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Isaac was born? Not according to the law of nature, nor according to the power of the flesh, but according to the power of promise. What is, according to the power of promise? At this time I will come to you, and Sarah will have a son. This promise, therefore, and the word of God, both formed and begat Isaac. For what does it matter that there was a womb and the belly of a woman? For not the power of the womb, but the strength of the promise, gave birth to the child. So also we are born through the words of God; for in the font of the waters are the words of God that beget us and form us; for being baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit we are born. This is a birth not of nature, but of the promise of God. For just as, having foretold the birth of Isaac, He then fulfilled it; so also He proclaimed ours many ages beforehand through all the prophets, and after these things brought it to pass. Do you see how great a thing He showed, and how, having promised something great, He accomplished it with all ease? But if the Jews should say that the words, In Isaac shall your seed be called, mean that those born of Isaac are reckoned to him for a seed, it would be necessary for the Idumeans and all those descended from him to be called his sons; for their forefather Esau was a son of Isaac. But now not only are they not called children, but they are also greatly estranged. Do you see that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but also that in nature itself the birth from above through baptism is prefigured? If you speak to me of the womb, I too can speak of the water. But 60.554 just as here everything is of the Spirit, so there everything is of the promise; for the womb was colder than water on account of its barrenness and old age. Let us then learn our noble birth with all exactness, and let us display a life worthy of it; for it has nothing carnal or earthly. Therefore let us not either. For not sleep, nor the will of the flesh and embraces, nor the gadfly of desire, but God's love for humanity did it all. And just as there, when her age was despaired of, so also here, when the old age of sins had come upon us, suddenly the man arose new, and we have all become children of God, and the seed of Abraham. Not only this, but Rebecca also having conceived by one, Isaac our father. The question was a great one; wherefore he also stirs up many reasonings, and from every quarter attempts to solve the difficulty. For if it is paradoxical and new for them to fall away after so many promises, it is much more paradoxical for us to enter into their good things, we who expected nothing of the sort. And the same thing happened, as if a king's son, having the promise to succeed to his rule, were to be cast out into the rank of the dishonored, and in his place a condemned man, full of countless evils, cast out from prison, were to receive the rule that belonged to him. For what could you say? he says. That the son is unworthy? But this one is also unworthy, and much more so. Therefore, it was necessary either to be punished together, or to be honored together. Something of this sort has happened in the case of the Gentiles, and in the case of the Jews, and much more paradoxical than this. For that all are unworthy, he has shown in what has been said, saying: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; but the new thing is that, while all were unworthy, the Gentiles alone were saved. After these things, one might raise another question again, he says. For if God was not going to fulfill His promises to them, for what reason did He promise them? For men, not knowing the future, are often deceived, and promise their gifts to those who are not worthy to receive them; but He who foreknows both the present and the future, and clearly understands that they will make themselves unworthy of the promises, and for this reason will receive nothing of what has been said, for what reason does He make the promise? 5. How then did Paul solve these things? By showing who Israel is, to whom He made the promise. For when this is shown, that other point is also demonstrated with it, that all the promises have been fulfilled.

