I Am Joseph Your Brother: The Brother They Delivered Up Forgives Them
Old Testament: Genesis 45:2-5
And he lifted up his voice with weeping, which the Egyptians and all the house of Pharao heard. And he said to his brethren: I am Joseph: is my father yet living? His brethren could not answer him, being struck with exceeding great fear. And he said mildly to them: Come nearer to me. And when they were come near him, he said: I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Be not afraid, and let it not seem to you a hard case that you sold me into these countries: for God sent me before you into Egypt for your preservation.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 50:19-21
And he answered them: Fear not: can we resist the will of God? You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people. Fear not: I will feed you and your children. And he comforted them, and spoke gently and mildly.
New Testament: Matthew 28:10; Acts 3:17-19
Then Jesus said to them: Fear not. Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, there they shall see me. ... And now, brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Be penitent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.
The connection
Joseph's brothers sold him into Egypt. Years later, driven by famine, they bowed before the governor of Egypt without knowing him. Then "Joseph could no longer refrain himself" (Genesis 45:1). He sent the strangers out, wept aloud, and told the men who had sold him, "Come nearer to me" (Genesis 45:4). Then he "kissed all his brethren, and wept upon every one of them" (45:15). When their father died they were afraid again, and twice he told them, "Fear not" (Genesis 50:19, 21). Christ was delivered up by His own and abandoned by His friends. On the Cross He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). On the morning of the Resurrection His word is Joseph's word: "Fear not. Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, there they shall see me" (Matthew 28:10). The men who had fled He calls His brethren. As Joseph wept over his brothers, Christ, "seeing the city, he wept over it" (Luke 19:41). Then St Peter, speaking in His name, says to the crowd what Joseph said to his brothers: "And now, brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance ... Be penitent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:17, 19). St John Chrysostom heard the echo twice. At Pentecost Peter was "all but using the same words as Joseph did", and here again, "As Joseph speaks to his brethren", Peter shows that the Passion "took place after God's counsel." The Catechism draws on the same words: Christ forgave on the Cross and Peter followed, accepting the ignorance of Jerusalem, so the Passion may not be charged to the Jews as a whole (CCC 597).
Moral sense
Every one of us stands among the brothers, for the Church teaches that sinners are the authors of Christ's Passion (CCC 598). Yet the One we wronged is the One who says, "Come nearer to me." The brothers were afraid twice. They feared when Joseph made himself known, and they feared again years later, as if his mercy might have run out when their father died (Genesis 50:15). Many souls know that second fear after confession, wondering whether the forgiveness was real. Joseph's answer is Christ's: "Fear not." And what we receive we must give. The Catena on Matthew 18:21 keeps this from Rabanus Maurus: "It is one thing to give pardon to a brother when he seeks it, that he may live with us in social charity, as Joseph to his brethren".
Anagogical sense
St Stephen tells the story in the Septuagint's own words: "at the second time, Joseph was known by his brethren" (Acts 7:13). St Peter's sermon looks to such a second time, "when the times of refreshment shall come" and God sends "Jesus Christ" (Acts 3:20). The Catechism teaches that the glorious coming of the Lord awaits His recognition by "all Israel" (CCC 674; Romans 11:26). Then the family of God will be gathered at one table, and the word to the brothers will hold for ever: "Fear not: I will feed you and your children." "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God" (Luke 14:15).
The Fathers
St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts VI, on Acts 2:23: "all but using the same words as Joseph did; just as he said to his brethren; 'Be not angry one with another by the way: God sent me hither.'" Homilies on Acts IX, on Acts 3:17-18: "This is one ground of excuse. The second is of a different kind. As Joseph speaks to his brethren", and Peter shows "that it took place after God's counsel." St Augustine, on Psalm 77: "That Joseph whom the brethren envied, and sold him into Egypt, when sold into Egypt, toiled, was humbled; when made known and exalted, flourished, reigned. And by all these things he hath signified what? What but Christ sold by His brethren". Rabanus Maurus, in the Catena on Matthew 18:21: "It is one thing to give pardon to a brother when he seeks it, that he may live with us in social charity, as Joseph to his brethren".
Warrant
Patristic. St John Chrysostom twice sets Joseph's words to his brothers beside St Peter's words to the crowd, in his Homilies on Acts VI (on Acts 2:23) and IX (on Acts 3:17-18): God sent Joseph before them, and the Christ suffered by God's counsel. St Augustine, on Psalm 77, reads Joseph, sold, humbled, then "made known and exalted", as Christ. Two links are the site's own rather than the Fathers': no Father in the site's corpora joins Christ's "Fear not ... my brethren" (Matthew 28:10) to Joseph's "Fear not", or Christ's weeping over Jerusalem to Joseph's weeping over his brothers. Checked in the languages: the Septuagint of Genesis 50:19 and 50:21 has me phobeisthe, Fear not, the words of Matthew 28:10, which go on to tois adelphois mou, my brethren; at Genesis 45:3-4 Joseph says Ego eimi Ioseph ho adelphos hymon, I am Joseph your brother. The verb of Genesis 45:1, anegnorizeto, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, occurs in the whole Greek Bible only there and at Acts 7:13, where St Stephen quotes it. The Vulgate of 45:1 has agnitioni mutuae, their knowing one another. The site already has Joseph sold, Joseph in the pit and Joseph exalted; this entry is the scene of forgiveness. The lead was Dunk's, from noticing that Joseph wept over the brothers who sold him.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 597.
The verses
Genesis 45:2 · Genesis 45:3 · Genesis 45:4 · Genesis 45:5 · Genesis 50:19 · Genesis 50:20 · Genesis 50:21 · Matthew 28:10 · Acts 3:17 · Acts 3:18 · Acts 3:19
