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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"Circumcised on the eighth day"; and he sets down the first that wherein they chiefly boasted, viz. the ordinance of circumcision. "Of the stock of Israel." He pointed out both these circumstances, that he was neither a proselyte, nor born of proselytes; for from his being circumcised on the eighth day, it follows that he was not a proselyte, and from his being of the stock of Israel, that he was not of proselyte parents. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
That which they especially boasted of, namely circumcision, he places first. By the expression "on the eighth day" he showed that he was not a proselyte. That is, not from parents who were proselytes, but from the race of the Israelites themselves. That is, from the more illustrious part of the lineage; for everything pertaining to the priesthood belonged to the lot of this tribe. As for my ancestors, I am, he says, descended from noble Jews. It was possible to be of the race of Israel but not a Hebrew of Hebrews. …
Justin Martyr
"But who are you, most excellent man?" So I replied to him in jest. Then he told me frankly both his name and his family. "Trypho," says he, "I am called; and I am a Hebrew of the circumcision, and having escaped from the war lately carried on there I am spending my days in Greece, and chiefly at Corinth." "And in what," said I, "would you be profited by philosophy so much as by your own lawgiver and the prophets?"
Western Saints
Thomas Aquinas
He shows the prestige he had under the Law: first, in general, and secondly, according to the life he led: as to the Law a Pharisee. As to the first, in three ways: first, in regard to the sacrament of his race, because he was circumcised on the eighth day: "It shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you" (Gen. 17:11). …
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