After he was called by God, Jacob ascends to Bethel, that is, to the house of God (this is how the name Bethel is interpreted), offers sacrifices to God and is declared chief and master of the holy rites. He teaches his successors and descendants how they must enter the house of God. He orders the foreign gods to be rejected like dung and filth and to change the garments. It is fitting for us to do likewise when we are called before God, or enter the divine temple, especially in the time of the holy baptism. We, as if we drive away the foreign gods and part from such error, must assert, I refuse you, Satan, and all your pomp and all your worship. We also must change completely our garment by stripping off the old self that is corrupt through deceitful lusts^[1] and by clothing ourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to image of its Creator.^[2] The women who were with Jacob took off their earrings. And in fact women by entering the house of God without wearing any carnal ornament and with loose hair remove from their head any accusation of pride. That is why, I believe, those women took off the precious stones they wore in their ears.

When we ascend to Bethel, that is, to the house of God, we will know the stone, I mean, the elected stone, which was made into a cornerstone,^[1] that is, Christ. We will see the one who is anointed by the Father in joy and exultation for all the creatures that live under the sky. As I said, the Son is anointed by God the Father: Joy of us all, universal exultation according to the words of the psalmist.^[2] And you see how this is prefigured in the words that were just said to us: And Jacob set up a stone and poured oil upon it. That action is a symbol of the mystery of Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to God the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

Why does he also indicate to us Joseph’s age? For you to learn that his youth constituted no obstacle to virtue and for you to have a complete awareness of the young man’s obedience to his father and his sympathy for his brothers despite their savagery. Despite his being so well disposed to them, Joseph was unable to win them over to concord with him on the grounds of his youth so as to be willing to maintain the bond of love. Instead, they saw from the outset the youth’s inclination to virtue and the father’s favor for him and were prompted to envy him. You see, they brought false reports about Joseph to their father Israel.^[1]

And so we are taught the proper nature of parental love and filial gratitude. It is pleasant to love one’s children and very pleasant to love them exceedingly, but often even parental love does harm to the children unless it is practiced with restraint; for it may give the beloved child free rein out of excessive indulgence or, by preference shown to one child, may alienate the others from the spirit of brotherly love. That son gains more who gains the love of his brothers. This is a more splendid manifestation of generosity on the part of the parents and a richer inheritance for the sons. Let the children be joined in a like favor, who have been joined in a like nature. . . .

What wonder if quarrels arise among brothers over an estate or a house, when enmity blazed up among the sons of holy Jacob over a tunic?^[1] What then? Should we find fault with Jacob because he preferred the one son to the others? But we cannot take from parents their freedom to love the more those children whom they believe to be the more deserving, nor ought we to cut off the sons from their eager desire to be the more pleasing. To be sure, Jacob loved the more that son in whom he foresaw the greater marks of virtue; thus he would not appear to have shown preference so much as father to son but rather as prophet to a sacred sign. And Jacob was right to make for his son a tunic of many colors, to indicate by it that Joseph was to be preferred to his brothers with his clothing of manifold virtues.

What is meant by he loved Joseph more than all his other sons, as he was a son of his old age? Since he was born in Jacob’s old age, it is saying, toward the end of his life, on this account he loved Joseph more than all the others. You see, somehow the children born to one in old age seem particularly dear and manage to attract their father’s favor in greater measure. For us to learn, however, that this was not the only factor in winning his father and causing him to prefer him to his brothers, sacred Scripture teaches us that even after him another son was born. If the manifestation of love had proceeded according to natural inclination, that last son would have been loved more for being truly a son of his old age and born at the time the good man reached the end of his life. So what can we say it means? That it was a kind of grace from on high that made the young man amiable and rendered him preferable to all the others on account of the virtue of his soul. . . . In Scripture the reason is given as his being a son of his old age and on that account he loved him more, in case the real reason might increase the brothers’ envy.

Therefore, in order that our words do not wander from the right way, we say that the Immanuel was born to the Father as a Son of his old age, because he appeared in the latter times of the world, that is, in these times, and after him there will be no other. We expect to be saved in no one else. He alone is sufficient, because we say that the salvation and life of the world is placed in no one else.^[1] He shepherds us forever, according to the words of the psalmist,^[2] and we will be the subjects of him who is beloved, who appeared in the latter times of the world, as I just said, after he had assumed the flesh and who preexisted as God. In fact, we say that he is coeternal with the Father.

