Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joseph's chastity is tested by his mistress: he, leaving his cloak with her, flees, and is therefore imprisoned through his mistress's false accusation.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 39:1-23
1. Joseph therefore was brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, a eunuch of Pharaoh, the captain of the army, an Egyptian, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites, by whom he had been brought there. 2. And the Lord was with him, and he was a man prospering in all things: and he dwelt in the house of his master, 3. who knew very well that the Lord was with him, and that all things that he did were directed by Him in his hand. 4. And Joseph found favor before his master, and ministered to him, and being set over all things, he governed the house committed to him, and all things that had been delivered to him: 5. and the Lord blessed the house of the Egyptian for Joseph's sake, and multiplied all his substance both in the buildings and in the fields. 6. Nor did he know anything else, save the bread that he ate. Now Joseph was beautiful of countenance and comely to behold. 7. And after many days his mistress cast her eyes on Joseph and said: Lie with me. 8. But he in no way consenting to the wicked act, said to her: Behold, my master, having delivered all things to me, knows not what he has in his own house: 9. neither is there anything that is not in my power, or that he has not delivered to me, except you, who are his wife: how then can I do this evil thing and sin against my God? 10. With such words as these day after day, the woman was troublesome to the young man, and he refused the defilement. 11. Now it happened on a certain day that Joseph entered the house to do some work without witnesses: 12. and she caught the skirt of his garment and said: Lie with me. But he, leaving his cloak in her hand, fled and went outside. 13. And when the woman saw the garment in her hands, and that she was scorned, 14. she called to her the men of her house and said to them: See, he has brought in a Hebrew man to mock us: he came in to me to lie with me, and when I cried out, 15. and he heard my voice, he left the cloak that I held and fled outside. 16. As proof therefore of her fidelity, she kept the cloak and showed it to her husband when he returned home, 17. and said: The Hebrew servant whom you brought in came to me to mock me: 18. and when he heard me cry out, he left the cloak that I held and fled outside. 19. His master, hearing these things and being too credulous of his wife's words, was exceedingly angry: 20. and he delivered Joseph into prison, where the king's prisoners were kept, and he was shut up there. 21. But the Lord was with Joseph, and having mercy on him gave him favor in the sight of the chief keeper of the prison. 22. Who delivered all the prisoners who were held in custody into his hand; and whatever was done was under him. 23. Nor did he know anything, all things being entrusted to him; for the Lord was with him, and directed all his works.
Verse 1: Therefore Joseph
Here Moses returns to the history of Joseph, which was interrupted in the preceding chapter by the history of the genealogy of Judah; for Moses pursues the deeds of Joseph and Judah above the other brothers, because Judah and Joseph divided the birthright of Reuben, from which he himself fell on account of incest, as will be evident in chapter XLIX, verses 3 and 4.
AND POTIPHAR BOUGHT HIM. — The Hebrews relate, says St. Jerome, that Potiphar bought Joseph on account of his extraordinary beauty, for a shameful purpose, and therefore, by God's vengeance, his virile parts withered, so that he became a eunuch, and for this reason he was chosen as priest of Heliopolis; and that his daughter was Aseneth, whom Joseph afterward took as his wife. St. Jerome seems to approve this tradition, and Rupert follows it. But others generally, and not without reason, consider it a fable, fabricated by the Jews in their customary manner.
Verse 2: And the Lord Was with Him
And the Lord was with him, — directing and prospering him and all his actions in everything, and making him lovable and gracious to all. So St. Chrysostom. Whence it follows: "And he was a man (not in age, for he was a youth of 17 years, but in prudence and gravity) prospering in all things." How happy and fortunate is he whose every action God directs!
Note that Joseph found God even in Egypt: for the pious and holy man, wherever he may be, finds God, according to that of Psalm CXXXVIII: "If I ascend into heaven, You are there." See the faithfulness of God, who never in adversity abandons His own, as the world does.
