Genesis 43-44 and Letters of Ignatius [Ephesians 16-18]

Genesis 43 – The famine continues to ravage the land. When the grain from Egypt is gone, Jacob wants them to go back and get more. Judah reminds him what they face there is they go back without Benjamin. This time [in this Yahwist source] it is Judah who takes mature responsibility for seeing to it that Benjamin returns safely. “’I personally guarantee his safety. You may hold me responsible if I don’t bring him back to you’” (43:9).

They go back, and they take gifts and twice the silver they took before—assuming they will be accused of having cheated the Egyptians the first time.

When they get to Egypt, Joseph invites them to eat with him but they are so worried, they cannot stand it.  They confess about having found the money returned to their sacks last time and offer twice the payment for the grain this time. The steward reassures them and sees Simeon released to them.

When they gather later at Joseph’s table, they bow down to him again and he asks after their father.  He is much affected when he sees his full brother and leaves again to cry (43:30).  After regaining control, he returns.  They eat—it is interesting that Egyptians with Joseph have to eat at a separate table. It says the Egyptians “despise[d] Hebrews and refuse[d] to eat with them” (43:32). Joseph fills their plates and gives Benjamin five times more than he gave the others.

Genesis 44 - When the brothers are ready to leave, Joseph orders food to be stuffed into each man’s bag along with the silver they brought; but in Benjamin’s bag he also plants his “personal silver cup” (44:2).  He is going to take one last revenge on them. 

After they leave he orders men after them to accuse them of repaying his kindness with theft.  And when Joseph’s silver cup is found in Benjamin’s bag, they are overcome with distress.  They “tore their clothing in despair” (44:13) and then return to the city. We are reminded of Benjamin’s mother, Rachel’s theft of the household idols from her father Laban’s house in 31:32.

When they return to Joseph, again they prostrate themselves before him a third time: Judah says, importantly, to him “What can we say to my lord?  How can we plead or how try to prove our innocence?  God has uncovered your servants’ guilt” (44:16).  It is Judah who finally addresses the bottom line—that he cannot go back without Benjamin, having given his solemn word and knowing the anguish he father would suffer. In Judah’s response to Joseph, the word “father” is repeated twelve times.

The Epistles of Ignatius [Letter to the Ephesians]

16 – “[S]ubversive doctrines” out there are in some cases “defiling” households [church communities]. “Even in the world, defilement of this kind is punishable with death; how much more when a man’s subversive doctrines defile the God-given Faith for which Jesus Christ was crucified” (65). People who bring these doctrines in are most certainly destined for the “unquenchable fire” and also those who give them “a hearing” (65).

17 – The ointment Christ’s head was anointed with was to create a fragrance of “incorruptibility upon His Church” (65). So you must not permit the odor of gross error to “snatch you . . . away from the life that lies before you” (65)

18 – As for me [Ignatius], my spirit is “now all humble devotion to the Cross: the Cross which so greatly offends the unbelievers, but is salvation and eternal life to us” (65-66).

“Jesus Christ our God was conceived by Mary of the seed of David and of the Spirit of God; He was born, and He submitted to baptism, so that by His Passion He might sanctify water [the water of baptism]” (66).

Genesis 41-42 and Letters of Ignatius [Ephesians 13-15]

Genesis 41 – Two years after this, the Pharaoh himself has two disturbing dreams that he cannot understand. “In his dream he saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. Then he saw seven more cows come up behind them from the Nile, but these were scrawny and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then the scrawny, thin cows ate the seven healthy, fat cows!” (41:2-4). He wakes up and then sleeps again. “This time [in his second dream] he saw seven heads of grain, plump and beautiful, growing on a single stalk. Then seven more heads of grain appeared, but these were shriveled and withered by the east wind. And these thin heads swallowed up the seven plump, well-formed heads!” (41:5-7). He is disturbed by the dreams and calls for “all the magicians and wise men of Egypt” (41:8).

His cupbearer remembers Joseph and has him called to interpret the dreams.  The dreams are “the same” Joseph declares: the first is about seven fat cows (Schocken editors say that cows were the hieroglyphic for years in Ptolemaic Egypt) coming up out of the Nile, followed by seven lean ones that devour the first; the second dream is of seven fat ears of corn, followed by seven “thin and blasted” ones that devour the first.  Joseph says it is a prediction of seven plentiful years of harvest followed by seven years of dire famine. 

Pharaoh recognizes that Joseph is intelligent and “filled with the spirit of God” (41:38), so he puts Joseph in charge of managing the food supply and pretty much “the entire land of Egypt” (41:41). He gives him a new Egyptian name – Zaphenath-paneah – and a wife named Asenath, daughter of the priest of On, and they have two sons: Manassas and Ephraim (41:51-52).

