Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joseph narrates his dreams; his brothers envy him and plot his death, but Reuben delivers him. Then at verse 26, at Judah's persuasion, they sell Joseph to the Midianites, and these sell him to Potiphar in Egypt.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 37:1-36
1. Now Jacob dwelt in the land of Canaan, in which his father had sojourned. 2. And these are the generations of him: Joseph, when he was sixteen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers, still a boy; and he was with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and he accused his brothers before their father of a most grievous crime. 3. Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had begotten him in his old age; and he made him a coat of many colors. 4. And his brothers seeing that he was loved by their father more than all his sons, hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. 5. It happened also that he told his brothers a dream he had seen, which was the seed of greater hatred. 6. And he said to them: Hear my dream which I dreamed: 7. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose, as it were, and stood, and your sheaves standing about bowed down before my sheaf. 8. His brothers answered: Shall you indeed be our king? Or shall we be subject to your dominion? This cause of dreams and words therefore furnished fuel for envy and hatred. 9. He saw also another dream, which telling his brothers, he said: I saw in a dream, as it were the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars worshipping me. 10. And when he had told this to his father and brothers, his father rebuked him, and said: What does this dream mean that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers worship you upon the earth? 11. His brothers therefore envied him; but his father considered the thing in silence. 12. And when his brothers were staying in Shechem, feeding their father's flocks, 13. Israel said to him: Your brothers feed the sheep in Shechem; come, I will send you to them. And he answering: 14. I am ready, he said to him: Go, and see if all things are well with your brothers and the cattle, and bring me word what is going on. Being sent from the valley of Hebron, he came to Shechem; 15. and a man found him wandering in the field, and asked him what he sought. 16. But he answered: I seek my brothers; tell me where they feed their flocks. 17. And the man said to him: They have departed from this place; for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. 18. And when they saw him afar off, before he came near them, they plotted to kill him; 19. and they said to one another: Behold the dreamer comes; 20. come, let us kill him, and cast him into an old pit, and we will say: A wild beast has devoured him; and then it will appear what his dreams profit him. 21. And Reuben hearing this, endeavored to deliver him out of their hands, and said: 22. Do not take his life, nor shed his blood; but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands innocent; now he said this, wishing to rescue him from their hands and restore him to his father. 23. So as soon as he came to his brothers, they stripped him of his long coat of many colors; 24. and cast him into an old pit, which had no water. 25. And sitting down to eat bread, they saw Ishmaelite travelers coming from Gilead, and their camels carrying spices, and balm, and myrrh to Egypt. 26. Judah therefore said to his brothers: What does it profit us if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27. It is better that he be sold to the Ishmaelites, and that our hands be not defiled; for he is our brother and our flesh. His brothers agreed to his words. 28. And when the Midianite merchants passed by, they drew him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver; and they led him into Egypt.
29. And Reuben returning to the pit, found not the boy; 30. and rending his garments, going to his brothers, he said: The boy does not appear, and where shall I go? 31. And they took his coat, and dipped it in the blood of a kid which they had killed; 32. sending men to carry it to their father, and to say: This we have found; see whether it is your son's coat or not. 33. And the father recognizing it, said: It is my son's coat; a wild beast has eaten him, a beast has devoured Joseph. 34. And rending his garments, he put on sackcloth, mourning for his son a long time. 35. And all his children being gathered together to comfort their father's grief, he would not receive comfort, but said: I will go down to my son mourning into the grave. And as he persevered in weeping, 36. the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, a eunuch of Pharaoh, the captain of the soldiers.
Verse 2: Joseph at Sixteen; He Accused His Brothers
2. THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF HIM, that is, of Jacob, as if to say: Hereafter I will recount the descendants of Jacob, their fortunes, events, and deeds, especially those of Joseph, as I did for Esau in the preceding chapter. For here begins the history of Joseph, most innocent, most chaste, and most patient. See St. Ambrose, book On Joseph.
Joseph when he was sixteen years old. The Hebrews, Chaldeans, Septuagint, and Josephus have seventeen, namely Joseph had completed his 16th year and had begun his 17th. Hence Philo says: He was about 17 years old. Hence the Hebrew reads: "Joseph was a son of 17 years." For the Hebrew ben, that is 'son,' signifies the beginning and as it were the building up of that thing, from the root banah, that is 'he built,' as is clear from Exodus II:5, as if to say: Joseph was still being built up from his seventeenth year, or was in his seventeenth year.
These things therefore happened to Joseph shortly after the death of his mother Rachel and the birth of Benjamin, namely in the same or the following year, when Jacob was 107 years old, that is, in the year of the world 2216. Note: Joseph from this 16th year to his 30th, for a full thirteen years, endured hard and wretched servitude; but in his 30th year he was raised to the principate, and in it he lived happy and glorious, as prince of Egypt, for 80 years, until his death; for he died at the age of 110. And so Joseph was an express type of Christ suffering and rising again. See St. Chrysostom, Homily 61 and following, and St. Ambrose, book On Joseph: "Learn," says Ambrose, "in Abraham the tireless devotion of faith; in Isaac the purity of a sincere mind; in Jacob the endurance of labors; in Joseph the mirror of chastity;" add also, of patience and constancy in bearing hatreds, persecutions, calumnies, servitude, imprisonment, etc.