See again how every land is a homeland to the brave man. Stilpo, captured by Demetrius at Megara and asked whether he had lost anything, replied: "War takes no spoils from virtue." And Bias, when his homeland was captured, fleeing, said: "I carry all my goods with me." Joseph here felt and did the same. St. Chrysostom adds, in homily 62, that Joseph in so many and such great calamities did not lose heart, nor distrust his dream, nor God's promise of his exaltation, much less think that he had been abandoned by God; but "he bore all things, he says, bravely and gently, hoping for a better lot from God, nor doubting that he would be exalted by this path. For this is God's way, he says, not to free men distinguished for virtue from temptations and dangers, but to manifest His own power in those very things, so that the temptations themselves become for them an occasion of great joy. For this reason also blessed David says: 'In tribulation You enlarged me;' he does not say, 'You freed me,' but 'You enlarged me,' that is, me myself. Hear St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter IV: 'Every sin, he says, is servile; innocence is free. But how is he not a slave who is subject to lust? He takes on every fear, he plots the dreams of individuals: so that he may satisfy the desire of one person, he becomes the slave of all.'" And soon after: "Does it not seem to you that this one rules in slavery, while that one serves in freedom? Joseph was a slave, Pharaoh was a king: the servitude of the former was more blessed than the kingdom of the latter. Indeed, all Egypt would have perished from famine, had it not submitted its kingdom to a slave's counsel. Therefore original slaves have reason to glory: Joseph too was a slave; they have someone to imitate, so they may learn that they can change their condition, not their character; that there is freedom even among household servants and constancy even in servitude."
Verse 6: Nor Did He Know Anything Else, Except the Bread He Ate
Not Potiphar, but Joseph, says Jerome Prado on Ezekiel, chapter XIX, verse 39, as if to say: Joseph appropriated or claimed for himself absolutely nothing from so wealthy an estate entrusted to him by his master, except the necessary sustenance for life; so that "to know" here means the same as to claim for oneself, to acknowledge as one's own, to attribute to oneself, as if Joseph is here praised for a certain rare self-restraint or abstinence.
But since in verse 13 the same thing is said, not of Joseph, but of the keeper of the prison, namely that he knew nothing of his own affairs, but had entrusted everything to Joseph: therefore it is better here too to take the same phrase in the same way, as if to say: Potiphar so entrusted all his possessions to Joseph that he inquired about nothing, knew nothing, took care of nothing, except only to sit at the table and enjoy those things which Joseph managed and provided. So Philo and St. Ambrose.
Verse 7: After Many Days
After many days, — about the eleventh year of his captivity and servitude in Egypt, when he was already 27 years old. For at age 17, Joseph was brought to Egypt, and at age 30 he was freed from prison, in which he had been for three years on account of this false accusation by his mistress, as I shall show in chapter XL, verse 4; therefore he was thrown into prison at age 27.
HIS MISTRESS CAST HER EYES UPON JOSEPH. — No wonder, for the eyes are the leaders in love. He who therefore wishes to be chaste, let him imitate Job saying, in chapter XXXI: "I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think of a maiden." Again, let young men learn here, says St. Ambrose, to beware of women's eyes: for even those who do not wish to be loved are loved.
Verse 9: How Therefore Can I Do This Evil?
HOW THEREFORE CAN I DO THIS EVIL? — so as to be so ungrateful, faithless, and unjust to my master who is so well-disposed toward me?
AND SIN AGAINST MY GOD, — whom, as everywhere is present, I behold and revere, whom I love as a Father and fear as an avenger.
Pererius piously notes here that there are three bonds by which holy men feel themselves most powerfully constrained from being able to offend God. The first is reverence for the divine majesty, everywhere present and seeing all things. For holy men, always walking in the sight of God, seem to themselves unable to do anything except chastely and holily, and therefore, lest they offend the present Deity in any matter, they most religiously guard themselves from all things that displease Him. The impious do the opposite, of whom it is said in Psalm IX: "God is not in his sight, his ways are defiled at all times, your judgments are removed from his face." Such were those elders who plotted against Susanna, of whom it is said in Daniel XIII, 9: "They perverted their own mind and turned away their eyes, that they might not look to heaven nor remember just judgments."
The second is the remembrance of the benevolence and beneficence of God toward oneself. And this is what the Lord says in Hosea XI: "With the cords of Adam (that is, those by which men are usually drawn, namely love and kindness) I will draw them with the bonds of charity." Who would not consider it impossible for himself to sin against God, if he seriously considered God's so many and so great benefits toward him, past, present, and future, which He has promised to His own? And that God is the one in whom we live, move, and have our being, whose gift is whatever good we have in body and soul? Finally, if he considers that God in Himself is most good, most beautiful, most sweet, supremely lovable, and shows Himself as such to us now and will show Himself even more so in heaven, if we steadfastly adhere to Him. See St. Augustine, sermon 83 On the Seasons, where, speaking of our Joseph, from St. Ambrose he brings forth this golden saying: "The lover of the dearest God is not conquered by the love of a woman; youth stirring a chaste soul does not move it, nor the authority of one who loves him: truly a great man, who when sold did not then know how to serve, when loved did not love in return, when asked did not yield, when seized he fled."
