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. When God saw that he had been purified like gold in a furnace^[1] for a long period of time and had rendered the just man’s virtue more conspicuous and resplendent, Scripture says, When Abram was ninetynine years old, God appeared to him again.^[2] Why did God delay so long? Not simply that we should get to know the just man’s endurance and his great virtue, but for us to see as well the extraordinary degree of his power. You see, when nature lost its potency and was now useless for childbearing, his body being wasted and chilled with old age, God put into effect the promise to demonstrate his peculiar power.

The words be blameless are addressed to Abraham, to whom had been given the spirit of wisdom, holy, marvelously agile,^[1] unpolluted.^[2] The soul of the just man, therefore, must be in training night and day, ever on the lookout, never indulging in sleep^[3] but on perpetual watch, intent on God, so as to understand the things that are and to comprehend the causes of each. But wisdom is also the interpreter of future things: She knows the things of old and infers the things to come. She understands turns of speech and the solutions of riddles. She has foreknowledge of signs and wonders and of the outcome of seasons and times.^[4] One who has obtained her, therefore, cannot but be good and perfect, because he possesses every virtue and is the very image of goodness. Even the sophists^[5] of this world drew from this text a definition of such a wise man: The wise man is (by definition) a good man and an accomplished communicator.

Many responses are given to Abraham by God, but they are not all delivered to one and the same man. For some are to Abram and some to Abraham; that is, some are expressed after the change of name and others while he was still known by his name given at birth. And first indeed, before the change of name, God delivered to Abraham the oracle that says, Go out from your country and from your kindred and from your father’s house, and the rest.^[1] But no order is given in this about the covenant of God, no order about circumcision. For it was not possible while he was still Abram and was bearing the name of his physical birth to receive the covenant of God and the mark of circumcision. But when he went out from his country and his kindred, then responses of a more sacred kind are delivered to him at this time. First God says to him, You shall no longer be called Abram, but Abraham shall be your name. Then at once he received the covenant of God and accepted circumcision as a sign of faith that he could not accept while he was still in his father’s house and in the relationship of flesh and while he was still called Abram.

God changes Abraham’s name, adding one letter. Instead of Abram he is called Abraham, that is, instead of useless father—such is the interpretation of the name^[1]—he is called sublime father, chosen father; or, alternatively, from being simply father he becomes father of a son. He was useless because he did not know God. He was made the chosen one after he had come to know God. He was father when he had had offspring through the slave girl, but he was not father of a son, because he was not truly his son who had not been born of a legitimate marriage. When Sarah gave birth, he became father of a son.

However, a question arises here which should not be passed over and which may perhaps also, quite independently, be bothering some of you. What does it mean, that when the name of Abraham, this man Jacob’s grandfather, was changed (he was previously called Abram, you see, and God changed his name and said, you shall not be called Abram, but Abraham)? From that time on he was never called Abram. Search in the Scriptures, and you will see that earlier on, before he received another name, he was only called Abram. After he had received the new one, he was only called Abraham. This man Jacob, however, heard the same words when he received another name: You shall not be called Jacob, but you shall be called Israel. Now search the Scriptures, and see how he was always called either name, both Jacob and Israel. When Abram got another name, he was never called anything but Abraham; when Jacob got another name, he was called Jacob and Israel.

The name Abraham was to receive its explanation in this world, because it was here that he became the father of many nations, from which his name is derived. The name Israel, on the other hand, belongs to the next world, where we will see God. So the people of God, the Christian people, is in this world and this time both Jacob and Israel; Jacob in our actual situation, Israel in our hopeful expectation.

Let us turn now to the gift of God than which nothing is more pregnant with promise. For what could be better than wisdom, what could be worse than vanity, what could be more degrading than superstition? So it is that as to one to whom he had promised the fullness of perfection, God says, I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. For the whole world of riches belongs to the faithful person,^[1] and he will increase, not diminish like the fool. Abraham is made into nations, that is to say, his faith is transferred to the nations and to kings of the world, who have become believers, submitting to the authority of the Lord Jesus, to whom it is said, To you will kings offer gifts.^[2] Nor is this absurd, because from the stock of Abraham there will be not only kings in rank but also those who are kings in the sense that they are not slaves to sin, people who cannot be overcome by evil because death has no dominion over them. We have seen too that the discoveries of the virtuous mind are also regal and sovereign, because, like Abraham, the virtuous mind does not have a lower-class progeny but abounds rather in royal offspring. To it the world is given in full possession, so that it might rule the body, not being captivated by carnal pleasures, but that submissive flesh might cater to the mind in appropriate servitude. But the figure of Abraham clearly conveys the mystery of the church, which through the inheritance of faith takes possession of the whole world. Well is he called chosen father of the sound,^[3] father of faith, father of the pious confession.

