Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors.
All Commentaries on Genesis 37:3 Go To Genesis 37
John Chrysostom
AD 407
What is meant by “he loved Joseph more than all his other sons, as he was a son of his old age”? Since he was born in Jacob’s old age, it is saying, toward the end of his life, on this account he loved Joseph more than all the others. You see, somehow the children born to one in old age seem particularly dear and manage to attract their father’s favor in greater measure. For us to learn, however, that this was not the only factor in winning his father and causing him to prefer him to his brothers, sacred Scripture teaches us that even after him another son was born. If the manifestation of love had proceeded according to natural inclination, that last son would have been loved more for being truly a son of his old age and born at the time the good man reached the end of his life. So what can we say it means? That it was a kind of grace from on high that made the young man amiable and rendered him preferable to all the others on account of the virtue of his soul …. In Scripture the reason is given as his being a son of his old age and on that account he loved him more, in case the real reason might increase the brothers’ envy.
