Didymus the Blind — Commentary on Scripture

Genesis 12:1

It is not by chance that God orders Abraham to leave his land and his relatives but because he sees in him something that makes him worthy of being the object of divine concern, that is, his faith in God. But it was not fitting that the one who had faith in God should remain among perverse people—the father of Abraham was in fact an idolater—because the company of the wicked often does harm to zealous people, especially to those whose zeal is new. That is why the Savior also proclaims, “If anyone wishes to follow me and does not hate his father, his brothers, his sisters, and even his wife and children, he cannot be my disciple.” The Lord did not say that in order to provoke hatred of one’s relatives, but if one of them becomes an obstacle to virtue, it is necessary to hate him for virtue’s sake. That is what the apostles did, who said, “Look, we have left everything in order to follow you.” Such is the order given now to the patriarch, and God tells him that he will show him a land in which to live, that he will make of him a great nation, that he will bless and magnify his name.

ON GENESIS 209

Genesis 12:2

As for the promise to make of him “a great nation,” is it necessary to give a meaning other than the literal one? Because it is clear that it was realized in its historical sense. But, having become a people, it is truly great when it is adorned with virtues. And it is manifest that when the progress becomes more important in the soul, there is established in it a grandeur which is no longer earthly but heavenly. And this soul is a blessing that is not simply offered but realized, because the name is made great and becomes celebrated because it is accompanied by virtue and by that beauty which confers a spiritual blessing. It is worth more to have a good name than to have riches.

ON GENESIS 210-11

Genesis 12:10

The content on the literal level is clear. As for the spiritual meaning, it is this. Those who are wise in God are above the earth, since they are not of the earth. A famine then came over the earth, because for those who are concerned about earthly things, there often occurs a famine in this sense, that they no longer hear the word of the Lord. Then, if they are worthy of it, the Word is given back to them one day.Thus Abraham went to Egypt to “sojourn” there, not to dwell there, because he had sympathy for the victims of the famine. Likewise Daniel and his companions did not come to Babylon because of sins they had committed but to aid the people who had been deported there on account of their own sins.

ON GENESIS 225

Genesis 12:11-15

On the literal level Abraham made an intelligent compromise with the lustfulness of the Egyptians, being certain that God, who had made him leave his own country, would watch over his marriage. He suggested to his wife that she tell them that she was his sister, because if they were told that and only that at the beginning, they would not have the idea that she was his wife, and by that means he would deceive them. In fact, marriage between brother and sister was practiced in Egypt and in his own country, as he said later, “She really is my sister.” It was therefore a clever strategy to suggest to Sarah to say only that at first. As the laws against adultery were probably respected among the Egyptians, Abraham thought in fact that they would kill him in order not to be considered as adulterers.So much for the literal level. As for the spiritual meaning, those who pass from virtue to vice are said to descend into Egypt. One finds often in the Scriptures, “Woe to those who descend into Egypt.” Here it does not say “he descended” but “he entered.” His descent is an entrance, because eve…