The dreams of the Pharaoh come true according to Joseph’s interpretation. Seven years of full harvests give way to seven years of drought, and not in Egypt alone, but all around. In Egypt, there is plenty of food stored away thanks to Joseph, but in the surrounding territories there is nothing but hardship.

Genesis 42 – “When Jacob heard that grain was available in Egypt” (42:1), he sends ten of his sons (not Benjamin) to Egypt to get food. 

Joseph is the man in charge of distributing the grain. When the brothers arrive, they bow before Joseph, as we knew they would.  He recognizes them, but they do not recognize him (42:7).  He pretends not to recognize them, but he accuses them of being spies and insists if they want to prove they are of good will, they will send home and get the other brother to come. He throws them in prison for three days to let them know he’s serious, but on the third day “Joseph said to them, ‘I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live. If you really are honest men, choose one of your brothers to remain in prison. The rest of you may go home with grain for your starving families. But you must bring your youngest brother back to me. This will prove that you are telling the truth, and you will not die.’ To this they agreed” (42:17-20).

Their fears stir up in them a spirit of repentance.  They admit among themselves the wrong they did to their brother and see their present distress as a punishment.  Joseph (in the presence of a translator) pretends not to understand them, but he is moved to tears by what he hears.  Simeon stays to secure their return, and they go back to Canaan; they not only have the grain they bought, but Joseph has secretly had the silver they spent for it returned to their bags. They tremble when they find it there; “they said to each other, ‘What has God done to us?’” (42:28).

They return and tell their father everything. Jacob’s pain at the dilemma he now faces is clear to his sons.  Reuben  (again a leader in the Elohist source) makes a rash statement to his father offering to let him kill his own two sons if they do not return with Benjamin, but Jacob does not let them go – not yet..

The Epistles of Ignatius [Letter to the Ephesians]

13 – He encourages them to meet often together; “in the face of your corporate faith [Satan’s] malfeasance crumbles. Nothing can better a state of peaceful accord, from which every trace of spiritual or earthly hostility has been banished” (64).

14 – “Given a thorough-going faith and love for Jesus Christ, there is nothing in all this that will not be obvious to you; for life begins and ends with two qualities. Faith is the begging, and love is the end; and the union of the two together is God. All that makes for a soul’s perfection follows in their train, for nobody who professes faith will commit sin, and nobody who possesses love can feel hatred.  As the tree is known by its fruits, so they who claim to belong to Christ as known by their actions; for this work of ours does not consist in just making professions, but in a faith that is both practical and lasting” (65).

15 – “[I]t is better to keep quiet and be, than to make fluent professions and not be” (65).

“A man who has truly mastered the utterances of Jesus will also be able to apprehend His silence, and thus reach full spiritual maturity, so that his own words have the force of actions and his silences the significance of speech. Nothing is hidden from the Lord; even our most secret thoughts are ever present to Him. Whatever we do, then, let it be done as though He Himself were dwelling within us, we being as it were His temples and He within us as their God. For in fact, that is literally the case; and in proportion as we rightly love Him, so it will become clear to our eyes” (65). 

Genesis 39-40 and The Letters of Ignatius [Ephesians 10-12]

Please forgive the long delay in posting. Had to attend a family members funeral mass in Florida over the weekend and had also to be without a computer, but everything should be back to normal now.

Genesis 39 - Returning to the Joseph story (of the Yahwist source—36 and 37 having been Elohist – together with 40, which is yet to come), we see Joseph has been sold to Potiphar, chief steward of the Pharaoh (39:1). 

Everything he touches turns to gold – not literally, but metaphorically.  He ends up in charge of everything.  When Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him, Joseph sees it as a grave threat to the trust placed in him and a great potential wrong (39:8-9).  So he refuses her and she finally accuses him falsely of threatening to violate her and he is thrown into jail.  But there too he rises to the top and ends up being put in charge of “all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison” (39:22).  He simply cannot escape his leadership destiny. The idea that character is destiny is strong here.

Genesis 40 – Joseph is gifted in both having and interpreting dreams – we already know this about him. Now in jail because of the accusations made against him by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph has even there risen to a position of prominence.

When two men in the jail, the “Pharaoh’s cup-bearer and baker” (40:5), come to him with dreams they have had, he interprets the dreams, and his interpretations turn out to be accurate: one of the men - the chief cup-bearer of the Pharaoh – is released and restored to his position. The other man – the chief baker – is put to death.

Nothing changes for Joseph immediately. The cup-bearer does not remember Joseph until a few years go by.

