Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
How our faith was prefigured in Abraham, and the exposition of the things that were done by the fathers.
Now, that our faith found its foreshadowing in Abraham, that he stood as forefather of our faith, and served as something like a prophet of it, the Apostle has taught most fully in that letter which is to the Galatians, saying: He then who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you — does it come through deeds required by the Law, or through faith that comes by hearing? Just as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Know then that those who are of faith, these are the sons of Abraham. And Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed together with Abraham the faithful. For this reason he called him not only a prophet of the faith, but also father to those who, coming out of the Gentile nations, put faith in Christ Jesus, for his faith and our own are identical, one and the same: he believing in things to come as though already accomplished, on account of God's promise; and we likewise, through faith, looking upon that inheritance which is in the kingdom, on account of the same promise of God. For in that letter which is to the Romans, the Apostle says: But Rebecca too, having conceived by one act with Isaac our father, received an answer from the Word, in order that God's purpose according to election might stand, not from works but from him who calls; it was said to her: Two peoples are in your womb, and two nations are in your belly, one people shall prevail over the other, and the older shall be servant to the younger. From which it is clear that not only the prophecies of the patriarchs, but also the childbearing of Rebecca, was a prophecy of two peoples: that one would be the greater, the other the lesser; the one under servitude, the other free; both, however, of one and the same father. One and the same is our God and theirs, who knows the things that are hidden, who knows all things before they come to pass; and for this reason he said: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
Now if anyone examines closely the deeds of Jacob, he will find them not empty, but full of meaning. First, at his very birth, by how he grasped his brother's heel, he received the name Jacob, meaning Supplanter: one who holds fast while not himself held; who binds the feet of another but is not bound; who wrestles and prevails; grasping in his hand his rival's heel, which signifies triumph. It was toward this very purpose that the Lord came to be born, whose type this manner of birth foreshowed beforehand — of whom John also says in the Apocalypse: He went out conquering, that he might conquer. Then, again, he received the birthright, when his brother despised it — just as the younger people has received Christ, the firstborn, since the older people cast him off, declaring, We have no king except Caesar. Now in Christ is the whole blessing; and for this reason the later people carried off from the father the blessings of the former people, just as Jacob took away from Esau his blessing. For which reason his brother's own brother suffered plots and persecutions from him, just as the Church suffers this same thing from the Jews. The twelve tribes, the race of Israel, were born in a foreign land, since Christ too was to begin, in a foreign land, to beget the twelve-pillared foundation of the Church. The speckled sheep were Jacob's wages; and Christ's wage is the men who, gathered together out of various and differing nations into one fold of faith, become his own, just as the Father promised him: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. And since the prophets who were sons of the Lord were born to Jacob, it was altogether necessary that he should have children from two sisters — just as Christ has children from two covenants belonging to one and the same Father, and likewise also from the handmaids; showing that, according to the flesh, from both free and slave, Christ would establish sons of God, giving the same gift equally to all who were called into the Church, for the sake of which Christ endured all things: he who then, through his patriarchs and prophets, prefigured and foretold the things to come, thereby in advance exercising his own portion in the arrangements of God, and training those who belonged to him to render God obedience, to dwell as sojourners in this world, to walk after his Word, and to point ahead to what was still to come. For nothing is empty, nor without meaning, before God.