On the literal level Abraham made an intelligent compromise with the lustfulness of the Egyptians, being certain that God, who had made him leave his own country, would watch over his marriage. He suggested to his wife that she tell them that she was his sister, because if they were told that and only that at the beginning, they would not have the idea that she was his wife, and by that means he would deceive them. In fact, marriage between brother and sister was practiced in Egypt and in his own country, as he said later, “She really is my sister.” It was therefore a clever strategy to suggest to Sarah to say only that at first. As the laws against adultery were probably respected among the Egyptians, Abraham thought in fact that they would kill him in order not to be considered as adulterers.So much for the literal level. As for the spiritual meaning, those who pass from virtue to vice are said to descend into Egypt. One finds often in the Scriptures, “Woe to those who descend into Egypt.” Here it does not say “he descended” but “he entered.” His descent is an entrance, because every zealous man condescends to those who fall without falling with them … to deliver them from their fall. Just as one becomes Jewish for the sake of the Jews without being a Jew, and ungodly for the sake of the ungodly without being ungodly, so one comes into Egypt without living as an Egyptian.
The others then descend there, but Abraham enters there. It is not their vice that leads him there but the fulfillment of a divine plan. The virtuous man enters into Egypt in the sense that he makes use of foreign culture to draw something useful from it, as Paul the blessed apostle did in citing the verse of Aratus, “for we are indeed his offspring,” in order to behave accordingly, and “to an unknown god” or “Cretans are always liars.” He urges us in the same way to “take every thought captive” in order to put it at the service of Christ.
Having entered Egypt, as we have explained it, he imposes restrictions on virtue that she should not say that she is his wife, because the zealous and perfect man does not say that virtue has become his exclusive privilege in order not to provoke the jealousy of those who do not have it. He says that she is his sister, giving himself thus a secondary rank with regard to the union that he enjoys with her, in order to put himself within range of the weak and to inspire in them the desire to receive her as something that is at the disposition of all in common. The fact is that often, when we want to direct the attention of someone to a teaching, we begin by putting it in language common with him, for example the teaching about providence, so that afterward he may receive it personally. The evangelical teaching is thus the gracious spouse of the zealous man, but he does not keep her for himself, even if he speaks of her only “among the mature.” He places her in common with all, like Paul, who said, “I wish that all were as I myself am,” because, having become such, they might know that this culture is the spouse of the perfect man. “Wisdom begets discernment to a man”; and as for me, says the perfect, “I became enamored of her beauty,” that of wisdom, it is understood. But the wise man wishes to share with all that which is his, because in this way they will not become jealous.

ON GENESIS 226-27

Genesis 12:16

The intelligent strategy of the patriarch did not fail. They did not seek to do him harm. Moreover, a way out of it presented itself so that the marriage of the holy man would not be violated, because the Egyptians did not fling themselves on the woman relinquished by him. But the officials, after having seen her, in order to obtain the gratitude of the king, presented her to him as a gift, and thus it happened that they treated Abraham well because of her.Abraham entered then into Egypt allegorically by adapting himself as one of the perfect to the imperfect in order to do good to them instead of holding on to virtue as a privilege, as has been said above, but in showing her to all as his sister, in humility, so that by contemplating her they might come to love her. But observe how it is said that the officials saw her. There are in fact in the ranks of the allegorically viewed Egyptians some men who are purer, who have a great capacity for perceiving virtue. And they not only perceived her, but they introduced her to their superior, that is, to the reason that governs them, and the…

The intelligent strategy of the patriarch did not fail. They did not seek to do him harm. Moreover, a way out of it presented itself so that the marriage of the holy man would not be violated, because the Egyptians did not fling themselves on the woman relinquished by him. But the officials, after having seen her, in order to obtain the gratitude of the king, presented her to him as a gift, and thus it happened that they treated Abraham well because of her.Abraham entered then into Egypt allegorically by adapting himself as one of the perfect to the imperfect in order to do good to them instead of holding on to virtue as a privilege, as has been said above, but in showing her to all as his sister, in humility, so that by contemplating her they might come to love her. But observe how it is said that the officials saw her. There are in fact in the ranks of the allegorically viewed Egyptians some men who are purer, who have a great capacity for perceiving virtue. And they not only perceived her, but they introduced her to their superior, that is, to the reason that governs them, and they praised her.

