Ephrem the Syrian : When they told Jacob about the honor of Joseph, about the wisdom with which he administered his affairs and about how their last judgment was more bitter than the first, their father asked them and said, "Did you not ask Joseph how or why he went down to Egypt?" Then, when they all looked at each other and did not know what to say, Judah opened his mouth and said to his father, "We are recalling our crime today before our father." Because of the dreams of Joseph, Joseph's brothers thought, in their simplicity, that you and they would soon serve him as slaves. They also imagined, in their foolishness, that "it was better that he alone should be the servant than that we and our father should serve him as slaves." They did this because they took pity on you and on Benjamin and not because you loved Joseph. "You also loved Benjamin, but because he did not say that we would become servants to him, all of us love him. Forgive us then for having humiliated Joseph, for it is on account of our humiliating him that he has come to this exalted state." Their father then accepted their apology and said to them, "Because of the good news about Joseph by which you have brought me joy, this offense, which caused me great suffering when I heard it, is forgiven you." — COMMENTARY ON Genesis 40:4 John Chrysostom : Despite these words and the fact that they brought what he had sent, the carts and the gifts sent by Joseph, only with difficulty did they succeed in convincing their father that what they had told him was a lie. In fact, when Jacob saw the carts that had been sent to carry him down to Egypt, "he gained new life," the text says. This old graybeard, all stooped and bent, suddenly takes on new vigor and heart: observe the text says, "he gained new life." What is the force of "he gained new life"? Just as the light of the lamp, when the supply of oil runs out and the light is on the point of going out, suddenly emits a brighter flame … when someone puts in a little oil, in just the same way this old man … on the point of expiring from disappointment … next learned that Joseph was alive and was in charge of Egypt. Seeing the carts, "he gained new life," the text says. From being old, Jacob became young; he put aside the cloud of disappointment; he repelled the storm in his mind and then found himself at peace, with God disposing everything so that the good man should enjoy relief from all these awful trials and share the happiness of his son. In particular, the dream was to be fulfilled that Jacob himself had interpreted in the words, "Do you mean to say that I and your mother and your brothers will come to bow to the ground before you?" — HOMILIES ON Genesis 65.3 Origen of Alexandria : But that the divine fire can sometimes be extinguished even in the holy and faithful, hear the Apostle Paul instructing those who were meriting to receive the gifts of the Spirit and grace, and saying: "do not extinguish the Spirit." As though, then, Jacob had suffered some such thing as Paul instructed ought not to happen, and had restored himself through the things which had been announced to him about the life of Joseph, it is said of him: "and Jacob rekindled his spirit and Israel said: it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is still alive." But this too is to be observed, that he who "rekindles his spirit," namely that spirit which seemed almost extinguished, is called Jacob; but he who says: "it is a great thing for me, if my son Joseph is alive," as one understanding and seeing that great is the life which is in the spiritual Joseph, this one is now written not Jacob, but Israel, as one who sees with the mind the true life, which is the true God, Christ. But he was moved not only by this, that he heard "Joseph his son is alive," but especially by that which was announced to him, that it was he who held "the rule of all Egypt." For this truly is a great thing for him, that he brought Egypt back under his own dominion. For to trample lust, to flee luxury, and to press down and bridle all the pleasures of the body, this is to hold "the rule of all Egypt." And this is what among Israel is accounted great and held in admiration. But if there is anyone who indeed subdues some vices of the body, but yields and lies subject to others, of him it is not said wholly that he holds "the rule of the whole land of Egypt," but, for the sake of argument, he will be seen to hold the rule perhaps of one or two or three cities. But Joseph, over whom no lust of the body held dominion, was prince and lord "of all Egypt." Therefore not now Jacob, but Israel, his spirit rekindled, says: "it is a great thing for me, if Joseph my son is alive. I will go and see him before I die." But not even this is to be left idly aside, that he says not the soul, but the spirit, as the better part of himself, was revived or rekindled. For the splendor of the light which was in him, even if it was not then wholly extinguished, when his sons brought forward Joseph's tunic stained with the blood of a kid and he could be deceived by their lie, so that he "rent his garments and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned his son, and would not at all be consoled," but said: "because I go down to my son mourning into hell," then even if, as we said, the light was not wholly extinguished in him, yet for the greatest part it had been obscured — that he could be deceived, that he rent his garments, that he mourned falsely, that he implored death, that he desired by mourning to go down into hell. On account of these things, therefore, he now revives and "rekindles his spirit," because it was fitting that the light, which the fraud of the lie had obscured in him, the hearing of the truth should rekindle and cherish anew. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 15.3