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he says, they have done things worthy of utter destruction; but it is not right that the punishment be inflicted out of foreknowledge before the sin; but that they had pious men at that time, is clear from Melchizedek and Abimelech and those inhabiting Hebron. For they too deemed the patriarch worthy of great respect; and it is possible to hear them crying out: "You are a king from God among us. In the choicest of our tombs bury your dead." LXVII And why did he command "a three-year-old heifer and a three-year-old ram" and the rest to be sacrificed? 63 These were riddles of the things that were to happen to the race; therefore after the sacrifices he added: "Know for certain that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not its own"; and he added: "and in the fourth generation they will return here." For this reason he commanded three of the clean four-footed animals, each three years old, to be sacrificed, as a declaration of the three generations, which will continue to be sojourners; the turtledove indicated that generation, which as it were flew away and came out of Egypt, and encamped in the desert; for this bird loves the wilderness. But the pigeon signified the other generation, which received the promised land; for the animal is tame and stays in houses. For this reason, he did not divide some, as signifying the release from slavery, but he divided the four-footed animals, since they signified the affliction in Egypt. But the birds that flew down upon the divided pieces, which the patriarch drove away from the sacrifices, prefigured the murderous intention of the Egyptians; which the Lord God rendered ineffective, confirming his promises to Abraham; for just as in the type Abraham drove away the flesh-eating birds, so the honor of Abraham punished the Egyptians. But that the smoking furnace and the lamps of fire were seen around sunset, indicated both that the sacrifices were accepted; and it also prefigured the epiphany of the God of all that would happen at the end of the foretold time; for he appeared through fire both to Moses the lawgiver and after this to all the people; and besides these things he taught that he would later legislate for these animals to be offered. But some 64 say, that God, wishing to show the promise to be firm, made the covenants according to the prevailing custom; for they are accustomed, as they say, dividing the sacrifices in two, thus to make their oaths. But I have set down both these things and those, so that those who read may accept what seems more true. LXVIII Many of the licentious take as a pretext for lust that the patriarch Abraham had a concubine Each of the things done is judged by the purpose of those who do them. So then let us also examine the matter of Hagar. And if we see the patriarch having been enslaved to desire, let us call the deed reprehensible; but if his wife showed the suffering of her nature, and said that the Creator had made her womb barren, and declared her desire for childbearing, and for this reason beseeched him to have relations with Hagar, so that she might devise a child for herself from there, in what did Abraham sin, with neither nature nor any written law at that time forbidding polygamy, and his wife being barren, but entreating her husband to be joined with the handmaid, not that he might be a slave to pleasure but so that he by nature, and she by adoption, might be called parents of children? For that divine man was superior to shameful pleasure, not only these things, but also what follows testifies; for when Hagar became pregnant, she took her pregnancy as a pretext for boasting, and raged against her mistress, Sarah was distressed, and cried out against the patriarch unjustly; but he, receiving the insolence very gently, gave the handmaid to her for punishment, not even waiting for the carried infant to be born; "Behold," he says, 65 "your handmaid is in your hands, do with her as it is pleasing to you." LXIX Why ever did God command him to be circumcised? Having foretold the sojourning, he devises a certain protection for piety, so that mixing with impious men, they might not be corrupted

