Commentaria in Genesim
27. ISRAEL—Jacob.
28. A HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN.—Note: This is the span of Jacob’s life. First, Jacob was born in the year of the world 2109, 452 years after the flood. Secondly, Jacob remained in his father’s house until the age of 71, when he snatched away the birthright from Esau; and fearing his ambush he fled into Haran. Thirdly, in Haran, after the seven years in which he served Laban, he received wives, Lia and Rachel. From Lia he begot Ruben in the year of his age 84, Simeon in the 85th, Levi in the 86th, Juda in the 87th, Joseph in the 91st. Fourthly, after Joseph was begotten, and all his children except Benjamin, Jacob served Laban six more years for the flocks, so that in all he was in Haran and served there 20 years; which being completed, in the 97th year of his age, he returned into Chanaan. Fifthly, in the 107th year of his age Jacob begot Benjamin, at whose birth Rachel died. Sixthly, about the 88th year of Jacob, there occurred that famous flood of Ogyges, by which the land of Attica was so devastated that for 199 years, down to Cecrops, it was without a king and almost deserted; of which Eusebius, book 10 of the Preparation, last chapter, and St. Augustine, book 18 of the City of God, chapter 8, where St. Augustine adds another portent of the same time, namely, that the star of Venus was seen to change its colour, size, shape and course. Seventhly, Joseph was sold in the seventeenth year of his age, when Jacob was 107. For his father mourned him as dead for 23 years, that is, until the 130th year of his age, when, summoned by Joseph with his sons, he went down from Chanaan into Egypt. Eighthly, Isaac died when Jacob was in the 120th year of his age. Ninthly, Jacob died in the 147th year of his age, when Joseph was 56 years old, namely in the year of the world 2256. Tenthly, the death of Jacob preceded the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt by 197 years, and the birth of Moses by 118. Lastly, while Jacob was living in Egypt, holy Job was born, the mirror of patience.
29. PUT THY HAND UNDER MY THIGH.—On this rite of swearing I spoke in chapter 24, verse 2.
THOU SHALT SHOW MERCY AND TRUTH TO ME—“Mercy” signifies grace and gratuitous favour; “truth” signifies fidelity, the faithful bestowal and carrying out of the favour; as if to say: Thou shalt grant me this grace, to bury me not here but in Chanaan, and thou shalt carry it out faithfully and truly.
29 and 30. THAT THOU BURY ME NOT IN EGYPT, BUT I WILL SLEEP WITH MY FATHERS—Joseph wished the same, and commanded it to be done to him after his death, chapter 50. The reason for this wish was, first, that he desired to be in the holy land, in which alone the worship of God was to be, among his holy forefathers, namely to be buried at Hebron with Isaac and Abraham. See how great was the care of the ancients for burial, and how desirable it is to be buried among the holy. Secondly, Jacob wished to be buried in Chanaan to draw the minds of his descendants away from the wealth and vices of Egypt, and to give them firm hope of return and deliverance from Egypt, and of obtaining the promised land, namely Chanaan. So Theodoret, St. Chrysostom, Rupert. Thirdly, he wished this so that, among his descendants who were to dwell in Chanaan, these sepulchres of his and of the fathers might be living monuments and likewise incentives of their faith, piety and virtue. Fourthly, Jacob knew that Christ would be born, die and rise again in Chanaan: hence he desires to be buried in it, that he might rise with Christ. So Lyranus, Abulensis and others. Wherefore it is believed by all Catholics, says Abulensis, that among others who rose with Christ on the day of Pasch, Jacob also rose.
St. Augustine adds, tropologically, that Jacob desired the remission of sins, both his own and those of the whole human race, through the death of Christ to be undergone in Chanaan: hence he wished to be buried in it. For a like reason St. Jerome, St. Paula and many other Saints wished to live and die in Chanaan, namely in Bethlehem. Fifthly, the Patriarchs wished to be buried in Chanaan so as to be sharers in the prayers and sacrifices which were offered there: for they believed that there is a Purgatory. Sixthly, anagogically, Rupert says: Jacob, he says, by his death gave an example to the living, that in the hope of the heavenly fatherland they should love the pledge of the eternal inheritance; that is, Jacob wished to be buried in Chanaan so that his descendants might long for heaven, of which Chanaan was a type.
