Ambrose of Milan : Finally, the Lord, speaking in a spiritual manner about the people, declared this to be a mystery. For when the son thought his father had made a mistake due to his dull appearance, he wanted to turn his hands around, saying, 'Not so, Father, for this one is the firstborn; place your right hand on his head.' But his father refused and said, 'I know, my son, I know. He will also become a people, and he will be exalted. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.' (Genesis 48:18-19). Finally, he preferred the elder Ephraem, even prophesying in a series of blessings, saying: 'In you Israel shall be blessed, saying: May God make you like Ephraem and Manasseh' (Ibid., 20). And therefore, since they were grandsons, they were adopted in place of sons, so that they would not be deprived of the ancestral blessing. — THE PATRIARCHS 1.5 John Chrysostom : Do you see how God's grace foretold this to him and how, moved by a prophetic spirit, he blessed Joseph's sons in this way, foreseeing as already present and visible to the brothers what would happen so long afterward? This is what prophecy is like, after all. Just as the eyes of the body can form an image of nothing beyond visible things, so the eyes of faith do not see visible things but form an image of things that are due to happen many generations later. You will gain a more precise notion of this from the blessings he bestows on his own sons. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 66.12