1 And after he began to be ninety and nine years old, the Lord appeared to him: and said unto him: I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be perfect.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 The words "be blameless" are addressed to Abraham, to whom had been given the spirit of wisdom, holy, marvelously agile, unpolluted. The soul of the just man, therefore, must be in training night and day, ever on the lookout, never indulging in sleep but on perpetual watch, intent on God, so as to understand the things that are and to comprehend the causes of each.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 After the tenth year he took Ishmael, his child by the maidservant, and considered that the promises had been fulfilled for him in the child. The patriarch was, you remember, the text tells us, eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born. The loving God, however, exercised the virtue of the just man for a still further period of thirteen years.
Bede · AD 735 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.
2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee: and I will multiply thee exceedingly.
3 Abram fell flat on his face.
Bede · AD 735 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.
4 And God said to him: I am, and my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 17—Verse 3 and following) And the Lord spoke to him, saying: Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. It should be noted that wherever we read Testament in Greek, in the Hebrew language it is the word covenant or pact, that is, Berith ().
Bede · AD 735 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).
Bonaventure · AD 1257 Conjugal chastity accords with the written law by reason of the divine promise: because the Lord promised to Abraham, Genesis 17: You shall be the father of many nations; and I will make you increase most exceedingly, and I will establish you among nations, and kings shall come forth from you.
5 Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt be called Abraham: because I have made thee a father of many nations.
Romans · AD 56 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 17, Verse 5) And your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of many nations.
Bede · AD 735 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.
6 And I will make thee increase exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Hence, the Stoic philosophers drew their doctrine as if from a source, saying that all things belong to the wise. For the East and the West, the North and the South are parts of the universe. The whole world is enclosed in them.
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between thy seed after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Bede · AD 735 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.
8 And I will give to thee, and to thy seed, the land of thy sojournment, all the land of Chanaan, for a perpetual possession, and I will be their God.
Bede · AD 735 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.
9 Again God said to Abraham: And thou therefore shalt keep my covenant, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
Bede · AD 735 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.
10 This is my covenant which you shall observe between me and you, and thy seed after thee: All the male-kind of you shall be circumcised.
11 And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, that it may be for a sign of the covenant between me and you.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 We, therefore, instructed by the apostle Paul, say that just as many other things were made in the figure and image of future truth, so also that circumcision of flesh was bearing the form of spiritual circumcision about which it was both worthy and fitting that "the God of majesty" give commands to mortals.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Abraham is ordered to circumcise himself when he is about to receive the inheritance of a true progeny. Is it not evident that "circumcision of the flesh" is the precept of chastity, that one should remove the passions of the flesh and curb the desires that unbridled lust renders indomitable?
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 In what sense is the covenant eternal? One interpretation is that it is eternal according to the One promising, for the things of God are not time conditioned. But relative to us eternal things become time conditioned. Another interpretation is that even when the covenant with Israel was abolished, it was maintained for us, and we are God's [people] in place of them.
12 An infant of eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every manchild in your generations: he that is born in the house, as well as the bought servant, shall be circumcised, and whosoever is not of your stock:
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 And because he is called to what is perfect, Abraham receives the oracle that summons to perfection. "Circumcise," it says, "every male of yours and circumcise your flesh"; but perfect circumcision is the spiritual one.
Bede · AD 735 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.
13 And my covenant shall be in your flesh for a perpetual covenant.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 God's covenant is "in the flesh" of the person who "does not fight on the terms of the flesh" and who "always carries about in his body the death of Jesus."
Bede · AD 735 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.
14 The male whose flesh of his foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be destroyed out of his people: because he hath broken my covenant.
Philo of Alexandria · AD 50 Nothing done unwittingly is declared punishable by the law, since the law makes allowance even for one who claims to have committed unintentional homicide. Why then is the eight-day-old infant who is uncircumcised menaced as though subject to the penalty of death? Some say that this is to be applied, by way of interpretation, to the parents.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 See the Lord's wisdom in knowing how inobservant future generations are likely to be, and so, as though putting a bit in their mouths, he gave them this sign of circumcision, curbing their unrestrained urges in case they should mingle with other peoples.
Bede · AD 735 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.
15 God said also to Abraham: Sarai thy wife thou shalt not call Sarai, but Sara.
Jerome · AD 420 Verse 7. "And the overseer of the eunuchs imposed names upon them, calling Daniel Belteshazzar (Balthasar), and Hananiah Shadrach, and Mishael Meshach, and Azariah Abednego." It was not only the overseer or master of the eunuchs (as others have rendered it, the "chief-eunuch") who changed the names of saints, but also Pharaoh called Joseph in Egypt Somtonphanec (Genesis 41:45),…
Bede · AD 735 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.
16 And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I will bless, and he shall become nations, and kings of people shall spring from him.
Bede · AD 735 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.
17 Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, saying in his heart: Shall a son, thinkest thou, be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sara that is ninety years old bring forth?
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Now Abraham was not guilty of any doubt by his laughter, for he showed his love toward Ishmael in what he said. He had clung to this hope for twenty-five years. Abraham had manifested his faith in every vision that had come to him. However great his contest with barrenness became, he manifested the victory of his faith.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 17.) And Abraham fell upon his face and laughed. And he said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And after a little while: And thou shalt call his name Isaac. Different opinions, but there is one etymology why he is called Isaac. For Isaac is interpreted as laughter.
Bede · AD 735 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 als…
18 And he said to God: O that Ismael may live before thee.
19 And God said to Abraham: Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for a perpetual covenant, and with his seed after him.
Bede · AD 735 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.
20 And as for Ismael I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.
21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sara shall bring forth to thee at this time in the next year.
22 And when he had left off speaking with him, God went up from Abraham.
23 And Abraham took Ismael his son, and all that were born in his house: and all whom he had bought, every male among the men of his house: and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin forthwith the very same day, as God had commanded him.
24 Abraham was ninety and nine years old, when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Don't think it was without purpose that Scripture indicated to us his age; instead, it was for you to learn from the just man's obedience in meekly submitting to pain despite his extreme old age on account of God's command, and not only he but also Ishmael and all the servants—that was the reason for giving the ages.
Bede · AD 735 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.
25 And Ismael his son was full thirteen years old at the time of his circumcision.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Even the fact that Ishmael was circumcised in his thirteenth year is for an obvious reason, because one who is beginning to be sexually active should trim the ardor of his passion, so as to abstain from illicit unions and limit himself to a legitimate union only.
26 The self-same day was Abraham circumcised and Ismael his son.
27 And all the men of his house, as well they that were born in his house, as the bought servants and strangers, were circumcised with him.
Pseudo-Barnabas · AD 132 Learn fully then, children of love, concerning all things, for Abraham, who first circumcised, did so looking forward in the spirit to Jesus and had received the doctrines of the three letters. For it says, "Abraham circumcised from his household eighteen men and three hundred." What then was the knowledge that was given to him?
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Consider, on the other hand, I ask you, dearly beloved, God's loving kindness and his unspeakable kindness to us. In that case pain and distress resulted from the action and no benefit came from circumcision, except simply making people recognizable through this sign and separating them from the other peoples.