Father Cornelius a Lapide's Commentary on Genesis 22:1-18
"The Sacrifice of Abraham"
Gen 22:1: "After these things, God tested Abraham"
God tested Abraham by presenting matter for heroic obedience, to this end: that He might reveal, sharpen, perfect, and finally crown the virtue latent in his soul. The devil, however, tempts by presenting allurements, to this end: that he might drag man into sin and the hell of evils. "God is not a tempter of evils" (James 1:13); for He tempts no one to sin and ruin.
Seneca also perceived this through a shadow: in his book On Providence, he says: "God, like a strict father, educates good men as his sons more harshly," and adds: "Through hard works, sorrows, and losses they gather strength; virtue withers without an adversary, and is sharpened by his presence; and among adversities it remains in its own state, and whatever it draws into its own color—as the sea [draws in] rivers. Behold a spectacle worthy of God: a brave man matched with ill fortune! Worthy of God! Fortune, like a most brave gladiator, seeks opponents equal to herself; others she passes over with disdain. She tests fire in Mucius, poverty in Fabricius, exile in Rutilius, torture in Regulus, poison in Socrates, death in Cato."
Far more does our God test fire in Lawrence, beasts in Ignatius, stones in Stephen, the rack in Vincent, wheels in Catherine, the sword in Dorothea.
Seneca continues: "Most dangerous is the intemperance of prosperity. Great men sometimes rejoice in adversities, no otherwise than brave soldiers in wars. You recognize the helmsman in a storm, the soldier in battle. The gods follow this reason with good men, as teachers with their disciples, who demand more labor from those in whom there is more certain hope of instruction. This is God's purpose: to show the wise man that what the crowd desires, what it fears, are neither good nor evil; therefore He presents them to both good and bad men. They are not evils except to one who bears them badly. What is the part of a good man? To offer himself to fate. It is a great solace to God when, while all things are being snatched away, He has removed from him all evils—that is, crimes. Those who endure are born as an example. God extends [His power] beyond patience; above patience are the gods."
The Hebrews note that Abraham was tested ten times:
When he was commanded to leave his homeland and go as a pilgrim into an unknown land.
When, because of famine, he was commanded to sojourn in Egypt.
When his wife was taken from him by Pharaoh, and he himself underwent danger to his life, his wife to her chastity.
When, because of quarrels among the servants, he was compelled to separate from Lot, whom he had raised and loved as a son.
When he most bravely defeated four kings to free Lot, who had been captured.
When Hagar, whom he had taken as a wife and who was now pregnant by him, at Sarah's urging he cast out of the house.
When, as an old man, he was commanded to be circumcised.
When his wife was again taken from him by King Abimelech.
When again, first at Sarah's instigation, then by God's command, he cast out his wife Hagar and son Ishmael from the house.
When he was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac—and this was the gravest of all; therefore Moses alone calls this a "testing."
"And He said to him": at night, through a vision, as is clear from verse 3.
"Here I am": Hebrew hinneni (הִנֵּנִי)—"Behold, I," that is, "I, your servant, am present in body and soul, ready to obey you; I commit myself and all that is mine to your command. What, therefore, do you ask of me?"
Gen 22:2: "Take your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac..."
The Hebrew words sting and stimulate Abraham's soul more sharply, for they read: "Take now your son, your only one, whom you have loved, Isaac, and..." The Septuagint: "Take your beloved one, whom you have loved, that Isaac." Here, as many words, so many goads, so many temptations:
"Take", He says—not oxen, not servants, but your son.
"And that your only one": if you had many, you could easily give one from many; but now you have an only-begotten, and him I demand to be immolated to Me.
"Whom you love"—Hebrew: "whom you have loved," that is, continuously, up to this point, without any cessation of love; both because Isaac was of sweetest character, most reverent and obedient to his father, and because his father had begotten him in old age through a miracle, and through Isaac had been promised to Abraham the greatest posterity and all blessing—and Christ Himself, through whom he hoped for eternal life. Therefore, by offering his son, Abraham was simultaneously offering to God all his hopes and all the good things promised to himself.
"Isaac": O give me your Isaac, your laughter, your joy, your heart's delight! This name wounded and pierced the father's ears and soul; for now he was to be not Isaac ("laughter") but Abel ("mourning"), not Benjamin but Be-non-i ("son of sorrow"), not laughter but lamentation. See Origen, Homily 8.
"And offer him": He does not say "Give him to be offered," but "You, with your own hands, will slaughter, burn, immolate him."
"To Me": for this is understood here. Abraham knew that God detested human victims; he knew that in Isaac, seed and all good things had been promised to himself. Could he not therefore say: "How then, O Lord, as if forgetful or repentant of all these things, do You order that my—and Your—Isaac be slain and immolated?"
"As a burnt offering": so that neither the body nor any part of the body be left to the father, but the whole be reduced to ashes and, as it were, annihilated.
"Now": not tomorrow, not in the morning, but now—this night, this hour.
