Annotatio CXIII

”But Joseph accused his brothers to his father of a most wicked crime.” — Genesis 37:2

Aquila, the second interpreter of the divine volumes, where we — according to the Hebrew truth — read that Joseph accused his brothers to his father [of a most wicked crime],¹ of a most wicked crime — [Aquila] translated [it], as Procopius testifies, in a contrary sense: κατήνεγκαν δὲ κατὰ Ἰωσὴφ ψόγον πονηρὸν Ἰσραὴλ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν, that is, “The brothers, namely, brought a wicked reproach concerning Joseph to their father.” In the same way, before Aquila, the Seventy interpreters too translated this very [passage]; following which version, Chrysostom, according to the same sense, expounded these words in homily 61 on Genesis, saying: “Seeing the father’s benevolence toward him, they were stirred to envy against him; for they brought [an accusation] against Joseph of a most wicked crime, before Israel their father. See the eminence of [their] malice: they attempted even to disturb the father’s charity; and things which were not, they feign — accomplishing so great an evil against him, only that they might satisfy their envy.” Agreeing with this same edition are the explanations of Theodore of Heraclea, Isidore of Pelusium, and Theodoret.