Tracing the circumcised nations through Ishmael and Esau
Gregory is answering how Jeremiah can call Egypt, Edom, Ammon, and Moab circumcised, and has just shown Ishmael's Egyptian and desert descendants; he now traces the line through Ishmael and Esau.
Why should all this be told to me as a story? I am looking for the circumcised in Egypt, and I am looking for the circumcised in the desert—all those whom the word records. They seem, then, to be from the line of Ishmael, who settled in the desert and married an Egyptian wife. And I no longer doubt that these are the circumcised in Egypt, and those who cut the hair around the face, and those who live in the desert. For it is likely that Ishmael, having received the law of his father Abraham—since Abraham was a God-loving father—and having withdrawn from his own land, kept doing the things he considered safest, because they were handed down from the fathers, and did the same for his own descendants. In this way, then, one can find Egyptians or those who live in the desert circumcised. And how is Edom circumcised? This Edom also descends from the descendants of Abraham. For Abraham had a son, Ishmael, by Hagar, and he also had Isaac by Sarah. Isaac in turn had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob did not marry a wife of foreign blood, nor one of the Canaanites, his father having looked into this matter. Esau, however, married the daughter of Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth—taking as his wife his own cousin on his father's side, though of another people on his mother's side—and he became the father of many children. His firstborn was Edom, and the sacred oracle will testify for me when it says: "These are the generations of Esau, the father of Edom" (Genesis 36:1).
Greek
Τίνος ἕνεκέν μοι ταῦτα πάντα μεμυθολογεῖσθαι; ζητῶ τοὺς περιτετμημένους κατὰ Αἴγυπτον, καὶ ζητῶ τοὺς περιτετμημένους τοὺς ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, πάντας οὓς ἀναγράφει ὁ λόγος. Ἐοίκασιν οὖν ἐκ τοῦ γένους εἶναι τοῦ Ἰσμαὴλ, ὃς ᾤκησε μὲν τὴν ἔρημον, ἠγάγετο δὲ τὴν αἰγυπτίαν γυναῖκα· καὶ οὐκέτι ἀμφιβάλλω τούτους που εἶναι, ἢ τοὺς ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ περιτετμημένους, καὶ τοὺς πε-ρικειρομένους κατὰ πρόσωπον, καὶ κατοικοῦντας ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ. Εἶκος γὰρ τὸν Ἰσμαὴλ παραλαβόντα τὸν νόμον τὸν πατρῷον τοῦ Ἁβραὰμ, ὡς θεοφιλοῦς πατρὸς ὄντα, καὶ ἀναχωρήσαντα τῆς οἰκείας, ἅπερ ἐνόμιζεν αὐτῷ εἶναι ἀσφαλέστατα, πατροπαρά-δοτα ὄντα, ταῦτα ποιεῖν καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐγγόνοις τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ. Οὕτως δὲ μέντοι περιτετμημένους ἔστιν εὑρεῖν Αἰγυπτίους ἢ τοὺς τὴν ἔρημον οἰκοῦντας. Πῶς δὲ καὶ τὸν Ἐδώμ; ὁ Ἐδὼμ οὖτος κα-ταβαίνει καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος τοῦ Ἁβραάμ· τῷ γὰρ Ἁβραὰμ ἐγένετο μὲν παῖς Ἰσμαὴλ ἐκ τῆς Ἄγαρ, ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἰσαὰκ ἐκ τῆς Σάῤῥας· τῷ δὲ Ἰσαὰκ πάλιν παῖδες δύο, ὅ τε Ἡσαῦ καὶ ὁ Ἰακώβ. Καὶ ὁ μὲν Ἰακὼβ οὐκ ἠγάγετο γυναῖκαν αἵμα-τος ξένου, οὐδὲ τῶν Χαναναίων, ταῦτα ἐπι-σκέψαντος τοῦ πατρός. Ὁ μέντοι Ἡσαῦ ἠ-γάγετο γυναῖκα τὴν θυγατέρα Ἰσμαὴλ, ἀ-δελφὴν τοῦ Νεβεώθ, ἀνεψιὰν δήπουθεν ἀγόμενος ἑαυτοῦ γυναίκα πρὸς πατρὸς, ξέ-νην δὲ πρὸς μητρὸς, καὶ γίνεται παίδων πολλῶν πατήρ. Πρωτότοκος δὲ αὐτοῦ ὁ Ἐ-δὼμ, καὶ μαρτυρήσει μοι τὸ ἱερὸν λόγιον λέ-γον· Αὖται δὲ αἱ γενέσεις Ἡσαῦ πατρὸς Ἐδώμ.