Behold in how many and what great ways Abraham was tested! See what a palm of obedience he won! See with what lofty and constant spirit he swallowed and overcame all these things, so that you may rightly say of him what King Pyrrhus said of the Roman Fabricius: "It is easier to turn the sun from its course than Fabricius from his purpose."
Hence see his promptness and speed: for that very night he obeyed and went out to immolate Isaac.
St. Augustine (Sermon 72 de tempore) and St. Ephrem on Abraham excellently examine and weigh this entire chapter.
"Your only-begotten": Because Isaac alone was the son of the promise, begotten by miracle, uniquely loved by Abraham, heir and propagator of his line and family. For Ishmael, already cast out from Abraham's house as if disinherited, is not reckoned as Abraham's son.
Abraham was imitated by the mother of the Maccabees before Antiochus, who offered her seven sons to death and encouraged them to martyrdom. The same was done by Sts. Felicity and Symphorosa, and other mothers—and above all that woman whom Prudentius mentions in his hymn on St. Romanus the Martyr: when she saw her little son, for the faith of Christ, being most cruelly scourged with whips at Antioch by the Prefect Asclepiades, she watched steadfastly without weeping; indeed, when her little son asked for a drink of water, she rebuked him, saying: "Wait for the chalice which the infants slain at Bethlehem once drank, forgetful of milk and breasts. Look upon Isaac, who, when he was about to be immolated and saw the altar and sword, willingly offered his neck. Meanwhile the executioner tears away the skin with the hair from the crown of his head. The mother cries out: 'Endure, son; for soon you will go to Him who, with royal dignity, will clothe your head, now bared in contempt, with a diadem.' The joyful boy laughs at the rods and the pains of the wounds. He is condemned; he is led with the Roman to punishment. They came to the place of execution; the executioner demands the boy, whom the mother had carried outside in her embrace; she gives him—delaying nothing beyond a kiss—and says: 'Go, sweetest son.' While the executioner strikes the neck with the sword, she sings: 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Behold Your servant and the son of Your handmaid.' When she had said this, she receives the severed head of the boy on an unfolded cloak and presses it to her breast. Then the Roman is cast into the fire, but a rain that arose extinguished it. The executioner cuts out the Roman's tongue; nevertheless he still speaks Christ. 'To one speaking,' he says, 'the tongue never failed.' Therefore the Prefect ordered him to be dragged to prison and strangled."
"To the land of Vision": Hebrew: "Go to the land of Moriyah" (מֹרִיָּה), which afterward was called Moriah by Abraham (v. 14). Mount Moriah is Mount Zion, on which Solomon built the temple.
Note on "Moriah":
With Oleaster, it may be derived from the root marar ("to be bitter") or mor ("myrrh"), because Mount Moriah is fertile in myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon; or rather because this mountain was bitter both to Abraham as he immolated and to the son being immolated. Whence Pagninus, and from him our Barradius (tom. 2, lib. 3, c. 11), says: "Moriah is said as if mori-iah—'my myrrh is God.'"
Moriah may be derived from the root yare ("to fear"), because on this mountain the Lord ought afterward to be worshiped and, as it were, feared and adored as present; whence the Chaldee translates: "Go to the land of divine worship."
Moriah may be derived from the root yarah ("to teach"), so that Torah ("law" and "doctrine") would go forth from Moriah (Isaiah 2:3).
Best of all: Our author, with Symmachus, derives Moriah from the root ra'ah ("to see") and translates "land" or "mountain of vision":
First, because this place was high and conspicuous, so that it could be seen from afar (thus Villalpando, On the Temple, Bk. 3, c. 5).
Second, because on Zion and Moriah the Prophets received visions, and there Christ, visible as man, appeared (Baruch 3).
Third and best: because God showed this mountain Moriah to Abraham (v. 4), and there He was seen by him; and Abraham saw and was regarded by God with His eyes and regard—both of mercy, when He forbade the son to be immolated, and of beneficence, when He most abundantly rewarded so great obedience of Abraham (see v. 14).
Barradius (loc. cit.) says Moriah is spoken as if more-yah—"teaching God" or "rain of God."
Note further, from Diodorus of Tarsus: Mount Moriah was divided into several hills and small mountains. In one part of Mount Moriah was Zion, on which was the citadel of David; near it, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite—purchased by David—Solomon built the temple, as is clear from 2 Chronicles 3:1. Later that part was called Mount Calvary, on which both Isaac and Christ (signified through Isaac) were immolated, as St. Jerome and St. Augustine teach (Bk. 16, City of God, c. 31), where Jerome says: "A presbyter wrote that he had most certainly learned from the elders of the Jews that Isaac was immolated there, and Adam buried, where afterward Christ was crucified."
Thus Burchard in his Description of the Holy Land, and Genebrard in Bk. 1 of his Chronography, assert that in the same tract of the mountain there are three hills or mountains, which are sometimes called by the one name "Zion," sometimes receive particular names:
The first is Zion, so called on account of its height (for "Zion" signifies "watchtower").
The second is Moriah.
The third is the Mount of Calvary.
On Zion was the City of David and the citadel; on Moriah, the temple; on Mount Calvary, Christ was raised on the cross.