The third bond is the fear of God, conceived from the consideration of the most severe judgment and vengeance, which God both often exercises in this life, and most certainly and most strictly will exercise on the day of judgment, where He will leave no sin, even the least, unpunished. Whence David, in Psalm CXVIII: "Pierce my flesh with Your fear: for I have feared Your judgments."
Hence St. Basil on that text of Psalm XXXIII: "Come, children, hear me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord: When, he says, the desire to sin invades you, I would have you think of that terrible tribunal of Christ, in which the Judge will preside on a lofty throne; and all His creation will stand by, trembling at His glorious presence: we too must each be brought forward to give an account of what we have done in life. Then, for those who have perpetrated evil, certain terrible and hideous angels will attend, bearing fiery countenances and breathing fire upon men, that is, the impious. In addition to these things, consider the deep abyss, and the inextricable darkness, and the fire lacking in brightness, having the power to burn yet deprived of light; then the breed of worms, injecting venom and devouring flesh, insatiably hungering and never feeling satisfaction, and inflicting intolerable pains by their very gnawing. Finally, what is most grievous of all, that reproach and everlasting confusion. Fear these things, and with this fear as a bridle, restrain your soul from the desire of sins." So St. Basil.
Chaste Susanna imitated the chaste Joseph, when, solicited to crime, she said: "I am straitened on every side; but it is better for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord." So all the Saints resisted sin even unto death. Paul, in Romans VIII: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, etc. I am certain that neither death, nor life," etc. Ruffinus told the Emperor Theodosius that he would see to it that Ambrose would release the chains imposed on him. To which Theodosius replied: "I know the constancy of Ambrose, and that by no terror of royal majesty will he transgress the law of God." To the Empress Eudoxia who was threatening St. Chrysostom, his people said: "In vain do you frighten that man; he fears nothing except sin." St. Louis, king of France, as a boy learned from his mother Blanche "rather to meet death than to consent to mortal sin." Tobias said to his son: "Take care that you never consent to sin; you will have many good things if you fear God." St. Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury: "I would rather leap into a blazing pyre than knowingly commit any sin against God." The Wise Man: "Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent." St. Anselm: "If I could bodily see on one side the horror of sin, and on the other the pain of hell, and had to be plunged necessarily into one of them, I would choose hell before sin." Thus the Maccabees, thus the Martyrs, preferred torments to sin.
Hear also the pagans: Aristotle, Ethics III: "It is better to die than to do anything against the good of virtue." Seneca: "Even if I knew that men would not know and God would forgive, I would still not wish to sin, because of the baseness of sin." For what is sin? It is a corpse, it is leprosy, it is a most foul sewer; it is a monstrosity of rational nature; it is an offense and injury to the divine Majesty; it is the guilt of eternal fire; it is deicide, it is Christicide. Papinian the jurist, though a pagan, preferred to die rather than defend the parricide of the Emperor Caracalla, who had killed his brother Geta: Spartian in his Life of Caracalla is the witness. The boy Democles, in the baths, to escape the lustful assault of King Demetrius, leaped into boiling water: rather than defile himself, he preferred to die: Plutarch in his Life of Demetrius is the witness.
Verse 10: With Such Words Day after Day She Spoke to Him
Note here the unconquered constancy of Joseph. For even mighty trees fall when struck with great and repeated blows; even the hardest rocks are hollowed out by the tiniest drops of water falling continuously: how much more is a man, whose flesh is not bronze, as Job says, nor is his strength the strength of stones, able to be overcome by the magnitude and persistence of temptations. Yet Joseph did not yield, neither to the weakness of human nature, nor to the inclination of youthful age toward lust, nor to the persistent solicitation of his mistress, nor to the riches and promises that she offered, nor to the threats and most grave dangers to which he exposed himself if he refused the deed. Learn here that no temptation, however great it may be, is insuperable, and that you will be inexcusable if you allow yourself to be overcome by it, since you can and must overcome every one, just as Joseph did, by the grace of God, especially if you are ever mindful of eternity and of eternal glory or hell: fight for eternity.
DEFILEMENT, — that is, adultery.
Verse 12: He Fled
12. The hem, — the edge or extremity of his garment. Josephus adds that she feigned illness and solicited Joseph on a solemn feast day when the household was absent from the house. But Josephus seems to have added these details, as also others, from his own invention beyond the truth; for if that were so, how then did the woman, in verse 13, when Joseph escaped, cry out and call the household servants?
