Letter 95: Setting aside the well-worn interpretations, let me state the meaning clearly — even if some think I am cutting a...
To Ophelios the Grammarian.
Why Jacob, at his birth, took hold of Esau's heel.
Jacob took hold of Esau's heel at the time of their birth, indicating by this gesture that the mind which beholds God in purity (for this is the meaning into which "Israel" is interpreted) trips up the gluttonous passions [pternizō, "to trip by the heel," punning on Jacob the "supplanter"]. This was accomplished in those very men themselves, when Edom [Esau] displayed his uncontrollable frenzy and turned the honor of the birthright into a matter of food.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Διὰ τί ὁ Ἰακὼβ ἐν τῷ τίκτεσθαι τῆς πτέρνης ἐπείληπτο τοῦ Ἠσαῦ.
Τῆς πτέρνης Ἠσαῦ ὁ Ἰακὼβ ἐπείληπτο ἐν τῷ τίκτεσθαι, τοῦτο σημαίνων διὰ τοῦ σχήματος, ὅτι ὁ νοῦς ὁ βλέπων Θεὸν καθαρότητι (τοῦτο γάρ Ἰσραὴλ ἑρμηνεύεται), πτερνίζει τὰ πάθη τὰ γαστρίμαργα· ὅπερ ἐπ’ αὐτῶν ἐκείνων τετέλεστο, ἡνίκα τὴν ἀκαρτέρητον λύτταν ὁ Ἐδὼμ ἐπεδείξατο, καὶ τῆς πρεσβυγενείας τὴν τιμὴν ἐποίησε βρώσεως.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern isidore pelusium workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/PatrologiaGraeca (PG vol.78)
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