Chapter 17
[Genesis 17:1] -- After he had turned ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be perfect. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will greatly multiply you exceedingly." Hence, the name of Abraham is amplified at the age of one hundred years, the covenant of circumcision is given, and the promise of the birth of Isaac is made, so that in a great mystery, a one-hundred-year-old receives the son of promise already circumcised. He walks before the Lord to be able to be perfect, who every moment remembers himself to be standing in the sight of the Divinity and as if placed in his service; as Elias, who said, "The Lord lives, in whose sight I stand" (1 Kings 17:1); he always indicated that he kept himself prepared for divine service, having the presence of his Creator in mind; and because the first step of perfection is humility, it is rightly added:
[Genesis 17:3] -- Abram fell face down. We read that in the earlier places of sacred history, holy men invoked the Lord, offered him sacrifices of praise, and lived innocently in his sight, but none had fallen face down before the Lord before Abram. However, the more superior gifts he received compared to the previous ones, the greater thanks he gave to the Giver of gifts by humbling himself; and because in falling to the ground he humbly recalled his fragility, he immediately deserved to sublimely recognize the eminence of divine power. For it follows:
[Genesis 17:4] -- And God said to him: I am, and my covenant is with you. For what is it for the Lord to say: I am, if not to clearly declare the state of his eternity, in which he is always the same? About which the Psalm also says: But you are the same (Psalm 102:28). This place harmonizes with the Gospel where the Lord said to the Jews: Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58). For appearing in the flesh, he taught that he himself was the one who had once appeared to Abraham in spirit, when he repeated to the Jews the same testimony of his essence that he had given to Abraham; but the Jews were troubled because they had heard: Before Abraham was, I am; yet Abraham rejoiced when he heard: I am, and did not doubt that God existed before he did; hence, because he faithfully heard the word of divine eternity, he received in the increase of reward that he would be called and be the father of many nations. Moreover, the Jews, because they could not grasp the mysteries of divinity they'd heard, were cast out from the lineage of Abraham, and were counted among the offspring of vipers: Finally, they took up stones to throw at him; but he hid himself from them, and went out of the temple (John 8:59), so that, evidently hidden from their stony hearts, and going out, he would come to reveal to the Gentiles the knowledge of his majesty. For even then having gone out of the temple, he restored sight to the man born blind. Evidently as a figure of grace, with which he was to enlighten the hearts of the Gentiles. It follows:
[Genesis 17:5] -- And you will be the father of many nations, and your name will no longer be called Abram, but you will be called Abraham, because I have made you the father of many nations. Because blessed Abraham left his kin and his father's house at the command of the Lord, he received deservedly also in this gift of reward to exist as the father of many nations; indeed of so many, that not only those who came from his seed according to the flesh, but also those who deriving their origin of flesh elsewhere, would follow the footsteps of his faith and obedience, as the Apostle writes to the Romans with full exposition. It should be known that Abram means Exalted Father, but Abraham means Father of Many, so it is understood, of many nations.
[Genesis 17:7] -- And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and between your seed after you in their generations with an everlasting covenant; that I may be your God and the God of your seed after you. The old translation has: And I will establish my testament. It should be noted, however, that wherever we read "testament" in Greek, in the Hebrew language it is "covenant" or "pact," that is, "berith." It is not surprising, then, that the testament or covenant of God is with Abraham and his seed in an everlasting covenant, that He may be their God: because indeed this covenant will be preserved throughout the entire duration of this life without any interruption in the generations of the chosen following in succession, and will be celebrated without any end in the future age. What follows, however, is:
[Genesis 17:8] -- And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. It requires a more laborious exposition on how it should be understood as fulfilled or still expected to be fulfilled, since any earthly possession cannot be eternal for any nation. But it should be known that "eternal" is interpreted by our people as what the Greeks call "Aeonion," which is derived from "age." For in Greek "Aeon" is called an age. But the Latins did not dare to say "age-long," lest they send the meaning far off into something else. For many things are called "age-long" that are done in this age in such a way as to pass away in a short time. However, what is called "Aeonion" either has no end or extends to the end of this age. And therefore, as we said above, the land of Canaan is given as an everlasting possession to the seed of Abraham, because in it Christians, up to the end of this age, whether from the Jews or from the Gentiles, that is, the seed of Abraham, are believed never to be lacking.