Some Hebrews add that Abel and Cain sacrificed on Moriah, likewise Noah immediately after the flood; but they assert these things rashly and without foundation.
Abraham, therefore, here by his sacrifice, as it were, initiated and consecrated Mount Moriah for the temple of his posterity and of Christ, and likewise Mount Calvary for the altar of Christ.
Note further: For "Moriah," Aquila translates kataphanē ("lucid"), because on Moriah was the temple, in which was the debir ("oracle of God") and the Law and Holy Spirit, teaching men the truth, enlightening the Prophets, and inspiring oracles in them (thus St. Jerome).
Allegorically: Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified, was Mount Moriah according to the five etymologies already given:
On account of the bitterness of the cross.
On account of the burnt offering which Christ there offered to the Father.
Because there He confirmed the Evangelical Law by His death.
It was the "land of vision," because on it Christ crucified exhibited an admirable spectacle to earth and heaven.
Because there God taught us from the cathedra of the cross the way to heaven; for, as St. Augustine says (Tractate 119 on John): "That wood on which the limbs of the dying One were fixed was the cathedra of the Master teaching."
Again, Mount Calvary was Moriah—that is, "rain of God"—because the rain of God's blood was poured out upon it. Finally, it was Moriah—that is, "lucid" and "enlightening"—because Christ illuminated all men with the rays of His cross. Wherefore, when the sun saw another Sun on the cross illuminating the world, it rightly withdrew its rays.
Secondly, Moriah is the Church:
Because it teaches us to bear the cross of Christ, and by the holy Sacraments, as by a certain myrrh, preserves us from the putrefaction of sin.
Because in it is the fear of God and His true worship.
Because it teaches the law and word of Christ.
It is the "land of vision," because from it alone, through true faith, invisible things and the things that are in heaven are seen. Again, because it is entirely visible; for, as Isaiah says (c. 2), it is "a mountain on the top of mountains." Moreover, it has "seers"—that is, Prophets.
It has the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, who teaches it all truth. Again, the Church, by the word of God and sacred sermons, as by heavenly rain, waters the parched hearts of men. Finally, it is an enlightening mountain, because just as heaven has the sun, so the Church has Christ, illuminating the whole world.
Thirdly, Moriah is the Blessed Virgin, in whose womb the temple—that is, the humanity of Christ—was built:
Because the Blessed Virgin in Christ's Passion was a sea of bitterness.
Because she offered both Christ and herself to God as a perpetual burnt offering.
Because she was the Ark of the Covenant, containing the Law of God.
She was the "land of vision": for what is more worthy to be seen than the Virgin Mother of God? Again, for "Moriah" the Septuagint translate "exalted land"; thus nothing was more exalted than Mary, except God.
Because she was the instructress of the Apostles after Christ's death. Again, just as Gideon's fleece received the heavenly dew of grace and the rain of the Holy Spirit most copiously, so did she. Finally, Mary is the Star of the Sea and the woman clothed with the sun, who illuminates the whole world.
Morally: In the "land of vision" Isaac, the type of Christ, was offered. Would that, therefore, the Christian soul be a land not of oblivion but of vision! Would that she always have before her eyes, moist with tears, her Isaac hanging from the cross! Would that, as He inscribed her with His blood in His hands, she inscribe Him in her heart by perpetual memory (Isaiah 49: "Behold, I have graven you on the palms of My hands")! Would that in this land of vision the true Isaac always be seen by holy thought! Would that He always be immolated by holy meditation, demanding and saying (Song of Songs 8): "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm!"—that is, just as a signet ring impresses its figure on wax, so Christ crucified may imprint His cross, His sorrows, and His love on your heart, according to that saying of St. Augustine (On Holy Virginity, c. 55): "He is wholly figured in the heart who for your sake was fixed on the cross."
Gen 22:3: "So Abraham rose early in the morning..."
"Abraham rose early in the morning": at night, at the very dawn, in the twilight before light. The Hebrew reads: "Abraham rose early."
No mention is made here of Sarah; whence it seems that Abraham did all these things without her knowledge—as one who too tenderly loved her Isaac. Thus Josephus, St. Chrysostom, and Pererius. St. Augustine, however (Sermon 73), Nyssen, and Procopius think that Sarah was aware of and consented to the immolation of her son.
Gen 22:4: "On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off."
"On the third day": Abraham was dwelling in Gerar, says St. Jerome; from there to Zion and Moriah is a journey of three days. Understand "Gerar" not as the city but as the region. For, as Abulensis rightly sees, Abraham seems then to have been dwelling in Beersheba, as is gathered from the preceding chapter, v. 31; whence also after the immolation he returned to Beersheba, as is clear from this chapter, v. 19. For although from Beersheba to Zion is only a journey of one day, nevertheless Abraham, because he was laden with things necessary for the sacrifice, proceeded so slowly that only on the third day did he arrive at Zion and Moriah; and in this sense St. Jerome said it was a three-day journey.
