Didymus the Blind : As for the promise to make of him "a great nation," is it necessary to give a meaning other than the literal one? Because it is clear that it was realized in its historical sense. But, having become a people, it is truly great when it is adorned with virtues. And it is manifest that when the progress becomes more important in the soul, there is established in it a grandeur which is no longer earthly but heavenly. And this soul is a blessing that is not simply offered but realized, because the name is made great and becomes celebrated because it is accompanied by virtue and by that beauty which confers a spiritual blessing. It is worth more to have a good name than to have riches. — ON Genesis 210-11 John Chrysostom : The scope of the promise is extraordinary: "I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and magnify your name." Not only will I place you at the head of a great nation and cause your name to be great, but as well, "I will bless you, and you will be blessed." I will favor you with so much blessing, he says, that it will last for all time. "You will be blessed" to such an extent that everyone will be anxious to thrust themselves into your company in preference to the highest honor. See how God right from the beginning foretold to him the honor he would later confer upon him. "I will make you a great nation," he said; "I will magnify your name; I will bless you, and you will be blessed." Hence the Jews too found in the patriarch grounds for self-importance and endeavored to establish their kinship with him in the words "We are the children of Abraham." For you to learn, however, that on the basis of their evil ways they are in fact unworthy of such kinship, Christ says to them, "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham." John too, the son of Zechariah, when those anxious to be baptized flocked to the Jordan, said to them, "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that benefits repentance, and don't presume to say, 'We have Abraham for our father.' I tell you, after all, that God can raise up children to Abraham even from these stones." Do you see how great his name was in everyone's estimation? For the time being, however, before the sequel the just man's God-fearing qualities are demonstrated in the way he believed the words coming from God and accepted without demur everything, difficult though it seemed. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 31.13