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ὁ Ἰσαὰκ ἐγεννήθη; Οὐ κατὰ νόμον φύσεως, οὐδὲ κατὰ δύναμιν σαρκὸς, ἀλλὰ κατὰ δύναμιν ἐπαγγελίας. Τί ἐστι, κατὰ δύναμιν ἐπαγγελίας; Κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον ἐλεύσομαι πρὸς σὲ, καὶ ἔσται τῇ Σάῤῥᾳ υἱός. Αὕτη ἡ ἐπαγγελία τοίνυν, καὶ τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν Ἰσαὰκ διέπλασέ τε καὶ ἐγέννησε. Τί γὰρ, εἰ καὶ μήτρα ὑπέκειτο καὶ νηδὺς γυναικός; Οὐ γὰρ ἡ δύναμις τῆς νηδύος, ἀλλ' ἡ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ἰσχὺς ἔτεκε τὸ παιδίον. Οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς γεννώμεθα διὰ τῶν ῥημάτων τοῦ Θεοῦ· ἐν γὰρ τῇ κολυμβήθρᾳ τῶν ὑδάτων ῥήματά ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰ γεννῶντα ἡμᾶς καὶ διαπλάττοντα· εἰς γὰρ ὄνομα Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου Πνεύματος βαπτιζόμενοι γεννώμεθα. Αὕτη δὲ οὐχὶ φύσεως, ἀλλ' ἐπαγγελίας τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡ γέννησις. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὴν τοῦ Ἰσαὰκ προαγορεύσας γέννησιν, τότε αὐτὴν ἐπλήρωσεν· οὕτω καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν πρὸ πολλῶν προανεφώνησε χρόνων διὰ τῶν προφητῶν ἁπάντων, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εἰς ἔργον ἐξήγαγεν. Εἶδες ἡλίκον ἀπέδειξε, καὶ πῶς μέγα ἐπαγγειλάμενος κατεσκεύασεν αὐτὸ μετ' εὐκολίας ἁπάσης; Εἰ δὲ λέγοιεν Ἰουδαῖοι, ὅτι τὸ, Ἐν Ἰσαὰκ κληθήσεταί σοισπέρμα, τοῦτο εἶναι τὸ τοὺς ἐκ τοῦ Ἰσαὰκ γεννωμένους αὐτῷ λογίζεσθαι εἰς σπέρμα, ἔδει καὶ τοὺς Ἰδουμαίους καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀπ' ἐκείνου υἱοὺς χρηματίζειν αὐτοῦ· ὁ γὰρ πρόγονος αὐτῶν Ἡσαῦ υἱὸς ἦν τοῦ Ἰσαάκ. Νῦν δὲ οὐ μόνον οὐ χρηματίζουσι παῖδες, ἀλλὰ καὶ σφόδρα εἰσὶν ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι. Ὁρᾷς, ὅτι οὐ τὰ τέκνα τῆς σαρκὸς, ταῦτα τέκνα τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ φύσει ἡ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἄνωθεν προϋπογράφεται γέννησις; Εἰ δὲ τὴν μήτραν μοι λέγεις, ἔχω κἀγὼ τὸ ὕδωρ εἰπεῖν. Ἀλλ' 60.554 ὥσπερ ἐνταῦθα τὸ πᾶν τοῦ Πνεύματος, οὕτω κἀκεῖ τὸ πᾶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας· τοῦ γὰρ ὕδατος ψυχροτέρα ἦν ἡ μήτρα διὰ τὴν στείρωσιν καὶ τὸ γῆρας. Καταμάθωμεν τοίνυν ἡμῶν τὴν εὐγένειαν μετὰ ἀκριβείας ἁπάσης, καὶ ἀξίαν αὐτῆς ἐπιδειξώμεθα πολιτείαν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἔχει τι σαρκικὸν οὐδὲ γεῶδες. Μὴ τοίνυν μηδὲ ἡμεῖς. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ὕπνος, οὐδὲ θέλημα σαρκὸς καὶ περιπλοκαὶ, οὐδὲ οἶστρος ἐπιθυμίας, ἀλλὰ Θεοῦ φιλανθρωπία τὸ πᾶν ἐποίησε. Καὶ καθάπερ ἐκεῖ τῆς ἡλικίας ἀπογνωσθείσης, οὕτω καὶ ἐνταῦθα τοῦ γήρως τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐπελθόντος, ἐξαίφνης νέος ἀνῆλθεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καὶ πάντες τοῦ Θεοῦ γεγόναμεν παῖδες, καὶ σπέρμα τοῦ Ἀβραάμ. Οὐ μόνον δὲ, ἀλλὰ καὶ Ῥεβέκκα ἐξ ἑνὸς κοίτην ἔχουσα Ἰσαὰκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν. Μέγα τὸ ζητούμενον ἦν· διὸ καὶ πολλοὺς κινεῖ λογισμοὺς, καὶ πανταχόθεν ἐπιχειρεῖ λῦσαι τὴν ἀπορίαν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ παράδοξον καὶ καινὸν τὸ μετὰ τοσαύτας ἐπαγγελίας ἐκπεσεῖν ἐκείνους, πολλῷ παραδοξότερον, τὸ καὶ ἡμᾶς εἰς τὰ ἐκείνων εἰσελθεῖν ἀγαθὰ, τοὺς μηδὲν προσδοκήσαντας τοιοῦτον. Καὶ ταυτὸν ἐγένετο, οἷον ἂν εἰ βασιλέως υἱὸς ἐπαγγελίας ἔχων τὴν ἀρχὴν διαδέξασθαι τὴν ἐκείνου, εἰς τὴν τῶν ἀτίμων ἐκβληθείη τάξιν, καὶ ἀντ' ἐκείνου κατάδικος ἄνθρωπος καὶ μυρίων γέμων κακῶν, ἐκβληθεὶς τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου, τὴν ἀρχὴν λάβοι τὴν ἐκείνῳ προσήκουσαν. Τί γὰρ ἂν ἔχοις εἰπεῖν; φησίν. Ὅτι ἀνάξιος ὁ υἱός; Ἀλλὰ καὶ οὗτος ἀνάξιος, καὶ πολλῷ μᾶλλον. Οὐκοῦν ἔδει ἢ ὁμοῦ κολάζεσθαι, ἢ ὁμοῦ τιμᾶσθαι. Τοιοῦτον δή τι καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν γέγονε, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, καὶ πολλῷ τούτου παραδοξότερον. Ὅτι μὲν γὰρ ἅπαντες ἀνάξιοι, ἐδήλωσεν ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις, εἰπών· Πάντες γὰρ ἥμαρτον, καὶ ὑστεροῦνται τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ· τὸ δὲ καινὸν, ὅτι πάντων ἀναξίων ὄντων, τὰ ἔθνη διεσώθη μόνα. Μετὰ δὲ τούτων καὶ ἕτερον ἄν τις διαπορήσειε πάλιν, φησίν. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἔμελλε πληροῦν αὐτοῖς τὰς ὑποσχέσεις ὁ Θεὸς, τίνος ἕνεκεν καὶ ὑπισχνεῖτο; Ἄνθρωποι μὲν γὰρ οἱ τὸ μέλλον μὴ εἰδότες, πολλάκις ἀπατώμενοι, καὶ τοῖς οὐκ ἀξίοις τὰς αὐτῶν λαβεῖν δωρεὰς ἐπαγγέλλονται· ὁ δὲ καὶ τὰ παρόντα καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα προειδὼς, καὶ σαφῶς ἐπιστάμενος, ὅτι ἀναξίους ἑαυτοὺς καταστήσουσι τῶν ὑποσχέσεων, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οὐδὲν λήψονται τῶν εἰρημένων, τίνος ἕνεκεν καὶ ἐπαγγέλλεται; εʹ. Πῶς οὖν αὐτὰ ἔλυσεν ὁ Παῦλος; Ἀπὸ τοῦ δεῖξαι τίς ἐστιν ὁ Ἰσραὴλ, ᾧ ὑπέσχετο. Τούτου γὰρ δειχθέντος, καὶ ἐκεῖνο συναποδέδεικται, τὸ πεπληρῶσθαι τὰς ἐπαγγελίας ἁπάσας.