He fled. — Joseph could have, as a young man in the vigor of his age, forcibly wrested his garment from the woman, but he was unwilling: and this first, out of reverence, lest he use any force against his mistress. Second, because the most immediate remedy against temptations of lust is not wrestling, but flight. Whence the Apostle says: "Flee fornication." See on this flight, and on avoiding familiarity with women, St. Augustine, sermon 230 On the Seasons, where among other things he says: "Joseph, in order to escape his unchaste mistress, fled; therefore against the assault of lust seize upon flight if you wish to obtain victory; nor let it be shameful to you to flee, if you desire to obtain the palm of chastity. Among all the battles of Christians, the combats of chastity alone are the harder ones, where the fight is daily and victory rare: here therefore Christians cannot lack daily martyrdoms. For if chastity, truth, and justice are Christ; and if he who plots against them is a persecutor, then he who wishes both to defend them in others and to preserve them in himself, will be a Martyr." Rightly therefore St. Bernard in his Shorter Sentences says: "Frugality in abundance, generosity in poverty, chastity in youth, is martyrdom without blood."
Third, Joseph fled so that he would neither touch the woman nor be touched by her: because even the touch of a woman, as if contagious and poisonous, is to be avoided by a man, no less than the bite of the most rabid dog, says St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian.
Note here: Imitate and seize with Joseph the twofold shield of chastity. The first is the remembrance of God present, His love and fear, if indeed you consider both God's presence, God's judgment, God's vengeance and hell; and also God's goodness, beauty, and delights, which surpass immeasurably all bodily beauty and pleasure, of which I spoke at verse 9. The second is flight from occasions and temptations, and especially from women. For thus Joseph fled, leaving behind his cloak.
But what if flight is not possible? Hear what St. Euphrasia the Martyr did, who, condemned to a brothel because she refused to sacrifice to idols, when she was attacked by a wicked youth, eluding him by this stratagem, both preserved her modesty and obtained martyrdom. If, she said, you spare me, I will teach you a potion with which, once anointed, you cannot be harmed by any weapon or sword in battle. He promised, if she would prove it; then she said: Take the test on me; and anointing her neck with wax mixed with oil, she said: Strike it as hard as you can. The youth did so, and with one blow cut off her head. In this stratagem you will admire equally the cleverness of the virgin and her constancy: the witness is Nicephorus, History, book VII, chapter XIII. For she had no other remedy at that time for preserving her chastity except this pious deception, to which the youth drove her by lusting after her modesty, which in order to preserve she preferred to die; hence she justly deceived the youth, who consequently should be considered the author of her death, both physically and morally. She therefore is a martyr, not a suicide.
Note second, with Rupert, the heroic virtues of Joseph: first, temperance and continence; because being a young man of 27 years, and a handsome one at that, loved and solicited in secret by his mistress who promised him great things, he did not return her love, but remained constant in his chastity. Second, justice and fidelity; because he abhorred his master's bed. Third, prudence; because when seized he fled. Fourth, fortitude; because he did not fear the furies of his insane lover, nor prison, nor death itself, and despised them for the sake of his chastity. Fifth, constancy; because daily importuned by his mistress, he resisted and stood firm like a diamond.
Hence St. Chrysostom says that he admires the deed of Joseph more than the three Hebrew youths remaining unharmed in the Babylonian furnace. For just as they, so also Joseph in the midst of flames remained unharmed, not burned, but shone forth purer, more whole, more robust, and more illustrious: so that the acclamation rightly given to St. Dominic (not the founder of the Order, but another of the same Order) when he was victorious in a similar temptation could be made to Joseph by the demons: "You have conquered, you have conquered; because you were in the fire and did not burn." Hence also St. Ambrose marvels at Joseph thus ruling over concupiscence and all things. Hear him, in the book On Joseph, chapter V: "Great was the man Joseph, who though sold did not know a servile spirit, when loved did not love in return, when asked did not yield, when seized he fled. Who when by the wife of his master he was confronted, he could be held by his garment but could not be seized in his soul: nor did he even endure her words any longer; for he judged it a contagion if he delayed further, lest through the hands of the adulteress the incentives of lust pass to him. And so he took off his garment and shook off the accusation. He was the master, who did not receive the torches of his lover, who did not feel the bonds of the seductress, whom no dread of death terrified, who preferred to die free of crime rather than choose the company of criminal power." And St. Gregory, homily 15 on Ezekiel: "We endeavor to overcome the allurement of the flesh. Let Joseph come to mind, who, when his mistress tempted him, strove to preserve the continence of the flesh even at the peril of his life. Whence it came about that, because he knew well how to govern his own members, he was placed over all Egypt to govern it."
Allegorically: Joseph, says Rupert, is Christ, the Egyptian woman is the Synagogue, which carnally loves the Messiah, expecting His earthly and carnal kingdom; but Christ, leaving her His garment, that is, the ceremonies of the law, fled to the Gentiles, by whom He is worshipped in spirit and truth.
