CHAPTER 50
(Gen. 50:3). And they fulfilled forty days for him, for so are the days of embalming numbered; and Egypt mourned for him seventy days.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. OVER THE FORTY DAYS DEVOTED TO BURIAL. — The forty days spent in the tomb, which Scripture recalls, may mean something relative to the penance through which sins are buried. For this reason, the forty days of fasting that Moses (Cf. Ex 34:28), Elijah (Cf. 1Kgs. 19:8), and Our Lord Himself (Cf. Mt. 4:2), lasted forty days, And the Church calls Lent to the special observance of fasting. Even the translation of the Hebrew of the prophet Jonah thus says of the Ninevites: “Forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed (Jon. 3:4).” In this way we understand that during those days, certainly accommodated to the humiliation of the penitents, the Ninevites wept their sins in the midst of the fasts and attained the mercy of God. But we must not believe that this number only suits the crying of the penitents, because in this case the Lord would not have spent forty days with his disciples after the resurrection, going in and out, eating and drinking with them. And these days, of course, were for joy. And it is not necessary to think either that the version of the Septuagint, which the Church uses in her reading, is wrong, not saying: forty days, but three days, and Nineveh will be destroyed. Adorned, indeed, these Seventy men of an authority greater than the simple office of translators, possessed the prophetic spirit. That is why their versions were as close to each other as if they had spoken with one mouth. And this was a great miracle. Well, these men put three days, but they did not ignore that the Hebrew codices said forty days. And this they did so that it be understood that sins are blotted out and disappear in the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it was said: “He who was delivered for our sins and rose again for our justification (Rom. 4:25).” Well, the glorification of the Lord is known in his resurrection and ascension to the heavens. That is why he gave twice the Holy Spirit, although he is one and the same. The first time, after the resurrection. The second, after the ascent to the heavens. And since he rose again on the third day, and ascended to heaven after forty days, one of these two things, which happened in the second place, signifies the Hebrew codices with the number of days. The other thing, which refers to the three days, which relates to the same subject, the Seventy wanted to remember, not by the literalness of translation, but by the authority of prophecy. Let us not say, then, that one of these two things is false and we fought to defend some translators against others, since those who translate from Hebrew show us that what they translate is written. And the authority of the Septuagint, who recommends even divine authority with such a remarkable miracle, is supported in the churches by a very great antiquity. [Augustine of Hippo, Question on Genesis, PL 34, Question 169]
(Gen. 50:5). My father adjured me, saying, In the sepulcher which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there thou shalt bury me; now then I will go up and bury my father, and return again.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. ON THE TOMB OF JACOB. — We can ask how it is true what Joseph commanded the Egyptian dignitaries to tell Pharaoh of his part: “My father took an oath to me, saying, In the sepulcher that I dug in the land of Canaan, you will bury me there; because these words of the father of Joseph do not appear when he gave orders about his grave. However, we must refer to the content, as we have noted above when dealing with similar expressions or narrations. Words must serve to express one’s intention and to make it known. That Jacob excavated a tomb for himself, we find him not affirmed before in any passage of Scripture. But if he had not done so, as he was in those lands, the Scripture would not now say so. [Augustine of Hippo, Question on Genesis, PL 34, Question 170]
(Gen. 50:10). And they came to the threshing-floor of Ahaz, which is beyond Jordan; and they bewailed him with a great and very sore lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. MYSTERIOUS REASON FOR THE PATH FOLLOWED TO BURY JACOB. — What does the Scripture mean when they were to bury Jacob: And they came to the age of Ahaz, which is beyond the Jordan? As those who know the place say, those men went more than fifty miles beyond the place where they had to bury the dead man. This is the distance that is more or less from the place where the patriarchs are buried, including Jacob, to this place where they arrived, as the Scripture says. After a great mourning and grief there, they returned to the place which they had left behind, going back across the Jordan. Someone, however, can say that, to avoid the presence of enemies, they returned with the body through the desert, to the same place where the people of Israel were also led by Moses when he brought them out of Egypt. In fact, there is a great detour along that road, and through the Jordan one arrives at the siege of Abraham, where the bodies of the patriarchs are (Cf. Gen. 50:13), that is, the land of Canaan. But in any way this has happened, the fact of going so far to the east, beyond those places, and the fact of returning to them through the Jordan, we must understand that it was made by some meaning, that is, that by the Jordan would come later to those lands Israel with their children. [Augustine of Hippo, Question on Genesis, PL 34, Question 171]
