Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Genesis 29
There are 18 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 283, footnote 8 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter X.—The Exercises Suited to a Good Life. (HTML)
She who emulates Sarah is not ashamed of that highest of ministries, helping wayfarers. For Abraham said to her, “Haste, and knead three measures of meal, and make cakes.” “And Rachel, the daughter of Laban, came,” it is said, “with her father’s sheep.”[Genesis 29:9] Nor was this enough; but to teach humility it is added, “for she fed her father’s sheep.” And innumerable such examples of frugality and self-help, and also of exercises, are furnished by the Scriptures. In the case of men, let some strip and engage in wrestling; let some play at the small ball, especially the game they call Pheninda, in the sun. To others who walk into ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 11, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. (HTML)
The Testament of Simeon Concerning Envy. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 49 (In-Text, Margin)
2. Hear, O my children, hear Simeon your father, what things I have in my heart. I was born of Jacob my father, his second son; and my mother Leah called me Simeon, because the Lord heard her prayer.[Genesis 29:33] I became strong exceedingly; I shrank from no deed, nor was I afraid of anything. For my heart was hard, and my mind was unmoveable, and my bowels unfeeling: because valour also has been given from the Most High to men in soul and in body. And at that time I was jealous of Joseph because our father loved him; and I set my mind against him to destroy him, because the prince of deceit sent forth ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 17, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. (HTML)
The Testament of Judah Concerning Fortitude, and Love of Money, and Fornication. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 94 (In-Text, Margin)
1. copy of the words of Judah, what things he spake to his sons before he died. They gathered themselves together, and came to him, and he said to them: I was the fourth son born to my father, and my mother called me Judah, saying, I give thanks to the Lord, because He hath given to me even a fourth son.[Genesis 29:35] I was swift and active in my youth, and obedient to my father in everything. And I honoured my mother and my mother’s sister. And it came to pass, when I became a man, that my father Jacob prayed over me, saying, Thou shalt be a king, and prosperous in all things.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 273, footnote 5 (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 785 (In-Text, Margin)
... than to have burned with incestuous passion); or how Isaac imitated his father’s conduct, and called his wife Rebecca his sister, that he might gain a shameful livelihood by her; or how his son Jacob, husband of four wives—two full sisters, Rachel and Leah, and their handmaids—led the life of a goat among them, so that there was a daily strife among his women who should be the first to lay hold of him when he came from the field, ending sometimes in their hiring him from one another for the night;[Genesis 29] or, again, how his son Judah slept with his daughter-in-law Tamar, after she had been married to two of his sons, deceived, we are told, by the harlot’s dress which Tamar put on, knowing that her father-in-law was in the habit of associating with ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 292, footnote 2 (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 864 (In-Text, Margin)
... to have had weak eyes. For the purposes of mortals are timid, and our plans uncertain. Again, the hope of the eternal contemplation of God, accompanied with a sure and delightful perception of truth, is Rachel. And on this account she is described as fair and well-formed. This is the beloved of every pious student, and for this he serves the grace of God, by which our sins, though like scarlet, are made white as snow. For Laban means making white; and we read that Jacob served Laban for Rachel.[Genesis 29:17] No man turns to serve righteousness, in subjection to the grace of forgiveness, but that he may live in peace in the Word which makes visible the First Principle, or God; that is, he serves for Rachel, not for Leah. For what a man loves in the works ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 292, footnote 4 (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 866 (In-Text, Margin)
... other years for Rachel, he hears seven new commands,—to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to be a mourner, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be merciful, pure, and a peacemaker. A man would desire, if it were possible, to obtain at once the joys of lovely and perfect wisdom, without the endurance of toil in action and suffering; but this is impossible in mortal life. This seems to be meant, when it is said to Jacob: "It is not the custom in our country to marry the younger before the elder."[Genesis 29:26] The elder may very well mean the first in order of time. So, in the discipline of man, the toil of doing the work of righteousness precedes the delight of understanding the truth.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 519, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling, and the thief. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4091 (In-Text, Margin)
