And the LORD said unto her,
Two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be born of you; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
All Commentaries on Genesis 25:23 Go To Genesis 25
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
The fact that we read “One people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger” we do not see fulfilled according to the letter in Esau and Jacob. For Scripture does not mention that Esau served blessed Jacob bodily. Therefore we ought to inquire how this is to be understood spiritually, or how the elder shall serve the younger, for if this were not to happen holy Scripture would not mention it. Therefore if one pays careful attention, one will know how the elder people shall serve the younger in the case of Christians and Jews. The greater and older people of the Jews are proved to serve the younger, that is, the Christian people, for like servants of the Christians they are known to carry the books of the divine law throughout the world for the instruction of all nations. Therefore the Jews were scattered in every land, so that when we want to invite some pagan to faith in Christ by testifying that Christ was announced by all the prophets, and he resists and says that the holy books of the divine law were written by us rather than the Holy Spirit, we may thus have a means of refuting him with positive arguments. To such a person we may say, “If a doubt arises in you concerning my books, behold the books of the Jews, apparently our enemies, which I certainly could neither have written nor changed. Read them over, and when you have found in them the same thing as in my books, ‘Be not unbelieving but believing.’ ” In this way the elder people is known to serve the younger, for through their books the people of the Gentiles are invited to belief in Christ.
