Ambrose of Milan : Where there is Bethel, that is, the house of God, there is also the altar. Where there is the altar, there is also the calling on the name of God. It is not by chance that he made such great progress. He hoped in the help of God. The athlete of God exercised and strengthened himself in adversity. He went into the desert. — ON ABRAHAM 1.2.6 Bede : And thence, crossing to the mountain that was east of Bethel, he pitched his tent there, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He also built an altar there to the Lord and called on His name. Indeed, after the valley, he ascended to the mountains, for through the humility of self-despair we must ascend to the loftiness of devout action dedicated to God. And there too, as in the valley, he built an altar to the Lord and called on His name, because both to be humbled in the sight of the Lord and to perform sublime works of virtue are gifts of divine favor; for both we must offer praises of thanks to Him. And because there should always be progress in virtues towards higher things, it is aptly added: — Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) Augustine of Hippo : WHY DID ABRAHAM HIDE THAT SARAH WAS HIS SISTER FROM THE EGYPTIANS? — And it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see you, that they say, It is his wife. It happened that as soon as Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful . How can we understand the fact that Abram, when he came to Egypt, wanted to hide that Sarah was his wife, according to all that is written on this subject? Is it appropriate for such a holy man or should we think of a certain lack of faith, as some have addressed? I already dealt with this subject in the work Against Faustus. And the elder Jerome (Quest. Hebr. in Gen. 20:22) expounded more broadly than I; why it is not necessary, that even if Sarah spent some days in the house of the king of Egypt, it must be admitted that she committed a carnal sin with him. Indeed, it was customary for kings to have intercourse with wives from time to time in their palaces. But no one approached the king if they had not washed and perfumed their body with great care. Well, while these preparations were taking place Pharaoh was punished by God, (Cf. Gen. 12:17-20) so he returned her restored to her husband. The wife whom Abraham had entrusted to God by concealing that she was his wife, but without lying, said that she was his sister so that he could, as much as a man could do, entrust to God what he could not avoid, so that, if she herself only entrusted to God the things she could avoid, she did not give the impression that she did not believe in God, but rather tempted God. [ — QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 25 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)