... Shepherd.” Therefore there were two ships out of which He had called His disciples. They figured these two people, when they let down their nets, and took up so great a draught and so large a number of fishes, that the nets were almost broken. “And they laded,” it is said, “both the ships.” The two ships figured the One Church, but made out of two peoples, joined together in Christ, though coming from different parts. Of this too the two wives, who had one husband Jacob, Leah and Rachel, are a figure.[Genesis 29:23] Of these two, the two blind men also are a figure, who sat by the way side, to whom the Lord gave sight. And if ye pay attention to the Scriptures, ye will find the two Churches, which are not two but One, figured out in many places. For to this end ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 519, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling, and the thief. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4091 (In-Text, Margin)
... Shepherd.” Therefore there were two ships out of which He had called His disciples. They figured these two people, when they let down their nets, and took up so great a draught and so large a number of fishes, that the nets were almost broken. “And they laded,” it is said, “both the ships.” The two ships figured the One Church, but made out of two peoples, joined together in Christ, though coming from different parts. Of this too the two wives, who had one husband Jacob, Leah and Rachel, are a figure.[Genesis 29:28] Of these two, the two blind men also are a figure, who sat by the way side, to whom the Lord gave sight. And if ye pay attention to the Scriptures, ye will find the two Churches, which are not two but One, figured out in many places. For to this end ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 69, footnote 8 (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. 12–21. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 236 (In-Text, Margin)
... degree, are the brethren of the Lord. How do we prove this? From Scripture itself. Lot is called “Abraham’s brother;” he was his brother’s son. Read, and thou wilt find that Abraham was Lot’s uncle on the father’s side, and yet they are called brethren. Why, but because they were kinsmen? Laban the Syrian was Jacob’s uncle by the mother’s side, for he was the brother of Rebecca, Isaac’s wife and Jacob’s mother. Read the Scripture, and thou wilt find that uncle and sister’s son are called brothers.[Genesis 29:12-15] When thou hast known this rule, thou wilt find that all the blood relations of Mary are the brethren of Christ.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 355, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3435 (In-Text, Margin)
... both the circumcision of the flesh, for a seal of the faith, and circumcision of the heart, for the faith itself. From these fathers these men degenerating, who now in the name do glory, and have lost their deeds; from these fathers, I say, degenerating, they have remained Jews in flesh, in heart Heathens. For these are Jews, who are out of Abraham, from whom Isaac was born, and out of him Jacob, and out of Jacob the twelve Patriarchs, and out of the twelve Patriarchs the whole people of the Jews.[Genesis 29:32] But they were generally called Jews for this reason, that Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob, a Patriarch among the twelve, and from his stock the Royalty came among the Jews. For all this people after the number of the twelve sons of Jacob, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 40, footnote 11 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 654 (In-Text, Margin)
40. Love finds nothing hard; no task is difficult to the eager. Think of all that Jacob bore for Rachel, the wife who had been promised to him. “Jacob,” the Scripture says, “served seven years for Rachel. And they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her.”[Genesis 29:20] Afterwards he himself tells us what he had to undergo. “In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night.” So we must love Christ and always seek His embraces. Then everything difficult will seem easy; all things long we shall account short; and smitten with His arrows, we shall say every moment: “Woe is me that I have prolonged my pilgrimage.” For ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 145, footnote 21 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Oceanus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2070 (In-Text, Margin)
... behave as if rabid or insane. As wood sweetens Marah so that seventy palm-trees are watered by its streams, so the cross makes the waters of the law lifegiving to the seventy who are Christ’s apostles. It is Abraham and Isaac who dig wells, the Philistines who try to prevent them. Beersheba too, the city of the oath, and [Gihon], the scene of Solomon’s coronation, derive their names from springs. It is beside a well that Eliezer finds Rebekah. Rachel too is a drawer of water and wins a kiss thereby[Genesis 29:10-11] from the supplanter Jacob. When the daughters of the priests of Midian are in a strait to reach the well, Moses opens a way for them and delivers them from outrage. The Lord’s forerunner at Salem (a name which means peace or perfection) makes ready ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 235, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ageruchia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3300 (In-Text, Margin)
