Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Genesis 16

There are 18 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 343, footnote 11 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book I (HTML)

Chapter XVIII.—Passages from Moses, which the heretics pervert to the support of their hypothesis. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2889 (In-Text, Margin)

... point of age among his brethren. Moreover, that circumcision which took place on the eighth day, represented the circumcision of the Ogdoad above. In a word, whatever they find in the Scriptures capable of being referred to the number eight, they declare to fulfil the mystery of the Ogdoad. With respect, again, to the Decad, they maintain that it is indicated by those ten nations which God promised to Abraham for a possession. The arrangement also made by Sarah when, after ten years, she gave[Genesis 16:2] her handmaid Hagar to him, that by her he might have a son, showed the same thing. Moreover, the servant of Abraham who was sent to Rebekah, and presented her at the well with ten bracelets of gold, and her brethren who detained her for ten days; ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 306, footnote 9 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter V.—Philosophy the Handmaid of Theology. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1867 (In-Text, Margin)

... of what has been said, in Thamar sitting by the way, and presenting the appearance of a harlot, on whom the studious Judas (whose name is interpreted “powerful”), who left nothing unexamined and uninvestigated, looked; and turned aside to her, preserving his profession towards God. Wherefore also, when Sarah was jealous at Hagar being preferred to her, Abraham, as choosing only what was profitable in secular philosophy, said, “Behold, thy maid is in thine hands: deal with her as it pleases thee;”[Genesis 16:6] manifestly meaning, “I embrace secular culture as youthful, and a handmaid; but thy knowledge I honour and reverence as true wife.” And Sarah afflicted her; which is equivalent to corrected and admonished her. It has therefore been well said, “My ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 79, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself. (HTML)

On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 358 (In-Text, Margin)

... the unjust depart and flee from Thee. Thou both seest them and distinguishest the shadows. And lo! all things with them are fair, yet are they themselves foul. And how have they injured Thee? Or in what have they disgraced Thy government, which is just and perfect from heaven even to the lowest parts of the earth. For whither fled they when they fled from Thy presence? Or where dost Thou not find them? But they fled that they might not see Thee seeing them, and blinded might stumble against Thee;[Genesis 16:13-14] since Thou forsakest nothing that Thou hast made —that the unjust might stumble against Thee, and justly be hurt, withdrawing themselves from Thy gentleness, and stumbling against Thine uprightness, and falling upon their own roughness. Forsooth, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 325, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)

Of Sarah’s Handmaid, Hagar, Whom She Herself Wished to Be Abraham’s Concubine. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 919 (In-Text, Margin)

... despised her barren mistress, and Sarah, with womanly jealousy, rather laid the blame of this on her husband, even then Abraham showed that he was not a slavish lover, but a free begetter of children, and that in using Hagar he had guarded the chastity of Sarah his wife, and had gratified her will and not his own,—had received her without seeking, had gone in to her without being attached, had impregnated without loving her,—for he says, “Behold thy maid is in thy hands: do to her as it pleaseth thee;”[Genesis 16:6] a man able to use women as a man should,—his wife temperately, his handmaid compliantly, neither intemperately!

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 330, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)

What is Meant by Abraham’s Marrying Keturah After Sarah’s Death. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 949 (In-Text, Margin)

... signified the carnal people of the old covenant, why may not Keturah and her sons also signify the carnal people who think they belong to the new covenant? For both are called both the wives and the concubines of Abraham; but Sarah is never called a concubine (but only a wife). For when Hagar is given to Abraham, it is written. “And Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abraham had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.”[Genesis 16:3] And of Keturah, whom he took after Sarah’s departure, we read, “Then again Abraham took a wife, whose name was Keturah.” Lo! both are called wives, yet both are found to have been concubines; for the Scripture afterward says, “And Abraham gave his ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 273, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 781 (In-Text, Margin)