STILL A BOY, both in age, and in manners and innocence.
HE WAS WITH THE SONS OF BILHAH AND ZILPAH. It seems Jacob had divided his flock into two, giving one to be pastured by the six sons of Leah, and entrusting the other to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah the handmaids, with whom he joined Joseph; because these easily tolerated Joseph being preferred to them, which the sons of Leah would not tolerate. For just as there was rivalry between Rachel and Leah, so also among their sons; for the sons of Leah thought, especially after Rachel's death, that the firstborn rights were owed to themselves as the elder sons, born of the elder mother who was still living.
AND HE ACCUSED. So read the Hebrew, Chaldean, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. But the Septuagint in the Roman edition has katenengkan, that is 'they accused,' namely the brothers accused Joseph himself; and so read Theodoret, St. Chrysostom, Diodorus, and Cyril. But it should be corrected to katenengken, that is 'he accused'; for so reads the Septuagint in the Royal edition, and the Hebrew texts require this, as does the sequence of the narrative itself.
Note: Joseph, being innocent and holy, observed the order of fraternal correction which natural reason itself dictates, namely that one's neighbor should first be privately admonished about his sin before the matter is brought to a superior. Joseph therefore first warned his brothers; but when he saw his admonition was disregarded by them, he reported them to their father. So says Abulensis.
HIS BROTHERS, especially the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, says St. Cyril, inasmuch as he was living and pasturing sheep with them.
OF A MOST GRIEVOUS CRIME, against nature, namely of the sin either of sodomy, as Rupert holds; or of bestiality with the sheep they were pasturing, as St. Thomas, Abulensis, and Hugh of St. Victor hold — which therefore, because it was shameful, horrible, and infamous, Moses did not wish to name here; for this is a sin to be kept silent, to be suppressed in silence on account of its enormity. The Hebrew has dibba raa, that is 'evil report' or 'evil infamy'; whence it appears that this sin of Joseph's brothers was unspeakable, infamous, and public.
Others, like Pererius, understand by 'most grievous crime' quarrels and mutual hatreds; others understand murmuring against their father, because he preferred the younger Joseph to themselves. But these things are not dibba, that is infamy, and an infamous, foul, and unspeakable thing. Some Jews think that Joseph accused only Reuben of his incest with Bilhah. But this conflicts with what is said here, that he accused not one brother, but brothers, as if he accused several of them. So says Abulensis.
Verse 3: The Coat of Many Colors
3. AND BECAUSE HE HAD BEGOTTEN HIM IN HIS OLD AGE. In Hebrew it reads, because he was the son of old age, that is, endowed with elderly modesty, prudence, and manners, says Theodoret, Josephus, and Burgensis; whence the Chaldean translates, because he was a wise son to him. But our Translator renders it better and more accurately, "because he had begotten him in his old age." For although Jacob, within the second seven years of his servitude, begot all his sons, including Joseph, with the sole exception of Benjamin; yet Joseph was the last and least of all, except Benjamin, who in this sixteenth year of Joseph was only an infant of one year. Joseph therefore is called the son of old age, not absolutely, but in relation to the other sons of Jacob, who were all begotten before Joseph, so that in comparison with them Joseph was the son of old age, that is, begotten last, in the last period of the father's begetting.
Philo notes, in his book On Abraham, that parents are accustomed to love children begotten in old age more than their other children, because such are the last fruits of the parents, after whom they hope for no others. Second, because such children are signs of a good and vigorous old age in the parents. Hear Philo: "Parents love late-born children more passionately," he says, "either because they have been long desired, or because their spent nature hopes for no offspring afterward, or because they most rejoice in being strong enough to beget in old age." Add also that Joseph was like his father and grandfather; for just as Jacob was born of the barren Rebecca, and Isaac of the barren Sarah, so Joseph came forth from the barren Rachel and the elderly Jacob, says Rupert. Cajetan adds that through such children, as being likely to live longer, the parents' name and memory can be preserved.
Besides this cause of love, there was also another, and that the chief one, namely the innocence of life and character in Joseph. So says St. Chrysostom, Homily 61. Moreover, to this the aged condition and love of the father physically contributed not a little. For since the elderly are cold-natured, mature, wise, chaste, and well-composed, they therefore beget, and likewise rear, such children. A clear example is in the illustrious Anitian family (which was afterward called Frangipani), which received its origin and name from an old woman (anus). For Anitius, its parent and founder, was so named because he was born of an aged mother, that is, an old woman. For this family brought forth into the world St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola, St. Benedict, St. Scholastica, St. Placidus, Severinus Boethius, St. Sylvia, St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, and very many others distinguished for chastity, wisdom, and every virtue, as Franciscus Zazzera teaches from Panvini in his treatise On the Anitian Family; who nevertheless adds that some think the Anitii were Greek in origin and name, and were called as it were anikios, that is, 'unconquered.' A far clearer example is in the Blessed Virgin: for God fittingly disposed that she should be born and raised by elderly and holy parents, Anne and Joachim, because He destined her to be the chief exemplar of humility, the radiance of virginity, the sun of wisdom and holiness, and to exalt her above the Angels, Cherubim, and Seraphim.
