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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac." The subject in question was an important one. Hence he turns to several arguments, and endeavors by all means to solve the difficulty. For if it was at once strange and new for them to be cast out after so great promises, it is much more strange that we even should come into their good things, who did not expect anything of the kind. I might, he implies, have mentioned the children by Keturah besides, but I do not. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
He has already proven that although Abraham had many different descendants, Isaac and those who are born like him were called his seed. Now he says: you can see this not only in Isaac, but, what is more important, in brothers born of the same father and the same mother, and moreover twins, that is, in Esau and Jacob. And they did not receive equal rights, but one was chosen and the other was hated. Therefore do not ask why God chose the Gentiles and made them the seed of Abraham, or rather of God, and rejected the Jews.
Irenaeus
The history of Isaac, too, is not without a symbolical character. For in the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle declares: "Moreover, when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac," she received answer from the Word, "that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people are in thy body; and the one people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall serve the younger." From which it is evident, that …
Western Saints
Thomas Aquinas
Then he clarifies his thesis so far as it concerns Jacob, when he says and not only she. First, he states his intention; second, he clarifies his position, at for when the children were not yet born. First, therefore, he says: and not only she, namely, Sarah, begot a son about whom the promise was made, but when Rebecca also, having in her womb two sons, one of whom pertained to the promise and the other only to the flesh, had conceived at once of Isaac our father. …
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