Moses's Blessing on Joseph and the Horn of Salvation
Old Testament: Deuteronomy 33:13-17
... Of the blessing of the Lord be his land, of the fruits of heaven, and of the dew, and of the deep that lieth beneath. Of the fruits brought forth by the sun and by the moon. Of the tops of the ancient mountains, of the fruits of the everlasting hills... The blessing of him that appeared in the bush, come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren. His beauty as of the firstling of a bullock, his horns as the horns of a rhinoceros: with them shall he push the nations even to the ends of the earth.
New Testament: Luke 1:69
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant.
The connection
Moses's final blessing on Joseph piles up abundance, heaven's dew, the deep beneath, the fruit of sun and moon, the ancient mountains, before turning, in verse 16, to name its true source outright: "the blessing of him that appeared in the bush." Moses is pointing his own blessing back at the theophany of Exodus 3 by name. The blessing closes on strength: horns like a wild ox's, tossing nations to the ends of the earth, an image Tertullian already reads of Christ, the horns as the arms of His cross (An Answer to the Jews, ch. 10). Zachary's prayer over his infant son gives that horn a name: God "hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant" (Luke 1:69), the same word, strength no longer scattered across a tribe's blessing but concentrated in the one Son of David.
Moral sense
The blessing is stacked with things Joseph did nothing to earn, dew, sun, moon, mountains, all simply given. The horn of salvation is no different: raised up, not seized.
Anagogical sense
"With them shall he push the nations even to the ends of the earth," a dominion Joseph's tribe never possessed, held out instead for the One in whom the blessing was always really addressed.
The Fathers
St Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 91, reads the blessing of Joseph christologically, taking the horns of Deuteronomy 33:17 as the shape of the Cross: “his horns the horns of an unicorn: with these shall he push the nations from one end of the earth to another.” He applies the horns to the wood of the Cross and its crossbeam, not to the horn of salvation of Luke 1:69, so he supports reading this blessing of Christ without making the connection this entry draws.
Warrant
The horn-of-Joseph-as-Christ reading is patristically attested for this very verse, Deuteronomy 33:17 (Tertullian, Justin); this specific pairing of Deuteronomy 33 with Luke 1:69 extends that established reading rather than repeating a Father's own words. Checked in the Greek: keras is the same noun, the horns of Deuteronomy 33:17 in the Septuagint and the horn of salvation at Luke 1:69, so Zachary's word for the Saviour raised in David's house is Moses's word for Joseph's strength.
The verses
Deuteronomy 33:13 · Deuteronomy 33:14 · Deuteronomy 33:15 · Deuteronomy 33:16 · Deuteronomy 33:17 · Luke 1:69
