Homilies on First Corinthians

¹³ “How then,” says one, “did the Egyptian woman who loved Joseph wish to injure him?” Because she loved with this diabolical love. Joseph however not with this, but with that which Paul requires. Consider then how great a love his words were tokens of, and the action which she was speaking of. “Insult me and make me an adulteress, and wrong my husband, and overthrow all my house, and cast yourself out from your confidence towards God:” which were expressions of one who so far from loving him did not even love herself. But because he truly loved, he sought to avert her from all these. And to convince you that it was in anxiety for her, learn the nature of it from his advice. For he not only thrust her away, but also introduced an exhortation capable of quenching every flame: namely “if on my account, my master,” says he, “knows not any thing which is in his house.” He at once reminds her of her husband that he might put her to shame. And he said not, “your husband,” but “my master,” which was more apt to restrain her and induce her to consider who she was, and of whom she was enamored—a mistress, of a slave. “For if he be lord, then are you mistress. Be ashamed then of familiarity with a servant, and consider whose wife you are, and with whom you would be connected, and towards whom you are becoming thankless and inconsiderate, and that I repay him greater good-will.” And see how he extols his benefits. For since that barbarous and abandoned woman could entertain no lofty sentiment, he shames her from human considerations, saying, “He knows nothing through me,” i.e., “he is a great benefactor to me, and I cannot strike my patron in a vital part. He has made me a second lord of his house, and no one has been kept back from me, but you.” Here he endeavors to raise her mind, that so at any rate he might persuade her to be ashamed, and might signify the greatness of her honor. Nor did he stop even here, but likewise added a name sufficient to restrain her, saying, “Because you are his wife; and how shall I do this wickedness? But what do you say? That your husband is not present, nor knows that he is wronged? But God will behold it.” She however profited nothing by his advice, but still sought to attract him. For desiring to satiate her own frenzy, not through love of Joseph, she did these things; and this is evident from what she did afterwards. As that she institutes a trial, and brings in accusation, and bears false witness, and exposes to a wild beast him that had done no wrong, and casts him into a prison; or rather for her part, she even slew him, in such a manner did she arm the judge against him. What then? Was then Joseph too such as she was? Nay, altogether the contrary, for he neither contradicted nor accused the woman. “Yes,” it may be said: “for he would have been disbelieved.” And yet he was greatly beloved; and this is evident not only from the beginning but also from the end. For had not his barbarian master loved him greatly, he would even have slain him in his silence, making no defence: being as he was an Egyptian and a ruler, and wronged in his marriage-bed as he supposed, and by a servant, and a servant to whom he had been so great a benefactor. But all these things gave way to his regard for him, and the grace which God poured down upon him. And together with this grace and love, he had also other no small proofs, had he been minded to justify himself; the garments themselves. For if it were she to whom violence was done, her own vest should have been torn, her face lacerated, instead of her retaining his garments. But “he heard,” says she, “that I lifted up my voice, and left his garments, and went out.” And wherefore then did you take them from him? Since unto one suffering violence, the one thing desirable is to be rid of the intruder.

But not from hence alone, but also from the subsequent events, shall I be able to point out his good-will and his love. Yea even when he fell into a necessity of mentioning the cause of his imprisonment, and his remaining there, he did not even then declare the whole course of the story. But what says he? “I too have done nothing: but indeed I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews;” and he no where mentioned the adulteress nor does he plume himself on the matter, which would have been any one's feeling, if not for vain-glory, yet so as not to appear to have been cast into that cell for an evil cause. For if men in the act of doing wrong by no means abstain even so from blaming the same things, although to do so brings reproach; of what admiration is not he worthy, because, pure as he was he did not mention the woman's passion nor make a show of her sin; nor when he ascended the throne and became ruler of all Egypt, remember the wrong done by the woman nor exact any punishment?

Do you see how he cared for her? But her's was not love, but madness. For it was not Joseph that she loved, but she sought to fulfil her own lust. And the very words too, if one would examine them accurately, were accompanied with wrath and great blood-thirstiness. For what says she? “You have brought in a Hebrew servant to mock us:” upbraiding her husband for the kindness; and she exhibited the garments, having become herself more savage than any wild beast: but not so he. And why speak I of his good-will to her, when he was such, we know, towards his brethren who would slay him; and never said one harsh thing of them, either within doors or without?

14. Therefore Paul says, that the love which we are speaking of is the mother of all good things, and prefers it to miracles and all other gifts. For as where there are vests and sandals of gold, we require also some other garments whereby to distinguish the king: but if we see the purple and the diadem, we require not to see any other sign of his royalty: just so here likewise, when the diadem of love is upon our head, it is enough to point out the genuine disciple of Christ, not to ourselves only, but also to the unbelievers. For, “by this,” says He, “shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another.” So that this sign is greater surely than all signs, in that the disciple is recognised by it. For though any should work ten thousand signs, but be at strife one with another, they will be a scorn to the unbelievers. Just as if they do no sign, but love one another exactly, they will continue both reverenced and inviolable by all men. Since Paul himself we admire on this account, not for the dead whom he raised, nor for the lepers whom he cleansed, but because he said, “who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I burn not?” For should you have ten thousand miracles to compare with this, you will have nothing equal to it to say. Since Paul also himself said, that a great reward was laid up for him, not because he wrought miracles, but because “to the weak he became as weak. For what is my reward?” says he. “That, when I preach the Gospel, I may make the Gospel without charge.” And when he puts himself before the Apostles, he says not, “I have wrought miracles more abundant than they,” but, “I have labored more abundantly than they.” And even by famine was he willing to perish for the salvation of the disciples. “For it were better for me to die,” says he, “than that any man should make my glorying void:” not because he was glorying, but that he might not seem to reproach them. For he no where is wont to glory in his own achievements, when the season does not call to it; but even if he be compelled so to do he calls himself “a fool.” But if he ever glory it is “in infirmities,” in wrongs, in greatly sympathizing with those who are injured: even as here also he says, “who is weak, and I am not weak?” These words are greater even than perils. Wherefore also he sets them last, amplifying his discourse.