ON GENESIS 228

Genesis 15:12

As he contemplated the wonderful things of God, Abraham was struck with fear, the fear that belongs to the perfect. It will be noted … that the ecstasy came upon him “toward sunset.” The text suggests by this a progression, because the day of the present state has gone by for Abraham so that further progress might follow. Thus the blessing was extended to Abraham which says, “I will fill you with length of days,”a blessing that by no means promised him longevity but, as is quite clear, further advances in illumination.An ecstasy then fell upon him, not the ecstasy that resembles a loss of reason but that of wonder, the thrill of passing from visible to invisible things. The apostle even says, “Indeed, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.” By this he means not “we are out of our minds for God” but “even if we are transported through contemplation beyond the realm of human things, we do this for God.” David likewise declares, “I said in my ecstasy: every man is a liar.” It was indeed because he was transported out of himself to particip…

As he contemplated the wonderful things of God, Abraham was struck with fear, the fear that belongs to the perfect. It will be noted … that the ecstasy came upon him “toward sunset.” The text suggests by this a progression, because the day of the present state has gone by for Abraham so that further progress might follow. Thus the blessing was extended to Abraham which says, “I will fill you with length of days,”a blessing that by no means promised him longevity but, as is quite clear, further advances in illumination.An ecstasy then fell upon him, not the ecstasy that resembles a loss of reason but that of wonder, the thrill of passing from visible to invisible things. The apostle even says, “Indeed, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.” By this he means not “we are out of our minds for God” but “even if we are transported through contemplation beyond the realm of human things, we do this for God.” David likewise declares, “I said in my ecstasy: every man is a liar.” It was indeed because he was transported out of himself to participate in the divine that he said of people that they are liars, because he was no longer merely a man, by reason of his communion with the Holy Spirit. He was quite different from those of whom it is said, “While there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving like ordinary men?” When Abraham then had been transported out of himself, a “dark fear” fell upon him, dark not by participation in darkness but in the sense of obscurity, of something whose meaning is not immediately evident. Being a “great” fear, it is not the kind that happens to the mediocre. Remember “darkness” is often used for “obscurity,” as according to this saying: “He made darkness around him his canopy.” It is indeed true that the contemplation and grasp of supernatural truths produce, even among great people, a divine vertigo and fear, and it is with some trepidation that they apply themselves to such things.

ON GENESIS 230

Genesis 15:13

This word anticipates the sojourn of the people in Egypt, for they were to sojourn as it were in a land not their own. They would be reduced to slavery by the Pharaoh and mistreated in many ways by him and by the Egyptians. There is no discrepancy between what is said here and what is written in Exodus. There it is said, “After 430 years, the army of the Lord left the land of Egypt.” Here: “After four hundred years.” It should be noted that it is not said that they left when four hundred years were completed but rather after four hundred years, which leaves room for the thirty years.And the promise “I will judge the nation to which you will be enslaved” was realized in the very way described in Exodus: God afflicted the Egyptians with ten plagues, and in the end “they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” Finally, they were to leave “with much baggage,” as history would show. From this we learn that if God maltreats someone for a time, he does this not as a matter of indifference but only for some good purpose. Consider too whether this passage might also allude to the sojourn of the s…

This word anticipates the sojourn of the people in Egypt, for they were to sojourn as it were in a land not their own. They would be reduced to slavery by the Pharaoh and mistreated in many ways by him and by the Egyptians. There is no discrepancy between what is said here and what is written in Exodus. There it is said, “After 430 years, the army of the Lord left the land of Egypt.” Here: “After four hundred years.” It should be noted that it is not said that they left when four hundred years were completed but rather after four hundred years, which leaves room for the thirty years.And the promise “I will judge the nation to which you will be enslaved” was realized in the very way described in Exodus: God afflicted the Egyptians with ten plagues, and in the end “they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” Finally, they were to leave “with much baggage,” as history would show. From this we learn that if God maltreats someone for a time, he does this not as a matter of indifference but only for some good purpose.
Consider too whether this passage might also allude to the sojourn of the saints.