AND HE MADE HIM A COAT OF MANY COLORS. In Hebrew passim, that is, variegated from pieces and threads of diverse colors. So the Septuagint. For just as trimitos is a three-threaded, or three-thread garment, so polymitos is a many-threaded, or many-thread garment. Aquila translates it as 'reaching to the ankles'; Symmachus as 'having sleeves.'
Symbolically, this coat of many colors is the variegation of virtues, says Rupert. "Rightly therefore he made him a variegated coat, by which he signified that he was to be preferred to his brothers by the garment of diverse virtues," says St. Ambrose; and, as Philo says, in his book On Joseph, or On the Statesman, this many-colored toga is the manifold prudence of a prince. For a prince, such as Joseph became, must be many-colored, because he must be one thing in peace, another in war, one with enemies, another with friends, etc., and thus must be polytropos (versatile), such as Homer sings Ulysses was, who could turn and adapt himself to all forms and figures according to the nature of things and persons.
But St. Gregory, in Moralia book I, last chapter, who with Aquila takes this coat as reaching to the ankles, says: The ankle-length tunic is perseverance, which extends to the ankles, that is, to the end of life.
Note here: The cause of the brothers' hatred and envy against Joseph was, first, that Joseph was loved more by his father; second, that he had accused them before their father of a crime; third, Joseph's dreams; fourth, his coat of many colors constantly striking the brothers' eyes. For this coat was a pain to the brothers' eyes, and it cost Joseph and his father dearly. For with it his brothers stripped him, plotted his death, and finally sold him to the Ishmaelites.
Let parents learn from this example to love, clothe, and educate their children equally, and to distribute their gifts and goods equally insofar as possible, lest, if they prefer one to another, the one become fainthearted and the other grow proud, and thus they bring about perpetual envy and quarrels between them, and consequently perpetual grief and sadness for themselves. For the hatreds of brothers and friends are usually most bitter, the cause of which Aristotle gives in Politics book VII, chapter VII: both because every change proceeds from one contrary to the other, and therefore the highest love is converted into the highest hatred; and because an injury inflicted by a brother or friend seems more bitter, for from those from whom they think a benefit is owed to them, they feel themselves not only deprived of it but also injured, and people find this bitter.
Verse 4: The Brothers' Hatred — On Envy
4. THEY HATED HIM. This is a notable moral passage on envy. Hence note here the characteristics and remedies of envy. First, envy is similar to ophthalmia, which is offended and hurt by very brilliant and shining things; for so envy is embittered and wastes away at others' goods, virtue, and glory. Hence Aristotle, when asked "what envy is," answered: "It is the antagonist of the fortunate." Second, the more virtue and glory grow, the more envy also grows. Hence Themistocles, when he was a young man, used to say with regret that he had not yet performed any illustrious deed: Because, he said, no one yet envies me. Third, envy harms no one but itself. For just as rust consumes iron, so envy wears down and consumes the envious person; and just as the viper is said to gnaw and burst its mother's womb in order to be born, so envy gnaws and bursts the mind of the envious. Hence Horace: The tyrants of Sicily invented no torment greater than envy.
Do you want an image and form of envy? Ovid aptly depicts envy thus in Metamorphoses book II: Pallor sits on her face, and leanness throughout her whole body; her gaze is never straight; her teeth are livid with rust; her breast is green with gall; her tongue is drenched in venom. Laughter is absent, except what others' pains have caused; she enjoys no sleep, roused by wakeful cares; but she sees the unwelcome successes of men and wastes away at the sight, and she tears at others while being torn herself; she is her own punishment.
Hence Anacharsis said that envy is the saw of the soul; and Socrates, that it is the ulcer of the soul. Hence also Evagoras judged that the envious are more unhappy than other men, and twice as wretched: because others are tormented only by their own evils, but the envious are additionally tormented by others' goods. Fourth, envy usually makes the person envied more illustrious and more fortunate: thus Joseph's brothers, by selling him through envy, were the cause of his being exalted in Egypt. Fifth, St. Gregory, in Moralia book V, on that passage from James chapter 5, 'Envy kills the little one,' teaches that the envious person is of a petty spirit, a narrow heart, and a vile and abject character; for by envying others he shows himself to be less and inferior to them, and reveals his own smallness and poverty: for what he envies, he himself does not have and vehemently desires. Sixth, envy also eats away and consumes the body. Hence the Wise Man says in Proverbs XIV: "The life of the flesh is the health of the heart; envy is the rot of the bones."