IN THE SEPULCHRE OF HIS FOREFATHERS—in the double cave, of which in chapter 23, verse 17. Hence the faithful have from of old been accustomed to be buried among the faithful and the saints, in sacred places. Hear St. Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter 7: “These things done,” he says, “the Pontiff laid the body in a most worthy place, with the other sacred bodies of his order.” And Clement of Rome, book 6 of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 30: “Assemble,” he says, “in the cemeteries, reading the sacred books in them and chanting for those who have fallen asleep.” That these are wont to be consecrated by priests Gregory of Tours teaches, On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 106. They are called cemeteries, as it were sleeping-places, because the faithful are said in Scripture to sleep in them after death, to be raised on the last day of judgment, as St. Augustine testifies, epistle 199. St. Cyprian, book 1, epistle 4, reproves a certain Martial for having “laid his sons, after the manner of foreign nations, among profane sepulchres.” By which he indicates that even then there were sacred sepulchres for Christians. That the faithful were often buried in churches St. Ambrose testifies, book 1 On Abraham, chapter 9; Jerome, in the Life of Paula and Fabiola; Augustine, the book On the Care for the Dead, chapter 1.
31. SWEAR THEN.—Jacob did not distrust Joseph’s word, but demanded an oath, so that Joseph might use it as a pretext before Pharao, if the latter wished to keep Jacob’s body in Egypt. So Rupert. Abulensis adds: Jacob knew, he says, that Joseph, unless he bound him so strictly, intended to make him a costly and memorable sepulchre; so he bound him, that Joseph, feeling himself bound, might wholly abandon the plan and bury him modestly in Chanaan in the ancestral sepulchre of his fathers. Here see and imitate Jacob’s modesty and love of simplicity.
TURNING TOWARD THE BED’S HEAD.—So also Aquila and Symmachus translate. Jacob turned toward the head of the bed, facing Joseph, because that was toward the East, to which worshippers are wont to turn, and for which reason altars are built facing the East; or, as Lyranus holds, because this head of the bed looked toward the promised land, toward which they turned when worshipping while outside it, as is plain from Daniel 6:10; 3 Kings 8:44. So also Ribera on chapter 11 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Abulensis and others here (1).
You will say: How then do the Septuagint, and following them St. Paul, translate: Jacob adored the top of his rod, namely of Joseph’s sceptre?
I answer: This came about because the Hebrew word, if you read it mittah, signifies a bed; but if you read it with other points, matteh, it then signifies a rod: it can be read either way here, and each reading and version is canonical. Jacob therefore did both: namely, being made master of his wish, and glad at the promise given him by Joseph that he would bury him in Chanaan with his fathers, he gave him thanks and “adored,” that is, by bowing himself showed reverence, and venerated the sceptre, that is, the royal power of Joseph, given him by Pharao, or rather by God.
Secondly, and more genuinely, Jacob, giving thanks to God, adored and praised Him, because He had given Joseph this power, and this very mind to bury him in Chanaan; hence he turned toward the head of the bed, either because this head was toward the East, or because it looked toward the land of Chanaan, as I said.
See here fulfilled Joseph’s dream, chapter 37, verse 9, that his father and mother would adore him. You will say: Rachel his mother had long been dead, namely before Joseph was sold by his brothers, as is plain from chapter 35, verse 19.
Therefore she could not adore him. St. Chrysostom answers that a wife is reckoned civilly one person with her husband, according to Genesis 2: “They shall be two in one flesh.” When the husband adores, therefore, the wife too is reckoned to adore the son. “For if the father did this,” he says, “much more would she have done it, had she not been snatched from this life.” Add that Rachel substituted Bala for herself, who adored Joseph, as I said in chapter 37, verse 9.