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| Quoted in Jerome, Epist. 36, ad Damasum, Num. xviii. (from Galland).
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III.
Quoted in Jerome, Epist. 36, ad
Damasum, Num. xviii. (from Galland).
1191
| 1191 Jerome
introduces this citation from the Commentary of Hippolytus on Genesis
in these terms: “Since, then, we promised to add what that
(concerning Isaac and Rebecca, Gen. xxvii.) signifies figuratively, we
may adduce the words of the martyr Hippolytus, with whom our Victorinus
very much agrees: not that he has made out everything quite
fully, but that he may give the reader the means for a broader
understanding of the passage.” | Isaac
conveys a figure of God the Father; Rebecca of the Holy Spirit; Esau of
the first people and the devil; Jacob of the Church, or of
Christ. That Isaac was old, points to the end of the
world; that his eyes were dim, denotes that faith had perished from the
world, and that the light of religion was neglected before him; that
the elder son is called, expresses the Jews’ possession of the
law; that the father loves his meat and venison, denotes the saving of
men from error, whom every righteous man seeks to gain (lit. hunt
for) by doctrine. The word of God here is the promise anew of
the blessing and the hope of a kingdom to come, in which the saints
shall reign with Christ, and keep the true Sabbath. Rebecca is
full of the Holy Spirit, as understanding the word which she heard
before she gave birth, “For the elder shall serve the
younger.”1192
As a
figure of the Holy Spirit, moreover, she cares for Jacob in
preference. She says to her younger son, “Go to the flock
and fetch me two kids,”1193
prefiguring the Saviour’s advent in the flesh to work a mighty
deliverance for them who were held liable to the punishment of sin; for
indeed in all the Scriptures kids are taken for emblems of
sinners. His being charged to bring “two,” denotes
the reception of two peoples: by the “tender and
good,” are meant teachable and innocent souls. The robe or
raiment of Esau denotes the faith and Scriptures of the Hebrews, with
which the people of the Gentiles were endowed. The skins which
were put upon his arms are the sins of both peoples, which Christ, when
His hands were stretched forth on the cross, fastened to it along with
Himself. In that Isaac asks of Jacob why he came so
soon,1194
we take him as
admiring the quick faith of them that believe. That savoury meats
are offered, denotes an offering pleasing to God, the salvation of
sinners. After the eating follows the blessing, and he delights
in his smell. He announces with clear voice the perfection of the
resurrection and the kingdom, and also how his brethren who believe in
Israel adore him and serve him. Because iniquity is opposed to
righteousness, Esau is excited to strife, and meditates death
deceitfully, saying in his heart, “Let the days of the mourning
for my father come on, and I will slay my brother
Jacob.”1195
The devil,
who previously exhibited the fratricidal Jews by anticipation in Cain,
makes the most manifest disclosure of them now in Esau, showing also
the time of the murder: “Let the days,” says he,
“of the mourning for my father come on, that I may slay my
brother.” Wherefore Rebecca—that is,
patience—told her husband of the brother’s plot: who,
summoning Jacob, bade him go to Mesopotamia and thence take a wife of
the family of Laban the Syrian, his mother’s brother. As
therefore Jacob, to escape his brother’s evil designs, proceeds
to Mesopotamia, so Christ, too, constrained by the unbelief of the
Jews, goes into Galilee, to take from thence to Himself a bride from
the Gentiles, His Church.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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