Hear St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter II: "More is gained for a son to whom the love of his brothers is gained. This is the more splendid generosity of parents, this the richer inheritance of children. Let equal favor join those children whom equal nature has joined. Piety knows no profit of money where there is loss of piety. Why do you marvel if quarrels arise among brothers over a farm or a house, when over a coat envy blazed among the sons of holy Jacob?" Yet he excuses Jacob, "because he loved more the one in whom he foresaw the greater marks of virtue, so that the father seems to have preferred not so much the son as the prophet the mystery; and rightly he made him a variegated coat, by which he signified that he was to be preferred to his brothers by the garment of diverse virtues."
Seventh, St. Basil, in his sermon On Envy, teaches that the most efficacious remedy against envy is contempt of glory and of all temporal goods, as being fleeting and perishable, and the love and desire of eternal goods. On which matter see St. Gregory, Moralia book V, at the end. So also Crates of Thebes used to say that his country was contempt of glory and poverty, over which fortune could exercise no power. He also said he was a citizen and disciple of Diogenes the Cynic, who was exposed to no snares of envy. For wealth and honors usually attract human envy. So Laertius reports of him in book VI. Gregory of Nazianzus also truly says in his Iambic Distichs: "With Christ's approval, malice can do nothing; with Christ's refusal, labor can do nothing." Eighth, Cato the Elder used to say that those who used their fortune moderately and soberly were least attacked by envy. For, he said, people envy not us but the goods that surround us; conversely, those who use their goods insolently bring envy upon themselves. Plutarch is witness to this in his Roman Apophthegms. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, when the Church was disturbed by his rivals and detractors, yielded and said: "Far be it that on my account any discord should arise among God's priests. If that tempest is on account of me, take me and cast me into the sea." So Cleobulus, when asked by someone what things should especially be guarded against, answered: The envy of friends, and the treachery of enemies.
See also the fourteen properties of envy in Pererius here, number 30 and following. Our Vincent Regius assigns eight remedies for envy in book IV of Evangelical Inquiries, chapter XVI.
Verse 6: Joseph's First Dream
6. HEAR MY DREAM. This dream, as the outcome declared, was not natural but sent by God, by which God was portending and signifying future events, both to Joseph and to his brothers.
Verse 7: The Dream of the Sheaves
7. I THOUGHT WE WERE BINDING SHEAVES, of corn and grain. By this symbol the brothers' journey to Egypt was aptly foreshadowed, to buy grain in the time of famine. Again, that the brothers' sheaves worshipped Joseph's sheaf clearly signified that the brothers would worship Joseph in Egypt. So says Theodoret, Question XCIII.
Tropologically, this sheaf of Joseph is Christ, whom all the readings of the Law and the Prophets, all the Saints and Angels surround and worship, says Rupert. And St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter II, says: "In which indeed the future resurrection of the Lord Jesus was revealed, whom, when they had seen Him in Galilee, the eleven disciples worshipped; and all the Saints when they shall have risen will worship Him, bringing forth the fruits of good works, as it is written: Coming they shall come with joy, bearing their sheaves."
Verse 9: The Sun, Moon, and Eleven Stars
9. THE SUN, AND THE MOON, AND ELEVEN STARS WORSHIPPING ME. Here the previous vision is confirmed by God with another symbol and dream. The sun signifies the father, the moon the mother, namely Bilhah, who as Rachel's handmaid, after Rachel's death, was like a mother to Joseph, say Lyra and Abulensis; the eleven stars signify the eleven brothers who would worship Joseph in Egypt.
Moreover, the sheaves were seen to worship Joseph by bowing to him, and bending and prostrating their grain-stalks before him. So the sun, moon, and stars, lowering themselves from on high to his feet, were seen to venerate him; perhaps they even appeared clothed with a human face (as painters depict them), and they bowed and prostrated it before Joseph on the ground.
Learn here that fathers and rulers (as Jacob was) ought to be in their family and commonwealth what the sun is in the universe. Similar was what we read of Aesop, that great fabulist, in his Life, namely that he was magnificently received like a royal ambassador by Nectanebo, king of Egypt. For the king, clad in a royal military cloak, wearing a jeweled tiara on his head, surrounded by a circle of nobles, sat on a lofty throne. The king then asked him: To what do you liken me and those around me? The fabulist answered: I liken you to the spring sun, and these to precious ears of grain. At this saying the king was so delighted that he honored the man with admiration and gifts. See what I shall say on Isaiah chapter XLV, verse 1. An excellent mirror of a family, therefore, is one in which the father is like the sun, the mother like the moon, and the children like stars by the splendor of their character. Wherefore St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter II, proves that the boy Jesus was worshipped by Joseph and Mary, from Psalm CXLVIII:3: "Praise Him, sun and moon." Joseph, he says, is like the sun; Mary takes the place of the moon. For just as the sun warms the earth, so the father warms and cherishes the family. Just as the moon borrows its light from the sun, so a wife receives her dignity and authority from her husband. Again, just as the moon is now full, now empty, so a mother's womb is now full, now empty; third, the moon governs moist things and children, so also the mother is entirely occupied in the education and governance of children; fourth, the moon rules the night, the sun the day: so the husband manages affairs abroad, the wife at home. These greater luminaries in the family are followed by the lesser ones of stars twinkling in the multitude of children, of whom God said to Abraham: "Look up to heaven and count the stars if you can; so shall your seed be." So says Fernandez, at the end of Vision 3. Allegorically, Joseph here bears the type of Christ. Hear St. Ambrose, at the passage already cited: "Who," he says, "is that one whom parents and brothers worshipped upon earth, if not Christ Jesus, when Mary and Joseph with the disciples worshipped Him, confessing that the true God was in that body, of whom alone it was said: Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all stars and light."
