Commentaria in Genesim
51. MANASSES—that is, causing to forget, or forgetfulness: for the root nasa signifies to forget.
Note here Joseph’s piety and gratitude toward God: lest he should ever forget the mercy shown him by God, he appointed his sons as its perennial monument, to be ever before his eyes. So also Moses did in his happy exile, when he called his sons Gersam and Eliezer, Exodus 2:22.
Ephraim means fruit and increase, from the root para, which is, he was fruitful. So St. Jerome.
54. IN THE WHOLE WORLD,—that is, in a great part of the lands and regions adjacent to Egypt; for if the famine had been absolutely in the whole world, the barns and the fifth part of the fruits of Egypt would in no way have sufficed to relieve it. So Abulensis.
56. AND JOSEPH OPENED ALL THE BARNS.—From this benefit and feeding by Joseph, many think that Joseph was called Serapis, and was worshipped by the Egyptians under the name of Serapis, and that Serapis was no other than Joseph. For Serapis lived at the same time as Joseph and Jacob, who went down into Egypt. For Clement of Alexandria, and St. Augustine, book 18 On the City of God, chaps. 4 and 5, relate that at this time of the coming of Jacob and Joseph into Egypt, Apis, king of the Argives, sailed to Egypt, and, dying there and being buried in a coffin, was called Serapis, as if soros-Apis, that is, the coffin in which Apis was buried; and that this Apis, or Serapis, became the greatest god of the Egyptians, because he had relieved them from famine and taught them various arts: as Isis, the wife of Serapis, taught them letters. Hence they worshipped Serapis in the form of an ox, which is a symbol and prognostic of fertility, as we saw at verses 2 and 27. This ox, as long as it lived, the Egyptians fed most delicately, and in the Egyptian tongue it was called Apis, that is, ox; after death, shut up in a coffin, it was called Serapis. When this ox was dead, the Egyptians sought and fed another like it, marked with white spots. This ox, then, called Apis and Serapis, was the god of the Egyptians; whom the Hebrews, newly come out of Egypt, imitated, when on Sinai they formed and adored a golden calf, Exodus 32.
Take away from this history of Apis and Serapis the statement that he was a king of the Argives (for which something else is perhaps to be substituted), and all the rest agrees with Joseph. For the Gentiles wonderfully corrupted the history of Joseph and of others, and mingled and depraved it with their own fables and fictions.
Wherefore Julius Firmicus, an ancient author who flourished in the year of Christ 337, in his book On the Error of Profane Religions (which he dedicated to the emperors Constantius and Constans, and which is extant in the Library of the Holy Fathers, vol. 4, chap. 14), Rufinus, and from them Baronius, vol. 4, p. 520, and Pierius, book 3 of the Hieroglyphics, fol. 25, letter F (who adds that this is a tradition of the Egyptians), and many others, hold that Joseph, because of the great benefit by which he provided the Egyptians with food in the famine, was after his death called Serapis by them, and worshipped with divine honours; just as for the same cause Joseph was called by Pharao Saviour of the world, which is more than Serapis. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 67, teaches that Joseph foresaw this, and therefore commanded the Hebrews, when departing from Egypt, to carry his bones with them, lest the Egyptians, prone to superstition, should worship them as those of their Saviour, as a Deity or as relics of a Deity.
In favour of this opinion is the fact that Serapis is painted as a beardless youth, bearing on his head a basket, namely of grain and loaves. Hence also the ox is called sacred to him, as Apis and Serapis: both because Joseph interpreted the seven fat kine which Pharao saw to be a sign of fertility; and because the ox, by plowing, manuring and threshing, is a cause of fertility; for which reason Moses compares Joseph to an ox, or bull, Deut. 33:17. Hence also that oracle of Serapis, most worthy of Joseph, is sung:
In the beginning is God, then the Word, and with them one Spirit: these three are of one kind, all tending into one.
