On Joseph

Contents

Reading pages: 1–29 · 30–66 · 67–85

1. 1Ambrose introduces Joseph as a model of chastity, following his treatments of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
2. 2Joseph is a mirror of chastity, loved by his father more than his brothers, which roused their envy.
3. 3Joseph's story teaches not to repay evil; before the gospel he loved his enemies as Christ later taught.
4. 4The envy among the patriarchs shows that the saints were not by nature superior but corrected their faults.
5. 5Parents should love their children equally, since favoritism, as with Joseph's tunic, breeds envy among brothers.
6. 6Jacob preferred Joseph as a prophet foreseeing a mystery, and the many-colored tunic signifies his many virtues.
7. 7Joseph's dream of the sheaves bowing to his foreshadowed Christ's resurrection, worshiped by the disciples and by all the saints.
8. 8Joseph's second dream foreshadows Christ worshiped by his family and disciples, while Jacob's rebuke figures the unbelief of Israel.
9. 9Jacob's sending Joseph to his brothers at Shechem foreshadows the Father sending the Son to the lost sheep of Israel.
10. 10Joseph's wandering in search of his brothers figures Christ seeking his wandering people; sinners go out from God, the just go in.
11. 11Joseph found his brothers at Dothan, 'failing,' where, far from Christ, they plotted to kill him.
12. 12The brothers' words against Joseph were fulfilled in those who mocked Christ on the cross; Ambrose explains the patriarchs' crime as a figure rather than their own character.
13. 13Reuben and Judah tried to save Joseph; the patriarchs' blessings point to Christ, and their guilt is outweighed by the grace of revelation.
14. 14Joseph sold by his brothers prefigures Christ betrayed by Judas; the differing prices of the sale signify Christ's differing worth to each believer.
15. 15Joseph's tunic stripped and bloodied signifies Christ's flesh, not his divinity, in the passion.
16. 16The dry cistern into which Joseph was thrown signifies the waterless cisterns of those who forsook God, and Christ's descent among the dead.
17. 17The Ishmaelites' spices signify prayer and the healing 'resin' of faith, which the church now holds and by which the apostles healed.
18. 18The kid's blood on Joseph's tunic signifies false testimony against Christ; Jacob's torn garment prefigures the high priest's and the temple veil torn at the passion.
19. 19Joseph sold into Egypt prefigures Christ, sold for our sins, who paid the debt of all and set us free.
20. 20Joseph shows slaves that the mind can be free in servitude, while the greedy and lustful are slaves even in freedom.
21. 21Joseph's example consoles slaves and shows masters how much good slaves can bring.
22. 22Joseph ruled himself and kept his beauty chaste; the guilt of Potiphar's wife's desire was hers alone.
23. 23Joseph resisted the eyes, words, and persistence of Potiphar's wife, showing himself truly master and free.
24. 24Joseph entered the house only in the line of duty, not expecting to be seized.
25. 25Joseph fled leaving his garment, stripped but not naked, clothed in modesty, unlike Adam, who kept his clothes yet was naked through sin.
26. 26Potiphar's wife accused Joseph falsely; he did not defend himself and went to prison as a martyr for chastity, and God did not desert him.
27. 27God was with Joseph in prison, where he was put in charge of the prisoners, as Christ is with his own in prison.
28. 28Potiphar's wife, unable to defend her vices, accused the innocent Joseph, and the prison received the innocent while the guilty went free.
29. 29Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharaoh's chief cupbearer in prison, foretelling his restoration and asking to be remembered.
30. 30Worldly power, like the cupbearer's office seen in a dream, is a dream that proves empty on waking, as Isaiah says.
31. 31Joseph prefigures Christ, who came into the prison of the body, was not overcome by temptation, put off the flesh, and freed others from the place of the dead.
32. 32Joseph twice asked the cupbearer to remember him, but once restored the cupbearer forgot, as prosperity breeds forgetfulness of kindness.
33. 33Ambrose alludes to a contemporary court chamberlain, whose fall after two years he compares with the cupbearer's, and declines to dwell on it.
34. 34The cupbearer's late confession recalls Joseph, while the chief baker, proud of his office, was executed as Joseph had foretold.
35. 35Doeg and Haman, royal officials who attacked the Lord's priests and people and were punished, are further examples of courtiers' pride and fall.
36. 36When Pharaoh learned of Joseph, he freed and honored him; the earlier injury was not the king's doing.
37. 37Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dreams as seven years of plenty followed by seven of famine.
38. 38Ambrose applies Pharaoh's dream to his own time, when plenty was squandered and he had warned that fat prosperity breeds neglect of God and leads to famine.
39. 39Pharaoh's dream also signifies that the fat years of this world give way to the everlasting rest of the age to come, and that the lean and afflicted are often better before God.
40. 40Joseph's ring, robe, necklace, chariot, and gentile wife prefigure Christ and the church gathered from the nations.
41. 41As Joseph opened the granaries to the starving world, Christ opened the treasures of wisdom, asking only the price of faith from all nations.
42. 42All nations came to Joseph to buy grain; we buy Christ not with silver but with faith and with the life we owe him, as he redeemed us with his blood.
