Chapter 31

§ 1.

By statements of this kind touching the ancients did that Elder console us, and say, Concerning those faults, which the Scriptures themselves have laid to the charge of Patriarchs and Prophets,¹ we must not reproach them, nor be like Ham, who scoffed at the disgrace of his father, and fell into the curse; but we must give thanks to God for them, inasmuch as their sins were forgiven them in the coming of our Lord. For that (his word it is) they give thanks and exult in our salvation.

But in respect of those things, which the Scriptures reprove them not for, but are indifferently worded, we must not, he said, become accusers (for we are not more exact than God, nor can we be above our master) but look out for the typical meaning. For none of all the things, which are set down in the Scriptures without definite censure, is without its force.

As it is also in the case of Lot who led forth from Sodom his daughters, who conceived of their father; and who left in the neighbourhood his wife, a statue of salt, even unto this day. For indeed Lot, not of his own will, nor of his own carnal desire, giving way to no sense nor thought of that kind, completed a Type. As saith the Scripture:² And the elder came in and slept with her father that night: and Lot knew not when she slept, and when she arose.³ And in the younger the very same: And he knew not, it saith, when she had slept with him, not when she had arisen. Without Lot’s knowing it, and without his being the slave of pleasure, a Dispensation was fulfilled, whereby the two daughters, i.e., the two synagogues, were signified to have had children by one and the same father without pleasure of the flesh. For there was no one besides able to give unto them vital seed and fruit of children:⁴ as it is written, But the elder said unto the younger, Our Father is old, and there is none upon earth to come in unto us, as is meet for the whole earth: come let us drug our father with wine, and sleep with him, that we may raise up seed of our father.

§ 2.

These daughters indeed spake thus in their simplicity and innocence, thinking that all men had perished, as the Sodomites, and that God’s anger had come over all the earth. And therefore even they may possibly be excused, imagining that they were left alone with their father for the preservation of the race of man; and to this end they deceived their father.

But the meaning of their words was,⁵ that there is no other who can vouchsafe generation of children to the greater and the lesser synagogue, except our Father. But the Father of mankind is the Word of God: as Moses points out,⁶ sayings, Is not this thy very own Father, Who possessed thee, and made thee and created thee? When then did He pour out on mankind the seed of life, i.e., the Spirit of the Remission of sins, by which Spirit we are quickened? Was it not at that time when He partook of meat with men, and drank wine in the earth? For the Son of man, we read, came eating and drinking:⁷ and when He had laid down, He slumbered, and took His sleep. As He saith Himself in David: I slumbered and took my sleep.⁸ And to signify that He did this in the fellowship and life which belongs to us, He saith again, And My sleep became sweet unto Me.⁹ Now it was all signified by Lot, how that the seed of the Father of all, i.e., the Spirit of God, by whom all things were made, was mingled and united with Flesh, that is, with His own creature: and by that commingling and unity are two synagogues, i.e., two congregations, bearing fruit of their Father, living sons unto a Living God.

1. Meanwhile his wife remained in Sodom, now no more corruptible flesh, but a statue of salt abiding always, and by those natural effects which are customary with mankind,¹⁰ denoting that the Church too, which is the salt of the earth, is left on the border of the Earth, in human sufferings: and though entire limbs are many times taken away from her, she continues a statue of salt, which is the ground of the faith, strengthening her sons, and sending them before her to their Father.