Homilies on Genesis and Exodus

Homily XIV

HOMILY XIV On the fact that the Lord appeared to Isaac at the well of the oath, and on the covenant which he made with Abimelech T IS WRITTEN IN THE PROPHET speaking in the person of the Lord: "I have used similitudes by the ministries of the prophets."1 What this statement means is this: although our Lord Jesus Christ is one in his substance and is nothing other than the son ofGod, nevertheless he is represented as various and diverse in the figures and images of the Scriptures.2 For example, as I recall we have explained in what precedes that Christ himself was Isaac, in type, when he was offered as a holocaust. Nevertheless, the ram also represented him. I say furthermore that he is exhibited also in the angel who spoke to Abraham and says to him: "Lay not your hand on the boy."3 For he says to him: "Because you have done this thing, I will certainly bless yoU."4 He is said to be the sheep or the lamb which is sacrificed in the Passover,; and he is designated as the shepherd of the sheep.6 He is also described, no less, as the high priest who offers the sacrifice.7 As the Word of God he is called the bridegroom,s and as wisdom he is in turn called the bride as also the prophet says in his person: "He has placed a crown on me as a groom and as a bride he has adorned me withjewelry,"9 I Hos 12.10. 2 This is a basic tenet of Origen's Christology. See Koch, 62-78; cf. Origen Ex. Hom. 7.8. 3 Gn 22.12. 4 Gn 22.16-17. 5 Cf. I Cor 5.7. 6 Cf. In 10.1l,14; Heb 13.20. 7 Cf. Heb 5.1-10. 8 Cf. Mt 9.15. 9 Is 61.10. 196 GENESIS HOMILY XIV 197 and many other things which would take too long to pursue at the present. As, therefore, the Lord himself accommodates his form in correspondence to the place and time and certain individual conditions, so also the saints, who prefigured him, should be believed to have represented types of mysteries in correspondence to places and times and conditions, as also we see now to be the case in Isaac, of whom we have heard it read: "He went up," the text says, "from there to the well of the oath, and the Lord appeared to him that night and said: I am the God of Abraham your father; fear not. For I am with you and I will bless you and multiply your seed because of Abraham your father."lo The apostle Paul set forth two figures of this Isaac to us. One, about which he said that Ismael indeed, the son of Agar, represented the people according to the flesh, but Isaac the people who are of faith.11 The other, about which he said: "He did not say, and to his seeds, as of many, but to his seed, as of one, which is Christ."12 Isaac, therefore, represents both the people and Christ. Now it is certain that Christ is spoken of as the Word of God not only in the Gospels, but also in the Law and prophets. But in the Law he teaches beginners; in the Gospels he teaches the perfect. And Isaac, therefore, represents now the Word which is in the Law or the prophets. (2) "Isaac, therefore, went up to the well of the oath and the Lord appeared to him."13 We have also already said previously that the embellishment of the temple and of those divine services which were performed therein was an ascent of the Law.14 The increase of the prophets also can be called an ascent of the Law. And for this reason perhaps Isaac is said to have gone up to the well of the oath and there the Lord is said to have appeared to him. For 10 Gn 26.23-24. II Cf. Gal 4.22. 12 Gal 3.16. 13 Gn 26.23-24. 14 Cf. Gn. Hom. 5.5. 198 ORIGEN through the prophets "the Lord has sworn and he will not repent, that he is a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech."15 God appeared to him, therefore, "at the well of the oath...