Saviour of the World: Joseph Exalted over Egypt and Christ Exalted over All
Old Testament: Genesis 41:41-43, 45
And again Pharao said to Joseph: Behold, I have appointed thee over the whole land of Egypt. And he took his ring from his own hand, and gave it into his hand: and he put upon him a robe of silk, and put a chain of gold about his neck. And he made him go up into his second chariot, the crier proclaiming that all should bow their knee before him, and that they should know he was made governor over the whole land of Egypt. ... And he turned his name, and called him in the Egyptian tongue, The saviour of the world.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 41:55
And when there also they began to be famished, the people cried to Pharao for food. And he said to them: Go to Joseph: and do all that he shall say to you.
New Testament: Philippians 2:8-10; John 4:42; John 2:5
He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. ... this is indeed the Saviour of the world. ... His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye.
The connection
Joseph went down twice: sold by his brothers into Egypt, then thrown into prison for a sin he had refused. In one day Pharao raised him over all Egypt: "Behold, I have appointed thee over the whole land of Egypt" (Genesis 41:41). Pharao gave him his ring, a robe of silk and a chain of gold, with "the crier proclaiming that all should bow their knee before him" (41:42-43), and he gave him a new name, "The saviour of the world" (41:45). When the famine came, "the people cried to Pharao for food. And he said to them: Go to Joseph: and do all that he shall say to you" (41:55), and "all provinces came into Egypt, to buy food" (41:57). Christ went lower than any prison: "He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Philippians 2:8-10). The Samaritans gave Him Joseph's title: "this is indeed the Saviour of the world" (John 4:42). And at Cana, when the wine ran out, His Mother said what Pharao had said: "Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye" (John 2:5). St Stephen tells Joseph's story near the start of a speech that ends with Christ: "God was with him, and delivered him out of all his tribulations ... and he appointed him governor over Egypt" (Acts 7:9-10). The same pattern returns in Daniel, "clothed with purple, and a chain of gold was put about his neck" (Daniel 5:29), and in Mardochai, given the king's ring (Esther 8:2). St Augustine: "Christ appears to me in Joseph, who was persecuted and sold by his brethren, and after his troubles obtained honor in Egypt. ... now we see the honor of Christ in the same world which He subdues to Himself, in exchange for the food which He bestows." St Jerome calls the Joseph whom the merchants bought "the Saviour of the world". The Catechism teaches that the Father showed the sovereignty of Jesus by raising Him from the dead and exalting Him into His glory, so that the honour due to the Father is due also to Him (CCC 449).
Moral sense
Famine sent all Egypt to Joseph, and need is often what sends us to Christ. Whatever the famine, the answer is the same: go to Him, and do whatever He tells you. Even the brothers who sold Joseph came to him hungry, and he wept and said, "Be not afraid ... for God sent me before you into Egypt for your preservation" (Genesis 45:5). The father in the parable of the prodigal says, "Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand" (Luke 15:22), and St Augustine reads the ring as "a pledge of the Holy Spirit": the King who exalted His Son shares the Son's robe and ring with every son who comes home.
Anagogical sense
Joseph's brothers bowed before him without knowing him (Genesis 42:6), until he said, "I am Joseph" (45:3). At the end the Son is known by all, and "every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11). The wine that ran out at Cana is poured at last at the feast of which the angel says, "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Apocalypse 19:9).
The Fathers
St Augustine, Reply to Faustus XII.28: "Christ appears to me in Joseph, who was persecuted and sold by his brethren, and after his troubles obtained honor in Egypt. We have seen the troubles of Christ in the world, of which Egypt was a figure, in the sufferings of the martyrs. And now we see the honor of Christ in the same world which He subdues to Himself, in exchange for the food which He bestows." St Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 80 (81 in Schaff), 8: "Joseph sold into Egypt is Christ passing over to the Gentiles. There Joseph after tribulations was exalted, and here Christ, after the suffering of the Martyrs, was glorified." St Jerome, Letter LXXIX, to Salvina: "so fortunate are they that in the purchase and sale of Joseph they have for their merchandise the Saviour of the world."
Warrant
Patristic. St Augustine reads Joseph's honour in Egypt after his troubles as the honour of Christ in the world (Reply to Faustus XII.28), and again in his exposition of the psalm that names "a testimony in Joseph" (Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 80, 81 in Schaff, 8); St Jerome calls Joseph "the Saviour of the world" (Letter LXXIX, to Salvina). St Stephen retells the exaltation in the Septuagint's own verb: Pharao says kathistemi se at Genesis 41:41, and Acts 7:10 has katestesen auton hegoumenon ep' Aigypton. Checked in the Greek and the Latin, which do not agree everywhere. The pairing with Cana holds in the Greek: Genesis 41:55 has ho ean eipe hymin poiesate, and John 2:5 has ho ti an lege hymin poiesate; it is the entry's own, as are Daniel and Mardochai. The name at 41:45 is uncertain in the Egyptian; the Septuagint only spells it out, Psonthomphanech, and the Douay follows the Latin, Salvatorem mundi, which is St Jerome's rendering and the same words as John 4:42 in the Latin. The crier's cry at 41:43 is the Hebrew avrekh, of uncertain meaning; the Latin reads it as ut omnes coram eo genu flecterent, which is the bowing of the knee of Philippians 2:10, omne genu flectatur, while the Septuagint says only that a herald proclaimed before him. Dunk found the entry from the chain of gold, which runs from Joseph and Daniel to the Proverbs and the Canticle.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 449.
The verses
Genesis 41:41 · Genesis 41:42 · Genesis 41:43 · Genesis 41:45 · Genesis 41:55 · Philippians 2:8 · Philippians 2:9 · Philippians 2:10 · John 4:42 · John 2:5
