Ephrem the Syrian : They answered and said, "We do not even know the Egyptian language so that, by speaking Egyptian, we might escape notice and deceive the Egyptians. That we dwell in the land of Canaan you can learn from our offering. Moreover, there are twelve of us, and it is impossible that we should all have the same evil purpose of spying. We have come of our own will to stand before you. That we are completely ignorant of the Egyptian language and do not wear the clothing of Egyptians also testifies to our truthfulness. It is clear that we are not spies, for we are twelve. We are recognized everywhere because of our race and our number. "Behold, one of our brothers is with our father and another is no more." — COMMENTARY ON Genesis 36:4 Augustine of Hippo : ON THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF JOSEPH'S DREAMS. — And Joseph remembered the dreams he had seen . His brothers had indeed prostrated themselves before him. But there is something more exalted in those dreams that need to be investigated. It is evident that neither his father nor his mother, who had already died, can exhaust the meaning of everything he had seen about the sun and the moon, and that his father, who was still alive, had heard and because of this he had rebuked him. [ — QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 137 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)