i.e., The Jewish and the Christian. Compare the 62d Homily on Genesis, t. i. 478, ed. Sav. “Zara being interpreted, is ‘the East.’ And that these things did not take place at random, but were a type of what was to come, the facts themselves indicate. For that which happened was not in the order of nature. For how was it possible, when the hand had been bound with the scarlet thread, for it to be again drawn back to afford passage to him who came after had there not been some divine power which before ordained these things, and as in a kind of shadow drew out this figure; that at first and from the beginning Zara (that is the East, which is the type of the Church) began to increase, and after it had made a little progress and then retired, the observance of the Law, represented by Phares, came in: and after prevailing a long time, on a second advance of Zara, who had before retired, made room on the contrary for the Church; I mean, the whole Jewish polity did so.” “Perhaps, however, it is necessary now to state the matter more briefly and clearly. There was a beginning, like the putting forth of Zara’s hand, in Abel, Enoch, Noah, Melchisedek, Abraham, making extreme account of what might please God. Afterwards, when they had grown into a multitude, and had heaped on themselves heavy burdens of sin, and needed the benefit of some slight consolation, the Law was given as a kind of shadow, not as taking away sins, but as declaring and making them manifest: that as imperfect children living on milk they might be capable of attaining full age. But when even thus they failed of profiting, yea, kept mingling themselves up again with their sins, all the while that the Law was pointing out the greatness of the same, He came who is our common Lord, and freely bestowed on mankind this present spiritual polity, full of all virtue, whereof Zara was to stand as a type. For this cause the evangelist also both mentioned Thamar and her children, saying, ‘Judas begat Pharez and Zarah of Thamar.’” Compare also St. Cyr. of Alex. 6 lib. in Gen. t. i. 201, ed. Aubert; Theod. in Gen. qu. 96; St. Aug. in Ps. 61, t. iv. 442, D. [A good specimen of the allegorizing exegesis which even such an expositor as Chrysostom could indulge in. The detailed account of the birth of Pharez is justified by the importance attached to the position of first-born.—R.]