Богоявление в Мамре и гостеприимство Авраама в Великом каноне: идентификация путников и истоки экзегезы

Abstract

This report examines the origins of the exegesis in the Great Penitential Canon of the episode of Abraham’s mysterious encounter with three travelers at Mamre (Gen. 18:1-11). The saintly author of the Canon interprets them in the troparion of Ode 3 as angels, while in his Canon for the Presentation of the Lord – as God the Word with two angels. This apparent inconsistency is probably connected with a possible imitation of Heb. 13:2 (“be not forgetful to entertain strangers”) in the first Canon. The idea of the Patriarch’s hospitality as an example of entertaining strangers is also found in the homilies on the book of Genesis by St. John Chrysostom. Saint Andrew, as it seems, creatively reworked them, as is apparent from his use of words that are cognate with ἡ φιλοξενία and τό θήρημα, his reference to Heb. 13:2, and the causal link between the meeting of Abraham and the promise of the birth of a child.