Jacob purifies his house before Bethel; clothed in a clean life
Cyril: …with all his family, God received him and saved him once more; and it is worth seeing how. It is written thus: ‘And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: You have made me hateful, so that I am odious to all who live in the land, among both the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I am few in number; they will gather against me and cut me down, and I shall be wiped out, I and my house. But they said: No, they have treated our sister like a prostitute’ (Genesis 34:30–31). ‘And God said to Jacob: Arise, go up to the place Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from the face of Esau your brother. And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him: Put away from among you the gods that are with you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments; and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and let us make there an altar to the God who heard me in the day of affliction, who was with me and kept me safe on the way by which I went. And they gave Jacob the foreign gods that were in their hands, and the earrings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that is in Shechem, and destroyed them, to this day’ (Genesis 35:1–4).
You see that the Master of all received the righteous man in his terror, and commanded him to build an altar for a pleasing aroma and as a splendid votive offering for the salvation and help that would be his. And Jacob, knowing well that this had to be done, commands them first to purify themselves, putting away the falsely named gods from among them and changing into other garments. But this, I think, would at once signify sincerity in faith and a life kept free from profanation. For to love to cleave to God single-mindedly, not divided in mind, nor inclined to remain sick with the remnants of the demons’ deceit, may fittingly be understood in the removal of the foreign gods; and in the changing of garments, the putting on, as it were, of a pure way of life.
For this is how the most wise Paul too saw fit to write. Or do you not hear him saying plainly: ‘Put off the old self, which is being corrupted by deceitful desires (Ephesians 4:22), and put on the new self, which is being renewed after the image of its Creator’ (Colossians 3:10)? And by ‘the putting off of the flesh’ he means the laying aside of fleshly pleasures (Colossians 2:11). Solomon too writes somewhere: ‘At all times let your garments be bright’ (Ecclesiastes 9:8). I would say that our wise Solomon, who understood very rightly, would not go so far in trifling as to urge us to revel childishly in bright clothes; rather, he likens to a bright robe the life that is, so to speak, washed clean and free from all filth. Otherwise, how could anyone put on our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14)? Would you not say, my friend, that one who is clothed in the glories of the gospel way of life surely achieves just that?
Palladius: Very much so.
Greek