This three days increased Abraham's testing; for, as Origen says: "Abraham walks for three days, that throughout the whole way he may be torn by thoughts—on the one hand the command urging, on the other his son resisting; that through all these spaces they may receive the opportunity of combat: on one side affection, on the other faith; on one side love of God, on the other love of the flesh; on one side the grace of present things, on the other the expectation of future things. Abraham is also commanded to ascend the mountain—that is, heavenly things—so that the height of the place might signify the sublimity of faith and obedience in acting."
Hence also Theodoret says that Abraham in this testing was, as it were, in agony and death for three days and nights, just as Christ was for three days—partly on the cross and in passion, partly in death, the sepulchre, and hell.
"He saw the place": From some sign given by God, he recognized where and on which hill of Mount Moriah he ought precisely to immolate his Isaac. The Rabbis, whom Abulensis follows, hand down that this sign was a column of fire appearing on the summit of Mount Moriah, around the hill of Calvary.
Gen 22:5: "Abraham said to his young men: 'Stay here with the donkey...'"
"After we have worshiped": after we have sacrificed. There is a metalepsis: for worship is usually joined to sacrifice.
"We will return to you":
Melchior Canus (Bk. 2, On Places, c. 4) holds that Abraham here lied, for he thought that he himself would kill and immolate his Isaac.
Secondly, Cajetan: "We will return"—that is, according to the ordinary course of natural causes; for supernatural things are excepted.
Thirdly, others: "We will return"—that is, if life accompanies us, if God wills.
Fourthly, Thomas Anglicus: "We will return"—that is, "I will return," not Isaac; so that the plural is put for the singular.
But I say: Abraham asserts that he will return with Isaac because he was certain and firmly believed that God would either free Isaac from death or, if slain and immolated, would raise him again. For from Isaac he expected the blessed seed and the greatest posterity; for this God had promised him. And this is what the Apostle says: Abraham, "against hope, believed in hope" of grace and divine promise, "considering that God is able to raise up even from the dead" (Hebrews 11:19). Thus Origen and St. Augustine (Bk. 16, City of God, c. 32) and others.
See here Abraham's blind but lofty faith, hope, and obedience, to which nothing is arduous, nothing impossible, nothing incredible.
Gen 22:6: "Abraham also took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son."
So that he might be a type of Christ carrying the cross. Thus Prosper, Part 1, Predictions, cc. 17-18.
Isaac was then at least 25 years old, says Josephus; Abraham 125; Sarah 115. The Hebrews, however, hand down that Isaac was 37 years old.
Aben Ezra and Burgensis err in saying that Isaac was only 12 years old. For how could a twelve-year-old boy have carried for three days such a pile of wood as was required to burn him as a burnt offering? And how could Abraham have had to cut and add wood from neighboring places to reduce him to ashes?
Gen 22:7: "...Isaac said to Abraham his father: 'My father!'"
"Fire and a sword": The sword for slaying his son; the fire for burning him as a victim and burnt offering to God.
Tropologically: The sword is mortification; the fire is charity, by which Abraham immolated his son—and by which we ought to immolate to God our affections, passions, sorrows, crosses, and all that is ours.
"Where is the victim?": This conversation with his son wonderfully wounded Abraham's soul again, and caused the wound inflicted by God to become fresh.
Gen 22:9: "...and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar..."
"And when he had bound Isaac": See Josephus, who narrates how Abraham first declared to his son God's will concerning his immolation; how the boy answered cheerfully that he owed his life to God the Giver, and would now gladly return it to Him who asked it back.
Why then did the father bind him?
Reply:
Lest, if he wished to draw back, he could. Therefore Isaac most fully gives to God both his will and his power. "The father," says St. Ambrose, "binds his son's hands with his own, lest the son, by fleeing and being burned by the violence of the fire, incur sin."
Lest he produce in the very slaying some natural, unseemly, disordered, and involuntary movement or resistance, unbecoming to the sacrifice. Thus Cajetan.
That he might be a type of Christ fastened to the cross with nails.
Tropologically: Thus Religious bind and constrain themselves to God through vows, and offer to Him their will and power.
Gen 22:10: "Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son."
"He took the knife": Abraham would have preferred to die and be immolated himself rather than to immolate his son; for naturally fathers desire sons to survive them, because through them the father's line and family is propagated, so that by the son's death they feel not only themselves but also the hope of their posterity to die and be extinguished.
The bitterness of the matter was increased by the fact that he himself had placed on his son's shoulders the wood by which he was to be burned; that he carried in his own hands the fire and sword with which to slay his son; that he himself built the altar and arranged the wood upon it, and placed upon it his son, bound hand and foot; and that, with great spirit, raising his right hand, he brandished the sword over his neck—and this with joyful and dry eyes. For no tears of his are read, no groans, no turning away of his face.
Thus, by the example of Abraham, says St. Ambrose (Bk. 1, On Abraham, c. 8): "How many fathers, having slain their sons in martyrdom, returned more joyful from their tombs!"
Abbot Mucius, at Cassian (Bk. 4, cc. 27-28), imitated this obedience of Abraham: by command of his elder, he was willing to cast his own eight-year-old son into a rushing river. "Whose faith and devotion," says Cassian, "was so acceptable to God that it was immediately confirmed by divine testimony. For it was immediately revealed to the elder that with this obedience he had fulfilled the work of the patriarch Abraham."
Note here: This example of Mucius is more admirable than imitable; for it exceeds the ordinary laws of obedience and prudence. For a man cannot command the death of himself or his own, as God can, who is Lord of life and death; and consequently a subject cannot obey a man commanding such a thing. Therefore Mucius here, blinded by ardor of obedience, committed and submitted all his judgment concerning the quality and outcome of the deed to his elder, whom he knew to be a prudent and holy man; and by this act and endeavor of his he wished to show only prompt obedience and mortification of paternal affection toward his offspring by casting him away—not, however, did he intend to drown him. For he knew that the whole matter and his offspring were a care to the elder, nor did he doubt that he would take care that, his obedience and mortification of paternal affection having been tested, he would so dispose concerning the effect and all other things that not only sin would be excluded both in commanding and in obeying, but also that provision would be made for the offspring. For the elder could revoke the command in the very journey, or station some by the river who would prevent the casting of the offspring into it—or by other means prevent the offspring's death. Therefore Mucius resigned this whole business to the prudence and providence of the elder commanding him. Prudence is required not so much in the one obeying as in the one commanding.
Question: Whose virtue was greater—that of Abraham immolating, or of Isaac being immolated? St. Chrysostom marvels at the virtue of both and knows not whom to prefer. Hear him (Homily 48 on Genesis):
"O religious soul! O brave mind! O strength of spirit! O reason conquering every affection of human nature! Shall I admire the strong spirit of the patriarch, or the constant obedience of the boy—who neither resisted nor took the deed badly, but yielded and obeyed what was being done by the father, and like a lamb in silence lay down upon the altar, awaiting the father's right hand?"
Hear also Zeno, Bishop of Verona, in Lipoman:
"Wonderful," he says, "is the patriarch's testing, which would have made him either sacrilegious if he despised God, or cruel if he slew his son—unless by a certain singular and truly divine patience he had tempered the matter between religion and piety, not denying to God in hope what he had received from God against hope. Therefore he despises Isaac, his sweetest son, as a victim sweeter to God. He prepares to slay, that he may not slay; secure that he cannot displease by a deed which is done with God as author. O new spectacle, and truly worthy of God, in which it is difficult to decide whether the priest or the victim is more patient! The color of neither striker nor struck varies; limbs do not tremble with quaking; eyes are neither downcast nor fierce; no one begs, no one trembles, no one excuses himself, no one is disturbed."
And then, comparing them with each other and opposing the acts of one to the acts of the other, he says: "One draws forth the sword, the other offers his neck. With one vow, one devotion, what is being celebrated by the one is carefully and patiently carried out by the other, lest anything profane occur. One carries for himself the wood by which he is to be burned; the other builds the altar. Under so great a fear—not to say of humanity, but of nature itself—affection yields to piety, piety favors religion; religion is in the middle of both; the sword, suspended with no impediment, astonishes; it has shown glory, not crime, to the terrible slaughter. What is this? Behold, savagery passes into faith, and crime into sacrament; the parricide returns unbloody, and he who was immolated lives. Therefore both are an example of glory and brightness; both, the worship of God, an admirable testimony of power. The world would be happy if all thus became parricides!"
For Isaac stand these reasons:
That it is of greater strength to undergo death for God than to inflict it on others; for Martyrs are stronger than soldiers. But Isaac was here truly a Martyr, because for an act of virtue—namely, that he might obey God—he offered himself to certain death. For the father extended the sword against him, and would have dealt him a lethal blow had not God averted it. For thus St. John the Evangelist, Daniel, and others are truly Martyrs, because they were exposed to boiling oil, lions, etc., even though they were not harmed by them, God protecting them. For on their part, they had to die naturally and necessarily from the torment. That God preserved them in life by a miracle detracts nothing from the nature of things, nor from their virtue or martyrdom.
Abraham grieved in soul only; but Isaac offered himself to torments and death of both soul and body.
Foreseen weapons wound less. Abraham prepared his soul for his son's immolation throughout the three days of the journey; but Isaac, on the very altar, thinking of nothing less, was suddenly asked by his father for immolation, and immediately offered himself cheerfully. For, as Aristotle teaches (Bk. 3, Ethics, c. 8), it seems more the part of a brave man to be fearless in sudden terrors than in foreseen ones.
Isaac was 25 years old, in the flower of his age, hoping still to live a hundred years and to have much offspring and family—all of which, by offering himself to death for love of God, he cut off, and abruptly broke off all his hopes. For this reason death is most bitter to youths, but more tolerable to the old.
Isaac was willing to be bound by his father, ascended the altar, offered his neck, and most certainly awaited the blow.
But I say, with Pererius, Abraham's virtue was greater:
Because Abraham loved the life of his son Isaac more than his own, and more than he loved his own life—and this:
First, because Isaac was only-begotten by his most beloved wife.
Second, because Isaac was most loving and obedient to him.
