Now the LORD had said unto Abram,
Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, unto a land that I will show you:
All Commentaries on Genesis 12:1 Go To Genesis 12
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Abraham represents the mind. In fact, Abraham signifies passage. Therefore, in order that the mind, which in Adam had allowed itself to run to pleasure and to bodily attractions, should turn toward the ideal form of virtue, a wise man has been proposed to us as an example to imitate. Actually Abraham in Hebrew signifies “father,” in the sense that the mind, with the authority, the judgment and the solicitude of a father, governs the entire person. This mind then was in Haran, that is, in caverns, subject to the different passions. For this reason, it is told, “Go from your country,” that is, from your body. From this land went forth the one whose homeland is in the heavens.
