Commentaria in Genesim
Tropologically, St. Augustine notes that by the example of Jacob we ought so to trust in God that we nevertheless do not neglect human aids and counsels: for this not to employ human aids would be to tempt God. Hence our holy Father Ignatius taught us so to place all hope of things to be done in God, that, wholly distrusting ourselves and our own strength, we cast ourselves with great confidence on God and his providence; and yet in the execution itself to employ diligently all natural means and human aids, just as if we relied on them alone, and the whole matter had to be accomplished by them: for Christian prudence and piety teach and require both.
8. SHALL BE SAVED,—by flight it will be able to save itself.
10. I AM NOT WORTHY,—I am too small, too mean, too unworthy to have deserved any grace or mercy of thine, even the least, bestowed on me, or even now to deserve. For the foundation of true virtue is humility; nor is there any brilliance that exaltation does not obscure.
Note: Jacob here so gives thanks to God for past benefits conferred on him, that he may render himself worthy of future ones, and by his humility and gratitude move God to them. He teaches us therefore here the manner of praying effectively, for he begins with reverence and praise of God, and alleges the merits of the fathers, saying: “O God of my father Abraham,” etc. Second, he reminds God of the promises: “O Lord, who saidst to me: Return.” Third, he humbles himself and confesses his weakness: “I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies.” Fourth, he recalls the benefits received and gives thanks: “With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I return with two companies.” Fifth, he prays: “Deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau.” Sixth, he entreats not only for himself but for others: “Lest he kill the mother with the children”; he feared above all lest, the blessed seed being slain, Christ should not come.
AND THY TRUTH,—faithfulness, as if to say: I, though unworthy, have hitherto always found thee faithful in the promises made to me: wherefore I trust and pray that I may find the same in future, and that now thou protect me from Esau.
WITH MY STAFF,—with my staff, as if to say: Alone, leaning on my staff or shepherd’s crook, poor, as a shepherd without a flock, nay seeking a flock to feed, I went from my country to Haran: now by God’s gift I return with two companies of children, servants and cattle. So Josephus.
15. MILCH CAMELS,—which had lately borne and were suckling their foals.
16. LET THERE BE A SPACE BETWEEN DROVE AND DROVE.—That so Esau may feed and soften himself the longer on the number, variety and pomp of the gifts sent him by me: for so they will seem to him more and more splendid.
20. PERHAPS.—That is, assuredly; for “perhaps” is here the word not of one in doubt but of one affirming and continuing, as in Homer. So also Christ says, John chap. viii, 19: “If you did know me, perhaps (assuredly) you would know my Father also.”
21. BUT HE HIMSELF STAYED THAT NIGHT IN THE CAMP,—both to look whether anything had been left behind through forgetfulness; and to take counsel, and consider by what means he might appease his brother; and above all that on that night, alone, he might quietly and ardently supplicate God to direct all this his business with his brother, and his journey: whence after prayer the wrestling angel met him; and lastly that after cares and labours he might give something to sleep and necessary rest. Whence the Septuagint render, but he himself slept in the camp. The Hebrew is lan, that is, he lodged, that is, passed the night either in sleeping or in watching and working.
Morally St. Ambrose, book ii On Jacob, chap. vi:
“Perfect virtue,” he says, “has the tranquillity and stability of quiet. Therefore the Lord reserved its gift for the more perfect, saying: My peace I leave you, my peace I give you. For it is of the perfect not to be easily moved by worldly things, not to be disturbed by fear, not agitated by suspicion, not shaken by terror, not vexed by grief; but as on a vast shore, against the rising waves of the storms of the world, to calm the mind, immovable, in a faithful station. On the contrary, the impious man is more afflicted by his own suspicions than many are by the blows of others, and the weals of the wounds are greater in his soul than in the bodies of those who are beaten by others.”
22. AND RISING EARLY,—before dawn, while it was still night, as the Hebrew and Greek have: for by night, after he had brought his goods and his people over the ford of Jaboc, Jacob wrestled with the angel till morning.
