Commentaria in Genesim
it is, because he was the son of old age, that is, endowed with the modesty, prudence and manners of an old man, say Theodoret, Josephus and Burgensis; whence the Chaldee renders, because he was a wise son to him. But our translator renders better and more genuinely: “because he had him in his old age.” For although Jacob begot all his sons, Joseph also, within the second seven years of his servitude, with the exception of one, Benjamin, yet Joseph was the last and youngest of all except Benjamin, who in this sixteenth year of Joseph was only an infant of one year. Joseph is therefore called the son of old age, not absolutely, but with respect to the other sons of Jacob, who were all begotten before Joseph, so that in respect of them Joseph was the son of old age, that is, begotten last, in the last age of his begetting father.
Philo notes, in the book On Abraham, that parents are wont to love children begotten in old age above their other children, because such are the last fruits of parents, after whom they hope for no others. Secondly, because such children are signs of a good and strong old age in the parents. Hear Philo: “Late-born children, he says, parents love more immoderately, either because they were long desired, or because, nature having done its work, they hope for no offspring afterwards, or because they greatly rejoice to be vigorous in old age for begetting.” Add, because Joseph was like his father and grandfather; for as Jacob was born of Rebecca the barren, and Isaac of Sara the barren, so Joseph came forth from Rachel the barren and Jacob an old man, says Rupert. Cajetan adds, because through such children, as likely to live longer, the name and memory of the parents can be preserved.
Besides this cause of love there was another, and the chief, namely the innocence of life and manners in Joseph. So St. Chrysostom, homily 61. Moreover, to this, physically, not a little contributed both the old age and the love of the father. For old men, because they are cold, mature, wise, chaste and composed, beget such children and likewise bring them up. A clear example is in the illustrious family Anitia (afterwards called Frangipani), which received its origin and name from an old woman. 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 light 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 conspicuous for chastity, wisdom and every virtue, as Francis Zazzera teaches from Panvinus in his treatise On the Anitian Family; who however adds that some judge the Anitii to be Greek in origin and name, and to be called as it were “unconquered.” A far clearer example is in the Blessed Virgin: for God fittingly ordained that she should be born and brought up by aged and holy parents, Anna and Joachim, because he destined her to be the first of humility, the radiance of virginity, the sun of wisdom and holiness, and to raise her above the Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim.
AND HE MADE HIM A COAT OF DIVERS COLOURS.—In Hebrew pasim, that is, variegated of pieces and threads of diverse colours. So the Septuagint. For as trilix is a garment of three threads, so polymitos is a garment of many threads. Aquila renders it, reaching to the ankles; Symmachus, sleeved.
Symbolically, this coat of divers colours is the variegation of virtues, says Rupert. “Rightly therefore he made him a coat of divers colours, that he might signify that he was, by the clothing of diverse virtues, to be preferred to his brethren,” says St. Ambrose; and, as Philo says, in the book On Joseph, or on the civil and political man, this many-coloured coat is the many-sided prudence of the prince. For a prince, such as Joseph became, ought to be many-coloured, because he must be one thing in peace, another in war, another with enemies, another with friends, and so on, and so ought to be of many turns, such as Homer sings Ulysses to have been, who could, according to the nature of things and persons, turn and shift himself into all forms and shapes.
St. Gregory, however, in book 1 of the Moralia, last chapter, who with Aquila takes this coat as reaching to the ankles, says: “The coat that reaches to the ankles is perseverance, which is extended to the heels, that is, to the end of life.”
Note here: The cause of the hatred and envy of the brethren against Joseph was, first, that Joseph was more loved by his father; secondly, that he had accused them to their father of a crime; thirdly, the dreams of Joseph; fourthly, his coat of divers colours, constantly striking the eyes of the brethren. For this coat was a pain to the eyes of the brethren, and cost Joseph and his father dear. For with it his brethren stripped him, plotted his death, and finally sold him to the Ismaelites.
Let parents learn from this example to love, clothe and educate their children equally, and to divide their gifts and goods equally, as far as can be done, lest, if they prefer one to another, the one become faint-hearted, the other proud, and so they bring about perpetual envy and quarrels among them, and consequently perpetual grief and sorrow for themselves. For the hatreds of brothers and friends are wont to be most bitter, the reason of which Aristotle gives, Politics, book 7, chapter 7, both because every change is from contrary to contrary, and therefore the highest love is turned 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, from the same they feel not only that they are deprived of it, but moreover that they are injured, and men count this bitter. Hear St. Ambrose, book On Joseph, chapter 2: “More is gained for a son by whom the love of his brothers is gained. This is the more splendid munificence of fathers, this the richer inheritance of sons. Let equal grace join the children whom equal nature has joined. Piety knows no gain in money, where there is a loss of piety. Why do you wonder if quarrels arise among brothers over a farm or a house, when over a coat envy blazed among the sons of holy Jacob?” He excuses Jacob, however, “because he loved more him in whom he foresaw greater marks of virtues, so that the father seems to have preferred not so much a son as a prophetic mystery; and rightly he made him a coat of divers colours, that he might signify that he was, by the clothing of diverse virtues, to be preferred to his brethren.”
4. THEY HATED HIM.—Here is a notable moral place on envy. Hence note the conditions and remedies of envy. First, envy is like ophthalmia, or sore eyes, which is offended and hurt by things very splendid and bright; for so envy is embittered and pines at the goods, virtue and glory of others. Whence Aristotle, asked “what envy is,” replied: “It is the antagonist of the fortunate.” Secondly, the more virtue and glory grow, the more envy grows. Hence Themistocles, when a youth, said and grieved that he had as yet done no famous deed: Because, he said, no one yet envies me. Thirdly, envy hurts no one but itself. For as rust the iron, so envy wears down and consumes the envious; and as the viper is said to gnaw and burst its mother’s womb that it may be born, so envy gnaws and bursts the mind of the envious. Whence Horace:
The Sicilian tyrants never found a greater torment than envy.
Wouldst thou see the idea and form of envy? Ovid, book 2 of the Metamorphoses, aptly depicts it thus: Pallor sits upon her face, and leanness in all her body; her glance is never straight; her teeth are livid with rust; her breast is green with gall; her tongue is steeped in venom. Laughter is absent, save what the sight of pain has caused; nor does she enjoy sleep, roused by wakeful cares; but she sees with disfavour, and wastes away in seeing, the successes of men; she gnaws and is gnawed at once; and is her own punishment.