43. 43Jacob's rebuke of his idle sons still calls those slow to come to Christ's grace, the grain that rises again.
44. 44Benjamin, kept back for fear of weakness, prefigures Paul of the tribe of Benjamin, whose blindness led to light.
45. 45Benjamin coming after his brothers prefigures Paul coming after the apostles; Joseph returned their silver, as Christ is bought by faith, not money.
46. 46Benjamin's coming with spices, honey, nuts, and double silver prefigures Paul's preaching, which joins living stones and heals the soul.
47. 47Joseph's kindness to his brothers when Benjamin came figures Christ's mercy toward the Jewish people, who fear rather than trust his forgiveness.
48. 48The brothers pleading at the door figure those who seek justification by works rather than grace; the believer is not shamed at the gate of death.
49. 49The steward of Joseph's house figures Moses and the saints, faithful servants in the house of which Christ is the Son and Lord.
50. 50The silver returned in the brothers' sacks signifies that all we have is God's gift, and Christ, our price, asks nothing for his grain.
51. 51The 'good silver' Joseph accepts is the spiritual silver of faithful devotion, which costs nothing and gains life.
52. 52Joseph's coming at noon figures Paul's enlightenment and Christ entering his house when the sacraments are celebrated.
53. 53Joseph graciously invited his suspicious brothers to dine and first asked after their welfare.
54. 54Joseph's asking after their father shows the courtesy a superior owes those beneath him.
55. 55Joseph honored their father as 'the old man'; the brothers humbly called him Joseph's 'servant.'
56. 56Joseph saw Benjamin first because his heart was set on him, and asked about him in order to speak the name of the one he loved.
57. 57Overcome by love for Benjamin, Joseph withdrew to weep and then restrained himself, reason contending with affection.
58. 58Mystically, Christ calls Paul the 'youngest,' immature in faith before his conversion, and excuses him as one called in youth.
59. 59Joseph's weeping figures Christ's, and his washing his face figures Paul's baptism; Benjamin's fivefold portion signifies Paul's preeminence.
60. 60The brothers' drinking with Joseph figures Paul's sober drunkenness in the Spirit, as a chosen vessel.
61. 61The silver cup hidden in Benjamin's sack figures Paul's call, unknown to him; the morning signifies the coming of faith.
62. 62The orderly search that found the cup in Benjamin's sack signifies Paul's election by heavenly judgment.
63. 63The silver and the cup signify the gifts of nature and grace; the cup, given to one, signifies the prophetic and priestly gift.
64. 64The cup hidden in the sack signifies Paul's knowledge enclosed by the law until Ananias freed him and he preached the gospel freely.
65. 65The brothers' turning back figures those who fall away from Christ; they would not return without Benjamin, a figure of Paul.
66. 66Judah's offer to stay in Benjamin's place shows foresight of the evils coming on the people; Joseph's weeping figures Christ's.
67. 67Joseph revealing himself to his brothers figures Christ declaring himself to his own people at his trial and calling them to recognize him.
68. 68'Come near to me' signifies Christ, who came near by sharing our nature in the incarnation.
69. 69Joseph's forgiving his brothers, ascribing his sale to God's providence, foreshadows Christ's prayer for his crucifiers and his greeting of peace after the resurrection.
70. 70Joseph's words to his brothers are echoed by the risen Christ's words to his disciples, showing the same speaker in both.
71. 71'God sent me before you for life' corresponds to Christ's sending the apostles to baptize all nations.
72. 72Joseph's promise that his family would be near him corresponds to Christ's promise to be with his disciples always.
73. 73Joseph's embracing Benjamin figures Christ's embracing Paul and raising him to heaven.
74. 74Pharaoh's joy and gifts at Joseph's reunion figure the church's joy and help when Jews are brought to Christ.
75. 75Benjamin's three hundred pieces of silver and five robes signify Paul's preaching of the cross and his mastery of the five senses.
76. 76The other brothers' two robes signify the mystical and moral gifts of other preachers, each with different graces.
77. 77The gifts Joseph sent his father figure Christ inviting his people; the asses that carry them figure the gentiles who will bear Christ.
78. 78Joseph's warning not to quarrel on the way teaches the avoidance of anger, as Christ left his disciples his peace and sent them without means of revenge.
79. 79The brothers' news that Joseph lives and rules figures the apostles preaching the risen Christ in the synagogues, where many did not believe.
80. 80Jacob's disbelief turning to joy figures the people coming to believe in Christ's resurrection, the foundation of faith.
81. 81Jacob's setting out before sacrificing shows that faith precedes worship.
82. 82God's call to Jacob to go down to Egypt figures the invitation to the Jewish people to join the church gathered from all nations.
83. 83God's promise that Joseph would close Jacob's eyes signifies mystically that Christ will open the eyes of the Jewish people.
84. 84The seventy-five who went to Egypt and Judah sent ahead figure the Jewish people's future confession and salvation in the last times, when Christ will heal its blindness.
85. 85The patriarchs' deeds are mysteries of the future, as Jacob's last words to his sons announce.