Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Genesis 39:12

There are 10 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 352, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Methodius. (HTML)

The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity. (HTML)

Arete. (HTML)
Thekla Singing Decorously a Hymn, the Rest of the Virgins Sing with Her; John the Baptist a Martyr to Chastity; The Church the Spouse of God, Pure and Virgin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2811 (In-Text, Margin)

Thekla. 12. Thy valiant son Joseph,[Genesis 39:12] O Word, won the greatest prize of virginity, when a woman heated with desire forcibly drew him to an unlawful bed; but he giving no heed to her fled stripped, and crying aloud:—

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 44, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)

On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)

Chapter IX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 316 (In-Text, Margin)

32. Here, therefore, the prayer is not, that we should not be tempted, but that we should not be brought into temptation: as if, were it necessary that any one should be examined by fire, he should pray, not that he should not be touched by the fire, but that he should not be consumed. For “the furnace proveth the potter’s vessels, and the trial of tribulation righteous men.” Joseph therefore was tempted with the allurement of debauchery, but he was not brought into temptation.[Genesis 39:7-12] Susanna was tempted, but she was not led or brought into temptation; and many others of both sexes: but Job most of all, in regard to whose admirable stedfastness in the Lord his God, those heretical enemies of the Old Testament, when they wish to mock at it ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 68, footnote 6 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Pammachius. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1058 (In-Text, Margin)

... wife,” we have subjoined the following: “The entire question relates to those who are living in wedlock, whether it is lawful for them to put away their wives, a thing which the Lord also has forbidden in the Gospel. Hence, also, the apostle says: ‘It is good for a man not to touch’ a wife or ‘a woman,’ as if there were danger in the contact which he who should so touch one could not escape. Accordingly, when the Egyptian woman desired to touch Joseph he flung away his cloak and fled from her hands.[Genesis 39:12-13] But as he who has once married a wife cannot, except by consent, abstain from intercourse with her or repudiate her, so long as she does not sin, he must render unto his wife her due, because he has of his own free will bound himself to render it ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 153, footnote 3 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Lucinius. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2233 (In-Text, Margin)

A too careful management of one’s income, a too near calculation of one’s expenses—these are habits not easily laid aside. Yet to escape the Egyptian woman Joseph had to leave his garment with her.[Genesis 39:12] And the young man who followed Jesus having a linen cloth cast about him, when he was assailed by the servants had to throw away his earthly covering and to flee naked. Elijah also when he was carried up in a chariot of fire to heaven left his mantle of sheepskin on earth. Elisha used for sacrifice the oxen and the yokes which hitherto he had employed in his work. We read in Ecclesiasticus: “he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 165, footnote 6 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Salvina. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2423 (In-Text, Margin)

5. It must not, however, be supposed that I praise Nebridius only for his liberality in alms-giving, although we are taught the great importance of this in the words: “water will quench a flaming fire; and alms maketh an atonement for sins.” I will pass on now to his other virtues each one of which is to be found but in few men. Who ever entered the furnace of the King of Babylon without being burned? Was there ever a young man whose garment his Egyptian mistress did not seize?[Genesis 39:12] Was there ever a eunuch’s wife contented with a childless marriage bed? Is there any man who is not appalled by the struggle of which the apostle says: “I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 222, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Julian. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3095 (In-Text, Margin)

... possession; that you may be able to sing with the prophet, “The Lord is my portion,” and like a true Levite may possess no earthly inheritance. I cannot but advise you thus if you wish to be perfect, if you desire to attain the pinnacle of the apostles’ glory, if you wish to take up your cross and to follow Christ. When once you have put your hand to the plough you must not look back; when once you stand on the housetop you must think no more of your clothes within; to escape your Egyptian mistress[Genesis 39:12] you must abandon the cloak that belongs to this world. Even Elijah, in his quick translation to heaven could not take his mantle with him, but left in the world the garments of the world. Such conduct, you will object, is for him who would emulate ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 287, footnote 7 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Exuperantius. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3920 (In-Text, Margin)

... bound, and he who is bound is a slave; on the other hand he who is loosed is free. Since therefore you rejoice in the freedom of Christ, since your life is better than your profession, since you are all but on the housetop of which the Saviour speaks; you ought not to come down to take your clothes, you ought not to look behind you, you ought not having put your hand to the plough, then to let it go. Rather, if you can, imitate Joseph and leave your garment in the hand of your Egyptian mistress,[Genesis 39:12] that naked you may follow your Lord and Saviour. For in the gospel He says: “Whosoever doth not leave all that he hath and bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Cast from you the burthen of the things of this world, and seek not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 12, footnote 8 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XVII. The duties of youth, and examples suitable to that age, are next put forth. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 112 (In-Text, Margin)

... that sun and moon and stars made obeisance to him, yet was subject to his father’s will with ready obedience. So chaste was he, he would not hear even a word unless it were pure; humble was he even to doing the work of a slave, modest, even to taking flight, enduring, even to bearing imprisonment, so forgiving of wrong as even to repay it with good. Whose modesty was such, that, when seized by a woman, he preferred to leave his garment in her hands in flight, rather than to lay aside his modesty.[Genesis 39:12] Moses, also, and Jeremiah, chosen by the Lord to declare the words of God to the people, were for avoiding, through modesty, that which through grace they could do.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 14, footnote 2 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII. On the different functions of modesty. How it should qualify both speech and silence, accompany chastity, commend our prayers to God, govern our bodily motions; on which last point reference is made to two clerics in language by no means unsuited to its object. Further he proceeds to say that one's gait should be in accordance with that same virtue, and how careful one must be that nothing immodest come forth from one's mouth, or be noticed in one's body. All these points are illustrated with very appropriate examples. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 124 (In-Text, Margin)

... shameful proceed out of our mouth, for that defiles a man terribly. It is not food that defiles, but unjust disparagement of others and foul words. These things are openly shameful. In our office indeed must no word be let fall at all unseemly, nor one that may give offence to modesty. But not only ought we to say nothing unbecoming to ourselves, but we ought not even to lend our ears to words of this sort. Thus Joseph fled and left his garment, that he might hear nothing inconsistent with his modesty.[Genesis 39:12] For he who delights to listen, urges the other on to speak.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 177, footnote 5 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus. (HTML)

Book II. On the Belief in the Resurrection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1495 (In-Text, Margin)

24. Holy Joseph experienced the hatred of his brethren, the guile of those who envied him, the service of slavery, the mastership of merchantmen, the wantonness of his mistress, the ignorance of her husband, and the misery of prison.[Genesis 39:12]

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