... and the object vary, is both the Beginning and the End, who sows that He may reap, who plants that He may have somewhat to cut down, and who lays the foundation that in the fulness of time He may crown the edifice. Besides, if we are to deal with symbols and types of things to come, we must judge of them not by our own opinions but in the light of the apostle’s explanations. Hagar and Sarah, or Sinai and Zion, are typical of the two testaments. Leah who was tender-eyed and Rachel whom Jacob loved[Genesis 29:17-18] signify the synagogue and the church. So likewise do Hannah and Peninnah of whom the former, at first barren, afterwards exceeded the latter in fruitfulness. In Isaac and Rebekah we see an early example of monogamy: it was only to Rebekah that the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 342, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4229 (In-Text, Margin)
... make some cavilling objection, and wriggle out of your difficulty like a snake, I must bind you fast with the bonds of proof to stop your hissing and complaining, for I know you would like to say you have been overcome not so much by Scripture truth as by intricate arguments. Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebecca, when in fear of his brother’s treachery he had gone to Mesopotamia, drew nigh and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flocks of Laban, his mother’s brother.[Genesis 29:11] “And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son.” Here is an example of the rule already referred to, by which a nephew is called a brother. And ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 342, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4230 (In-Text, Margin)
... as by intricate arguments. Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebecca, when in fear of his brother’s treachery he had gone to Mesopotamia, drew nigh and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flocks of Laban, his mother’s brother. “And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son.” Here is an example of the rule already referred to, by which a nephew is called a brother. And again,[Genesis 29:15] “Laban said unto Jacob. Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? Tell me what shall thy wages be.” And so, when, at the end of twenty years, without the knowledge of his father-in-law and accompanied by his wives ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 80, footnote 2 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the words Incarnate, and Made Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1470 (In-Text, Margin)
31. Let us remember these things, brethren: let us use these weapons in our defence. Let us not endure those heretics who teach Christ’s coming as a phantom. Let us abhor those also who say that the Saviour’s birth was of husband and wife; who have dared to say that He was the child of Joseph and Mary, because it is written, And he took unto him his wife. For let us remember Jacob who before he received Rachel, said to Laban, Give me my wife[Genesis 29:21]. For as she before the wedded state, merely because there was a promise, was called the wife of Jacob, so also Mary, because she had been betrothed, was called the wife of Joseph. Mark also the accuracy of the Gospel, saying, And in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 382, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Virgins. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter III. Virgins are exhorted to avoid visits, to observe modesty, to be silent during the celebration of the Mysteries after the example of Mary. Then after narrating the story of a heathen youth, and saying of a poet, St. Ambrose relates a miracle wrought by a holy priest. (HTML)
10. Was it a small sign of modesty that when Rebecca came to wed Isaac, and saw her bridegroom, she took a veil, that she might not be seen before they were united? Certainly the fair virgin feared not for her beauty, but for her modesty. What of Rachel, how she, when Jacob’s kiss had been taken,[Genesis 29:11] wept and groaned, and would not have ceased weeping had she not known him to be a kinsman? So she both observed what was due to modesty, and omitted not kindly affection. But if it is said to a man: “Gaze not on a maid, lest she cause thee to fall,” what is to be said to a consecrated virgin, who, if she loves, sins in mind; if she is loved, in act ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 407, footnote 5 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Widows. (HTML)
Chapter XV. St. Ambrose meets the objection of those who make the desire of having children an excuse for second marriage, and especially in the case of those who have children of their former marriage; and points out the consequent troubles of disagreements amongst the children, and even between the married persons, and gives a warning against a wrong use of Scripture instances in this matter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3408 (In-Text, Margin)
90. But in holy Rachel[Genesis 29:28] there was rather the figure of a mystery than a true order of marriage. Notwithstanding, in her, also, we have something which we can refer to the grace of the first marriage, since he loved her best whom he had first betrothed, and deceit did not shut out his intention, nor the intervening marriage destroy his love for his betrothed. And so the holy patriarch has taught us, how highly we ought to esteem a first marriage, since he himself esteemed his first betrothal so highly. Take ...