We have read from the book of Genesis the story where it is related that after the appearance of the three men, after the destruction of Sodom and the salvation of Lot, either due to his hospitality or because of his kinship to Abraham, Abraham departed thence, the text says, to the south and came to the king of the Philistines.^[1] It is related also that he made an agreement with Sarah his wife that she should not say that she was Abraham’s wife but his sister.^[2] It is also said that King Abimelech took her, but God went in to Abimelech at night and said to him, You have not touched this woman, and I have not permitted you to touch her, etc.^[3] But after this Abimelech gave Sarah back to her husband and at the same time rebuked Abraham for not having told him the truth. It is also related that, as a prophet, Abraham prayed for Abimelech, and the Lord healed Abimelech and his wife and his handmaids.^[4] And the omnipotent God was concerned to heal even the handmaids of Abimelech, since he had closed up their wombs that they might not bear.^[5] But they began to bear because of Abraham’s prayer.

If anyone wishes to hear and understand these words literally, he ought to gather with the Jews rather than with the Christians. But if he wishes to be a Christian and a disciple of Paul, let him hear Paul saying that the law is spiritual,^[6] declaring that these words are allegorical when the law speaks of Abraham and his wife and sons.^[7] And although no one of us can by any means easily discover what kind of allegories these words should contain, nevertheless one ought to pray that the veil might be removed from the heart. If there is anyone who tries to turn to the Lord^[8]—for the Lord is Spirit^[9]—the Lord might remove the veil of the letter and uncover the light of the Spirit. [Then] we might be able to say that beholding the glory of the Lord with open face we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.^[10]

I think, therefore, that Sarah, which means princess or one who governs empires, represents aretē, which is the virtue of the soul. This virtue then is joined to and clings to a wise and faithful man, even as that wise man who said of wisdom, I have desired to take her for my spouse.^[1] For this reason therefore God says to Abraham, In all that Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice.^[2] This saying, at any rate, is not appropriate to physical marriage, since that well known statement was revealed from heaven which says to the woman concerning the man, In him shall be your refuge, and he shall have dominion over you.^[3] If therefore the husband is said to be lord of his wife, how is it said again to the man, In all that Sarah has said to you, pay attention to her voice?^[4] If anyone therefore has married virtue, let him listen to her voice in all which she shall counsel him.

Abraham therefore does not now wish that virtue be called his wife. For as long as virtue is called his wife, she belongs to him and can be shared with no one. And it is proper that until we reach perfection, virtue of the soul be within us and personal. But when we reach perfection so that we are capable also of teaching others, let us then no longer enclose virtue within our bosom as a wife but as a sister; let us unite her also with others who desire her. For to those who are perfect the divine Word says, Say that wisdom is your sister.^[5] In this way therefore Abraham too said Sarah was his sister. . . .

Nevertheless Pharaoh too once wished to receive Sarah,^[6] but he did not wish with a pure heart; and virtue cannot unite except with purity of heart. For this reason, therefore, Scripture relates that the Lord afflicted Pharaoh with afflictions which were grievous and most severe.^[7] For virtue could not dwell with a destroyer—for this is what Pharaoh means in our language.

Abraham moved from there to the southern land, the text goes on, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, sojourning at Gerar. Moved on from where? From the place where he was camped, where he was given the privilege of hosting the Lord of all with the angels. Moving from there, the text says, he sojourned in Gerar. Notice the life of these good people, how restrained and austere it was, how they shifted place with ease and conducted their life like pilgrims or nomads, pitching their tent at one time in this place, at another in that, as though living in a strange land.^[1] They are unlike us, who live in a strange land as though in our home country, erecting extravagant mansions, porches and covered walks, possessing land, building baths and countless other luxuries.

By contrast see the good man holding all his possessions in his household and flocks alone. [He is] never staying in one place but at one time pitching his tent in Bethel, at another by the oak of Mamre, at another going down to Egypt and now camping at Gerar, submitting to all this with ease and giving clear evidence in every way of gratitude to his own Lord. Despite such wonderful promises and guarantees given him by God, he saw himself beset by such imposing difficulties and encountering such varied and differing trials. Yet he stood unshaken like some piece of steel, showing his godly attitude and proving no less resolute in any of the problems surrounding him. See in the present instance too, dearly beloved, the kind of trial that befell him at Gerar and the wonderful caliber of the just man’s virtue. What everyone else found unbearable and could not bring themselves to accept he put up with without complaint and without demanding from the Lord explanation of what happened, as many people do, even though weighed down with countless burdens of sin. When they encounter some difficulties, they become meddlesome and inquisitive, saying, Why has this or that happened? The just man, on the contrary, didn’t behave like that; hence he enjoyed greater favor from on high. This, after all, is truly the mark of a dutiful servant, not to pry into reasons for what is done by the master but to accept everything in silence and with deep thanks.

