Augustine of Hippo : WHAT DOES THE REMNANTS OF THE GREAT RACE OF JACOB MEAN? — What does Joseph mean: For God has sent me before you, so that your remains may remain on the earth and that your survivors may grow greatly . This does not entirely coincide with reality, so that we are forced to think that Jacob and his children were mere survivors or remnants, for they were all safe. Does it mean, perhaps, that which the Apostle says with profound and secret mystery: “By the election of grace a remnant has been saved (Rom. 11:5),” which the prophet had predicted, saying, "If the number of the children of Israel were as the sand of the sea, will only one rest be saved (Is. 10:22)?” Christ was killed by the Jews and given to the Gentiles as Joseph was delivered by his brothers to the Egyptians so that a remnant of Israel would be saved. That is why the Apostle says: “For I am an Israelite (Rom. 11:1),” and “until all the Gentiles come in, and thus all Israel may be saved (Rom. 11:25-26),” then it is the rest of Israel, according to the flesh, and all the nations, who are Israel by faith in Christ, according to the Spirit. Or even of the people of Israel, if they preserve the fullness of faith, from which the rest proceed, in which the apostles were also saved. All this was foreshadowed by that fullness of the deliverance of Israel which they received through Moses, when he brought them out of Egypt. [ — QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 147 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)