And he treated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and male donkeys, and menservants, and maidservants, and female donkeys, and camels.
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Didymus the Blind
AD 398
The intelligent strategy of the patriarch did not fail. They did not seek to do him harm. Moreover, a way out of it presented itself so that the marriage of the holy man would not be violated, because the Egyptians did not fling themselves on the woman relinquished by him. But the officials, after having seen her, in order to obtain the gratitude of the king, presented her to him as a gift, and thus it happened that they treated Abraham well because of her. Abraham entered then into Egypt allegorically by adapting himself as one of the perfect to the imperfect in order to do good to them instead of holding on to virtue as a privilege, as has been said above, but in showing her to all as his sister, in humility, so that by contemplating her they might come to love her. But observe how it is said that the officials saw her. There are in fact in the ranks of the allegorically viewed Egyptians some men who are purer, who have a great capacity for perceiving virtue. And they not only percei...