5. Again, we are not responsible for what is said of Abraham, that in his irrational craving to have children, and not believing God, who promised that his wife Sara should have a son, he defiled himself with a mistress, with the knowledge of his wife, which only made it worse;[Genesis 16:2-4] or that, in sacrilegious profanation of his marriage, he on different occasions, from avarice and greed, sold his wife Sara for the gratification of the kings Abimelech and Pharas, telling them that she was his sister, because she was very fair. The narrative is not ours, which tells how Lot, Abraham’s brother, after his escape from Sodom, lay with his two ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 636, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)

The Correction of the Donatists. (HTML)

Chapter 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2486 (In-Text, Margin)

9. But true martyrs are such as those of whom the Lord says, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake." It is not, therefore, those who suffer persecution for their unrighteousness, and for the divisions which they impiously introduce into Christian unity, but those who suffer for righteousness’ sake, that are truly martyrs. For Hagar also suffered persecution at the hands of Sarah;[Genesis 16:6] and in that case she who persecuted was righteous, and she unrighteous who suffered persecution. Are we to compare with this persecution which Hagar suffered the case of holy David, who was persecuted by unrighteous Saul? Surely there is in essential difference, not in respect of his suffering, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 255, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Of the agreement of the evangelists Matthew and Luke in the generations of the Lord. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1778 (In-Text, Margin)

... the practice of human laws, it cannot fall in with the authority of the divine books. For it is a thing established of old time, and frequently heard of in the Ecclesiastical books —that not only the natural way of birth, but the free choice of the will also, should give birth to a child. For women, if they had no children of their own, used to adopt children born of their husbands by their hand-maids, and even oblige their husbands to give them children in this way; as Sarah, Rachel, and Leah.[Genesis 16:2] And in doing this the husbands did not commit adultery, in that they obeyed their wives in that matter which had regard to conjugal duty, according to what the Apostle saith: “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 80, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter II. 23–25; III. 1–5. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 280 (In-Text, Margin)

... schismatics, against those that scatter the Church, that blow on Christ as if they abhorred Him, that blaspheme baptism, let them not wonder; because God stirs them up, that Hagar may be beaten by Sarah. Let Hagar know herself, and yield her neck: for when, after being humiliated, she departed from her mistress, an angel met her, and said to her, “What is the matter with thee, Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid?” When she complained of her mistress, what did she hear from the angel? “Return to thy mistress.”[Genesis 16:9] It is for this that she is afflicted, that she may return; and would that she may return, for her offspring, just like the sons of Jacob, will obtain the inheritance with their brethren.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 525, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)

1 John V. 1–3. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2536 (In-Text, Margin)

10. And what have we done, say they? We are the persecuted, not the persecutors. Ye are the persecutors, O wretched men. In the first place, in that ye have divided the Church. Mightier the sword of the tongue than the sword of steel. Agar, Sarah’s maid, was proud, and she was afflicted by her mistress for her pride. That was discipline, not punishment. Accordingly, when she had gone away from her mistress, what said the angel to her? “Return to thy mistress.”[Genesis 16:4-9] Then, O carnal soul, like a proud bond-woman, suppose thou have suffered any trouble for discipline’ sake, why ravest thou? “Return to thy mistress,” hold fast the peace of the Church. Lo, the gospels are pro duced, we read where the Church is spread abroad: men ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 611, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5553 (In-Text, Margin)

... time the Church was in Enoch alone: and he was translated from the unrighteous. At one time the Church was in the house of Noah alone, and endured all who perished by the flood, and the ark alone swam upon the waves, and escaped to shore. At one time the Church was in Abraham alone, and we know what he endured from the wicked. The Church was in his brother’s son, Lot, alone, and in his house, in Sodom, and he endured the iniquities and perversities of Sodom, until God freed him from amidst them.[Genesis 13-20] The Church also began to exist in the people of Israel: She endured Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The number of the saints began to be also in the Church, that is, in the people of Israel; Moses and the rest of the saints endured the wicked Jews, the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 120, footnote 4 (Image)

Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine

The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

The Works of Philo that have come down to us. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 427 (In-Text, Margin)

2. There are, besides these, treatises expressly worked out by him on certain subjects, such as the two books On Agriculture, and the same number On Drunken ness; and some others distinguished by different titles corresponding to the contents of each; for instance, Concerning the things which the Sober Mind desires and execrates, On the Confusion of Tongues, On Flight and Discovery,[Genesis 16:6-14] On Assembly for the sake of Instruction, On the question, ‘Who is heir to things divine?’ or On the division of things into equal and unequal, and still further the work On the three Virtues which with others have been described by Moses.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 120, footnote 5 (Image)

Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine

The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

The Works of Philo that have come down to us. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 428 (In-Text, Margin)

2. There are, besides these, treatises expressly worked out by him on certain subjects, such as the two books On Agriculture, and the same number On Drunken ness; and some others distinguished by different titles corresponding to the contents of each; for instance, Concerning the things which the Sober Mind desires and execrates, On the Confusion of Tongues, On Flight and Discovery, On Assembly for the sake of Instruction,[Genesis 16:1-6] On the question, ‘Who is heir to things divine?’ or On the division of things into equal and unequal, and still further the work On the three Virtues which with others have been described by Moses.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 252, footnote 9 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Marcellinus and Anapsychia. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3519 (In-Text, Margin)

... dictate I was so confounded by the havoc wrought in the West and above all by the sack of Rome that, as the common saying has it, I forgot even my own name. Long did I remain silent knowing that it was a time to weep. This year I began again and had written three books of commentary when a sudden incursion of those barbarians of whom your Virgil speaks as the “far-wandering men of Barce” (and to whom may be applied what holy scripture says of Ishmael: “he shall dwell over against all his brethren”[Genesis 16:12]) overran the borders of Egypt, Palestine, Phenicia, and Syria, and like a raging torrent carried everything before them. It was with difficulty and only through Christ’s mercy that we were able to escape from their hands. But if, as the great orator ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 78, footnote 1 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 702 (In-Text, Margin)

... jealous that she, the mistress, was barren, while her handmaid had conceived a son. Then, when Hagar had departed from her sight, the Spirit speaks thus concerning her, And the angel of the Lord said unto Hagar, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude, and again, And she called the Name of the Lord that spake with her, Thou art God, Who hast seen me[Genesis 16:9-10]. It is the Angel of God Who speaks, and speaks of things far beyond the powers which a messenger, for that is the meaning of the word, could have. He says, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude. The ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 78, footnote 1 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 702 (In-Text, Margin)

... jealous that she, the mistress, was barren, while her handmaid had conceived a son. Then, when Hagar had departed from her sight, the Spirit speaks thus concerning her, And the angel of the Lord said unto Hagar, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude, and again, And she called the Name of the Lord that spake with her, Thou art God, Who hast seen me[Genesis 16:13]. It is the Angel of God Who speaks, and speaks of things far beyond the powers which a messenger, for that is the meaning of the word, could have. He says, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, and it shall not be numbered for multitude. The ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 243, footnote 1 (Image)

Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat

Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)

Ephraim Syrus:  Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh. (HTML)

Hymn VIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 467 (In-Text, Margin)

The son of Hagar who was wild, kicked at Isaac.[Genesis 16:12] He bore it and was silent, and his mother was jealous. Art Thou the mystery of him, or is not he the type of Thee? art thou like Isaac, or is it not he that is like Thee?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 249, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat

Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)

Ephraim Syrus:  Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh. (HTML)

Hymn XIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 497 (In-Text, Margin)

27. In the twenty-third year, let the ass praise Him, that gave its foal for Him to ride on, that loosed the bonds, that opened the mouth of the dumb, that opened also the mouth of the wild asses[Genesis 16:12] when the race of Hagar gave a shout of praise. Blessed be the praise of Thee!

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs