Ambrose of Milan : And so we are taught the proper nature of parental love and filial gratitude. It is pleasant to love one's children and very pleasant to love them exceedingly, but often even parental love does harm to the children unless it is practiced with restraint; for it may give the beloved child free rein out of excessive indulgence or, by preference shown to one child, may alienate the others from the spirit of brotherly love. That son gains more who gains the love of his brothers. This is a more splendid manifestation of generosity on the part of the parents and a richer inheritance for the sons. Let the children be joined in a like favor, who have been joined in a like nature.…What wonder if quarrels arise among brothers over an estate or a house, when enmity blazed up among the sons of holy Jacob over a tunic? What then? Should we find fault with Jacob because he preferred the one son to the others? But we cannot take from parents their freedom to love the more those children whom they believe to be the more deserving, nor ought we to cut off the sons from their eager desire to be the more pleasing. To be sure, Jacob loved the more that son in whom he foresaw the greater marks of virtue; thus he would not appear to have shown preference so much as father to son but rather as prophet to a sacred sign. And Jacob was right to make for his son a tunic of many colors, to indicate by it that Joseph was to be preferred to his brothers with his clothing of manifold virtues. — On Joseph the Patriarch Caesarius of Arles : When the Christian people devoutly come to church, of what benefit is it that they hear how the holy patriarchs took their wives or begot their children, unless they perceive in a spiritual sense why these things happened or what the facts prefigured? Behold, we have heard that blessed Jacob begot a son and called his name Joseph and that he loved him more than the rest of his sons. In this place blessed Jacob prefigured God the Father; holy Joseph typified our Lord and Savior. Therefore Jacob loved his son because God the Father loved his only-begotten Son, as he himself said, "This is my beloved Son." — SERMON 89.1 Caesarius of Arles : According to a mystical or allegorical interpretation Joseph prefigured a type of our Lord. Now if we consider the actions of Joseph, at least in part, we clearly recognize in him an obvious figure of the Lord. Joseph had a multicolored tunic; our Lord and Savior is known to have had one also, since he took the church, which was composed of various nations, like the covering of a garment. The variety of this tunic, that is, of the church that Christ took, is of a different sort; the church has different, varied graces—the martyrs, confessors, priests, ministers, virgins, widows and those who perform works of justice. This variety of the church is not one of colors but of graces; for in this variety of his church our Lord and Savior shines with a multicolored, precious garment. Joseph was sold by his brothers and procured by the Ishmaelites; our Lord and Savior was sold by the Jews and acquired by the Gentiles. Moreover, the Ishmaelites who bought Joseph carried different kinds of perfumes with them; this was to show that the Gentiles who came to believe would be fragrant throughout the world with the different odors of justice. — SERMON 93.3 Cyril of Alexandria : Therefore, in order that our words do not wander from the right way, we say that the Immanuel was born to the Father as a Son of his old age, because he appeared in the latter times of the world, that is, in these times, and after him there will be no other. We expect to be saved in no one else. He alone is sufficient, because we say that the salvation and life of the world is placed in no one else. He shepherds us forever, according to the words of the psalmist, and we will be the subjects of him who is beloved, who appeared in the latter times of the world, as I just said, after he had assumed the flesh and who preexisted as God. In fact, we say that he is coeternal with the Father. — GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, 6.4 Jerome : (Chapter 37, Verse 3) And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. As for the coat of many colors, Aquila interprets it as a long-sleeved tunic, that is, a talar garment. Symmachus, a tunic with sleeves, or because it reached down to the ankles, and was distinguished by the wonderful variety of the craftsman's hands: or because it had sleeves: For the ancients used more often to wear woven garments. — Hebrew Questions on Genesis John Chrysostom : What is meant by "he loved Joseph more than all his other sons, as he was a son of his old age"? Since he was born in Jacob's old age, it is saying, toward the end of his life, on this account he loved Joseph more than all the others. You see, somehow the children born to one in old age seem particularly dear and manage to attract their father's favor in greater measure. For us to learn, however, that this was not the only factor in winning his father and causing him to prefer him to his brothers, sacred Scripture teaches us that even after him another son was born. If the manifestation of love had proceeded according to natural inclination, that last son would have been loved more for being truly a son of his old age and born at the time the good man reached the end of his life. So what can we say it means? That it was a kind of grace from on high that made the young man amiable and rendered him preferable to all the others on account of the virtue of his soul.… In Scripture the reason is given as his being a son of his old age and on that account he loved him more, in case the real reason might increase the brothers' envy. — HOMILIES ON Genesis 61.3