λυσθαι παγγενῆ, προσίετο Θεὸς καὶ διεσώζετο πάλιν, καὶ τίνα δὴ τρόπον, ἄξιον ἰδεῖν. Γέγραπται τοίνυν ὡδί· «Εἶπε δὲ Ἰακὼβ πρὸς Συμεὼν καὶ Λευΐ· Μισητόν με πεποιήκατε, ὥστε πονηρόν με εἶναι πᾶσι τοῖς κατοικοῦσι τὴν γῆν, ἔντε τοῖς Χαναναίοις, καὶ ἐν τοῖς Φερεζαίοις, ἐγὼ δὲ ὀλιγοστός εἰμι ἐν ἀριθμῷ· καὶ συναχθέντες ἐπ' ἐμὲ, συγκόψουσί με, καὶ ἐκτριβήσομαι ἐγὼ, καὶ ὁ οἶκός μου. Οἱ δὲ εἶπαν· Ἀλλ' ὡσεὶ πόρνῃ κατακέχρηνται τῇ ἀδελφῇ ἡμῶν. Εἶπε δὲ ὁ Θεὸς πρὸς Ἰακώβ· Ἀναστὰς, ἀνάβηθι εἰς τὸν τόπον Βαιθὴλ, καὶ οἴκει ἐκεῖ. Καὶ ποίησον ἐκεῖ θυσιαστήριον τῷ Θεῷ τῷ ὀφθέντι σοι, ἐν τῷ ἀποδιδράσκειν σε ἀπὸ προσώπου Ἡσαῦ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου. Εἶπε δὲ Ἰακὼβ τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς μετ' αὐτοῦ· Ἄρατε τοὺς θεοὺς τοὺς μεθ' ὑμῶν ἐκ μέσου ὑμῶν, καὶ καθαρίσθητε, καὶ ἀλλάξατε τὰς στολὰς ὑμῶν, καὶ ἀναστάντες ἀναβῶμεν εἰς Βαιθὴλ, καὶ ποιήσωμεν ἐκεῖ θυσιαστήριον τῷ Θεῷ τῷ ἐπακούσαντί μου ἐν ἡμέρᾳ θλίψεως, ὃς ἦν μετ' ἐμοῦ, καὶ διέσωσέ με ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ᾗ ἐπορεύθην. Καὶ ἔδωκαν τῷ Ἰακὼβ τοὺς θεοὺς τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους, οἳ ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰ ἐνώτια τὰ ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτῶν, καὶ κατέκρυψεν αὐτὰ Ἰακὼβ ὑπὸ τὴν τερέβινθον τὴν ἐν Σηκίμοις, καὶ ἀπώλεσεν αὐτὰ, ἕως τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας.» Ὁρᾷς ὅτι προσίετο μὲν ὁ πάντων Δεσπότης κατοῤῥωδοῦντα τὸν δίκαιον, καὶ ἀναδείμασθαι κελεύει θυσιαστήριον εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας καὶ τῆς ἐσομένης αὐτῷ σωτηρίας καὶ ἀρωγῆς ἀνάθημα λαμπρόν. Ὁ δὲ, ὅτι τοῦτο δρᾷν ἀναγκαῖον εὖ μάλα διεγνωκὼς, προαποκαθήρασθαι δεῖν ἐπιτάττει τοὺς ψευδωνύμους ἐκ μέσου ποιοῦντας θεοὺς, καὶ στολὰς ἑτέρας μετημφιεσμένους. Ἀλλ', οἶμαι δὴ, τοῦτο κατασημήνειεν ἂν εὐθὺς, τὸ εἰλικρινὲς ἐν πίστει, καὶ τὸ ἀβέβηλον εἰς ζωήν· τὸ μὲν γὰρ μονοτρόπως Θεῷ προσκεῖσθαι φιλεῖν, οὐ μεμερισμένους τὴν διάνοιαν, οὔτε μὴν ἀπονενευκότας ἐπὶ τὸ χρῆναι νοσεῖν τῆς τῶν δαιμονίων ἀπάτης λείψανα, νοοῖτ' ἂν εἰκότως ἔν γε τῷ τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους ἐξῃρῆσθαι θεούς· ἐν δέ γε τῷ μεταμείβειν τὰς στολὰς, τὸ οἱονεὶ πολιτείαν μεταμφιάσασθαι καθαράν. Ἐδόκει γὰρ ὧδε γράφειν καὶ τῷ σοφωτάτῳ Παύλῳ. Ἢ οὐκ ἐπαΐεις ἐναργῶς λέγοντος· «Ἐκδύσασθε τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον τὸν φθειρόμενον κατὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ἀπάτης, καὶ ἐνδύσασθε τὸν νέον τὸν ἀνακαινούμενον κατ' εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν;» ἀπέκθεσιν δὲ τῆς σαρκὸς, τῶν σαρκικῶν ἡδονῶν τὴν ἀπόθεσιν διακαλῶν. Γράφει δέ που καὶ Σολομών· «Ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ ἔστωσαν ἱμάτιά σου λαμπρά.» Φαίην δ' ἂν ὅτι καὶ μάλα ὀρθῶς ἐννενοηκὼς, οὐκ ἂν εἰς τοῦτο προήκοι τερθρείας ὁ σοφὸς ἡμῖν Σολομὼν, ὡς ἱματίων ἡμᾶς ἀναπείθειν μειρακιωδῶς ἐντρυφᾷν λαμπρότησιν, ἀμφίῳ δὲ ὥσπερ παρεικάζει λαμπρῷ τὴν οἱονείπως ἐκνενιμμένην καὶ ῥύπου παντὸς ἐλευθέραν ζωήν. Ἐπεὶ πῶς ἄν τις ἐνδύσαιτο τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν; Ἆρ' οὐχὶ φαίης ἂν, ὅτι τοῖς τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς πολιτείας αὐχήμασι κατημφιεσμένος, ἀποπεραίνει που πάντως τὸ χρῆμα, ὦ τᾶν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα.