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But for the publican, the reproach of the Pharisee brought forth a righteousness surpassing the Pharisee; and the chief of the apostles, from tears, corrected the wound of that grievous sin. When, therefore, each of the aforementioned appears, and just one of these sufferings having sufficed, consider how many rewards you yourself will receive, having endured all things together with much excess and for all time. For nothing, nothing makes men so illustrious and enviable and fills them with countless good things as a multitude of temptations and dangers and labors and despondencies, and to be plotted against continually even by those by whom one ought not to be, and to bear all things gently. Since indeed for the son of Jacob, nothing so made him blessed and esteemed as that slander at that time, and the prison and the chain and the hardship resulting from it. For his achievement of chastity was also great, when he overcame the Egyptian's licentiousness and rejected that wretched woman calling him to an unjust union, but this was not as great as his sufferings. For what praise is there, tell me, in not committing adultery, nor breaking into another's marriage, nor defiling a bed in no way belonging to him, nor wronging his benefactor, nor covering his master's house with shame? But that which most of all made him great is this: the danger, the plot, the madness of the captive woman, the violence brought against him, the inescapable prison of the chamber which the adulteress constructed for him, the nets which she spread from all sides, the accusation, the slander, the prison, the chain, that having obtained none of his rights after so great a contest for which he ought to have been crowned, he was led as a convict and a culprit to the fortress, and was shut up with those who had committed the worst sins, the squalor, the iron, the misery of the prison. Then I see him shining more brightly than when, sitting on the throne of Egypt, he distributed grain to those in need and ended the famine and became a common harbor for all. Then I see him radiant, when fetters and manacles were upon him, than when he was clothed in splendid garments with such great power. For the one was a time of business and great commerce—I speak of the prison—but the other was a time of luxury and ease and honor, having much pleasure, but not much profit. For this reason, I do not so much call him blessed when he was honored by his father as when he was envied by his brothers and had his enemies as housemates. For from his earliest age a harsh war was fanned against him from his own home, while his enemies had nothing to accuse him of, but were wasting away and bursting with envy because he enjoyed a greater disposition from his father. And yet the lawgiver Moses did not say that the affection had its origin from the virtue of the child, but from the time of his birth pangs. For since he was born after the others and in extreme old age—and such children are longed for, since they are born against expectations—for this reason he was loved. “For his father loved him,” it says, “because he was a son of his old age.” 10.11 But the lawgiver wrote these things, as I at least think, not relating what was, but the father’s pretext and excuse. For since he saw the young man being envied, wishing to console the passion of his brothers, he fabricated a cause for his love that would not produce much envy for him. For that this was not the cause of the affection, but the flourishing virtue of his soul, being more mature than his age, is clear from Benjamin. For if he was loved for this reason, the one younger than him ought to have been loved much more. For after Joseph, he was born, and this one was more a son of his old age. But as I said, it was the father's fabrication, wishing to quell the fraternal war; but not even so did he prevail, but the flame was kindled more fiercely. And since they had no power

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τελώνῃ δὲ ἡ λοιδορία τοῦ φαρισαίου δικαιοσύνην ὑπερβαίνουσαν τὸν φαρισαῖον ἐκόμισεν· ὅ τε κορυφαῖος τῶν ἀποστόλων ἀπὸ δακρύων τὸ ἕλκος τῆς χαλεπῆς ἐκείνης ἁμαρτίας διώρθωσεν, Ὅταν οὖν τῶν προειρημένων ἕκαστον φαίνηται καὶ μόνον ἓν τῶν παθημάτων τούτων ἀρκέσαν, ἐννόησον πόσας αὐτὴ λήψῃ τὰς ἀμοιβάς, πάντα ὁμοῦ μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς ὑπερβολῆς ὑπομείνασα καὶ διὰ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου. Οὐδὲν γάρ, οὐδὲν οὕτω λαμπροὺς ποιεῖ καὶ ζηλωτοὺς καὶ μυρίων ἐμπίμπλησιν ἀγαθῶν ὡς τὸ πειρασμῶν πλῆθος καὶ κίνδυνοι καὶ πόνοι καὶ ἀθυμίαι καὶ τὸ διηνεκῶς ἐπιβουλεύεσθαι καὶ παρ' ὧν οὐδαμῶς ἐχρῆν καὶ πρᾴως ἅπαντα φέρειν. Ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Ἰακὼβ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἐποίησε μακάριον καὶ εὐδόκιμον ὡς ἡ συκοφαντία τότε ἐκείνη καὶ τὸ δεσμωτήριον καὶ ἡ ἅλυσις καὶ ἡ ἐντεῦθεν ταλαιπωρία. Μέγα μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ τῆς σωφροσύνης κατόρθωμα, ὅτε τῆς αἰγυπτιακῆς ἀκολασίας περιεγένετο καὶ τὴν ἀθλίαν ἐκείνην ἐπὶ τὴν ἄδικον αὐτὸν καλοῦσαν ὁμιλίαν διεκρούσατο, ἀλλ' οὐχ οὕτω μέγα τοῦτο ὡς τὰ παθήματα. Ποῖον γὰρ ἐγκώμιον, εἰπέ μοι, τὸ μὴ μοιχεῦσαι, μηδὲ ἀλλότριον διορῦξαι γάμον, μηδὲ μιᾶναι εὐνὴν οὐδαμόθεν αὐτῷ προσήκουσαν, μηδὲ ἀδικῆσαι τὸν εὐεργετήσαντα, μηδὲ αἰσχύνῃ περιβαλεῖν τοῦ προστάτου τὴν οἰκίαν; Ἀλλὰ τὸ ποιῆσαν αὐτὸν μέγαν ἐκεῖνο μάλιστά ἐστιν, ὁ κίνδυνος, ἡ ἐπιβουλή, ἡ μανία τῆς αἰχμαλώτου, ἡ ἐπενεχθεῖσα βία, τὸ ἄφυκτον δεσμωτήριον τοῦ θαλάμου ὅπερ αὐτῷ κατεσκεύασεν ἡ μοιχαλίς, τὰ δίκτυα ἃ πανταχόθεν ἀνεπέτασεν, ἡ κατηγορία, ἡ συκοφαντία, τὸ δεσμωτήριον, ἡ ἅλυσις, τὸ μηδενὸς τυχόντα τῶν δικαίων μετὰ τὸν τοσοῦτον ἆθλον ὑπὲρ οὗ στεφανοῦσθαι ἐχρῆν, ὡς κατάδικον καὶ ὑπεύθυνον ἐπὶ τὸ ὀχύρωμα ἄγεσθαι, καὶ μετὰ τῶν τὰ ἔσχατα ἡμαρτηκότων κατακλείεσθαι, ὁ αὐχμός, τὸ σιδήριον, ἡ τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου ταλαιπωρία. Τότε αὐτὸν ὁρῶ λάμποντα μειζόνως ἢ ὅτε ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου τῆς Αἰγύπτου καθήμενος τὸν σῖτον διένεμε τοῖς δεομένοις καὶ τὸν λιμὸν ἔλυε καὶ κοινὸς λιμὴν ἅπασιν ἐγίνετο. Τότε ὁρῶ αὐτὸν φαιδρόν, ὅτε αὐτῷ αἱ πέδαι καὶ χειροπέδαι περιέκειντο ἢ ὅτε ἐν ἱματίοις λαμπροῖς τὴν τοσαύτην δυναστείαν περιεβέβλητο. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ πραγματείας ἦν καιρὸς καὶ ἐμπορίας πολλῆς-ὁ τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου λέγω-, ὁ δὲ τρυφῆς καὶ ἀνέσεως καὶ τιμῆς πολλὴν μὲν ἔχων τὴν ἡδονήν, οὐ πολὺ δὲ τὸ κέρδος. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο οὐδὲ οὕτως αὐτὸν μακαρίζω τιμώμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ὡς φθονούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἀδελφῶν καὶ συνοίκους ἔχοντα τοὺς πολεμίους. Καὶ γὰρ ἐκ πρώτης ἡλικίας οἴκοθεν χαλεπὸς αὐτῷ ἀνερριπίζετο πόλεμος, τῶν πολεμούντων ἐγκαλεῖν μὲν ἐχόντων οὐδέν, τηκομένων δὲ καὶ διαρρηγνυμένων διὰ τὸ πλείονος ἀπολαύειν αὐτὸν παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς διαθέσεως. Καίτοι γε τὸ φίλτρον ὁ νομοθέτης Μωϋσῆς οὐκ ἔφησεν ἐξ ἀρετῆς τοῦ παιδὸς ἔχειν τὴν ἀρχήν, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τοῦ καιροῦ τῶν ὠδίνων. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὕστερος τῶν ἄλλων ἐτέχθη καὶ ἐν ἐσχάτῳ γήρᾳ-ποθεινὰ δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα παιδία ἅτε παρ' ἐλπίδας γεννώμενα-, διὰ τοῦτο ἐφιλεῖτο. «Ἠγάπα γὰρ αὐτὸν ὁ πατήρ, φησίν, ὅτι υἱὸς γήρως ἦν αὐτῷ.» 10.11 Ταῦτα δὲ ὁ νομοθέτης ἔγραψεν, ὡς ἔγωγε οἶμαι, οὐ τὸ ὂν διηγούμενος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ πατρὸς τὴν σκῆψιν καὶ τὴν πρόφασιν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἑώρα φθονούμενον τὸ μειράκιον παραμυθήσασθαι τὸ πάθος τῶν ἀδελφῶν βουλόμενος, ἔπλασεν ἀγάπης αἰτίαν οὐ πολὺν τίκτουσαν αὐτῷ τὸν φθόνον. Ὅτι γὰρ οὐ τοῦτο αἴτιον ἦν τοῦ φίλτρου, ἀλλὰ ἡ ἀκμάζουσα τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετὴ καὶ τῆς ἡλικίας ἀκμαιοτέρα οὖσα, δῆλον ἐκ τοῦ Βενιαμίν. Εἰ γὰρ διὰ τοῦτο ἐκεῖνος ἐφιλεῖτο, πολλῷ μᾶλλον τὸν νεώτερον αὐτοῦ φιλεῖσθαι ἐχρῆν. Μετὰ γὰρ τὸν Ἰωσὴφ ἐκεῖνος ἐτέχθη καὶ οὗτος μᾶλλον υἱὸς γήρως ἦν αὐτοῦ. Ἀλλ' ὅπερ ἔφην, τοῦ πατρὸς ἦν τὸ πλάσμα βουλομένου καταλῦσαι τὸν ἀδελφικὸν πόλεμον· ἀλλ' οὐδὲ οὕτως ἴσχυσεν, ἀλλ' ἐξεκαίετο σφοδροτέρα ἡ φλόξ. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ οὐδὲν ἴσχυον