well-wishers, and how evil it is to afflict, oppress, and despise them.
“In you all [the families] shall be blessed,” and so forth.
It is a custom of Sacred Scripture, worthy of observation, to narrate certain promises made to some which are not fulfilled in them but in their descendants, yet are nevertheless promised to them, so that God may signify that He grants these things to the descendants for their sake. In this way, what is given to descendants is given to those whose descendants they are, as to the principle and head of posterity. So also in this place. Likewise Genesis 13:15: “All the land which you see I will give to you and to your seed,” and Genesis 27:29, and Genesis 49 in the blessings of the patriarchs, where many things are of this kind. This custom St. Chrysostom teaches (Homily 8 on Matthew), on that passage: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
With this laid down, the sense is this: “In you all shall be blessed,” that is, as is explained in Genesis 22:18, “in your seed,” which seed, as Paul testifies in Galatians 3:16, is Christ. For through this Abraham was made the spiritual father of all believers.
A great difficulty arises here concerning the time at which this promise was made to Abraham, because St. Paul says (Galatians 3:16) that it was made 430 years before the Law of Moses, which seems to be contradicted by other passages of Sacred Scripture. But since from Paul’s statement the question arises, let us leave that to the proper exposition of the Pauline epistle. Meanwhile Pererius may be read, Tome 3, on chapter 12, Disputation 2.
Let it be established for Christians that in this place it is promised that all mortals shall be blessed through Christ and in the name of Christ. Concerning Christ Peter brings forward: “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first God, raising up His Son, sent Him to bless you,” and so forth (Acts 3). And so St. Augustine, Book 12 Against Faustus, chapter 6.
But the Jews object that in Sacred Scripture to bless or to curse someone in someone often signifies to pray well or ill according to someone’s likeness. I reply: it is often so, but it is also often taken to mean to pray well for another and to obtain benefits for him from God on account of someone. Deuteronomy 10:8: “to bless in His name unto this day.” Isaiah 65:16: “He who is blessed on the earth shall be blessed in the God of Amen.” In the same sense here blessing is promised through Christ and in the name of Christ.
Second, they contend that in Hebrew it is not “they shall be blessed,” but “they shall bless themselves.” From this the sense is that they will mutually wish this blessing for themselves, will congratulate one another, and through the pious use of the new sacraments, as it were, will distribute it, and will also apply it to themselves, if they are adults, by minds, faith, and works.
“All the families of the earth.” From every tribe, tongue, and nation; for in Him all the families of the earth shall be blessed, just as in the former Adam all died, so in the latter all are made alive.
Gen 12:4. The pilgrimage of Abraham through the whole of Canaan is set forth, after which, leaving his parent in Haran, he first went out.
“As the Lord had commanded.”
He omitted nothing, he changed nothing; he fulfilled the command of God exactly to the rule, and therefore Chrysostom here (Homily 31) and Gregory on Ezekiel (Homily 15) set him before us as a type of obedience.
CONTINUE
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