I know that this part of the text is disturbing to many. Indeed, if circumcision is a good thing, it should be maintained today as well. If it is useless, it never should have been mandated in the first place, particularly not by divine precept. But, inasmuch as the apostle said, Abraham received the sign of circumcision,^[1] certainly the sign is not the reality itself but points to another reality. That is, it is not the truth but points to the truth. In fact, Paul expounds this teaching in the following terms: He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of justice and of faith.^[2] For this reason it is not inappropriate for us to understand that bodily circumcision is a sign of spiritual circumcision. Therefore the sign remained until the truth arrived. The Lord Jesus arrived, he who says, I am the way and the truth and the life,^[3] because he circumcises the whole person in truth, not a minor bodily member in sign. He abolished the sign; he installed the truth, because once that which was perfect arrived, that which was partial was abolished. Thus the circumcision of a part ceased when the circumcision of the whole shone forth. For it is now no longer man in part but the whole man who is saved in body, saved in soul. For it is written, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.^[4] This is the perfect circumcision, because through the sacrifice of the body the soul is redeemed, of which the Lord himself says, Whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.^[5]

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.^[1] Hear, therefore, how Paul, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth,^[2] teaches the church of Christ about the mystery of circumcision. Behold, he says, the mutilation—speaking about the Jews who are mutilated in the flesh—for we, he says, are the circumcision, who serve God in spirit and have no confidence in the flesh.^[3] This is one opinion of Paul about circumcision. Hear also another: For he is not a Jew who is so outwardly; nor is that circumcision which is outwardly in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly with circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter.^[4] Does it not seem more appropriate to you to speak of such a circumcision among the saints and friends of God than to speak of a pruning of the flesh?

But the novelty of the expression may perhaps deter not only the Jews but even some of our brothers. For Paul, who introduces circumcision of the heart, seems to assume things that are impossible. For how shall it be possible that a member be circumcised that, covered by the internal viscera, lies hidden even from the view of men?

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? Indeed, the very word circumcision prescribes this, that every stench of impurity be wiped away and that the stimulus of the passions be removed.

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. Indeed, Scripture also teaches this when it says, Circumcise the hardness of your heart.^[1] Even here many interpret the text to be saying, Circumcise every male of yours, that is, your minds; for nothing is more virile than the mind. Moreover, because the male is also holy, it is said, Every male opening the womb shall be called holy for the Lord.^[2] But what is holier than the mind that produces the seeds of good thoughts by which it opens the womb of the soul, which was closed by the sterility that prevented it from childbearing, so that it might give birth to invisible generations, obviously through that spiritual womb of which Isaiah said, We have conceived in the womb and given birth to the spirit of salvation?^[3] So what is mandated is the intelligible circumcision of the heart as well as the sensible circumcision of the flesh: the former in truth, the latter in sign. Circumcision then is twofold because it requires the mortification of the mind and the body. The Egyptians in fact circumcise their males in the fourteenth year, and it is said that their women too are circumcised in the same year, because in that year the passion of virility begins to flare up and the menstrual cycles of women commence. But the promulgator of the eternal law requires the mark of carnal circumcision only in males, because in the sexual relationship the man is more impetuous than the woman, and for this reason he wished to check his passionate impulse by the mark of circumcision. Or, because men regard their error as licit, so long as they avoid adultery, and are convinced that the practice of prostitution is in conformity to the natural law, while the truth is that neither men nor woman are permitted to have sexual relationships outside of marriage. But according to a deeper interpretation, the intention is to explain that if the mind has once been purified and circumcised, freed from illicit desires and thoughts, it binds the soul to its own chastity, and, having infused it with purity of the senses, makes it capable of generating good offspring.

The law orders that the baby boy be circumcised on the eighth day: evidently a precept that harbors a mystery, because this is precisely the day of the resurrection. Indeed, the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday. For this reason, if the day of resurrection finds us circumcised and free from excesses and crimes, purified from every filth, cleansed from bodily vices, if you go forth from this day clean, you will rise clean. ^[4] THE COVENANT IN YOUR FLESH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: God’s covenant is in the flesh of the person who does not fight on the terms of the flesh^[1] and who always carries about in his body the death of Jesus.^{[2] [3]}

Nothing done unwittingly is declared punishable by the law, since the law makes allowance even for one who claims to have committed unintentional homicide.^[1] 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. They, it is thought, should be punished as having made light of the precept of the law. But others think that by the use of hyperbole, the text expresses anger with respect to the infant child, as much as it appears to do, in order that the inevitable punishment might be brought upon those who have reached the use of reason and who have broken the law.

