The evangelist Luke concluded the gospel of this day with few words, but they are filled with a manifold power of the heavenly mysteries. He said, "Postquam consummati sunt dies octo ut circumcideretur puer, vocatum est nomen ejus Jesus, quod vocatum est ab angelo, priusquam in utero conciperetur." That is in our tongue, "After that the eight days were accomplished from the Lord's birth, that he should be circumcised, his name was called Jesus, that is _Saviour_, by which name he was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb." The patriarch Abraham was the first man circumcised by God's command. Abraham spake with God, and God held converse most with him after Noah's flood, and said, "I am the Lord Almighty; walk before me and be perfect. And I will set my covenant betwixt me and thee, and I will exceedingly multiply thee, and thou shalt be the father of many nations. Kings shall spring from thee, and I will set my covenant betwixt me and thee, and thy offspring after thee, that I am the God of thee and of thy offspring." Abraham prostrated himself with all his limbs to the earth, and God said to him, "Hold thou my covenant, and thy offspring after thee in their tribes. This is my covenant, which ye shall hold betwixt me and you; that every male child in your tribe shall be circumcised: be that a sign betwixt me and you. Let every {93} male child, when it is eight nights old, be circumcised, both the noble-born and the slave; and he who neglecteth this, his soul shall perish, because he hath disregarded my covenant. Now be thou henceforth called not Abram, but Abraham, because I will establish thee as the father of many nations. Nor be thy wife called Sarai, but be called Sarah; and I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son whom thou shalt call Isaac; and I will set my covenant with him and his offspring for everlasting duration. And after this speech the Almighty went up." On the same day Abraham was circumcised, and all his household, and afterwards his son Isaac, on the eighth day from his birth.