the threshing floor that was threshed then. I mean, if we were to think a bit, my
286 SAINT AUGUSTINE - SERMONS selves on it. It's a gift from God. Is the reason God chose us, do you suppose, that we were good? He didn't choose good people, but people he wished to make good. We were all in the shadow of death,6 we were all being held, bundled together in the lump of sin coming from Adam. With the root infected, what sort of fruit could be bom of the tree of the human race? But the one who would heal the infection came without infection, and the one who came to clean up sins came without sin.
How Jacob, in his wrestling with the angel, prefigured both the Jews who believed in Christ and those who rejected him
2. Don't concentrate on the Jews who are now chaff, that is, who derive from the threshing floor that was threshed then. I mean, if we were to think a bit, my brothers and sisters, from the Jews came the prophets, from the Jews the patriarchs, from the Jews the apostles, from the Jews the virgin Mary who gave birth to Christ, from the Jews later on came Paul as a believer, and so many thousands baptized on one day,7 from the Jews innumerable Churches of Chris¬ tians. But all that grain is now stored in the granary; with the chaff the devil will be having his fun.
Believing Jews and unbelieving Jews. Where were they first condemned? In the first of them, in the father of all of them, Jacob himself, who was also called Israel.8 Jacob: "Supplanter" or "Heel";9 Israel: "Seeing God."10 When he re¬ turned from Mesopotamia with his children, an angel wrestled with him, repre¬ senting Christ; and while he wrestled, though he surpassed him in strength, he still seemed to succumb to him, and Jacob to prevail. In the same sort of way the Lord Christ too succumbed to the Jews; they prevailed when they killed him. He was overcome by superior strength; precisely when he was overcome, that was when he overcame for us. What's that—when he was overcome was when he overcame for us? Because when he suffered, he shed the blood with which he redeemed us.
So then, that's what's written: Jacob prevailed over him. And yet Jacob himself, who was wrestling, acknowledged the mystery involved. A man, wres¬ tling with an angel, prevailed over him; and when he said, Let me go, the one who had prevailed said, I am not letting you go, unless you bless me. O grand and splendid mystery! Overcome, he blesses, just as having suffered, he sets free; that is when the blessing was completed. What are you called? he said to him. He replied, Jacob. You shall not be called Jacob, he said, but you shall be called Israel (Gn 32:25-29). The imposition of such a great name is a great blessing. Israel, as I said, means "Seeing God"; one man's name, everyone's reward. Everyone's; but provided they believe and are blessed, both Jews and Greeks. Greeks, you see, is what the apostle calls all nationalities, the reason being that the Greek language has such prestige among the nations. Glory, he says, and honor—they are the apostle's words—glory and honor and peace to everyone doing good, to Jew first and Greek; wrath and indignation, trouble and distress on every soul doing evil, to Jews first and Greeks (Rom 2:10.9). Good for good Jews, bad for bad ones; good for good Gentiles, bad for bad ones.