Symbolically, Philo says: Joseph is a prince or king; Potiphar his master is the people, in whom resides the very right of kingship; the wife is the desire and lust by which the people are often led: Joseph, that is, the true prince, constantly resists this, if he sincerely loves and defends the public good.
Likewise tropologically, the master is reason, the wife is concupiscence: Joseph resists this, that is, the continent and constant spirit.
Verse 13: And When the Woman Saw
Note here the versatile cunning, shamelessness, and wickedness of the woman, namely: "A woman either loves or hates," there is no middle ground. Second, her depravity, audacity, and deceits, by which she turns her own crime upon Joseph. Third, her furies, by which she prepares death for him whom she had previously loved, namely: A woman is most cruel / when shame applies the goads to hatred.
Verse 19: Too Credulous
For he did not give Joseph an opportunity to clear himself, nor did he investigate the matter; but immediately condemned the innocent man. Second, the jealous man did not notice that this very garment was evidence of violence originating from the woman, and of Joseph's innocence and reverence. For if he (as Philo wisely says) had wanted to use force against his mistress, he could easily, being stronger than a woman, have kept his garment, and indeed have wrested hers from her.
Verse 20: And He Delivered Joseph to Prison
"They humiliated, says David in Psalm CIV, his feet in fetters, iron pierced his soul;" but shortly after, with God directing, Joseph became free among the prisoners, indeed their chief. Joseph, says Josephus, consoled himself in prison, reflecting that God was more powerful than those who bound him. For he knew that God cared for him and his innocence; nor did he doubt that God would deliver him from these bonds with glory, either present or future. Whence "willingly, says St. Ambrose, he underwent this martyrdom of prison and death for chastity." For Joseph, having been imprisoned on a false charge of adultery, was in certain danger of martyrdom and death.
Allegorically, Joseph is Christ, who, innocent, was handed over by Judah and the Jews and was confined in the prison of death, but among the dead was made as it were free by God the Father, and received power and dominion over all the bound, and thus over hell itself. So Prosper and Rupert. Hear St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter VI: "Consider now that true Hebrew (Christ), that interpreter not of a dream, but of truth and a glorious vision, who from that fullness of divinity, from the abundance of heavenly grace had come into this bodily prison; whom the allurement of this world could not change, etc.; finally, seized by a kind of adulterous hand of the Synagogue through the garment of His body, He put off the flesh, and ascended free from death. The harlot slandered Him when she could no longer see Him: prison did not frighten Him, the underworld did not hold Him; indeed, to where He had descended as if to be punished, from there He freed others; where they themselves were bound by the bonds of death, there He Himself loosened the bonds of the dead."
Again, our patriarch Joseph here by his chastity, innocence, patience, and grace foreshadowed Joseph the spouse of the Blessed Virgin, whose dignity and holiness above most other Saints can be gathered even from this, that he was the foster-father of Christ and the Virgin, and that he was called and believed to be the father of Christ. For, as St. Bernard says, homily 2 on the Missus est: "That Joseph, sold out of fraternal envy and brought to Egypt, prefigured the selling of Christ: this Joseph, fleeing the envy of Herod, carried Christ into Egypt. That one, keeping faith with his master, refused to be joined with his mistress: this one, acknowledging his lady, the mother of his Lord, to be a virgin, and being himself continent, faithfully guarded her. To that one was given understanding in the mysteries of dreams: to this one it was given to become aware of and to share in the heavenly sacraments. That one preserved grain, not for himself, but for all the people: this one received the living bread from heaven to be preserved, for himself as well as for the whole world."
Verse 23: Nor Did He Know Anything
Not Joseph, but the keeper of the prison, who had entrusted the prisoners and everything in the prison to Joseph. See what was said at verse 6. Elegantly St. Chrysostom (or whoever the author is: for the style suggests a Latin author), in the homily On Joseph Sold, volume 1: "Joseph most holy enters the custody, more a visitor than a prisoner; a provider, not a companion in crime; a physician, not a sick man. So he becomes the overseer of all, becomes the steward for the consolation of the accused. Rejoice, O innocence, and exult; rejoice, I say, because everywhere you are unharmed, everywhere secure. If you are tempted, you advance; if you are humbled, you are raised up; if you fight, you conquer; if you are slain, you are crowned. You in servitude are free, in danger safe, in custody joyful. The powerful honor you, princes look up to you, nobles seek you out. The good obey you, the wicked envy you, rivals are jealous, enemies succumb. Nor can you ever fail to be victorious, even if among men a just judge should be wanting to you."