When the Christian people devoutly come to church, of what benefit is it that they hear how the holy patriarchs took their wives or begot their children, unless they perceive in a spiritual sense why these things happened or what the facts prefigured? Behold, we have heard that blessed Jacob begot a son and called his name Joseph and that he loved him more than the rest of his sons. In this place blessed Jacob prefigured God the Father; holy Joseph typified our Lord and Savior. Therefore Jacob loved his son because God the Father loved his only-begotten Son, as he himself said, This is my beloved Son.^[1]

According to a mystical or allegorical interpretation Joseph prefigured a type of our Lord. Now if we consider the actions of Joseph, at least in part, we clearly recognize in him an obvious figure of the Lord. Joseph had a multicolored tunic; our Lord and Savior is known to have had one also, since he took the church, which was composed of various nations, like the covering of a garment. The variety of this tunic, that is, of the church that Christ took, is of a different sort; the church has different, varied graces—the martyrs, confessors, priests, ministers, virgins, widows and those who perform works of justice. This variety of the church is not one of colors but of graces; for in this variety of his church our Lord and Savior shines with a multicolored, precious garment. Joseph was sold by his brothers and procured by the Ishmaelites; our Lord and Savior was sold by the Jews and acquired by the Gentiles. Moreover, the Ishmaelites who bought Joseph carried different kinds of perfumes with them; this was to show that the Gentiles who came to believe would be fragrant throughout the world with the different odors of justice.

Envy is a terrible passion, you see, and when it affects the soul, it does not leave it before bringing it to an extremely sorry state. [It damages] the soul that gives it birth and affect[s] the object of its envy in the opposite way to that intended, rendering him more conspicuous, more esteemed, more famous—which in turn proves another severe blow to the envious person. Notice at any rate in this instance how this remarkable man is depicted as ignorant of what was going on and conversing cheerfully in great simplicity with them as his brothers who had caused the same birth pangs as he. . . . They for their part were in the grip of the passion of envy and were thus brought to hate him.

And Joseph was loved by his father a great deal. And he gave him a multicolored garment as an excellent gift and a proof of the love with which he accompanied him. And this was an incentive to envy for his brothers and a cause of hatred, as the following events will demonstrate. In fact, the Pharisees were inflamed with anger against the beloved, that is, Christ, because he had been clothed by God the Father with a multiform glory. He was admirable in different forms, partly as a vivifying God, partly as a light that was able to illuminate those who were in the darkness, and to purify the lepers, and to raise from the dead those who were already decomposing,^[1] and to reprove the seas and to be carried on the waves through his power.^[2] And the Jews being in difficulty and burning with the flames of envy, said to each other, What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.^[3] The multicolored garment is the symbol of the multiform glory with which God the Father clothed the Son made similar to us through his human nature. However, with regard to his own nature, he himself is the Lord of glory, even though, because of the likeness he has with us, he says, Father, glorify your Son.^[4] Therefore for the reasons that I have examined, the sons of the concubines were induced to anger and envy and became suspicious after the dream was related. Since they knew in advance that in time they would have become subjects to their brother and would have adored him, and he would have been superior to them by far and would have been brought to such a glory to be adored by their own parents, they gnashed their teeth and planned to kill him. And so the Jews were angered too, and not less afflicted, since they understood that the Immanuel would have been superior to the holy patriarchs themselves^[5] and would have been necessarily adored by all the people and indeed by the whole world. And being aware of this, they said, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.^[6]

It is written concerning blessed Joseph, dearly beloved, that his brothers envied him and therefore could not even greet him. It is true, beloved brothers, that so dangerous is the disease of envy that it cannot even spare brothers, not to mention strangers. Indeed, at the very beginning of the world Cain, a wicked brother, killed the just Abel through envy. Holy and faithful Joseph then was shown to be a more just servant of the Lord because of his tribulations. Through envy he was first sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites as a slave, and after having been sold by the very people by whom he had seen himself worshiped, he was later handed over to an Egyptian master.