And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.
All Commentaries on Genesis 12:3 Go To Genesis 12
Bede
AD 735
The promise of this blessing is greater and more important than the preceding one. That was earthly, this one is heavenly, since that one referred to the generation of the fleshly Israel and this one to the generation of the spiritual Israel; that one to the nation born from him according to the flesh and this one to the generation of the nation saved in Christ from all the families of the earth. Among these saved are included all those born from him according to the flesh, who wished also to imitate the piety of his faith. To all these together the apostle Paul says, “If you are of Christ, you are then the seed of Abraham.” Therefore when he says, “In you will be blessed all the families of the earth,” it is as if he were saying, “And in your seed will be blessed the families of the earth.” Mary, from whom would be born the Christ, was present already when these things were said to him. This is what the apostle meant when he spoke of them [the descendents of Levi] as “in the loins of Abraham.” How marvelous was the dispensation of the divine severity and goodness. The multitude of those who had gathered for a work of pride merited to be divided from one another into different languages and races.… This one man, who abandoned that region, going forth from it willingly by the order of the Lord, heard addressed to himself the promise that in one common blessing there would be reunited in him all the peoples divided into various regions and languages.
