ACC ~ Acts 7 v3

DO AS GOD BIDS. CHRYSOSTOM: He shows that these were types, as was Abraham’s leaving of his home country, at God’s command, not against the law (for home and country is where God shall lead): “Then he departed,” he says, “from the land of the Chaldeans.” He shows that the Jews, if one looks closely into the matter, are of Persian origin and that, even without miracles, one must do as God says, whatever hardships may result. For even the patriarch left the grave of his father and all that he had in obedience to God’s command. If Abraham’s father had no part in the migration because he was unworthy, much more unworthy were the children, even though they came much of the way. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 15.

MENTAL DEPARTURE. BEDE: Therefore the following words, “Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans,” do not signify a physical but a mental departure, by which he separated himself forever from association with the Chaldeans and their nation. According to the belief of the chronicles, in one and the same year he left Chaldea, entered Mesopotamia, tarried in Haran and was brought into the land of the promise. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.3.

THE THREE RENUNCIATIONS. JOHN CASSIAN: [Paphnutius said,] “We read that the Lord commanded Abraham to do these three things all at once when he said to him, ‘Leave your country and your kinsfolk and your father’s house.’” First he spoke of “your country,” namely, of the resources of this world and of earthly wealth; second, of “your kinsfolk,” namely, of the former way of life and behavior and vices that have been related to us from our birth by a connection as it were of a certain affinity or consanguinity; third, of “your father’s house,” namely, of every vestige of this world which the eyes gaze upon. CONFERENCE 3.6.2.

Acts