Not without reason or by excessive reaction do many find this passage disturbing, in that the Lord should say, Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant. Indeed, it is not taken lightly that the negligence of the parents could bring punishment upon an eight-day-old infant, so much so that his soul would perish, while even in the case of homicide—committed, however, by one who had unintentionally killed a man—the law stipulated to what cities the perpetrator might flee to obtain impunity for the shedding of blood.^[1] How is it possible, then, that for the case of homicide the involuntary character of the killing is taken into consideration, while here no account is taken of infancy, in which there could have been no fault whatever, whether of negligence or of purpose—unless perhaps some might think that the parents receive an even graver punishment in the death of their son? But it is regarded as unjust when the crime of a wrongdoer is inflicted on an innocent party or when a person is included in the punishment of another when he is not responsible to the same degree. For this reason some think that the passage is saying that the parent is to be exterminated, that it is his soul that should perish, not that of the baby. But the case is not at all clear, even if this opinion seems to be supported by the comment because he has violated my covenant. This then seems to refer to one who is capable of understanding, not to the infant child. Others maintain that the Lord God is threatening the parents, even if silently, with still graver punishments, so that as adults they will have even greater fear when [they see that] not even children are spared.

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. You see, he was aware of their lustful tendencies in not practicing restraint, even though it had been drummed into them countless times to refrain from their irrational impulses. Consequently he gave them a perpetual reminder with this sign of circumcision, as though fastening them with a chain. He set limits and rules to prevent them overstepping the mark instead of staying within their own people and having no association with those other peoples but rather keeping the patriarch’s line uncontaminated. In this way even the fulfillment of the promises could be achieved for their benefit. It is like a man of selfcontrol and good sense having a disobedient child; he puts limits and rules on him not to show his face outside the front door or to be seen by passersby. In fact, he oftentimes ties him up by the feet so as to succeed in this way in getting the better of his extreme indiscipline. Well, in just the same way the loving Lord also placed this sign of circumcision in their flesh, like shackles on their feet, so that with this reminder at home they might have no further need of instruction from others.

[God] said, And you shall not call your wife Sarai but Sarah, that is, You shall not call her ‘my ruler’ but ‘ruler.’ [This change teaches] clearly that since she had become a companion and sharer of such great faith, he should call her [by a name that expressed what] he understood her to be: not exclusively the ruler of his own house but ruler absolutely, that is, the parent of all rightly believing women. Hence, when blessed Peter was urging believing women from the nations to the virtues of humility, chastity and modesty, he remembered our mother Sarah with due praise, saying, Just as Sarah was obedient to Abraham, calling him lord, you are her daughters when you do rightly and do not fear any disturbance.^[1]

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. But when old age was added to the barrenness, he laughed in his heart. That his Lord would do these two things for him was a marvel to him.

One should consider the fact that Abraham was uncircumcised when God called him, and he was still uncircumcised when he was promised a legitimate son as heir. You are hereby invited to believe that he is not only the father of the Jews, as they claim, but the progenitor, through faith, of all believers. Sarah also, before the circumcision of her husband and by the addition of one letter to her name, receives the blessing of no small gift, so that she might have the primacy of virtue and of grace. God promises that from her nations and kings of peoples will come, so that in her might be established the type not of the synagogue but of the church. The fact that Abraham laughed when he had been promised a son through her was an expression not of unbelief but of joy. Indeed, he fell on his face—in worship, which means he believed. And he added, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? And he said, O that Ishmael might live in thy sight! He is not incredulous with regard to the promises, nor is he greedy in what he asks for in prayer. I have no doubt that you will come through, granting a son to an old man of a hundred years and that, as the author of nature, you will effectively stretch its limits. Blessed indeed is the one on whom this gift is bestowed; but I will be doubly favored if even this Ishmael here, whom I begot from the household slave, should live in your presence. And so the Lord approved Abraham’s sentiments, did not deny his request and confirmed his own promises. ^[1] HE MARVELED. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He was not laughing because he did not believe, as some might imagine, but rejoicing because he did. He laughed is sometimes put in place of he rejoiced, as it is also in the Gospels.^[1] And for this reason, he also fell on his face and marveled in his heart. ^[2]

Isaac is the first whose name is given by command of God, for it is he who gives his name, by prophecy, to the blessed laughter that follows upon the weeping here below. And in a playful way, you will say that every person is Isaac who has attained that promise: they shall laugh.^[1]