Letter 96: Your brother, my admirable friend, is admired for his character; you are admired for your eloquence.
To Theodorus the Scholastic. What was hinted at when Jacob put on the skins of the kids [Genesis 27, where Jacob covers himself with goatskins to win Isaac's blessing].
You apply yourself keenly to deep reflections, and you hunt down sharply the hidden riddles. When Jacob put on the skins of the kids and procured his father's blessing, he hinted at our Lord and Savior, who received without sin the nature that is subject to sin and put its passions to death in himself; for this is what the putting on of dead skins signifies. He left nothing further in that nature that was painful and deserving of the place on the left hand and of judgment. But, having mortified its earthly members, he brought to the Father a beloved food-offering-to the Father who ever hungers for our salvation-and from within himself caused the inalienable blessing to flow out to us.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Τί ᾐνίξατο, τὰ τῶν ἐρίφων δέρματα ὁ Ἰακὼβ περιθέμενος.
Ὀξέως ἐπιβάλλεις τοῖς ἐνθυμήμασι, καὶ δριμέως θηρεύεις τὰ κεκρυμμένα αἰνίγματα. Τὰ δέρματα τῶν ἐρίφων ὁ Ἰακὼβ περιθέμενος, καὶ τὴν εὐλογίαν τοῦ πατρὸς πορισάμενος, τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν καὶ Σωτῆρα ᾐνίξατο, τὴν ἐναμάρτητον (87) φύσιν ἀναμαρτήτως δεξάμενον, καὶ τὰ πάθη αὐτῆς ἐν ἑαυτῷ θανατώσαντα· τοῦτο γὰρ δηλοῖ ἡ τῶν νεκρῶν δερμάτων περίθεσις· οὐδὲν ἐπώδυνον λοιπὸν ἐν τῇ φύσει κατέλιπε, τῆς εὐωνύμου στάσεως καὶ κρίσεως ἄξιον. Ἀλλὰ νεκρώσας αὐτῆς τὰ γήινα μέλη, καὶ βρῶσιν προσφιλῆ, τῷ Πατρὶ προσεκόμισε, τὴν ἡμετέραν ἀεὶ πεινῶντι σωτηρίαν, καὶ ἡμῖν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἀναφαίρετον εὐλογίαν ἐπήγασεν.
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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