Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Here begins the third part of Genesis. For the first is from chapter I to VI, containing the deeds from Adam to Noah and the flood. The second from chapter VI to this point, containing the deeds from Noah to Abram. This third part, from this chapter to chapter XXV, contains the deeds of Abram. In this third part, therefore, Abram is set before us as the father of believers, a model of holiness and perfection. And first, as one beginning the path of virtue, up to chapter XVIII; then as one progressing in it, up to chapter XXII; and from there as one perfected, up to chapter XXV. See on the praises of Abraham: Philo, St. Chrysostom, and Ambrose, who says in Book I On Abraham, chapter II: "Abraham was clearly a great man, distinguished by the marks of many virtues, whom philosophy could not match with its aspirations." And below: "He is tested as a brave man, urged on as a faithful one, challenged as a just one: by his deeds he anticipated the saying of the wise: Follow God," etc.
In this chapter therefore Abraham, called by God out of Chaldea his homeland, with an ample promise, sojourns in Canaan, namely in Shechem and Bethel. Second, at verse 10, on account of famine he goes to Egypt, where Sarah is taken by Pharaoh; but on account of the plagues sent by God she is restored to Abraham.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 12:1-20
1. And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into the land that I will show you. 2. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you shall be blessed. 3. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you, and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 4. So Abram went forth as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5. And he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gained in Haran: and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. And when they had come into it, 6. Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain of Moreh: and the Canaanite was then in the land. 7. And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To your seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8. And removing from there to a mountain, which was on the east side of Bethel, he pitched his tent there, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east: and he built there also an altar to the Lord, and called upon His name. 9. And Abram went on, going and journeying toward the south. 10. And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there: for the famine was very grievous in the land. 11. And when he was near to entering into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife: I know that you are a beautiful woman, 12. and that when the Egyptians shall see you, they will say: She is his wife: and they will kill me, and keep you. 13. Say therefore, I beseech you, that you are my sister: that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you. 14. And so when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very beautiful. 15. And the princes told Pharaoh, and praised her before him: and the woman was taken into the house of Pharaoh. 16. And they used Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and asses, and men servants, and maid servants, and she asses, and camels. 17. And the Lord afflicted Pharaoh with great plagues, and his house, on account of Sarai the wife of Abram. 18. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said to him: What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19. For what cause did you say she was your sister, that I might take her to me to wife? Now therefore behold your wife: take her, and go your way. 20. And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning Abram: and they led him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
Verse 1: And the Lord Said to Abram: Go Forth from Your Land
I. First and chiefly Abram was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and this was his first calling, and then from Haran into Canaan, and this was his second calling, which is treated here. Stephen in Acts VII, verse 2, indicates this first calling, saying: "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him: Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and come into the land that I will show you."
Note: St. Stephen here joins the first calling of Abraham to the second. For he clothes the second in the words and expressions of the first, saying: "Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and come into the land that I will show you." For those words properly belong to the second calling, not the first. For in the first calling Abram was not commanded to leave his kindred (since Lot and Nahor departed with him), nor was he commanded to come into the promised land: for this happened not immediately, but after some time. St. Stephen therefore, because he narrates the matter briefly, encompassed both callings in one.
II. Stephen says Abraham was called while in Mesopotamia, though Ur is in Chaldea. I reply: Stephen takes Mesopotamia broadly, and under it comprehends Chaldea as well. And this is not surprising: for in ancient histories Mesopotamia is often taken broadly, to signify whatever lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates; but Chaldea, since it lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates, is comprehended under Mesopotamia taken in this broad sense.
Here therefore Abram is called a second time by God, who says to him: "Go forth," in Hebrew Lech lecha, that is, "go for yourself," i.e. go for your own sake, for your own good and benefit. In this chapter therefore God makes Abram as it were a convert and pilgrim, and leads him out from his homeland, kindred, and father's house, to bring him into the land of Canaan, and to set him forth as a model of faith and obedience. See Hebrews XI, 8.
Morally and allegorically: Abram is the symbol of every Christian, who is called by God to go forth from his land, that is from the world, from his kindred, that is from vices and concupiscences, from his father's house, that is from the devil, and to come into the promised land, that is into heaven. So St. Ambrose, Book I On Abraham, chapter II.
Note: Abram, called and led out by God from Chaldea and then from Haran, nevertheless journeyed toward Canaan without a guide, without an army, without provisions, into an unknown land, among barbarous and idolatrous nations, following only the promise and protection of God. This was the immense faith and obedience of Abraham, among whom almost alone was faith and the Church of God preserved until Christ.