Third, because in his old age he had begotten him by a great miracle.
Fourth, because Isaac was most holy.
Fifth, because in the life of Isaac alone rested all the promises of God given to him.
Because Abraham was tortured for the whole three days by thought and planning of a most atrocious deed; but Isaac only for a moment, at the very instant of immolation. Therefore, although with respect to foresight (as I said above) his testing was lesser, nevertheless with respect to duration Abraham's testing and tribulation was greater.
Because Abraham had the greatest temptations concerning faith, in that the promises of God made to him seemed to be utterly abolished by Isaac's death; indeed, the Hebrews hand down that then the devil appeared in the form of an angel, and deterred him with most grave words from immolating, as from a most cruel thing and contrary to God's will—and to this some adapt those words of Paul (Hebrews 11): "By faith Abraham offered his first-born Isaac, when he was tested"—that is, by the devil, they say.
It was more atrocious for a father to slay a son than to be slain; for the latter, slain by one blow, would have drunk death as it were in a point; but Abraham would have had long and manifold sorrow: first, in slaying his son; second, in cutting him limb from limb according to sacrificial rite; then in burning him and reducing him to ashes without any relics of his; and finally, in perpetually recalling to memory that he had immolated and lost such a son.
Whence God Himself commends not Isaac's but Abraham's obedience, and on account of it promises that He will bless Isaac (Genesis 26:3).
"The divine voice," says St. Ambrose, "in a way held back his hand, and intercepted the blow of his vibrating right hand."
Gen 22:11: "And behold, the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven..."
"Abraham, Abraham": St. Ambrose (Bk. 1, On Abraham, c. 8) gives three causes of this iteration:
"The divine voice," he says, "in a way held back his hand, and intercepted the blow of his vibrating right hand. He did not call only once: First, lest either he not hear fully, or think it a chance voice. Second, He thus recalled him as He had commanded in verse 1. Third, He repeated the voice, as if fearing lest he be anticipated by zeal of devotion, and one voice could not recall the impulse of the one striking."
Gen 22:12: "Do not lay your hand on the boy..."
"Do not extend your hand": "I did not command this," says St. Chrysostom (Homily 47), "that the work be completed, nor do I wish that your boy be slain; but that your obedience be made manifest to all. Therefore, that nothing be done to him... I am content with your will, and by this I both know you and proclaim you."
Thus God often acts with us: He commands and asks a difficult deed; but when He sees an obedient will, content with that, He inhibits the execution.
Whence the same Father (Homily 49) says of the Patriarch:
"The patriarch became the priest of the boy, and indeed stained his right hand by his purpose and offered sacrifice; but by the ineffable mercy of God, with his son received safe and sound, he returned, and for the sake of his will he is proclaimed and crowned with a shining crown, and contended in the highest contest, and declared the piety of his mind in all things."
Behold how God sometimes brings or permits His own to be brought to extremes and to the rope, that they may confer and transfer all their hope and will into God and God's help and will—and then, in that very article of extreme necessity and on the threshold of death, He is present and succors. Animated by this faith and hope to the end, Abraham offered Isaac, as the Apostle says (Hebrews 11:19): "Considering that God is able to raise up even from the dead; whence also he received him in a figure"—that is, so that Isaac might be a parabola, a story, a memorable example for all ages, which men of all ages might remember and celebrate, and propose to themselves for imitation: so that, when God commands something difficult through Himself or through His own, however arduous and difficult, having the example of Isaac before our eyes, we may generously offer ourselves and undertake the thing commanded, certain that God will be present to unfold entangled things, overcome difficult things, turn to our good, praise, and glory all ignominy, infirmities, miseries, deaths, and all evils that we fear—as He did for Isaac.
The memory of this immolation was celebrated by most ancient images of all nations. Gregory of Nyssa, cited in the Second Council of Nicaea (Act 4, Canon 2), is a witness:
"I have often," he says, "seen a depiction of this immolation of Isaac; I could not pass by without tears, when it so effectively and vividly placed the history of that deed before my eyes."
If therefore you are tested—if God commands something through Himself or His own, however arduous—and if you despise it, you grieve, you grow weak, you are saddened, you are defamed, you are mortified, you are tormented, indeed you are hanged, burned: imitate [Isaac]. "It is a little thing: think of eternity." Armed with this thought, faithful and brave [believers] have overcome all love of parents, of their flesh, indeed even torments and deaths. Thus Liberatus the Abbot, Boniface, Rusticus, and others, solicited by the Vandals to Arianism: "It is a thing of a moment," they said, "to suffer temporary punishments rather than eternal torments." He ordered them, placed on a ship, to be burned in the sea; they sang confidently: "Glory to God in the highest; now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." When the fire was kindled, it was often extinguished; therefore, struck with shame, the king ordered them to be killed with the handles of oars. Thus Victor of Utica (Bk. 4, Persecution of the Vandals).
Again, witness St. Thomas More, who conquered his wife's love—as Abraham did that of his son.
