And he said,
Lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do you anything unto him: for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Through motives of high devotion and in obedience to the word of God, Abraham offered his son as a holocaust, and like a man devoid of natural feeling he drew his sword that no delay might dim the brightness of his offering. Yet, when he was ordered to spare his son, he gladly sheathed his sword, and he who with the intention of faith has hastened to sacrifice his onlybegotten son hurried with greater zeal for piety to put a ram in place of the sacrifice.
In place of the body, God showed the ram in the bush, that he might restore the son to his father and yet that a victim should not be lacking to the priest. Consequently neither was Abraham stained with the blood of his own son, nor was God deprived of a victim. When the prophet saw the ram, he did not assume a boastful attitude; he did not persist obstinately in his resolve but took the ram in place of the boy. His conduct shows all the more how piously he offered the son whom he received back so gladly. On His Brother, Satyrus
In the same way he said to Abraham, “Now I know that you fear God,” wherein he was saying, “Now I have made people (who up to now did not know) recognize what I, in my own mind, always held to be certain, [namely], that you fear God.”
Hence we are not permitted to doubt that the knowledge of God is adapted to the time rather than to the result of a change, since in connection with that which God knew it is a question of the opportune moment to divulge what is known rather than to acquire it. [This] we are also taught by the words that were spoken to Abraham: “Do not lay your hand on the boy, and do nothing to him, for I know now that you fear your God, and have not spared your beloved son for my sake.” Accordingly, God knows now, but to know something now is an admission of previous ignorance. Since it is a contradiction for God not to know that Abraham had been previously faithful to him and of whom it had been said, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as justice,” that which he knew at this moment is the time when Abraham received this testimony, and not the time when God also began to acquire this knowledge. By bringing his son as a holocaust, Abraham manifested the love that he had for God. God was...
We have heard enough on how God does not know the sinner, so we ought to consider now how the just man is known by him. God said to Abraham, “Leave your country, your kinsfolk.” Abraham accordingly came into Palestine; he was in Abramiri; he sojourned a long time in Gerar. When his son Isaac was born, he had received the promise: “In your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” He took Isaac and offered him to God, and a voice from heaven was heard to say, Spare him. Straightway, at the very moment that he offered his son, what does God say to Abraham? “I know now that you fear the Lord, your God.” Have you just now known Abraham, Lord, with whom you have communicated for such a long time? Because Abraham had such great faith in sacrificing his own son, on that account God first began to know him. Why have we said all this? Because it is written, “For the Lord knows the way of the just.” Let us put it another way: The way, the life, and the truth is Christ; let us w...