The expression had not touched is emphatic, like the statement it is good for a man not to touch a woman,^[1] which means, even apart from sexual union, in no other way either to gaze at or to touch a woman with passion. God, of course, did not permit Abimelech to touch Sarah, though perhaps too because he had perfect self-control in all matters. Such a quality is truly a divine gift.

But let us see what Abimelech said to the Lord. You know, Lord, the text says, that I have done this with a pure heart. This Abimelech acts very differently from Pharaoh. He is not so ignorant and vile but knows that he ought to prepare a pure heart for virtue. And because he wished to receive virtue with a pure heart, therefore God heals him when Abraham prays for him. And God heals not only Abimelech but also his handmaids.

But what is the meaning of that which Scripture adds: And the Lord did not permit him to touch her? If Sarah represents virtue and Abimelech wished to receive virtue with a pure heart, why is it said that the Lord did not permit him to touch her?

Abimelech means my father is king. It seems to me therefore that this Abimelech represents the studious and wise men of the world, who by giving attention to philosophy, although they do not reach the complete and perfect rule of piety, nevertheless perceive that God is the Father and King of all things. Those, therefore, so far as it pertains to ethics (that is, moral philosophy), are acknowledged also to have given attention in some respects to purity of heart and to have sought the inspiration of divine virtue with all their mind and zeal. But God did not permit them to touch her. For this grace was designed to be delivered to the Gentiles not by Abraham, who, although he was great was nevertheless a servant, but by Christ. . . . Abraham was eager that what was said to him be fulfilled through and in himself, that all the nations shall be blessed in you.^[1] Nevertheless the promise to him is established in Isaac, that is, in Christ, as the apostle says: He did not say, And to his seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, which is Christ.^[2]

Nevertheless the Lord heals Abimelech and his wife and his handmaids.^[3]

The reason why the good Lord inflicted this penalty on the king, guiltless though he was of sin, was that he might accede to the just man’s prayers and thus resolve the problem, thereby rendering the just man more famous and well known. You see, all God’s planning and each arrangement he makes have the purpose of rendering conspicuous those who serve him, just like lamps, and making their virtue obvious in every way.

Where does Abraham appear as a prophet? First, he says to Sarah, as he went down to Egypt, You are a beautiful woman, and if the Egyptians see you, they will kill me and acquire you.^[1] Then, when he was bringing Isaac to the mountain to be sacrificed, he says to the servants, Stay here; I and the lad will go up that mountain, and after we have offered sacrifice to the Lord we will return to you.^[2] Next, because either in a unique way or as one of few, he had knowledge of God. But even our Lord bears witness to him that he is a prophet, saying, Abraham greatly desired to see my day,^[3] that is, when he saw the Lord in prophecy.

Do you see how it was not idly or to no purpose that the good man had shifted place? I mean, had he remained at his former encampment, how would all the people of Gerar have been able to realize the degree of favor he enjoyed from God? But all the people were very frightened. A great fear fell on them; they worried about everything. Then Abimelech summoned Abraham, the text goes on. Consider, I ask you, the degree of notoriety with which the just man is now brought into the presence of the king after being treated a little before as beneath contempt, in the manner of a vagabond and stranger. When everyone is assembled in haste, the patriarch is summoned, for the time being ignorant of all this, and he then learns from the king in person what has happened to him on his account at God’s hands.

What was the reason, he asked, that you wanted to embroil me in such a terrible sin? What on earth did you have in mind in doing it? See how Abimelech shows by his own words the threat delivered against him by God. You see, since God had said to him, If you do not restore her, death will come upon you and all that is yours, Abimelech interprets this very thing in saying, What offense did I give you to cause you to bring such a great sin on me and my kingdom? I mean, surely the extent of the punishment did not stop at me? My whole kingdom was set to be utterly destroyed through the deception you contrived. So what did you have in mind in doing it?

Notice at this point, dearly beloved, the just man’s noble purpose in presenting them with a lesson in the knowledge of God under the guise of an explanation. I said to myself, ‘Surely there is no respect for God in this place, and they will kill me on account of my wife.’ I was concerned, he is saying, that as a result of being still held in ignorance you would have no regard for justice, and so I made allowance for the fact that when you discovered she was my wife you would, out of lust, have wanted to kill me—that was the reason I did it. See how in a few words he takes them to task and at the same time teaches them that the person who has God uppermost in mind ought commit no crime but rather fear that unsleeping eye and in view of the heavy judgment impending from that source have regard for justice.

Then, from a wish to make excuses for himself, he said, Don’t think I lied to you in that way; ‘She is my sister on my father’s side, though not my mothers, and she became my wife all the same.’ She claims the same father as I . . . and hence I called her my sister. So don’t condemn me. Even if the fear of death brought me to this sorry pass and the dread of your killing me but sparing her, still what was said by me was not a lie in the way you imply. See what great pains the good man takes to show that he had not told a lie even in this matter. For you to learn everything precisely from me (he is saying), listen also to the plan we formed between us when God led me out from my father’s home. Observe in this case, I ask you, the good man’s wisdom. He teaches them by way of story that from the very beginning he had a special relationship with God and that God had personally moved him from home and led him there so that the king might learn that he was one of those people who had great confidence in God.