Note here further: One truly obedient, such as Isaac was, cannot die. Climacus (Step 4, On Obedience) relates that Achatius, wonderfully exercised in obedience, after death was called forth from the tomb by a certain elder, and when asked whether he was dead, answered: "An obedient man [is not dead]."
"Now I know":
"That is, I have made you known," says St. Augustine (Questions), and Gregory (Bk. 12, Moralia, c. 7).
Second: "Now I know"—that is, "Now through that deed of yours I have made [it] manifest and evidently knowable" (Pererius).
Third and most plainly: "Now I know"—that is, by experience; as if: "Now I have experienced in fact." God here speaks in the manner of men, who think they know perfectly a thing whose trial they have made.
"That you fear God": that you love, worship, reverence God, and in all things obey and strive to please Him. All these things the fear of God embraces; and so the fear of the saints, filial fear, is nothing other than the love, worship, and honor of God.
Gen 22:13: "Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns..."
"A ram caught in a thicket by his horns": This was a true ram, brought from somewhere by an angel, and caught in the thicket—or, as in Hebrew, "in the interweaving of thickets and branches"—lest he escape Abraham, but be at hand for the one about to immolate.
The Hebrews hand down that these things happened on the first day of the seventh month, which is called Tishri; and that from that day the Jews celebrate the feast of Trumpets, because they then sounded with rams' horns in memory of Isaac freed and the ram substituted for him.
Allegorically: Just as a ram [was offered] for Isaac, so Christ was immolated for us, says St. Augustine (Bk. 16, City of God, c. 32).
Secondly, St. Ambrose and Cyril: a ram for Isaac—that is, for the immolated [Isaac]—is the humanity of Christ.
Anagogically: To Isaac succeeds the ram—that is, to passion succeeds resurrection, to infirmity strength, to death immortality, says Theodoret.
Again, this ram, caught and suspended by his horns in the thicket, signifies Christ suspended on the cross, says Ambrose, who adds that Abraham here saw the day of Christ's immolation and passion. And this is what Christ says (John 8:56): "Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day, and he saw and was glad"; and from this that place was called "The Lord will see" or "will appear," as follows.
The Septuagint, retaining the Hebrew word Sabec as if it were the proper name of a certain tree, translate: "And behold, one ram detained by the horns in the tree Sabec"; or, as Procopius reads from the Syriac translation: "And behold, one ram hanging in the tree Sabec"; and he says that that ram appeared in the manner of one ascending into the tree Sabec, and that it clung to the branches of that tree not only by the horns but also by the front feet; and by that figure it showed Christ ascending the tree of the cross, hanging on it, affixed to it, suspended with nails. "By the horns [it showed] the ram; that shrub is the gibbet of the cross." These are Ambrose's words.
St. Athanasius also noted (Bk. 1, Questions to Antiochus, q. 98) that it pertains also to the mystery that Sabec is interpreted "remission" or "pardon," which Christ merited for us through the cross:
"The plant Sabec," he says, "is the venerable cross. According to the Hebrews, Sabec seems to be remission and pardon; but the ram, which was clinging to Sabec—to the plant—which Abraham offered as a burnt offering for Isaac, figured Christ immolated for us on the cross."
Fourthly, many have subtly observed—among whom is Leo a Castro (Bk. 6, Apology, and on Isaiah 29)—that when Christ on the cross said, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani," He alluded to that same plant Sabec, to indicate that He is that ram hanging and suspended from the tree Sabec—that is, on the cross—which the Lord long ago showed to Abraham under the type of another ram hanging from the plant Sabec; and that therefore He used that word sabachthani rather than another, so that by the name itself He might recall to the faithful's memory that plant Sabec from which that other ram had hung, and show that He was then most fully fulfilling that figure. For the word sabachthani seems inflected from the name Sabec, although it also has its own Syriac root sebaq ("to leave").
Gen 22:14: "So Abraham called the name of that place 'The Lord will see'..."
"And Abraham called the name of that place 'The Lord will see'": that is, Abraham gave to this place, in which he immolated his son, this name—namely, Adonai yireh (יִרְאֶה יְהוָה), that is, "The Lord will see" or "sees"; and this from the fact that he himself had answered his son asking about the victim (v. 8): Adonai yireh—"The Lord will see" or "will provide" for the victim. Thus Vatable, Lipoman, Oleaster, Pererius, and others.
From the word yireh ("He will see") was made the name Moriah—that is, "vision"; whence this mountain was called Moriah, that is, "of vision," as is clear from v. 2 in the Hebrew. Therefore Moriah is the same as Adonai yireh—"The Lord will see."
Again, from yireh and the ancient name Salem (for thus Jerusalem was formerly called, as is clear from Genesis 14:18) was compounded the name Jerusalem; for Moriah was in Jerusalem. Thus Andrew Masius on Joshua 10.
Secondly, St. Augustine (Bk. 16, City of God, c. 32): "This place," he says, "is called 'God sees'—that is, 'God caused Himself to be seen,' when He appeared to Abraham through the angel" (v. 11).