ON GENESIS 231

Genesis 15:15

Anyone can see that God is here announcing Abraham’s departure from this life. As for the anagogical [mystical] sense, one could say the following: The wise person leaves this life in peace, while the sinner does so with troubled thoughts and an agitated soul. And the way death takes one, so is one judged. One who has already attained peace here below takes leave also in peace. But one who has nothing but disturbance and agitation in his or her thoughts will be judged also in this way. This is clear from the saying in Ecclesiastes: “In the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.” Things do not occur this way in historical reality, because a tree does not necessarily always lie where it falls. Often it is cleared away. But it is evidently humankind who is symbolically represented by the tree, namely, a person who will be judged as he or she is found.In peace, then, as is fitting, Abraham will depart to his fathers. Being pleasing to God, he shares in their promise: “First Christ, then those who are of Christ.” And for the just themselves, there are different promises and differ…

Anyone can see that God is here announcing Abraham’s departure from this life. As for the anagogical [mystical] sense, one could say the following: The wise person leaves this life in peace, while the sinner does so with troubled thoughts and an agitated soul. And the way death takes one, so is one judged. One who has already attained peace here below takes leave also in peace. But one who has nothing but disturbance and agitation in his or her thoughts will be judged also in this way. This is clear from the saying in Ecclesiastes: “In the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.” Things do not occur this way in historical reality, because a tree does not necessarily always lie where it falls. Often it is cleared away. But it is evidently humankind who is symbolically represented by the tree, namely, a person who will be judged as he or she is found.In peace, then, as is fitting, Abraham will depart to his fathers. Being pleasing to God, he shares in their promise: “First Christ, then those who are of Christ.” And for the just themselves, there are different promises and different dwellings, because “there are many mansions” with the Father. The person full of zeal will go to be with his spiritual fathers, whose son he is through a moral likeness, even if, according to the flesh, he had fathers who were bad men.

ON GENESIS 231-32

Genesis 15:16

After having said this of Abraham himself, God speaks of the children who will come from him: “In the fourth generation they shall come back here,” meaning the generation that would return to the land of inheritance. This is why he says that the return would take place after four hundred years, “because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”—iniquity for which they will suffer ruin, so that their condemnation will allow the descendants of Abraham to occupy their land. For God inflicts even chastisements with measure and in time, using patience until the time of retribution has arrived. There is a similar and edifying saying in the Gospel: “Then Jesus began to upbraid the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” To which one might object: Why then were the miracles not done in Tyre and Sidon, because they would have repented, but were performed instead in places w…

After having said this of Abraham himself, God speaks of the children who will come from him: “In the fourth generation they shall come back here,” meaning the generation that would return to the land of inheritance. This is why he says that the return would take place after four hundred years, “because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”—iniquity for which they will suffer ruin, so that their condemnation will allow the descendants of Abraham to occupy their land. For God inflicts even chastisements with measure and in time, using patience until the time of retribution has arrived. There is a similar and edifying saying in the Gospel: “Then Jesus began to upbraid the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” To which one might object: Why then were the miracles not done in Tyre and Sidon, because they would have repented, but were performed instead in places where the people did not repent? We would respond that the Son of God who acted in this way is Wisdom. As he knew the hidden things, he knew that these people would not have been authentically repentant, even while doing penance, and this is why the miracles did not take place among them. And one could appropriately say about these people: It was better for them not to have known the truth than, having once known it, to return to their former errors. Thus he did not do works in Tyre and Sidon, because their repentance would be fragile.… However, one might also ask whether this was not said by the Savior in a hyperbolic manner, simply to make those people reflect who had seen his miracles and had not repented, for hyperbole is a common teaching device.The patience and goodness of the judge are shown, then, in the fact that he waits until the sins of the Amorites have reached their full measure. It is only after reproaches, exhortations and everything that can provoke repentance that God inflicts chastisements. The same was true in the case of Pharaoh: often reprimanded and having obtained many reprieves, through his hardness of heart he brought upon himself the final judgment as well.

