And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.
All Commentaries on Genesis 21:6 Go To Genesis 21
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
I have described sufficiently the origin of holy Isaac and the grace he received in my discussion of his father. He abounds in glory, in that he was born as a reward to Abraham, his incomparably great father. And no wonder, since there were prefigured in him the birth and the passion of the Lord. An aged woman who was sterile brought him to birth according to God’s promise, so that we might believe that God has power to bring it about that even a virgin may give birth. He was offered for sacrifice in a singular fashion, that he might not be lost to his father and yet might fulfill the sacrifice. Likewise by his very name he prefigures grace. For Isaac means “laughter,” and laughter is the sign of joy. Now everybody knows that he is the joy of all who checked the dread of fearsome death, took away its terror and became for all people the forgiveness of their sins. The one is named and the other demoted; the one portrayed and the other foretold. Isaac, or the Soul