Hence, finally, various men give various etymologies of Serapis, all of which suit our Joseph. For first, some very probably derive Serapis from Sar, that is, prince, and Apis, that is, ox, as if you should say, Prince of the ox, or of oxen, which namely portended fertility to Pharao and Joseph, so that Serapis is a word compounded of the Hebrew Sar and the Egyptian Apis: for the Egyptians seem to have given Joseph an Egyptian name, or at least a Hebrew one. For the Hebrew Sar, whence Ser and Sir, has passed into many nations and languages. For the Syrians, and Chaldees, and Arabs, and Muscovites, and Tartars, and Gauls, and, as it seems, the Egyptians, call a lord or prince Sar or Sir. Joseph, then, was called Apis by the Egyptians, then Serapis, as if you should say, Prince Apis. Secondly, others derive Serapis from soros and Apis, that is, the coffin, namely the grain-chest, of Apis. Thirdly, Julius Firmicus: Serapis, he says, is Sare-Apis, or Apis the prince, born of Sara, the wife of Abraham. Fourthly, others: the Egyptians, they say, corruptly called Joseph Aseph, and by metathesis Apes, or Apis; just as the Dutch say Japic for Jacob. Fifthly, others: Invert abrech, and you will have Cerap, that is, Cerapis or Serapis. For the crier proclaimed to the people concerning Joseph, Abrech, that is, bend the knee, verse 43. Sixthly, others: Serapis is said as if schor appaim, that is, face of an ox; for this ox, which was the hieroglyph of Serapis, was painted and carved with the face of an ox alone; for it was nothing else than the head of an ox or calf. Hence Serapis was also called Osiris, as if schor, that is, ox; though Eusebius, book 1 of the Preparation for the Gospel, chap. 6, wishes Osiris to be the sun and Isis the moon, and says that Osiris is as it were many-eyed; for the sun diffuses many rays, as it were eyes, from itself, and is a symbol of the providence of God, which has eyes on every side; whence also the Hebrew root schor signifies to look at something with fixed and intent eyes; and because the ox looks so with fixed eyes, it is therefore also called schor. But these things the later Egyptians thus adapted to the sun, as the eye of the world, by a new hieroglyph; for since they had nothing certain about God, some sought their Serapis in heaven, others on earth, and some painted him in the form of a man, others of an ox; and so they devised now one hieroglyph, now another, of Serapis and Osiris. For it is plainly likely that the first Serapis, as also Jove, Mercury, Hercules and the other gods of the Gentiles, were men, princes and illustrious persons, such as was this our Joseph, whom, for virtue, power or merit toward the commonwealth, men numbered among the gods, and worshipped with divine honours. Whence Osiris is said to have taught the Egyptians the art of plowing and tilling the fields, which Scripture testifies that Joseph did by means of oxen. And Plutarch, in the book On Isis and Osiris, asserts that the proper name of Osiris was Arsaphen, which plainly alludes to the name of Joseph. Again, Osiris, he says, is the same as polyophthalmos, that is, many-eyed: for os signifies “much” among the Egyptians, Siris “eye.” Is not Joseph “many-eyed,” that is, much-knowing, through the wisdom heavenly bestowed on him, by which he governed the Egyptians most prudently, and taught them not only astrology and mathematics, but also faith and the worship of God, according to that of Ps. 104:22: “He made him lord of his house, and prince of all his possession, that he might instruct his princes as himself, and teach his ancients wisdom.” Hence also on the temple of Serapis, nay on the breast of Serapis, a cross was carved, says Rhodiginus, book 10, chap. 8. And the cross was among the Egyptians a symbol of salvation and happy life; because, namely, Joseph taught, and by his passion prefigured, the cross of Christ, from which come to us both salvation and happy life.
Thus the procuring of the corn supply among the Romans was entrusted only to great and wise men. Hence Pliny in the Panegyric: “The care of the corn supply, entrusted to Pompey the Great, added no less glory than ambition driven from the field, the enemy driven from the sea, the East and the West traversed in triumphs.” I have discussed these things about Serapis somewhat fully, because they concern Joseph, and because they are rare and have not been treated by anyone. This opinion is confirmed by the author of On the Wonders of Holy Scripture, book 1, chap. 15: “Joseph, he says, as a prophetic man, foresaw that the nation of the Egyptians, given to idolatry, would some day wish to adore him, because he had been the author of earthly splendour to them and had freed them from the danger of famine; which also they did: for they set up the image of an ox beside Joseph’s tomb, because an ox is compared to a man in agriculture. For this cause also the children of Israel, when in the desert they wished to make an idol, made no other statue than a calf, that is, an ox, chiefly for this reason, that it was adored in Egypt beside the tomb of Joseph; lest therefore Joseph should succumb to the idolatry of the Egyptians, he commanded his bones to be carried out of Egypt.”