ON GENESIS 232-33

Genesis 15:17-21

What is clearly stated in the text can be expounded as follows. When the sun was already near setting, a flame emerged, and there appeared a smoking oven and fiery torches “that passed between the two parts of the divided animals,” burning and lighting up the place, to allow the patriarch to see what was happening and to reveal in a more divine manner the mysteries to be searched out. It should be noted that a fire did not appear only after the covenant had been made, but the gift of the law through Moses took place itself in the midst of a fire. Fire could be seen, and, without being able to see the one who was speaking, the giving of the commandments could be heard. What is suggested here is perhaps something like this. As the law contains rewards and punishments, it was given in the midst of fire to indicate that it brings burning to some and illumination to others. In fact, fire has a twofold power: it illuminates, and at the same time it burns. The gift of the law, then, burns those who abandon it and enlightens those who observe it. So too here, torches and smoke appeared; now…

What is clearly stated in the text can be expounded as follows. When the sun was already near setting, a flame emerged, and there appeared a smoking oven and fiery torches “that passed between the two parts of the divided animals,” burning and lighting up the place, to allow the patriarch to see what was happening and to reveal in a more divine manner the mysteries to be searched out. It should be noted that a fire did not appear only after the covenant had been made, but the gift of the law through Moses took place itself in the midst of a fire. Fire could be seen, and, without being able to see the one who was speaking, the giving of the commandments could be heard. What is suggested here is perhaps something like this. As the law contains rewards and punishments, it was given in the midst of fire to indicate that it brings burning to some and illumination to others. In fact, fire has a twofold power: it illuminates, and at the same time it burns. The gift of the law, then, burns those who abandon it and enlightens those who observe it. So too here, torches and smoke appeared; now smoke is the result and as it were the consequence of a fire that has been lit. Moreover, a flame had appeared first. We conclude, then, that one who is defining what is to be done and what is not to be done in a matter this difficult requires the light of God and also fear, symbolized by the furnace, so as to accomplish everything in accordance with right reason.

ON GENESIS 233-34

Genesis 15:18-19

When the torches had passed over the divided animals, the covenant was made. God said to Abraham, “To your descendants I will give this land,” and he described in detail how far the land extended in each direction. But, through an anagogical [mystical] transposition consistent with our above remarks, we must understand that this land is given to the holy man’s spiritual posterity. The Savior too promises it to those who practice gentleness. This is a promise that applies to the true children and not to all who descend from Abraham, for “it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants.” It is “the one who does the works of Abraham” who is in fact his child.The phrase “from the river to the river” is also well put, for the promise that belongs to the posterity of the holy man is virtue, which is placed between flowing things. Flowing things, of course, do not make up virtue but are its very borders, in the sense that if one departs from virtue, one encounters them immediately. But it is possible too that the r…

When the torches had passed over the divided animals, the covenant was made. God said to Abraham, “To your descendants I will give this land,” and he described in detail how far the land extended in each direction. But, through an anagogical [mystical] transposition consistent with our above remarks, we must understand that this land is given to the holy man’s spiritual posterity. The Savior too promises it to those who practice gentleness. This is a promise that applies to the true children and not to all who descend from Abraham, for “it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants.” It is “the one who does the works of Abraham” who is in fact his child.The phrase “from the river to the river” is also well put, for the promise that belongs to the posterity of the holy man is virtue, which is placed between flowing things. Flowing things, of course, do not make up virtue but are its very borders, in the sense that if one departs from virtue, one encounters them immediately. But it is possible too that the rivers represent the trials that come to virtuous persons, since they are placed among people who oppress them, and yet the virtuous triumph over them.