Verse 10: His Father Rebuked Him
10. HIS FATHER REBUKED HIM, not because he was offended, or because he despised this dream (for he himself, suspecting that this dream was from God and portended future things, considered the matter in silence), but so that by this rebuke he might free Joseph from the envy of his brothers, and keep him in modesty.
Verse 11: His Father Considered the Matter
11. BUT HIS FATHER CONSIDERED THE MATTER IN SILENCE. Jacob was given to contemplation, just as his father Isaac, who used to go out to meditate in the field, Genesis XXIV; and therefore in all his works he was circumspect, well-ordered, and holy.
Hear St. Bernard, book I On Consideration, chapter VII: "Consideration," he says, "purifies the mind; then it governs the affections, directs actions, corrects excesses, orders morals, makes life honorable and orderly; finally it confers knowledge of both divine and human things. It is this that sorts out what is confused, closes what gapes, gathers what is scattered, searches out secrets, tracks down truth, examines what is probable, and exposes what is feigned and false. It is this that pre-arranges what is to be done, and reconsiders what has been done, so that nothing remains in the mind either uncorrected or needing correction. It is this, finally, that in prosperity foresees adversity, and in adversity scarcely feels it: of which the former belongs to fortitude, the latter to prudence."
Allegorically, St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter II, says: Joseph, sent by his father to his brothers pasturing sheep, is Christ sent by the Father into the flesh, that He might save us, and especially the Jews, as His brothers. Hence He Himself says: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Verse 13: Jacob Sends Joseph to His Brothers
13. COME, I WILL SEND YOU. From this it is clear that Jacob had recalled Joseph from his brothers and the flocks, so that by his absence the brothers' envy might be lulled to sleep. After some time, thinking it had subsided, he sends Joseph back to them, so that he might be a messenger between them and himself, and thus again win the brothers' goodwill for himself. Moreover, the father did not want him to sit idle at home. For virtue is nourished by activity; it withers in sloth.
Verse 14: From the Valley of Hebron
14. SENT FROM THE VALLEY OF HEBRON. From this it is clear that Jacob, like Isaac and Abraham, had dwelt in Hebron, and from there sent Joseph to his brothers.
Verse 19 — "The Dreamer"
THE DREAMER. In Hebrew baal hachalomot, that is 'master of dreams,' meaning one who has and possesses dreams; second, one skilled in fabricating dreams; third, a master and prince, but in a dream, as if to say: Joseph will be our master and prince, not in reality, but in a dream; he dreams he will be our prince; so let him be a prince, but through his dreams; let us call and make him the prince and king of dreams.
Allegorically, St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter III, says: "This was written of Joseph but fulfilled in Christ, when the Jews in His Passion were saying: If He is the King of Israel, let Him come down now from the cross."
Verse 22: Reuben Saves Joseph; The Cistern
22. DO NOT KILL HIS SOUL — that is, his life, of which the soul is the cause. This is metonymy. Therefore the Sadducees wrongly argued from this phrase that the soul is mortal and can be killed and die. Others understand by 'soul' the flesh or body, and they adduce a similar passage in Leviticus 21, verses 1 and 11. But there, it is not living flesh but a corpse that is called a 'soul,' by antiphrasis.
CAST HIM INTO THE CISTERN. Reuben said this in order to free Joseph from death; for he was thinking of secretly extracting him from the cistern and bringing him back to his father, so that by this act of piety toward a brother so dear to his father, he might recover the favor he had lost through his incest with his father's concubine.
Allegorically, Joseph is cast into the cistern, that is, Christ descended to the underworld: drawn out from there He is sold to the Ishmaelites, because Christ rising again is obtained by all the Gentiles through the commerce of faith, says Eucherius, book III, chapter 37.
Verse 24: Joseph Cast into the Cistern
AND THEY CAST HIM. Josephus adds that Joseph was lowered by a rope by Reuben. What was Joseph doing here? He was like a sheep among wolves — he wept, he groaned, he prayed. Hear the brothers themselves in chapter 42: 'Rightly,' they say, 'do we suffer these things, because we sinned against our brother, seeing the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we did not listen.' St. Ephrem movingly describes this pleading of Joseph to his brothers in his treatise On the Praises of Joseph.