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φησίν, ἄξια πανωλεθρίας δεδράκασιν· οὐ χρὴ δὲ πρὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐκ προγνώσεως ἐπενεχθῆναι τὴν τιμωρίαν· ὅτι δὲ εἶχον κατ' ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν εὐσεβεῖς, δῆλον ἐκ τοῦ Μελχισεδὲκ καὶ τοῦ Ἀβιμέλεχ καὶ τῶν τὴν Χεβρὼν οἰκούντων. καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι πολλῆς τὸν πατριάρχην θεραπείας ἠξίωσαν· καὶ ἔστιν ἀκοῦσαι αὐτῶν βοών των· " βασιλεὺς εἶ σὺ παρὰ Θεοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν. ἐν τοῖς ἐκλεκτοῖς μνημείοις ἡμῶν θάψον τὸν νεκρόν σου ". LXVII ∆ιὰ τί δὲ τυθῆναι προσέταξε " δάμαλιν τριετίζουσαν καὶ κριὸν τριετίζοντα " καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς; 63 Αἰνίγματα ταῦτα ἦν τῶν τῷ γένει συμβησομένων· τοιγάρτοι μετὰ τὰς θυσίας ἐπήγαγε· " γινώσκων γνώσῃ ὅτι πάροικον ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα σου ἐν γῇ οὐκ ἰδίᾳ" · καὶ προσέθη κε· " τετάρτῃ δὲ γενεᾷ ἀποστραφήσονται ὧδε ". διὰ τοῦτο τρία τῶν καθαρῶν τετραπόδων καὶ ἕκαστον τριετὲς τυθῆναι προσέταξε εἰς δήλωσιν τῶν τριῶν γενεῶν, αἳ παροικοῦσαι διατελέσου σιν· ἡ δὲ τρυγὼν τὴν γενεὰν ἐκείνην ἐνέφηνε, τὴν οἱονεὶ ἀποπτᾶσαν μὲν καὶ ἐξελθοῦσαν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, ἐν δὲ τῇ ἐρήμῳ κατασκηνώσασαν· φιλέ ρημον γὰρ τόδε τὸ ὄρνεον. ἡ δέ γε περιστερὰ τὴν ἄλλην γενεὰν παρε δήλου, ἣ τὴν ἐπηγγελμένην ἀπελάμβανε γῆν· ἥμερον γὰρ τὸ ζῷον καὶ ταῖς οἰκίαις ἐμφιλοχωροῦν. διά τοι τοῦτο, τὰ μὲν οὐ διεῖλεν, ὡς τὴν τῆς δουλείας ἀπαλλαγὴν αἰνιττόμενα, τὰ δὲ τετράποδα διεῖλεν, ἐπειδὴ τὴν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ κακουχίαν ἐσήμαινε. τὰ δέ γε ἐφιπτάμενα τοῖς διχοτομή μασιν ὄρνεα, ἅπερ ὁ πατριάρχης ἐκ τῶν ἱερείων ἐξήλαυνε, τὴν φονικὴν τῶν αἰγυπτίων προῃνίττετο γνώμην· ἣν ἄπρακτον ἀπέφηνεν ὁ δεσπότης Θεός, τὰς πρὸς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ ἐμπεδῶν ὑποσχέσεις· ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν τῷ τύπῳ τοὺς σαρκοβόρους ὄρνεις ἐξήλαυνεν Ἀβραάμ, οὕτως ἡ τιμὴ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ τοὺς αἰγυπτίους ἐκόλασε. τὸ δὲ περὶ ἡλίου δυσμὰς ὀφθῆναι τὸν καπνι ζόμενον κλίβανον καὶ τὰς τοῦ πυρὸς λαμπάδας, ἐδήλου μὲν καὶ τὸ δεχθῆ ναι τὰ θύματα· προεσήμαινε δὲ καὶ τὴν παρὰ τὸ τέλος τοῦ προρρηθέντος χρόνου ἐσομένην ἐπιφάνειαν τοῦ τῶν ὅλων Θεοῦ· διὰ πυρὸς γὰρ ἐπεφάνη καὶ Μωϋσῇ τῷ νομοθέτῃ καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα παντὶ τῷ λαῷ· ἐδίδασκε δὲ πρὸς τούτοις καὶ ὅτι ταῦτα ὕστερον νομοθετήσει τὰ ζῷα προσφέρεσθαι. τινὲς 64 δέ φασιν, ὅτι βεβαίαν δεῖξαι βουλόμενος τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν ὁ Θεός, κατὰ τὸ κρατοῦν ἔθος ἐποιήσατο τὰς συνθήκας· εἰώθασι γάρ, ὥς φασι, διχῆ τὰ ἱερεῖα διαιροῦντες, οὕτω ποιεῖσθαι τοὺς ὅρκους. ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ ταῦτα κἀκεῖνα τέθεικα, ἵνα τὸ δοκοῦν ἀληθέστερον οἱ ἐντυγχάνοντες δέξωνται. LXVIII Πολλοὶ τῶν ἀκολάστων ἀφορμὴν εἰς λαγνείαν λαμβάνουσι τὸν πατρι άρχην Ἀβραὰμ παλλακὴν ἐσχηκέναι Ἕκαστον τῶν πραττομένων ἐκ τοῦ σκοποῦ κρίνεται τῶν διαπραττομένων. οὕτω τοίνυν καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὴν Ἄγαρ σκοπήσωμεν. κἂν ἐπιθυμίᾳ δεδου λευκότα τὸν πατριάρχην ἴδωμεν, νεμεσητὸν τὸ πρᾶγμα καλέσωμεν· εἰ δὲ τῆς ὁμοζύγου τῆς φύσεως ἐπιδειξάσης τὸ πάθος, καὶ τὸν ποιητὴν ἄγονον δεδημιουργηκέναι τὴν μήτραν εἰρηκυίας, καὶ τῆς παιδοποιΐας δηλωσάσης τὸν πόθον, καὶ τούτου χάριν ἱκετευσάσης ὁμιλῆσαι τῇ Ἄγαρ, ἵνα αὐτῇ παιδίον ἐκεῖθεν ἐπινοήσῃ, τί ἐξήμαρτεν Ἀβραὰμ οὔτε τῆς φύ σεως οὔτε νόμου τινὸς ἐγγράφου τηνικαῦτα τὴν πολυγαμίαν κωλύοντος, τῆς δὲ ὁμοζύγου στερίφης μὲν οὔσης, λιπαρησάσης δὲ τὸν ἄνδρα τῇ παι δίσκῃ μιγῆναι, οὐχ ἵνα ἡδυπαθείᾳ δουλεύσῃ ἀλλ' ὅπως αὐτὸς μὲν φύσει, αὐτὴ δὲ θέσει, παίδων κληθῶσι γεννήτορες; ὅτι γὰρ κρείττων ἦν αἰσχρᾶς ἡδονῆς ὁ θεῖος ἐκεῖνος ἀνήρ, οὐ μόνον ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς μαρτυ ρεῖ· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἐγκύμων ἡ Ἄγαρ γενομένη μεγαλαυχίας πρόφασιν ἔσχε τὴν κύησιν, καὶ κατὰ τῆς δεσποίνης ἐλύττησεν, ἐδυσχέραινε μὲν ἡ Σάρρα, καὶ τοῦ πατριάρχου κατεβόησεν οὐκ ὀρθῶς· ὁ δὲ μάλα ἠπίως τὴν παροι νίαν δεξάμενος, ἐξέδωκεν αὐτῇ τὴν παιδίσκην εἰς τιμωρίαν, οὐδὲ τεχ θῆναι προσμείνας τὸ κυοφορούμενον βρέφος· " ἰδού, γάρ φησιν, 65 ἡ παιδίσκη σου ἐν ταῖς χερσί σου, χρῶ αὐτῇ ὡς ἐάν σοι ἀρεστὸν ᾖ ". LXIX Τί δήποτε περιτμηθῆναι αὐτὸν προσέταξεν ὁ Θεός; Προειπὼν τὴν παροικίαν, φυλακήν τινα μηχανᾶται τῇ εὐσεβείᾳ, ἵνα τοῖς δυσσεβέσιν ἀνθρώποις ἀναμιγέντες, μὴ διαφθείρωσι