Thirdly, the Hebrews, the Chaldee, and Pererius: "This mountain," they say, "was called 'The Lord sees' because the Lord on this mountain saw the affliction, obedience, and sacrifice of Abraham, accepted it, and provided for the afflicted Abraham through the angel stopping Abraham's sword, and through the ram substituted for Isaac."
Fourthly, this mountain is called "The Lord sees" because on this mountain was to be built the temple, in which God would see and hear the vows of suppliants. Whence the Chaldee thinks that Abraham by this immolation destined Mount Moriah—that is, Zion—for the temple, and foretold that it would be built there. For thus the Chaldee has it:
"And Abraham said before the Lord: 'Here the generations will serve God.' Therefore it was said on that day: 'On this mountain Abraham immolated before God.' Whence even to this day it is said..."
"As it is said to this day: 'On the mount of the Lord it shall be seen'": understand: "to which the name is 'The Lord will see'"; understand: "this thing was done or became." For when men narrate something that happened or was done on Mount Zion or on Moriah, they say that it was done "on the mount whose name is 'The Lord will see'"—that is: "Even now at this time, when I Moses write these things, this mountain is called from that time 'The Lord sees' or 'will see,' because in the same place Abraham immolated to God, saying: 'The Lord will see' or 'will provide for Himself a victim, my son'; and because in the same place God was seen by Abraham," as the Septuagint translate, "when He appeared to him through the angel."
Secondly: "As it is said to this day..."—that is: "By this saying of Abraham, 'The Lord will see and provide,' we use a proverb when, placed in difficulties, we hope for and invoke God's help. For we hope that, just as on this Mount Moriah the Lord saw both the affliction and the piety and obedience of Abraham and Isaac, and had mercy on them, so likewise He will see, regard, hear, and free us and our posterity—especially praying on this same mountain and in this temple of Moriah—in any affliction." Thus St. Jerome, Cajetan, and Pererius.
The same proverb is to be used by Christians: that in every tribulation they may betake themselves to Mount Moriah, to the temple, to the mount of hope and prayer, and say: "The Lord will see and provide for every necessity of mine." Thus St. Gordius the Martyr, relying on hope in God, offered himself to the Prefect and to torments. He orders whips, wheels, racks, and every kind of torments to be prepared. Gordius, lifting his eyes to heaven, pronounced that [verse] of the psalm: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me"; and: "I will not fear evils, for You are with me." Then of his own accord he provokes [them], and if any delays intervene, he rebukes [them]; and finally, with cheerful countenance, he willingly cast himself into the punishment of fire. Thus St. Basil, Sermon on Gordius.
Note: For yireh ("He will see"), the Hebrews now read with different vowel points yera'eh (יֵרָאֶה)—"He will be seen"—as if to say: "Whence even to this day it is said: 'On the mount the Lord will be seen'"—that is, "will appear and succor." But it comes to the same sense; for when God sees us, then He is likewise seen by us.
Truly, St. Ambrose, Eucherius, Vatable, and Lipoman thus expound, as if this were a prophecy concerning Christ: that "On the mount the Lord will be seen"—that is, Christ the Lord will appear on this mountain and temple of Zion when He preaches in it, and on Mount Calvary when He is crucified on it; whence also the Septuagint translate: "On the mount the Lord was seen."
Gen 22:15-18: The Angel Calls a Second Time; God's Oath and Promises
"And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time": Because first He called him when He forbade him to immolate his son (v. 11).
Origen understands by this angel the Son of God:
"The Son of God," he says, "just as among men He was found a man in appearance, so here among angels He was found an angel in appearance—not as if He had assumed angelic nature, but because He undertook here the office of an angel, which is to announce the will of God."
But the Fathers commonly teach the contrary: namely, that this angel was an angel, not the Son of God. For it is clear from what follows that he speaks as God's legate and utters God's words as if he were God's herald; therefore he was an angel, not the Son of God.
"Because you have done this thing": From this it seems that Abraham by this his obedience and the sacrifice of his son merited, among other things—at least de congruo—that from his line, rather than from another, indeed from Isaac himself, Christ would be born; and consequently Isaac merited the same. For this is [the reward] of obedience, which God immediately adds, saying: "In your seed all nations of the earth shall be blessed." Thus Pererius.
See what it is to obey God! See how pleasing, how meritorious before God is obedience!
St. Jerome (or whoever is the author of the letter On Circumcision) says excellently: "When he does not spare his only son, he is commanded to number the stars of heaven for sons." Why the seed of Abraham is compared to the stars, I have said on Genesis 15:5.
"Your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies": Understand: the cities of the Canaanites under Joshua; of the Philistines, Ammonites, Syrians, etc., under David and Solomon. It is a synecdoche: for by "gates" he understands cities; for whoever occupies the gates occupies the city. Thus Christ occupied and despoiled the gates of hell—that is, hell itself. Thus also the Apostles and their successors subdued Rome and nearly the whole world to Christ, to Christ's faith, and to the Church.
"And in your seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed": that is: In Christ, who will be born from you as your seed—that is, your offspring, indeed God's blessed [offspring]—all nations shall obtain justice, grace, salvation, and glory. Thus it is explained in Galatians 3:16.
CONTINUE
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