Verse 25: The Ishmaelite Merchants
RESIN. Resin is the name given to a tenacious fluid that flows from a tree and adheres to it; the most praised kind is that which flows from the terebinth tree and is called terebinthine.
STACTE. Stacte is a tear of myrrh, which flows and drips from myrrh; hence it is called stacte, that is, 'dripping,' from the Greek stazein, meaning 'to drip.'
Verse 26: Judah Proposes the Sale
THEREFORE JUDAH SAID. Judah, fearing that Joseph might eventually be killed by his brothers in the cistern, for this reason persuades them to sell him. Severianus notes that it was fitting for the author of Joseph's sale to be Judah, because Christ, whose type Joseph was, was to be sold by Judas; but this Judah sold Joseph with a good intention and purpose, while that Judas sold Christ with an evil and sacrilegious one.
TO THE ISHMAELITES. A little before, Moses called these merchants Midianites, either because they dwelt in Midian though they were descendants of Ishmael, or rather because they were partly Ishmaelites and partly Midianites. For thus Flemish and French merchants are accustomed to travel together to fairs. So say Cajetan and Pererius.
FOR TWENTY PIECES OF SILVER. Understand shekels. So the Chaldean, that is, 20 Brabantine florins. So say Pererius, Maldonatus, and others; although some, such as Ribera and Suarez, think a silver piece was half a shekel, so that Joseph was sold for 10 Brabantine florins. Origen, St. Augustine, and Bede read 'thirty pieces of silver,' because Christ was sold for the same amount. But the Hebrew, Chaldean, Greek, and Josephus consistently read 'twenty pieces of silver.' Namely, as St. Jerome says, it was not fitting for the servant to be sold for as much as the master — that is, Joseph for as much as Christ. Or rather, Christ, because He was a man, was sold for less than Joseph, who was a boy; for a man is bought more cheaply at 30 florins than a boy at 20. Moreover, Christ was purchased for the cross, but Joseph only for servitude; therefore the sale of Christ was more base and ignominious than that of Joseph.
Verse 28: Joseph Sold for Twenty Pieces of Silver
28. THEY SOLD HIM. St. Basil notes, in his sermon On Envy, that the envious, by the very means by which they try to obscure the glory of others, make it shine all the more. 'Therefore,' says St. Gregory, Moralia book VI, chapter 12, 'Joseph was sold by his brothers so that he would not be worshipped by them; but he was worshipped precisely because he was sold. Thus divine counsel, while it is avoided, is fulfilled; thus human wisdom, while it resists, is overtaken.' Did not that Saint speak truly? 'Persecutors are goldsmiths who fashion for us the crowns of both the present and the eternal kingdom.'
To his brothers and to the world, therefore, Joseph seemed to be wretched and unfortunate; but in reality he was not. For by this very act God begins to raise up his sheaf and to cast down the sheaves of his brothers. For God begins to exalt when He humbles; and the more He intends to exalt someone, the more deeply He humbles him. So He did with Joseph, and especially with Christ. The bridal chamber of virtue and glory is therefore adversity and abasement.
Verse 30: Reuben's Anguish
THE BOY IS NOT THERE, AND WHERE SHALL I GO? As if to say: Since Joseph, most dear to our father, has perished or been killed, whether by you or by wild beasts, what shall I do? Where shall I turn? Where shall I go? For I dare not appear before our father. For our father will demand his Joseph from me, as the eldest son, and since I cannot present him, I shall cause our father immense grief and bring great offense upon myself. Since therefore I have already gravely offended our father by my incest, and since I know that this loss of Joseph will offend him against me even more, I dare not appear in his sight: where then shall I go?
Verse 31: The Bloodied Tunic
AND THEY TOOK HIS TUNIC AND DIPPED IT IN THE BLOOD OF A KID WHICH THEY HAD KILLED. Allegorically, St. Ambrose, in his book On Joseph, chapter 3, says: 'This too, that they sprinkled his tunic with the blood of a kid, seems to signify that by assailing Him with false testimonies, they brought into the odium of sin the One who forgives the sins of all. For us He is the lamb, for them the goat. For us the Lamb of God was slain, from whom He took away the sin of the world; for them the goat, whose errors He intensified and whose transgressions He heaped up.'
Verse 34: Jacob Tears His Garments; On Sackcloth
AND HE TORE HIS GARMENTS. This was an ancient custom, to tear one's garments in mourning; and this was a symbol of lamentation, for the tearing of garments signified a heart torn with grief. This was the seventh tribulation of Jacob.
HE PUT ON SACKCLOTH. The first person who is recorded to have put on sackcloth or haircloth in mourning was Jacob in this passage; from which afterwards his descendants, namely the Israelites, imitated the same practice in mourning. Hence even the garment of penitent Christians was, from ancient times, the haircloth, as Tertullian attests in his book On Penance. Let those who wear haircloth, therefore, glory in the patriarch Jacob as their standard-bearer, and set him against the soft innovators who abhor all harsh things, and have never put on a haircloth, and perhaps have never even seen one.
