Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
How, both in circumcision and outside it, a single Father is disclosed through faith. It was fitting that the sons of Abraham — whom God raised from stones and set beside him as leader and forerunner shaped for our belief (who also took on the covenant of circumcision after that justification which had already come by the trust of the uncircumcised, so that both covenants could find their pattern in him, so that he might stand as ancestor to everyone who traces God's teaching and passes through a temporary stay in this present world — meaning both those faithful out of circumcision and those faithful without it, just as Christ likewise is the cornerstone upholding the whole) — and drawing into a single trust of Abraham those from either covenant fit for God's building. Yet this trust found outside circumcision, since it links the finish back to the start, came about as both first and last. It existed in Abraham prior to circumcision, and in the other righteous men pleasing to God, as we have already demonstrated; and it rose up again among mankind in the final age through the Lord's arrival. Circumcision, however, along with the Law of works, held the middle stretch of time. Among many other proofs, this is shown figuratively also through Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah. Once twins had formed in her womb, one child pushed out a hand first, and the midwife, taking him for the firstborn, tied a scarlet cord about his wrist. But once this was done and he pulled his hand back in, his brother Perez emerged before him; only afterward came the second child, marked by the scarlet cord, Zarah — Scripture thereby plainly showing that the people bearing the scarlet mark, that is, the trust found apart from circumcision, appeared first among the patriarchs in a foreshadowing, then was withdrawn so its brother could be born, and that the one who was first would be born second, made known by the scarlet token upon him, which stands for the suffering of the Just One, prefigured from the start among the fathers in the Son of God. Certain matters had to be foretold, for a seed was cast; "in this," it states, "the proverb holds good, that the people is one who scatters seed and another is the reaper; yet a single God supplies each with what fits — seed to the sower and bread for the reaper to consume." Just as one plants and a different one waters, yet God alone grants the growth. For the patriarchs and prophets cast the seed of the message concerning Christ, while the Church has gathered it in — that is, has taken the harvest. For this reason they too pray for a tent within her, as Jeremiah says: "Who would grant me a lodging place out in the wilderness," so that sower and reaper together might celebrate in Christ's kingdom, he being present to everyone toward whom God was favorably disposed from the beginning, granting that his Word should dwell among them. So then, whoever gives the Scriptures a careful reading will discover in them an account concerning Christ, and a foreshadowing of the summons now newly given.