Genesis 20:6

GOD'S WORDS TO ABIMÉLECH. — Concerning what God said to Abimelech because of Sarah: I spared you, so that you should not sin against me , when you warned him that what he believed to be Abraham's sister was really his wife, you have to keep in mind and pay attention that in reality it is a sin against God when you commit certain acts, that is, what men think are minor things, such as carnal sins. Concerning what he said to him, "See that you are going to die," (Gen. 20:3) it is necessary to pay attention to what God tells him to warn him, as predicting something that would surely happen, so that he would take precautions in order to avoid sin. [

But what is it that Scripture added: "and the Lord," it says, "did not permit him to touch her"? If Sarah holds the figure of virtue and Abimelech wished to receive virtue "with a clean heart," what is the meaning of the saying that "the Lord did not permit him to touch her"? Abimelech is interpreted 'my father is king.' It seems to me, then, that this Abimelech holds the figure of the studious and wise of the world, who, giving their labor to philosophy, although they have not attained the whole and perfect rule of piety, have nevertheless perceived that God is the father and king of all, that is, one who has begotten and governs all things. These men, then, as far as ethics — that is, moral philosophy — is concerned, are proved to have to some extent given their labor even to purity of heart, and with their whole mind and whole zeal to have sought the inspiration of divine virtue. But this "God did not permit" them "to touch." For this grace was being prepared to be handed on to the nations not through Abraham, who, although he was great, was nevertheless a servant, but through Christ. Therefore, then, although Abraham hastened for that to be fulfilled through himself and in himself, which was said to him, that "in you all the nations shall be blessed," nevertheless the promise is set for him in Isaac, that is, in Christ, as the Apostle says: "He did not say: and to seeds, as in many, but as in one: and to your seed, who is Christ." Yet "the Lord heals Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants."

And I know that you have done this with a simple heart; therefore I have kept you from sinning against me. But also that he immediately rose in the night, called all his servants, and narrated to them what had happened to him; and that they, having heard the danger of the offense into which the king had fallen, were all greatly afraid, demonstrates how devoted to justice both the king and his servants were: For the king himself, when he said to Abraham: What have you done to us? What did we sin against you, that you have brought upon me and my kingdom a great sin? clearly implies that he did not consider the sin of ignorance to be trivial, which he confessed was harmful not only to himself but also to his kingdom. Hence, he did not believe it sufficient for him that he had obtained pardon from God, or had deserved to be kept from sinning by God's favor, unless he also gave money abundantly along with the returned wife to the man against whom he had unknowingly sinned, so that he might be appeased, as it is read in the following passages. Nor is it to be wondered that uncircumcised men at that time could have been worshippers of truth, since the blessed Job and his royal friends are believed to have faithfully served the Lord with all that they had after the times of the given circumcision, without the sacrament of circumcision: but also, it is evident that the patriarch Shem, along with Arphaxad, Salah, Heber, his sons or grandchildren, were still alive in the flesh at that time and led a life pleasing to God without the law of circumcision. From this, it seems likely that the sign in the circumcision of Abraham was given only to him and his seed and family, but among other nations, there could still have been some who naturally served God devotedly according to the law; whether by the offerings of sacrifices or certainly by the profession of true faith alone, cleansed from the stain of the first transgression, especially those who still survived and remembered the destruction of the human race in the flood, the building of the tower and the division of tongues, or the ruin of Sodom. For the very history of Genesis testifies that Shem himself endured in the body up until the fiftieth year of Jacob's birth; to which opinion the blessed Pope Gregory agrees, saying it should by no means be believed that the lifespan of men in those times was as short as the…