So St. Hilarion, as St. Jerome attests, subdued his body with a rough haircloth made from palm leaves. So St. Simeon Stylites, who stood continuously on a pillar for 80 years, wore a haircloth, as Theodoret attests. So hermits, monks, ascetics, and penitents armed themselves with haircloth garments, as Palladius, Theodoret, Climacus, and others attest.
But hear about women — indeed about duchesses and queens. St. Margaret, daughter of the king of Hungary, mortified her body with a haircloth. St. Hedwig, Duchess of Poland, did the same. St. Clare, a noble virgin, wore for 28 years a rough haircloth made from pig hide, with sharp bristles and hairs turned toward the flesh and pricking it. St. Radegund, queen of the Franks, exchanged her purple robes for a haircloth. And to omit others whom our Gretser recounts in book I of On Discipline, last chapter, hear a memorable example which an ancient author relates about St. Cunegund in her Life.
Cunegund was the wife of Emperor Henry, and she remained a virgin in marriage. To prove her virginity to her husband, she walked unharmed with bare feet over red-hot iron. After her husband the Emperor died, from an Empress she became a nun, put on a haircloth, and wished to sleep in it always — indeed, to die in it. When in her agony she saw royal funeral rites being prepared for her and golden coverings being spread over the bier, she turned her pallid face — which before you would have seen joyful as if for a bridegroom coming — toward these things, and waved her hand in refusal. 'This garment,' she said, 'is not mine; take it away. It belongs to another. With these I was joined to an earthly bridegroom; with those to a heavenly one. Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. Wrap in these the worthless material of my wretched flesh, and lay my poor body in its own little place beside the tomb of my brother and of the Lord Emperor Henry, whom I see now calling me.' And having said these things, she gave up her virginal spirit to Christ her Bridegroom.
So we read of Cecilia: 'With a haircloth Cecilia subdued her limbs, and implored God with groans,' saying that verse of David: "Let my heart be undefiled in Your statutes, that I may not be put to shame." And thus she merited the sight and guardianship of an angel, the conversion of her husband, the illustrious crown of martyrdom, and the integrity and incorruption of her body to this very day.
Finally, St. Martin lay dying on ashes and haircloth, and said: "It is not fitting for a Christian to die except on ashes," as Sulpitius attests. In imitation of this, St. Charles Borromeo decreed that his clergy should cover themselves with haircloth and ashes at death, and he led them by his own example; for dying, he lay upon the haircloth which he frequently wore when in health, and upon previously blessed ashes, as his Life records, book VII, chapter 12.
Verse 35 — Mourning and the Immortality of the Soul
MOURNING HIS SON FOR A LONG TIME — namely for 23 years, that is, from Joseph's 16th year, when he was sold, up to his 39th year, when his brothers came to him in Egypt during the famine, and together with their father worshipped him. But gradually the sense of this grief was diminished in Jacob. For 'a wound of the soul, however great, is eased by time.' Therefore time teaches the art of forgetting (which Themistocles desired to learn more than the art of memory).
I WILL GO DOWN TO MY SON MOURNING INTO THE UNDERWORLD. For 'underworld,' some translate 'the grave.' So Calvin, Eugubinus, Vatablus, Pagninus, and even Lipomanus. But the Hebrew sheol properly signifies the underworld, not the grave, and so the Septuagint translated it, as did our Interpreter [the Vulgate]. And reason itself proves it should be translated thus. For Jacob thought Joseph had been devoured by wild beasts and therefore was unburied. Therefore he did not think or wish to go down to him in the grave, but in the underworld — that is, in the limbo of the fathers.
Moreover, the soul is held not in the grave but in limbo. And Jacob wished to see the soul of the dead Joseph surviving. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: 'I, O my sons, will accept no consolation until I see Joseph, whom, since he is now dead, I shall not see until after death my soul is joined to his in limbo. For I am fully confident that the soul of innocent Joseph has gone to the souls of our forefathers in the bosom of Abraham, which I hope is also reserved for me.' From this it is evident that Jacob, from the instruction and tradition of his ancestors, believed in the immortality of the soul; again, that the souls of the just who died before Christ descended to the limbo of the fathers, where the bosom of Abraham was.
The same thing the pagan philosophers perceived and saw as through a shadow. Aelian, in book XIII, relates that Cercidas of Megalopolis, who was ill, when asked whether he would gladly depart from life, replied: 'Why not? I delight in the separation of the soul from the body, since I shall ascend to those shores where I shall see among philosophers Pythagoras, among poets Homer, among musicians Olympus, and other men most outstanding in every branch of knowledge.'
Socrates, before he drank the poison, said: 'How highly do you value conversing in the next life with Orpheus, Musaeus, Homer, and Hesiod? How great a pleasure shall I enjoy when I meet Palamedes, Ajax, and others condemned by unjust judgments? Indeed, I would often wish to depart from life, if it were possible, so that I might find the things I speak of.'