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. ON THE NUMBER SEVEN. — And he mourned for his father seven days. I do not know that in the Scriptures, on the occasion of the death of a holy personage, there is a mourning celebrated for nine days, which the Latin calls the nouendial. Therefore, it seems to me that this custom must be forbidden to Christians if they keep this number of days of mourning for their dead, because it is properly a pagan custom. The number seven, on the other hand, enjoys authority in the Scriptures. That is why it is written elsewhere: “The mourning for a dead man lasts for seven days; by a fool, all the days of his life (Sir. 22:12).” The number seven is, above all, a sign of rest because of the mystery of the Sabbath. That is why the dead are rightly said to rest. In the mourning of Jacob, meanwhile the Egyptians multiplied this number tenfold at the funeral of Jacob; they wept for seventy days. [Augustine of Hippo, Question on Genesis, PL 34, Question 172]
(Gen 50:22-23). And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his brethren, and all the family of his father; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 23 And Joseph saw the children of Ephraim to the third generation; and the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh were borne on the sides of Joseph.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. HOW THERE WERE SEVENTY-FIVE PEOPLE WHO WENT DOWN WITH JACOB TO EGYPT. — And Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw the children of Ephraim unto the third generation. And the sons of Mahir the son of Manasseh were born on the knees of Joseph. As the Scripture says that Joseph saw these sons of his sons or grandchildren of his children while he lived, how can he add them to those seventy-five men with whom Jacob says that he entered Egypt (Cf. Gen. 46:27), since Joseph came to see those sons in his old age, and when Jacob entered Egypt, Joseph was young and when his father died, Joseph was almost fifty-six years old? In conclusion, the Scripture must have recommended that number seventy-five for some mystery that it contains. But if anyone wished to know how it could be true to agree even with the historical accuracy that Jacob entered Egypt with seventy-five people, I tell him that it is not necessary to think that he entered that single day when he arrived there. And the reason is that, like Jacob, he is called many times by the name of his sons, that is, of his descendants, and it is recorded that he entered Egypt through Joseph. The entrance of Jacob, therefore, must be taken during all the time that Joseph lived, for which reason he entered Egypt. In fact, during all that time, all those mentioned were able to be born and live, to the age of seventy-five, counting the grandsons of Benjamin. This is confirmed by what the text says: “These are the children Lia gave birth to Jacob in Mesopotamia of Syria (Gen. 46:15).” And this text also refers to children who were not yet born. And he alludes to them because there he had given birth to the parents of those who were born, presenting them as born there. And she does so because the cause of her parents was born there, the ones that Leah gave birth to there. Now as Joseph was the cause of Jacob’s entering into Egypt, all the time that Joseph lived in Egypt was the time of Jacob’s entry into Egypt, which he made by his seed, which spread, while he lived was the cause of Jacob entering. [Augustine of Hippo, Question on Genesis, PL 34, Question 173]
(Gen. 50:24). And Joseph spoke to his brethren, saying, I die, and God will surely visit you, and will bring you out of this land to the land concerning which God swore to our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
AMBROSIASTER. WHY DID JOSEPH, AFTER PREDICTING THE FUTURE, BESEECH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TO CARRY HIS ASHES FROM EGYPT WHEN GOD DELIVERED THEM? — It is an incontestable truth that Joseph did not make this recommendation to the children of Israel without cause. It cannot be supposed that the man whose gaze had plunged into the future spoke here without reason. He was full of a profound religion for the Creator God; he also knew what a veneration they had for the Egyptians, who remembered the wisdom of his administration during the famine which weighed upon Egypt. He therefore wished to take away this cause of error from him after his death, and to prevent them from rendering him worship, which belongs only to the Creator, for he knew all too well that the vain and light people are inclined to render divine honors to the dead rather than the living. He proves by this conduct that he did not share the vain superstitions of the Egyptians, since he orders to carry his ashes so that they do not become a subject to offend God. The Apostles imitated this example. Paul and Barnabas, perceiving that they wished to offer them a sacrifice, and knowing how much God abhorred such idolatry, tore their clothes, exclaiming, “What are you doing? we are men like you (Acts 14:14).” And they turned away the people from this sacrilegious design. [Ambrosiaster, Questions On The Old And New Testaments, Pl 35, Question 25]
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