ON GENESIS 234

Genesis 16:2

As for the anagogical [mystical] teaching, one could explain the text by recalling that Paul allegorically transposed the two women into the two covenants. Philo also used allegory here but giving the text another application: He understood Sarah to represent perfect virtue and philosophy, because she was a free woman and wife, of noble birth and living with her husband in lawful union. Now virtue lives with the wise man in lawful union so that he can give birth from her to a divine progeny: “Wisdom,” in fact, “begets a man of discernment.” In Scripture the devout and holy man is addressed with the words “your wife is like a fruitful vine.… Your children are like olive shoots around the table. So shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”Sarah then is allegorically transposed into perfect and spiritual virtue. Hagar, the Egyptian slave, symbolizes, according to Philo, the preliminary exercises (progymnasmata), and, in Paul, “the shadow” [of good things to come]. It is not possible, in fact, to understand anything of the spiritual or elevated ideas without the shadow that is the le…

As for the anagogical [mystical] teaching, one could explain the text by recalling that Paul allegorically transposed the two women into the two covenants. Philo also used allegory here but giving the text another application: He understood Sarah to represent perfect virtue and philosophy, because she was a free woman and wife, of noble birth and living with her husband in lawful union. Now virtue lives with the wise man in lawful union so that he can give birth from her to a divine progeny: “Wisdom,” in fact, “begets a man of discernment.” In Scripture the devout and holy man is addressed with the words “your wife is like a fruitful vine.… Your children are like olive shoots around the table. So shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”Sarah then is allegorically transposed into perfect and spiritual virtue. Hagar, the Egyptian slave, symbolizes, according to Philo, the preliminary exercises (progymnasmata), and, in Paul, “the shadow” [of good things to come]. It is not possible, in fact, to understand anything of the spiritual or elevated ideas without the shadow that is the letter or without a preliminary study of the introductory sciences, for one must first bear children from inferior unions. In the era of the shadow, they offered actual animal sacrifices, they celebrated Passover in an external and tangible way, they received physical circumcision, and all of this was preparing them gradually so that eventually they could “offer to God a sacrifice of praise,” which pertains to the free woman. As the zeal of the wise impels them to go on to the higher realities in due order, virtue impels them, by divine intention, to make use first of the introductory sciences and to have children from them. Since it is impossible, in fact, for one who has just recently approached virtue so successfully to attain perfection as to have children through her too, virtue counsels such a one to subject himself first to the preparatory disciplines so that by this path he might perfectly grasp her, if he is able.

ON GENESIS 235-36

Genesis 16:2

The apostle saw in these women the type of the two covenants, in accordance with the rule of allegory, but since what the text narrates actually took place, the literal sense also deserves consideration. The saints entered the married life not to pursue pleasure but for the sake of children. There is in fact a tradition that says they would go with their wives only when the time was suitable for conception. They would not go with them during the lactation period, when they were nursing their young, or when they were with child, because they regarded neither of these times as suitable for coming together.…When Sarah, therefore, who was wise and holy, had observed for a long time that in spite of coming together with her husband she was not conceiving, she abstained from conjugal relations, and since she knew that it was in the order of things that he should have children, she gave him her slave girl as a concubine. This shows the moderation (sophrosyne) and the absence of jealousy of Sarah and the passionlessness (apatheia) of Abraham, who chose this solution at his wife’s instigation…

The apostle saw in these women the type of the two covenants, in accordance with the rule of allegory, but since what the text narrates actually took place, the literal sense also deserves consideration. The saints entered the married life not to pursue pleasure but for the sake of children. There is in fact a tradition that says they would go with their wives only when the time was suitable for conception. They would not go with them during the lactation period, when they were nursing their young, or when they were with child, because they regarded neither of these times as suitable for coming together.…When Sarah, therefore, who was wise and holy, had observed for a long time that in spite of coming together with her husband she was not conceiving, she abstained from conjugal relations, and since she knew that it was in the order of things that he should have children, she gave him her slave girl as a concubine. This shows the moderation (sophrosyne) and the absence of jealousy of Sarah and the passionlessness (apatheia) of Abraham, who chose this solution at his wife’s instigation and not on his own initiative and who yielded to her request only in order to give birth to children. The literal sense too, then, is useful according to the considerations offered above.