Cato, reading Plato's book On the Immortality of the Soul, killed himself in order to attain this immortal life.
Cyrus, dying in Xenophon's account, said to his sons: 'Do not think, my sons, that when I have departed from this life, I shall be nowhere or nothing. For even when I was living with you, you did not see my soul, but you understood that this body was its dwelling place. Believe it to be the same, even if it is now separated from the body.'
Cicero, in book VI of the Republic, introduces Scipio Africanus, who had already departed from life, speaking thus: 'Know this: that for all who have preserved, aided, and enlarged their fatherland, there is a certain and determined place in heaven where they may enjoy everlasting life.' And when asked whether he himself and others who were thought to be dead were alive: 'Indeed,' he said, 'these are the ones who live, who have escaped from the bonds of the body as from a prison. But what you call your life is death.'
Their arguments were as follows. First: The mind of man conceives, contemplates, and desires heavenly and immortal things; therefore it is heavenly and immortal. Second: The mind in this life has no satiety, nor a center in which it may rest; therefore it will have this in the next life — otherwise it would be more wretched than other creatures. Third: Everything that is corruptible is either a body or an accident. For these, because they have contraries, can be corrupted. But the human soul is neither corporeal nor an accident; therefore it is incorruptible. It is otherwise with the souls of brute animals, for these depend entirely on the body, and therefore must be judged corporeal and corruptible.
Let the Christian now say with Tobias: "We are children of saints, and we look for that life which God will give to those who never change their faith from Him."
Verse 36: Potiphar, Master of the Soldiers
36. TO THE EUNUCH — that is, to the keeper of the royal bedchamber. Note: To eunuchs, as being incapable of sexual activity, was formerly entrusted the custody of the queen and her maidens, and of the royal bedchamber. Hence eunuchs were the most intimate and closest attendants of the king and queen. For this reason, eunuchs were called princes of the court, even if they were not actually eunuchs — that is, castrated men. Hence the Chaldean here translates 'eunuch' as rabba, that is, prince, satrap. For Potiphar here was not properly a eunuch, since he had a wife. So say Procopius, Gennadius, Abulensis, and Lyranus. Similarly in chapter 40, verse 1, the butler and baker of Pharaoh are called eunuchs, that is, ministers of the king. For in ancient times the courts of kings were full of eunuchs, and kings employed them for every kind of service, as is most clearly seen in the court of the Emperor Constantius, for eunuchs filled and governed that court.
TO THE MASTER OF THE SOLDIERS — the prefect of the royal guard. In Hebrew it is sar hattabbachim, that is, 'chief of the slayers' or 'of those who slaughter,' namely of the soldiers. The Septuagint translates archimageiros, which although St. Ambrose translates as 'chief of the cooks,' is more aptly rendered here as 'chief of the slayers' or 'butchers.' For mageiron, as St. Jerome attests, means 'to kill.' Hence cooks were called mageiroi because they first kill the cattle and birds that are to be cooked, from the word machis, which according to Phavorinus is the same as machaera [a sword]. Such a sar hattabbachim and archimagirus was Nebuzaradan, for he was the chief of the army whom Nebuchadnezzar placed in charge of the war and destruction of Jerusalem (2 Kings, last chapter, verse 11).
Moral Conclusion
Morally, learn from this chapter how many persecutions and adversities God exercises upon Joseph and upright men, in order to perfect them in patience, meekness, and thereby in purity of soul. For Joseph through this patience attained that wonderful chastity. Most true is that saying of Cassian, Conferences book XII, chapter 7: 'As much as anyone advances in meekness and patience of heart, so much will he advance in purity of body. For it is written: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land (of their own body); for the passions of the body will not subside unless one has first restrained the movements of the soul.' Hence also a certain Saint says: 'The kind man enjoys perpetual health of body, soul, and mind: he rejoices in reproach, praises God in calamity, calms the angry, triumphs under the yoke of humility, and masters all passions' — especially anger and lust.
Finally, St. Chrysostom, homily 61: 'Great,' he says, 'is the strength of virtue, and great the weakness of malice.' He illustrates this at the end through the patience that Joseph continually displayed: 'So that thus, like an athlete fighting bravely, he might be crowned with the crown of the kingdom, and the outcome of the dreams be fulfilled, so that those who had sold him might learn that they gained no advantage from their malice. For virtue has such great strength that it becomes more glorious when it is assailed. Nothing is stronger than it, nothing more powerful; but he who possesses it has divine grace and obtains from it a defense: he is stronger than all, invincible, and cannot be captured, not only by the schemes of men but also by the machinations of demons. Knowing this, let us not flee from being ill-treated, but from doing ill; for this is truly to be ill-treated. For he who tries to afflict his neighbor does that person no harm, but stores up for himself eternal torments.' For the brothers too, by persecuting Joseph, brought glory upon him and disgrace upon themselves, as the same author teaches in homilies 63 and following.