The Epistles of Ignatius
Letter to the Ephesians
10 – As for the rest of mankind, Ignatius tells them they should “pray for them unceasingly” that they might “find their way to God” (64). Let them “learn from you . . . from the way you act” (64). “Meet their animosity with mildness, their high words with humility, and their abuse with your prayers. But stand firm against their errors, and if they grow violent, be gentle instead of wanting to pay them back in their own coin” (64).

“Let us show by our forbearance that we are their brothers, and try to imitate the Lord by seeing which of us can put up with the most ill-usage or privation or contempt – so that in this way none of the devil’s noxious weeds may take root among you, but you may rest in Jesus Christ in all sanctity and discipline of body and soul” (64)

11 –   “The end of all things is near” (64). We must remember that and remain humble. “Apart from Him, nothing else should have any value in your eyes; but in Him, even these chains I wear are a collar of spiritual pearls to me, in which I hope to rise again through the help of your intercessions” (64). He prays that he may always have place in their midst, where Christians “in the power of Jesus Christ have ever been of the self-same mind as the Apostles themselves” (64).

12 – He returns to the reality that he is on his way to Rome and to death. “I am in peril; you are in security. You are the gateway, through which we are escorted by Death into the presence of God. You are initiates of the same mysteries as our saintly and renowned Paul of blessed memory” (64). He has remembered you and recognized you in all of his letters. Important to remember that the only church “fathers” whose letters we have who actually KNEW Paul and the other disciples were Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp. Ignatius is drawing on his personal knowledge of Paul here.

Psalms 142-144 and Early Church Writings [Clement of Rome] 6-10

Psalm 142 – A prayer for God’s help. To Him I bring all my complaints, all my despair. No one seems to care for me, so I cry to you for help: “you are all I really want in this life” (142:5).

Psalm 143 – “Do not put your servant on trial, for no one is innocent in your sight” (143:2).

And he asks God to kill his enemies, destroy those who oppress him. “I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain” (143:6).

The psalmist has suffered a defeat from his enemies and is in a dark prison. He remembers the days gone by and lifts his hands to God in prayer. “Remind me each morning of your constant love, for I put my trust in you. My prayers go up to you, show me the way I should go” (143:8).

“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing” (143:10).

Psalm 144 – My Lord protects me, trains me for battle and is my shelter. “Lord, what are mortals, that you notice them; mere mortals, that you pay attention to us? We are like a puff of wind; our days are like a passing shadow” (144:3-4).

Tear open the sky, Lord, and come down to us. “Reach down from above, pull me out of the deep water, and rescue me; save me from the power of foreigners, who never tell the truth and lie even under oath” (144:7-8).

I will sing to you, Lord. May our children grow up to be an honor to us and to you. “May there be no cries of distress in our streets” (144:14). Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

First Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians (96/97 AD)

Section 6

There “are many more of the elect who have undergone hardships and torments instigated by jealousy, and provide admirable object lessons for ourselves” (Early Christian Writings, 25).

Section 7

Clement is not writing of all this just to warn the Corinthians, but “for a reminder to ourselves as well, because we too are in the same arena and have the same conflict before us” (25).

“So let us be done with these barren and vapid fancies, and turn instead to the honorable, holy Rule of our tradition, so that we can find out what is good and pleasing and acceptable in the sight of Him who made us. Let us fix our thoughts on the Blood of Christ; and reflect how precious that Blood is in God’s eyes, inasmuch as its outpouring for our salvation has opened the grace of repentance to all mankind” (25).

In every generation of human history, “the Lord has offered the chance of repentance to any who were willing to turn to Him” (25-26).  He mentions the times of Noah and Jonah in particular.

Section 8

“All those who were ministers of the grace of God have spoken, through the Holy Spirit, of repentance” (26). The Lord himself said, “By my life . . . it is not the sinner’s death that I desire, so much as his repentance” (26).

And further quoting the Lord, “He says somewhere else, Wash yourselves, and be clean; put away the evil of your souls from my eyes. Leave off your wickedness, and learn to do right. Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, do right by the fatherless, act fairly to the widow. Come, let us reason together, says the Lord; though your sins are crimson-red, I will make them as white as snow; though they are like scarlet, I will make the them white as wool” (26).

Section 9

“Let us bow, then, to that sovereign and glorious will. Let us entreat His mercy and goodness, casting ourselves upon His compassion and wasting no more energy in quarrels and a rivalry which only ends in death” (26).

Remember Enoch, whose obedience brought him unending life; and Noah, “herald of a new birth for the world” (26).

Section 10

“Abraham, who was named the Friend, showed his loyalty by obeying the voice of God” (26). He took his household to a new land. For his “faith and his hospitality” (27), “a son was given to him in his old age, and this son his obedience afterwards led him to offer up as a sacrifice to God, on the mountain which He had showed him” (27).