ON GENESIS 235

Genesis 16:3-4

As we said above, it is a most authentic proof of moderation (sophrosyne) that Sarah gives in offering her slave girl to Abraham without a hint of jealousy, after she had observed that in ten months’ time she had not conceived. And we have acknowledged too the passionlessness (apatheia) of the wise man, in that his clear purpose in yielding to his wife’s request was to have children.The anagogical [mystical] sense has already been expounded. It is in accordance with its goal that virtue asks us to first make use of the introductory sciences so as to first have children by them. This does not prevent the works of preparatory education from being themselves children of virtue, since they are engaged for the sake of virtue. By employing these, it was not long before the wise man effected a conception, for progress is spontaneous for the wise man.

ON GENESIS 236-37

Genesis 16:3-4

Virtue’s purpose was, as we have said, that the wise man do training exercises first in preliminary education and shadow so that later, with this training behind him, he might arrive at greater things—which is the proper procedural order. It is likewise illogical that after the knowledge of perfect things one should turn back to petty things. This is in fact what the apostle Paul writes to the Galatians, who, after the gospel had been preached to them, wanted to live with the shadow, which is the law.… They had been taken in by a certain Ebion, who wanted to practice Judaism after having become a Christian and who was so successful in persuading others that the apostles gave him this surname to show his poverty. Ebion, in fact, means “poor,” and he was so called because of the perversion and poverty of his ideas. As for the fact that the Galatians were of pagan origin, Paul writes, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are not gods, but now you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God.” He reproached them, as I said, in these te…

Virtue’s purpose was, as we have said, that the wise man do training exercises first in preliminary education and shadow so that later, with this training behind him, he might arrive at greater things—which is the proper procedural order. It is likewise illogical that after the knowledge of perfect things one should turn back to petty things. This is in fact what the apostle Paul writes to the Galatians, who, after the gospel had been preached to them, wanted to live with the shadow, which is the law.… They had been taken in by a certain Ebion, who wanted to practice Judaism after having become a Christian and who was so successful in persuading others that the apostles gave him this surname to show his poverty. Ebion, in fact, means “poor,” and he was so called because of the perversion and poverty of his ideas. As for the fact that the Galatians were of pagan origin, Paul writes, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are not gods, but now you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God.” He reproached them, as I said, in these terms (to produce now the text I announced): “Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” Indeed, when once they had given a wholly divine beginning to their edifice, they were looking for figures in an inappropriate manner, for they were searching for them when it was no longer their time. For we must understand why the visible circumcision was given and until what time it was appropriate to practice it. If one has understood this, he has had children from the concubine and is able, after this, to comprehend the circumcision of the heart that is effected by the Spirit. This holy man, upon the advice of virtue, went in to the slave girl whom she had placed at his disposal, as we have explained, and the slave girl conceived. But after this, it is inappropriate to remain with her beyond the time of her favor. Many indeed, having made use of the preparatory exercises in view of the perfect teaching, never go beyond this point, thus giving birth to a progeny of slavery, and in a certain sense dishonor virtue.… One dishonors virtue, then, who gives other things precedence over it. For if one chooses virtue, not for its own sake but for the sake of something else—praise, for example, or glory—then in a certain sense one is dishonoring the good, which in itself is not susceptible to dishonor.

ON GENESIS 237-38

Genesis 16:5

The words ek sou can be understood in two ways: either “by you” or “from the time that.” The interpretation “by you” gives the following sense: When one who has engaged the preparatory exercises in view of virtue and perfect wisdom [the promise of faith] remains at that preparatory level [that is, the relation with Hagar], in a sense he wrongs virtue, because he has not properly employed what comes before it. But the translation “from the time that” also yields the same sense, the only difference being the one already mentioned, because in this case too virtue is wronged by one who is eager to have children from the preliminary exercises alone and who makes of this level of child bearing a kind of end in itself.

