8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
(Chapter 17—Verse 3 and following) And the Lord spoke to him, saying: Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations, and your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of many nations. It should be noted that wherever we read Testament in Greek, in the Hebrew language it is the word covenant or pact, that is, Berith (). The Hebrews say that God, from his name, which is the Tetragrammaton among them, added the letter He to Abraham and Sarah: for he was first called Abram (), which means lofty father, and later he was called Abraham (), which means father of many: for what follows nations is not part of the name, but is understood. It is not surprising, therefore, that when it seems that the letter Α has been added among the Greeks and us: we have called it the Hebrew letter He added; for the language of that tongue is to write with He (ה), but to read with A (א): just as, on the contrary, the letter A is often pronounced as He.
Verse 7. "And the overseer of the eunuchs imposed names upon them, calling Daniel Belteshazzar (Balthasar), and Hananiah Shadrach, and Mishael Meshach, and Azariah Abednego." It was not only the overseer or master of the eunuchs (as others have rendered it, the "chief-eunuch") who changed the names of saints, but also Pharaoh called Joseph in Egypt Somtonphanec (Genesis 41:45), for neither of them wished them to have Jewish names in the land of captivity. Wherefore the prophet says in the Psalm: "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" (Psalm 137:4). Furthermore the Lord Himself changes names benignly, and on the basis of events imposes names of special significance, so as to call Abram Abraham (Genesis 17:5), and Sarai Sarah (Genesis 17:15). Also in the Gospel, the former Simon received the name of Peter (Mark 3:16), and the sons of Zebedee are called "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17) - which is not boanerges, as most people suppose, but is more correctly read benereem.
And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. It requires a more laborious exposition on how it should be understood as fulfilled or still expected to be fulfilled, since any earthly possession cannot be eternal for any nation. But it should be known that "eternal" is interpreted by our people as what the Greeks call "Aeonion," which is derived from "age." For in Greek "Aeon" is called an age. But the Latins did not dare to say "age-long," lest they send the meaning far off into something else. For many things are called "age-long" that are done in this age in such a way as to pass away in a short time. However, what is called "Aeonion" either has no end or extends to the end of this age. And therefore, as we said above, the land of Canaan is given as an everlasting possession to the seed of Abraham, because in it Christians, up to the end of this age, whether from the Jews or from the Gentiles, that is, the seed of Abraham, are believed never to be lacking.
[AD 420] Jerome on Genesis 17:3-14