|
What did Abraham mean by marrying Keturah after Sarah's death?
Far be it from us to suspect him of incontinence, especially when he
had reached such an age and such sanctity of faith. Or was he still
seeking to beget children, though he held fast, with most approved
faith, the promise of God that his children should be multiplied out
of Isaac as the stars of heaven and the dust of the earth? And yet,
if Hagar and Ishmael, as the apostle teaches us, 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." 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 whole estate unto Isaac his son. But
unto the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away
from his son Isaac, (while he yet lived,) eastward, unto the east
country." Therefore the sons of the concubines, that is, the
heretics and the carnal Jews, have some gifts, but do not attain the
promised kingdom; "For they which are the children of the flesh,
these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are
counted for the seed, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed
be called." For I do not see why Keturah, who was married after
the wife's death, should be called a concubine, except on account of
this mystery. But if any one is unwilling to put such meanings on
these things, he need not calumniate Abraham. For what if even this
was provided against the heretics who were to be the opponents of second
marriages, so that it might be shown that it was no sin in the case of
the father of many nations himself, when, after his wife's death, he
married again? And Abraham died when he was 175 years old, so
that he left his son Isaac seventy-five years old, having begotten
him when 100 years old.
|
|