[Genesis 17:9-11] -- God said again to Abraham: And you shall therefore keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations; this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised; and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. The Lord, in His kind provision, first established the covenant of His grace with the blessed Abraham and his offspring; and then He requires of them the covenant of obedience: so that the labor of striving might be less terrifying when the reward of perpetual remuneration is heard first. Therefore, the foreskin of the flesh is commanded to be circumcised, as a sign of the covenant between God and men, so that by this sign the faithful of that time might be reminded to cleanse themselves from all pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God; but also by a higher mystery, that carnal circumcision was done as a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham's offspring, because it was given as a sign of that covenant of which it was said above to Abraham: In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed; which no faithful person doubts pertains to the grace of the new testament. Therefore, in the sign of this covenant, no faithful person doubts that Abraham and his offspring were circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin, so that it might be typologically prefigured that one would be born from his seed who would cleanse his chosen ones from all stain of sins, and grant them perpetual blessing; to the sacrament of which cleansing aptly corresponds what follows:
[Genesis 17:12] -- A child of eight days shall be circumcised among you. For on the eighth day, that is, after the Sabbath, the Lord rose from the dead, in whose passion and resurrection we are baptized, absolved from the oldness of faults, as if we are renewed by spiritual circumcision; the Apostle explaining and saying: For as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death: so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom. VI, 3). This number can most fittingly correspond to the time of our resurrection, when we shall be clothed universally with the immortality of the flesh, which we laid down through death, and we shall suffer nothing of sin nor of corruption in the flesh. For our resurrection is also not incongruously figured by the number of the eighth day; because after the six ages of this world and the seventh of rest, that is, the rest of souls, which is now celebrated in another life, the future one will be. Therefore infants were commanded to be circumcised on the eighth day as a sign of the divine covenant to indicate mystically that all the elect by the grace of God would be absolved from all iniquities in this number, cleansed from all corruption of the flesh, and also freed from the very death that they incurred through the guilt of the first transgression.
[Genesis 17:12] -- Every male among your generations, whether born in the house or bought with money, and whoever is not of your seed, shall be circumcised. This signifies that the grace of regeneration and immortality pertains to all the faithful, whether they derive their origin from the stock of Abraham or from another source of the flesh.
[Genesis 17:13] -- And My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. By which covenant it is surely signified that I will clothe your flesh and soul together with perpetual renewal and immortality.
[Genesis 17:14] -- A male whose foreskin's flesh has not been circumcised, that soul will be cut off from his people: because he has broken my covenant. By this sentence, the greater mystery of the same circumcision is revealed, which is not only a sign of renewal to come in Christ but also an abolition of the transgression committed in Adam; for what baptism now accomplishes through faith in Christ, circumcision accomplished from that time on the eighth day, which was a designation of Christ's resurrection; except that the entrance to the kingdom of heaven was not yet open to those circumcised, before the Lord, rising from death, unlocked the door of that same kingdom to all the elect by ascending to the heavens. For this reason, they were circumcised on the eighth day specifically; to signify that they would not truly be cleansed from all stain of vice except through the effect of the Lord's resurrection. However, it may raise a question how it is said, that soul will be cut off from his people, because he has broken my covenant, when there is no fault of the infant, whose soul, he said, will perish, nor has he himself broken the covenant of God, but those older who did not care to circumcise him; unless because even infants, not according to their own life's property, but according to the common origin of the human race, all broke the covenant of God in that one in whom all sinned. Therefore, since circumcision was a sign of regeneration, and not without reason the infant, on account of original sin, by which the first covenant of God was shattered, would be destroyed by generation unless liberation freed him; thus these divine words must be understood as if it were said: Whoever has not been regenerated, that soul will be cut off from his people, because he has broken the covenant of God; since in Adam, even he sinned with all.