Whenever we leave behind customs and laws in which we were registered by our fathers, we believe it is God who is leading us forth from the house of our fathers. But you will understand that the same is true, in light of the saying Any one who commits sin is born of the devil,^[1] of one who has in every way abandoned sin. For such a one has been led out by God from the house of his father.

Do you see, dearly beloved, God’s inventive wisdom? I mean, the man who was fearful of death and took every means to be able to avoid it, not only did avoid it but was granted as well great confidence and became immediately famous. This, you see, is the way things are with God. Not only does he deliver from distress those who make every effort to strive boldly against the onset of temptation, but also he guarantees them such serenity in this very distress that we have complete tranquillity and achieve great material prosperity. See now the attention of the king to the just man. Not only does he show his regard with so many gifts, but also he grants him the right to occupy the land. ‘Behold,’ he said, ‘my land is before you; settle wherever you please.’ You see, once he had learned that it was on his account and through his prayers that his life had been spared, he was anxious now to shower attention in this way on him, as a benefactor and champion, the man who was a stranger, a vagabond, one completely unknown.

But it does not seem to me superfluous that mention is made not only of Abimelech’s wife but also of his handmaids, especially in that place that says, God healed them, and they bore children. For he had closed [their wombs] that they might not bear.^[1] So far as we can perceive in such difficult passages, we think natural philosophy can be called Abimelech’s wife, but his handmaids represent the contrivances of dialectic which are diverse and various by virtue of the nature of the schools.

Abraham, meanwhile, desires to share the gift of divine virtue also with the Gentiles, but it is not yet time for the grace of God to pass over from the former people to the Gentiles. For the apostle also, although under another viewpoint and figure, says nevertheless, A woman is bound to the law so long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is loosed from the law so that she is no longer an adulteress if she is with another man.^[2] First, therefore, the law of the letter must die so that, thus free at last, the soul may now marry the spirit and receive the marriage of the New Testament. Now this present time is the time of the calling of the Gentiles and of the death of the law, in which time free souls, at last loosed from the law of the husband, can marry a new husband, Christ.

But if you wish to be taught how the law is dead, look and see. Where now are the sacrifices? Where now is the altar? Where is the temple? Where are the purifications? Where is the celebration of the Passover? Is not the law dead in all these things? Or let those friends and defenders of the letter keep the letter of the law if they can.

According to this spiritual interpretation, therefore, Pharaoh, that is, an impure man and a destroyer, could not at all receive Sarah, that is, virtue. Later Abimelech, that is, he who was living purely and philosophically, could indeed receive her, because he was seeking with a pure heart, but the time had not yet come.^[3] Virtue therefore remains with Abraham; it remains with circumcision, until the time should come that in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom dwells all the fullness of deity corporeally,^[4] complete and perfect virtue might pass over to the church of the Gentiles.

At that time, therefore, the house of Abimelech and his handmaids, whom the Lord healed, will bear sons of the church. For this is the time in which the barren will bear and in which many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband.^[5] For the Lord opened the womb of the barren and made it fruitful, so that she bears a nation all at once.^[6] But also the saints cry out and say, Lord, from fear of you we have conceived in the womb and given birth; we have produced the spirits of your salvation on the earth.^[7] Whence also Paul likewise says, My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you.^[8]

Such sons, therefore, the whole church of God produces, and such it brings forth. For he who sows in the flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption.^[9] Now the sons of the Spirit are those about whom also the apostle says, The woman shall be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and purity.’’^[10]

Let the church of God therefore in this way understand the births, in this way receive the procreations, in this way uphold the deeds of the fathers with a fitting and honorable interpretation, in this way not disgrace the words of the Holy Spirit with foolish and Jewish fables^[11] but reckon them to be full of honor, full of virtue and usefulness. Otherwise, what edification will we receive when we read that Abraham, such a great patriarch, not only lied to king Abimelech but also surrendered his wife’s chastity to him? In what way does the wife of so great a patriarch edify us if she is supposed to have been exposed to defilements through marital indulgence? These things are what the Jews suppose, along with those who are friends of the letter, not of the spirit.

But we, comparing spiritual things with spiritual,^[12] are made spiritual in deed and understanding in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs glory and sovereignty forever and ever. Amen.^[13]

Unless Sarah received renewed youth in the seed that she had received, Abimelech would not have desired a woman ninety years old. Then Abraham prayed and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female slaves so that they bore children, because from the time [Abimelech] had decided to marry Sarah until he returned her, pangs of childbirth struck all the women in his household; they would kneel down, but they could not give birth.