§ 1.
For so it behoved the sons of Abraham, whom God raised up unto him from the stones, and created, to stand by him, made as he was the chief and harbinger of our faith;1 who also received the Testament of Circumcision,2 after that justification of faith which had been in his uncircumcision: that both Testaments might be prefigured in him;3—that he might become the father of all who follow the Word of God, and endure to be strangers in this world, i.e., of those who from among the circumcision, and of those who from the uncircumcision are faithful:4 as Christ also is the chief Corner Stone, upholding all things, and gathering into the one faith of Abraham those who out of either Testament are meet for the building of God.
But whereas this faith which exists in the state of uncircumcision was made both the first and the last, as uniting the end with the beginning: for before circumcision it was in Abraham, and in the other just men who pleased God, as we have pointed out; and again in the last times it arose among mankind by the coming of the Lord:—Circumcision on the other hand and the Law of works, occupied the intermediate times.
§ 2.
This is shewn typically, as by many other things, so also especially by Thamar, Judas’ son’s wife, in that, when she had conceived twins, one of them first put forth his hand, and the midwife thinking it the firstborn, bound some scarlet for a token on his hand.5 This being done, and he having drawn away his hand, his brother Phares came out first; and so, second in order, he on whom the scarlet was,6 Zarah: the Scripture clearly revealing both that people which hath the scarlet sign, namely the faith which is in uncircumcision, first shewn prophetically in the Patriarchs, afterwards withdrawn that his brother might be born; and so afterwards in the second place him that was firstborn: who was known by the token of scarlet that was upon him, which is the Passion of the Just One figured from the beginning in Abel, and described by the Prophets, but perfected in the last times in the Son of God.
§ 3.
For it was meet that while some things should be foretold in a fatherly way by the Fathers, others should be typified in a legal way by the Prophets, others again should be fully traced after the delineation of Christ, by those who have received adoption. But all are shewn forth in one God. For Abraham being one, figured in himself the two Testaments, wherein some sowed and others reaped:7 For herein, saith He, is the saying true, It is one people who soweth, and another which shall reap; yet one only God, vouchsafing unto each what is fitting, to the sower seed, to the reaper bread for eating. Just as it is one who plants and another who waters,8 but one who giveth the increase, even God. Thus the Patriarchs and Prophets sowed abroad the word concerning Christ; but the Church reaped, i.e., gathered in the fruit.
Wherefore they also themselves pray to have a tabernacle within her;9 as Jeremiah saith, Who will give me in the wilderness the last habitation? that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together in the Kingdom of Christ, Who is present with all those, in whom God hath been well pleased from the beginning, granting unto them the Presence of His Word.