[Genesis 17:15] -- And the Lord said to Abraham: "You shall not call your wife Sarai, but Sarah, and I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her, whom I will bless, and he will become nations, and kings of peoples shall come from him. Here the promises about the calling of the gentiles in Isaac are more evident, that is, in the son of promise, which signifies grace, not nature, because a son is promised from an old man and a barren old woman. Although God also works in the natural course of procreation, where however the evident work of God is, with nature being corrupted and ceasing, grace is understood more evidently; and because this will happen not by generation, but by regeneration, therefore circumcision is now commanded. When a son was promised from Sarah, the names of the parents are also changed, everything resonates with newness, and the New Testament is foreshadowed in the Old. Sarai is interpreted as "My Princess," but Sarah as "Princess," and the reason for the change of the name is this: because she was previously called "My Princess," that is, the mother of one household only, but afterwards she is called "Princess" absolutely; for it follows:
[Genesis 17:16] -- And I will give you a son by her, whom I will bless, and he will become nations, and kings of peoples shall come from him. And notably, not as we read in Greek: God said to Abraham, Your wife Sarai will no longer be called Sarai; in Hebrew it is, You will not call her name Sarai; that is, you will not call her My Princess: she is now to be the princess of all nations, wherefore the Apostle Peter, instructing the life of women, says: So once holy women also, who hoped in the Lord, adorned themselves, being subject to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, of whom you are daughters, doing good and not fearing any disturbance (1 Peter 3:5).
[Genesis 17:17] -- Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, saying in his heart: "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old, and will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" The laughter of Abraham is the exultation of one rejoicing, not the mockery of one disbelieving: those words which he said in his heart are not those of one doubting, but of one admiring; as testified also by the Apostle who, speaking of him, said: "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform." (Romans 4:20).
[Genesis 17:19] -- And the Lord said to Abraham: "Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac." Isaac is interpreted as Laughter, and it is not to be doubted that he was so called because when his birth was announced, Abraham laughed in his heart. This laughter fittingly signifies the joy of the New Testament, in which the children of the promise, with the Lord dwelling within them, shall rejoice forever.
[Genesis 17:19] -- For what follows: "And I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him," etc. He says his seed in those who, by imitating the faith of Abraham, merit to hear from the Lord: "Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh" (Luke 6:21); to such as these the Apostle, joining himself, says: "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise" (Galatians 4:28). Specifically, however, the name Isaac, that is, laughter, which is born from the promise, fittingly applies to the Mediator between God and men, about whose birth an angel said to the shepherds: "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people" (Luke 2:10).
[Genesis 17:24] -- He was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael his son had completed thirteen years at the time of his circumcision. Therefore, Abraham was a hundred years old, and Ishmael was thirteen years old when they were circumcised: so that, after a year, when Isaac was born, Abraham was a hundred years old, and Ishmael was fourteen, that is, twice seven, years old? Indeed, in a great mystery: because evidently Isaac held the figure of the New Testament, and Ishmael of the Old Testament. For Isaac, when he was born, his father was a hundred years old, to signify that the grace of the New Testament would bring the children of his promise to the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom. Indeed, the number one hundred, as has often been said, in the arithmetical count, passes from the left to the right, and our heavenly mother Jerusalem is rightly marked by the right hand; for those to whom it is permitted to enter it will stand on the right hand of the Judge in the last examination. In the birth of the same Isaac, Ishmael had completed two weeks of years; evidently because of the sacrament of the Sabbath, which was observed in the Old Testament; so that in the fifteenth year, as if in the sign of the resurrection, that is, of the true circumcision, Isaac would be born; where it would be typified because the passing legal observance given by Moses would be succeeded by grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. Therefore, when Isaac, who prefigured the grace of the New Testament, was born, his elder brother Ishmael, who signified the Old Testament, had completed the number seven in his age; because the observance of the law, in which the Sabbath held the greatest place, was fit to be extended until the time of grace; but the same number seven is doubled concerning the perfection of the same sacrament; because the law of God desires us to be freed both from servile, that is, from evil works in the body, and from harmful thoughts in the mind. The number seven is doubled because the law commands rest for bodies to its followers in this life and promises rest for souls in the future life; when Isaac was born and the first year of his age began, Ishmael began his fifteenth year because, with the grace of the Gospel appearing, even the law itself, spiritually understood, was found to be full of heavenly sacraments and to have preached the glory of the resurrection; but when Isaac had grown up, at the command of Sarah, Ishmael with his mother was cast out, it should not be thought that the Old Testament is to be abolished by the succession of the New Testament; but rather that the carnal observance of the law, with those who carnally, even while the grace of the Gospel shines, contend that it should be observed, ought to be expelled from the boundaries of the Church; but itself, understood in a spiritual sense, will lose neither a jot nor a tittle until all things are accomplished.