Tropologically, concerning the threefold vocation and renunciation, see Cassian at the beginning of Conference 3. For the Abbot Paphnutius, in chapter 6, adapts these three things to the threefold renunciation. "The first," he says, "is that by which we corporally despise all the riches and possessions of the world; the second, by which we reject the former habits and vices and old affections of the soul and the flesh; the third, by which, withdrawing our mind from all present and visible things, we contemplate only what is future and desire those things which are invisible."
From Your Land -- from Ur of the Chaldeans, which is your homeland. From Your Kindred -- leave your relatives, the idolatrous Chaldeans. From Your House -- Indeed, abandon even your house, a house, I say, so splendid, so dear, in Chaldea; and not only the house itself, but also the inhabitants of the house, namely your brother, father, and wife; if they wish to remain, leave them and go out alone, so that you may follow God who calls you. See how with so many words, God pricks, exercises, and sharpens the faith and obedience of Abraham with as many goads.
Note here in Abraham the conditions and qualities of perfect obedience. The first is to obey promptly and willingly. The second is to obey simply, which happens when we submit our judgment to the judgment of the Superior. For Abram "went out not knowing where he was going." The third is to obey cheerfully. The fourth is to obey humbly. The fifth is to obey courageously and steadfastly. The sixth is to obey indifferently: for Abram was indifferent as to wherever God might call him; for he resigned himself entirely to God. The seventh is to obey perseveringly: for Abram spent his whole life as a pilgrim in Canaan in order to obey God. Thus Christ obeyed even unto death, and the death of the cross. Finally, Climacus, in Step 4: "Obedience is the perfect denial of one's own soul and body, a voluntary death, a life without anxiety, a voyage without harm, a burial of the will; it is to make a journey while sleeping, with one's burden placed upon others."
Which I Will Show You. God therefore, in calling Abram, did not reveal to him where he was to go: but He revealed it to him afterwards. Hence the Apostle praises the faith and obedience of Abraham, saying in Hebrews 11: "By faith, he who is called Abraham obeyed to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out not knowing where he was going."
Note: God, in calling Abraham, revealed at the same time that he was to go to Canaan, as is clear from verse 5 and chapter 11, verse 31; but He did not reveal to him to which part of Canaan He wished him to migrate; for the region of Canaan was vast and divided among many kings. What is said here should be understood thus: "Come to the land (that is, to that portion of the land of Canaan) which I will show you," in Hebrew arecha, that is, which I will cause you to see, which I will show to your eyes.
Morally, let the faithful learn here with Abraham that saying of Nazianzen, oration 28: "For us every land, and no land, is a homeland," no land will be a homeland for us when we consider heaven to be our homeland and the world our exile. For, as Hugh of St. Victor says in book 3 of the Didascalicon, chapter 20: "It is a great beginning of virtue that the trained mind should learn first to change these visible and transitory things, so that it may afterwards also be able to abandon them. He is still tender for whom his homeland is sweet; but he is strong for whom every soil is a homeland; yet he is perfect for whom the whole world is an exile. The first fixed his love on the world, the second scattered it, the third extinguished it."
We are cosmopolitans, that is, born not for one city but for the whole world. Pontius in the Life of St. Cyprian: "For a Christian, this whole world is one house." St. Cyprian, when the Proconsul threatened him with exile on account of the faith of Christ, said: "He will not be an exile who has God in his mind, because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."
Verse 2: And I Will Make of You a Great Nation (The Seven Blessings)
Cajetan notes that seven blessings, or enormous goods, are promised by God to Abraham if he obeys God's call. The first is sovereignty, or the fatherhood of a great nation, when He says: "And I will make of you a great nation," so that from you the very great nation of the Jews may be born, which in number would equal the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea.
The second is abundance of crops and wealth, when He says: "And I will bless you."
The third is the fame and glory of his name, when He says: "And I will magnify your name," so that throughout all ages and the whole world your name may be celebrated, so that Jews, Saracens, and Christians may glory in the name, faith, and lineage of Abraham.
The fourth is the sum of all blessings and goods, when He says: "And you shall be blessed;" in Hebrew it is thei beracha, "be a blessing," that is, may you be so thoroughly blessed in all things that you may seem to be the very blessing itself, and that men wishing to bless someone may set you up as an example, saying: May it be done to you, may God bless you, just as He did and blessed Abraham -- just as they once acclaimed at the inauguration of a Caesar: Be more fortunate than Augustus, be better than Trajan.
The fifth is that not only will I benefit you, O Abram, but also your friends: "I will bless those who bless you," verse 3.
