Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Genesis 9:20

Eastern Fathers

Cyprian

When Christ says, "I am the true vine," the blood of Christ is assuredly not water but wine. We are redeemed and made alive by his blood. But in the cup it is not wine as such that redeems but his blood. This is declared by the sacrament and testimony of all the Scriptures. For we find this even in Genesis also, in respect of the sacrament prefigured in Noah. That he drank wine was to them a precursor and figure of the Lord's passion. …

Epistle LXII.2-3 ↗

Western Saints

Bede

Noah, a man of the earth, began to cultivate the ground and planted a vineyard, etc. It is often pleasing to repeat the word of the Lord, which he said to the Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me as well, for he wrote about me" (John 5:46). For even in this reading where Moses, weaving history, writes of Noah and his sons, he figuratively announces the passion of the Lord and the devotion of the peoples believing in him, as well as the infidelity of those contradicting the faith. …

Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) ↗