24. A MAN WRESTLED WITH HIM.—You will ask, who was this man? Theodoret, Justin, Tertullian, Hilary, Ambrose, Cyril, and others in Pererius, seem to say that he was the Son of God, namely the Word, who was to be made flesh, and it is proved because Jacob himself, verse 30, calls him God.
But I say first: This man was an angel; this is plain from Osee xii, 3, where this man is expressly called an angel. Second, because St. Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy, chap. iv; St. Jerome, Josephus, Eusebius, Rupert, and St. Augustine, book xvi of the City of God, chap. xxxix, teach that it was an angel, and add that God in the Old Testament never appeared by himself but always through angels: for that most celebrated appearance of God giving the law on Sina was made through angels.
You will say: This man, verse 30, is called God.
I answer: He was an angel in person, but is called God representatively and by authority, as a viceroy is called king; because namely he represented God, that is, the Son of God to be incarnate, and discharged his office and authority; and this only is what Theodoret, Justin and the other Fathers cited mean, who call this man the Son of God.
You will say secondly: The Council of Sirmium, canon 14, defines that this man was the Son of God; for it has: “If anyone shall say that it was not the Son, as man, but the unbegotten God or his Father who wrestled with Jacob, let him be anathema.” I answer: This council means only to say that this angel represents God, not the Father but the Son. Add that this council was of Arians, and therefore of small, nay suspect, authority and faith.
I say secondly: This angel was not evil, appearing in the form of Esau and wishing to overcome Jacob, as the Jews feign according to Lyranus, but good. It is plain, because Jacob asks a blessing of him. Again, by him the place was called Phanuel, that is, appearance or face of God, and Jacob himself was called Israel, that is, prevailing with God. This therefore was a good angel, a type of Christ to be born of Jacob. So the Fathers and Interpreters. Wherefore what St. Jerome says in his Commentary on the epistle to the Ephesians, chap. vi, verse 12, that this angel was a demon, with whom, as the Apostle says, we have continual wrestling, he brings forward in his manner, not from his own opinion but from that of Origen. For Origen, book iii of the Periarchon, judged this angel to have been the devil.
I say thirdly: This angel was not the keeper of Esau, who in Esau’s name wished to hinder Jacob from entering the holy land, so as thereby to compel him to restore to Esau his birthright, as Franciscus Georgius devised, tom. i, sect. 3, problem 234. But this angel was the keeper of Jacob himself. It is plain, because he pleaded the cause of Jacob, not of Esau, and blessed Jacob himself to Esau’s prejudice. Again, who would believe that a good angel would, against the will of God, have wished to undertake and plead the unjust cause of Esau? Finally it is plain from what Jacob says, verse 30: “I have seen the Lord face to face, and my soul has been saved.” This angel therefore was the protector and saviour not of Esau but of Jacob.
HE WRESTLED.—Here it is asked secondly, why did the angel wrestle with Jacob? I answer, that by this wrestling, letting himself be overcome by Jacob, he might give him hope that in like manner, nay much more, he would mitigate, overcome and subdue his brother Esau, whom he feared; for this is what the angel says, verse 28: “For if thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men?” So the Greek and Latin Fathers. Whence although St. Thomas and Rupert call this wrestling imaginary, it is truer that it was real and corporeal, in a body assumed by the angel, as the Fathers commonly teach: for when the angel, appearing to Jacob and comforting him, wished to depart from him, Jacob, fearing to remain alone on Esau’s approach, with a certain holy boldness asks and retains the angel, and the angel suffers himself by long delay and wrestling of the whole night to be held by him, that in this way he might give him courage and drive away the fear of Esau.
Symbolically, this wrestling figured the state of the Israelites until the coming of Christ, which was such that on account of their sins God often wished to depart from them, and would long since have departed, had not Jacob and his like, as Moses, David, Elias, Isaias and others, held him back. Second, this wrestling foreshadowed the Christian life, which is nothing else than a wrestling, and, as holy Job says, a warfare upon earth, in which we are sometimes overcome, but, armed and wrestling generously like Jacob, at last we conquer. For the mind of the philosopher (and of the Christian soldier) is made more generous by what it has suffered, and as glowing iron by the sprinkling of cold water, so it grows hardened by dangers, as St. Gregory Nazianzen says, oration 23, in praise of Heron.