ON GENESIS 240

Genesis 16:6

In the literal sense, this statement introduces the beginner to the passionlessness (apatheia) of the patriarch, who had received the slave girl from his wife without looking for pleasure and who now yields to his wife and withdraws in accordance with her wishes. As for the spiritual sense, the zealous man, even if he is still at the introductory level, since he is not altogether a stranger to virtue, receives with pleasure her reproaches and thus more rapidly abandons the petty things. As one who submits to her, he follows her directions in the use of the preparatory exercises and allows her to control them. Since he is desirous to make virtue the goal of all his words, actions and thoughts, he willingly accepts any corrections that come from her.

ON GENESIS 241

Genesis 16:6

There is a kind of maltreatment of the slave girl that we have likened, by anagogy, to the preparatory exercises (progymnasmata): the shadow [Hagar] of things to come [the generative promise] is transcended. For one who is hastening toward perfection no longer needs that which is preparatory. This is why it is quite natural that the slave girl should flee, because what belongs to the introductory level no longer remains when progress and perfection have arrived.

ON GENESIS 241

Genesis 16:7

It is well too that Hagar was found “by a spring of water,” for beginners find themselves engaged in purifications, which are signified by water. By contrast, those who are more fully matured come into a desert place, no longer needing purifications, having already rid themselves of vices and having been endowed with virtue.

ON GENESIS 243

Genesis 16:8

From this text one gains insight into the virtue of Hagar as well, and one becomes aware that she is a woman not to be despised since an angel converses with her and shows concern for her that is hardly superficial, for it is evidently by the will of God that [the angel speaks]. It is not at all improbable that Hagar was a person of zeal, because she was chosen by the holy woman Sarah to sleep with Abraham. Her nobility of soul is likewise shown by the fact that she says, “I am fleeing from my mistress, Sarah,” without saying anything bad about her. We earlier had hypothesized that Sarah represented virtue and a spiritual understanding of the Scriptures but that Hagar represented the introductory knowledge and the shadow. One who approaches the divine teaching should listen to Scripture in such a way as to understand it first according to the letter, while grasping its spirit gradually and in due order.Sarah’s child therefore requires an introductory course so that by this means he might reach the more perfect things. Similarly it would be said of the Israelites that they were “the f…

From this text one gains insight into the virtue of Hagar as well, and one becomes aware that she is a woman not to be despised since an angel converses with her and shows concern for her that is hardly superficial, for it is evidently by the will of God that [the angel speaks]. It is not at all improbable that Hagar was a person of zeal, because she was chosen by the holy woman Sarah to sleep with Abraham. Her nobility of soul is likewise shown by the fact that she says, “I am fleeing from my mistress, Sarah,” without saying anything bad about her. We earlier had hypothesized that Sarah represented virtue and a spiritual understanding of the Scriptures but that Hagar represented the introductory knowledge and the shadow. One who approaches the divine teaching should listen to Scripture in such a way as to understand it first according to the letter, while grasping its spirit gradually and in due order.Sarah’s child therefore requires an introductory course so that by this means he might reach the more perfect things. Similarly it would be said of the Israelites that they were “the first to whom the oracles of God were entrusted,” which were given to them “until the time of correction.” No one, in fact, who remains trapped in the letter and at the introductory level can claim Wisdom itself. If then lovers of Wisdom, who make use of what belongs to the introductory level, should remain there, they are in a sense despising virtue, but if they return to better sentiments, they put aside the introductory method so that it makes a kind of flight. For once progress has arrived, the earlier things pass away. That which has been the possession of Hagar the Egyptian is transcended. It is to earthly examples that the introductory teaching appeals for support.…
The angel then, having found her fleeing because of the greatness of virtue, makes her retrace her steps. The word of the Master indeed causes even what belongs to the introductory exercises to redound to virtue.…
The virtuous one must in fact know the principles and the goal, while the one who is still at the introductory stage often remains at this level under the pretext that virtue is too high. He flees, as it were, the effort required by perfection. This is what is revealed in the statement “I am fleeing from Sarah, my mistress.”

ON GENESIS 242-43