The sixth is that I will likewise do harm to those who do harm to you: "I will curse those who curse you." To this alludes Balaam, Numbers 24:9: "He who blesses you shall himself be blessed; he who curses you shall be reckoned accursed."
Morally, note here how useful it is to have holy men as friends, and to be benevolent and generous to them; and conversely, how evil it is to detract from them, to hate, afflict, and persecute them: for whoever has them as enemies will find God to be his enemy and avenger.
These six blessings are mostly bodily and temporal; but the seventh and principal one is spiritual and eternal; concerning which He adds, saying:
Verse 3: In You Shall All the Families of the Earth Be Blessed
"In you," that is, in your seed, as is explained in Genesis 22:17, that is, in Christ, who was born from Abraham, as St. Paul explains in Galatians 3:16, and St. Peter in Acts 3:26. For what was bestowed upon Christ the Son, was also bestowed upon Abraham the parent of Christ; for through this spiritual and holy seed, namely through Christ, Abraham became the father of all believers, as if to say: Through Christ your son, O Abraham, and through faith in Christ, all nations shall be blessed, that is, they shall be justified, and shall become friends and children of God, and consequently heirs of the kingdom of God, and one day they shall hear: "Come, you blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." There is therefore reason for you to rejoice, O Abraham, because through Christ your son you will be the father of all the faithful, the just, and the elect. So say the Interpreters here, and St. Jerome, Anselm, and others on the epistle to the Galatians 3:16.
It could secondly also be understood thus: "in you," that is, after your likeness, in imitation and example of you, as if to say: Just as you through faith, so also all nations through faith, not through works of the law, shall be blessed, that is, justified.
Note here that, just as the speaking of God, being efficacious, is the same as doing ("for He Himself spoke, and they were made"): so the blessing of God is the same as doing good and bestowing gifts. Now since the greatest good is grace and justice, through which we become sharers of the divine nature, friends, children, and heirs of God and of heavenly glory, hence blessing taken absolutely signifies that same grace and justice. Therefore this blessing of Abraham properly signifies this justification, both of Abraham and of his descendants, that is, of the faithful who, reborn through Christ, imitate the faith of Abraham.
Shall Be Blessed. Pagninus translates poorly: "in you all nations shall bless themselves," that is, saying: Would that I were as happy and blessed as Abram was! For the Hebrew nibrechu is purely passive, namely of the passive conjugation niphal, and properly signifies "shall be blessed"; it does not therefore signify a reflexive action of the agent upon himself. Namely, "they will bless themselves": for this is what would be signified by the last conjugation hitpael, and thus one would have had to say hitbarechu. Again, the version and sense of Pagninus is clearly excluded by the version and sense of St. Paul, Galatians 3:8. For Paul, citing this passage, says: "In you shall all nations be blessed," that is, "all families (clans, tribes, nations) of the earth;" for just as all nations without exception were cursed and died in Adam, so also all have been blessed and justified in Christ.
Again, note here that for the Hebrews, to bless in niphal is one thing, and in hitpahel is another. For the blessing promised to Abraham does not merely signify to be made prosperous, or to congratulate oneself on one's prosperity. For this blessing promised to Abraham is the justice and salvation which Christ brought to the world.
And if you approve the distribution of the Rabbis, who distribute the blessings bestowed by God upon Abraham thus: namely, against all the difficulties of pilgrimage. "I will make of you a great nation": against the lack of children. "I will bless you": against poverty. "I will magnify your name": against obscurity. "And you shall be blessed": against the cursing and contempt of pilgrims. "I will bless those who bless you": against ill repute. "I will curse those who curse you": against malevolence. "In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed": against barrenness.
Verse 4: Abram Was Seventy-Five Years Old When He Departed from Haran
So Abram Went Out, as the Lord Had Commanded Him, and Lot Went with Him. Note the obedience of Abraham, who promptly followed God calling him, having left all things. "He went out not knowing where he was going."
Abram was born in the year when Terah was 70; again, Abram left Haran at the age of 75: therefore he departed from Haran when his father Terah was 145 years old. After this departure of Abraham from Haran, Terah lived another 60 years; for he died at the age of 205.
You will say: How then does St. Stephen, Acts 7, assert that Abram departed from Haran after the death of Terah? Some, from this passage in Acts 7, think that Terah begot Abraham not at the age of 70 but of 130. But this contradicts the preceding chapter, verse 26, where it is expressly stated that Terah begot Abraham at the age of 70, not 130. And if you say that another 60 years must be added to these 70, to make 130, you will make uncertain and throw into confusion the entire chronology of Sacred Scripture, which Moses has so carefully woven together in Genesis.
