Isaac

Isaac signifies the self-taught;

But as the cycle of studies contributes to philosophy, their mistress, so philosophy itself works together toward the acquisition of wisdom.

and Isaac, allegorized as a consecrated victim, he chose out for himself as a type to be for us of the saving dispensation.

And so first of all Isaac, when he was led by his father as a victim, himself carrying the wood, even then marked the outcome of Christ — granted by the Father as a victim, carrying the wood of his own passion.

This wood Isaac too, the son of Abraham, himself carried for the sacrifice, when God had commanded that he be made a victim.

And so, first of all, Isaac, when, given over by his father for a victim, he himself carried the wood for himself, even then marked out the death of Christ — yielded by the Father to be a victim and bearing the wood of his passion.

When Isaac, blessing his son Jacob, says, "May God give thee of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth" — are these not examples of a twofold indulgence?

that Isaac was oppressed, and Jacob the patriarch was a sojourner;

The blessing mentioned in the Scriptural history of Isaac and his sons has sometimes been spoken of as a will, but it seems rather to have been a mode of naming an eldest son.

For these, being descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, sojourned in Egypt.

For although comeliness is not to be accused, as the felicity of the body, as an accession of the divine modelling, as some good garment of the soul, yet it is to be feared, even on account of the injury and violence of its pursuers—which even Abraham, the father of faith, dreaded in the beauty of his wife, and Isaac, falsely calling Rebecca his sister, redeemed his safety by a humiliation.

If he wills us to repeat marriages, how does he defend our seed in Isaac, who is the author of one marriage?

But this our father Isaac, the monogamist, will now no longer judge—nor any John, the eunuch of Christ, nor Judith the daughter of Merari, nor so many other examples of the saints.

but it was patience that proved his faith, when he was bidden to immolate his son — by way, I will not say of a temptation, but of a figurative attestation of his faith.