I answer therefore that Abram, migrating with Terah from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran, stayed there with his father for a short time, perhaps only some months, and soon, bidding farewell to his father, proceeded from Haran to Canaan with Lot, for it was there that he had originally been called by God. Abraham therefore lived as a pilgrim in Canaan, while his father was still alive, for sixty years, at the end of which his father Terah died in Haran: Abraham therefore returned to Haran to bury his father and to claim the inheritance, after which he returned again to Canaan.
Of this second departure of Abraham from Haran to Canaan, St. Stephen speaks in Acts 7, when he says: "And from there (from Haran), after his father (Terah) had died, He transferred him (Abraham) to this land" (Canaan), where the Greek word for "transferred" is metoikisen, that is, He firmly established him, fixed his dwelling. For after the death of Terah, Abraham, coming a second time to Canaan, remained there firmly and continually.
This therefore is the summary of the years of Terah: Terah at the age of 70 begot Abram; at the year 145 of his father Terah, Abram set out from Haran for Canaan; sixty years later Terah died, namely at the age of 205, which was the year 135 of Abraham's life.
Note: From this year 75 of Abraham's life, when he was called by God from Ur to Canaan, until the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt to possess that same Canaan, 430 years elapsed, as is clear from Galatians 3:17 and Exodus 12:40.
Verse 5: The Souls Which They Had Made in Haran
Lot, the Son of His Brother -- the son of Haran: Lot was therefore the brother of Sarah, the wife of Abraham.
The Souls Which They Had Made in Haran. "To make," among the Hebrews, means the same as to prepare, to acquire, whether by purchase, by generation, or by any other means. Again, by "souls" he understands men by synecdoche; for by "substance," which preceded, he meant cattle. For the wealth and riches of the ancients were mostly cattle. Abram and Lot brought with them both cattle and people, whether those whom they had bought as slaves, or those whom their male and female servants had begotten.
Secondly, the Hebrews explain "making souls" spiritually: because, they say, Abraham converted very many men, and Sarah very many women, from unbelief to the worship of God: and thus they, as it were, made and begot them for God; hence the Chaldean translates, "and the souls which they had subjected to the law in Haran."
From what has been said, it is easily clear that the story told by Nicolaus of Damascus in Josephus and Eusebius is fabulous -- namely that Abraham, before he came to Canaan, had lived in Damascus and reigned there as a kind of king; and likewise what Justin narrates in book 36, when he says: "The origin of the Jews is from Damascus, and the city took its name from King Damascus: after Damascus, Abraham, Moses, and Israel were kings;" in which words there are almost as many errors as there are words.
Verse 6: The Oak of Moreh
In Hebrew: ad elon more. Elon signifies an oak and an oak grove, and hence a valley or a plain planted with oaks; hence the Chaldean translates, "to the oak grove of Moreh"; the Septuagint, "to the tall oak." You may clearly translate: "to the oak, or oak grove of Moreh," that is, "the illustrious one": for this is a proper name of the place so called because it was distinguished both for its oaks and for the pleasantness of its fields.
This is a prolepsis: for it is called Bethel, which at that time was called Luza, since afterward it was called Bethel by Jacob, chapter 28, verse 19. Rightly St. Ambrose says: "Where Bethel is, that is, the house of God, there also is an altar; where an altar is, there also is the invocation of our God."
Verse 10: And He Went Down into Egypt
For Canaan is higher than Egypt, so that one going there must descend; hence also Egypt, being more fertile than Canaan on account of the flooding and silting of the Nile, did not feel this famine of Canaan. Wisely St. Ambrose, book 1 On Abraham, chapter 2, says: "The athlete of God is tested and hardened by adversities: he went into the desert, he fell into famine, he descended into Egypt. He had learned that in Egypt the wantonness of young men was licentious, etc., and he advised his wife to say she was his sister. Sarah, to protect her husband, concealed her marriage."
Verse 13: Say That You Are My Sister
Abram does not lie; for Sarah was his sister in the sense that I shall explain in chapter 20, verse 12.
You will say: At least Abram here exposes his wife to the danger of adultery. So says Calvin, who here calls Abram into suspicion of pandering.
I answer by denying this very thing: for Abram only commands Sarah to be silent about being his wife, and to truly say that she is his sister, and this on account of the present danger to his life. "For danger is never driven away without danger." Therefore Abram here guarded his own life, lest he be killed because he was her husband -- which he could and ought to guard against; the rest, which he could not guard against due to the incontinence of the Egyptians, he commended to God, namely that his wife not be snatched away and violated. For he knew that in this critical moment of necessity especially, God cared for him, and here the father of faith began to believe in hope against hope. So St. Augustine, book 22 Against Faustus, chapter 33. Moreover, Abram trusted in the constancy and chastity of Sarah (for he had found her most pure over so many years), that she would never consent to sin.
Verse 15: The Woman Was Taken into the House of Pharaoh
And They Reported. In Hebrew it is vaiiru, "and they saw." So also the Septuagint. But our Vulgate translator seems to have read vaiaggidu, for resh is easily changed to daleth, and aleph to gimel.
Into the House -- not for defilement, but for marriage, as if she were to be at least a secondary wife of the king, as is clear from verse 19.
Verse 16: They Treated Abram Well
In Hebrew it is heteb, that is, "he did good," namely Pharaoh (and consequently, following the king's example, the rest of his courtiers did good) to Abram.
Verse 17: But the Lord Struck Pharaoh with Great Plagues
Not on account of adultery, because he did not know she was Abraham's wife, but on account of the violence done to Sarah; because he had ordered her to be seized against her will. Truly St. Ambrose, book 2 On Abraham, chapter 4, says: "Afflictions are crowns for a brave man, but weaknesses for a feeble one."
With Very Great Plagues. The carnal Rabbis think this plague was a flux of seed and inability to copulate. These are Jewish fables.
Secondly, Josephus judges this plague to have been a pestilence; and again, tumult and popular seditions.
Thirdly, Philo and Pererius judge it to have been diseases and very severe pains; so that Pharaoh could neither rest nor breathe, neither by day nor by night.
Fourthly, Catholic Doctors commonly judge it to have been sterility, both of humans and animals; for God punished Abimelech with this same penalty for a similar seizure of Sarah, in chapter 20, verses 17 and 18. Hence Procopius rightly infers that Sarah remained chaste and inviolate in Pharaoh's house. For God, who here so severely avenged the injury done to Abraham through the seizure of Sarah, much more preserved her inviolate for him; hence here began to be fulfilled that saying of Psalm 104:14: "He allowed no man to harm them, and He rebuked kings for their sake."
Here therefore we see, first, that the saying of Psalm 145 is true: "The Lord guards the stranger, He will uphold the orphan and the widow." We see, secondly, how much God cares for and protects the just. This one just man Abram is more God's concern than Pharaoh with his whole kingdom, and on account of one just man He even strikes the king: who then would not willingly serve a God who so faithfully attends and assists His own? We see, thirdly, that God is the special avenger of marriage: the king did not know that Sarah was Abraham's wife, and yet he is struck with his whole household -- so great a sin is adultery.
Hence St. Ambrose, book 1 On Abraham, chapter 2, says: "Let everyone show himself chaste, let him not covet another's bed, nor defile another's wife with the hope of hiding or the impunity of action. God, the guardian of marriage, is present -- whom nothing escapes, no one evades, no one mocks. He watches over the absent husband's place, keeps guard -- nay, without guards He catches the guilty before he does what he has planned. And if, adulterer, you have deceived the husband, you will not deceive God; and if you have escaped the husband, and if you have mocked the judge of the court, you will not escape the Judge of the whole world. He more gravely avenges the injury of the helpless, the insult to the unsuspecting husband."
St. Ambrose adds that Abram merited this protection of God through piety, by which he obeyed God's command to descend into Egypt. "For because out of zeal for obeying the heavenly oracle, he also led his wife into danger of dishonor, God also defended the chastity of the marriage." So in the Lives of the Saints we read that monks sent by their abbots to women for reasons of piety, when they were tempted by the sting of lust, overcame the temptation by the merit and protection of obedience, and by praying. Such great strength, such great protection in dangers does obedience provide.
His House -- For his courtiers and household members had assisted and contributed to the seizure and detention of Sarah.
Verse 18: Why Did You Not Tell Me That She Was Your Wife?
Pharaoh learned this by God's revelation, says St. Chrysostom. Josephus adds that the Egyptian priests, consulting their gods -- or rather, their demons -- during this plague, had revealed the same thing to Pharaoh. Finally, Pharaoh, suspecting something of the sort, may have questioned Sarah and learned the truth from her, as Pererius thinks happened.
That I Might Take Her -- that I would not hesitate (thinking her to be free) to take her as my wife.
Josephus relates that the Egyptians learned mathematics from Abram. But it seems more likely that this was done by Joseph, Moses, and the Hebrews dwelling in Egypt, and this is indicated by Psalm 104:21; for Abram does not seem to have remained long in Egypt.