And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
All Commentaries on Genesis 37:4 Go To Genesis 37
Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
And Joseph was loved by his father a great deal. And he gave him a multicolored garment as an excellent gift and a proof of the love with which he accompanied him. And this was an incentive to envy for his brothers and a cause of hatred, as the following events will demonstrate. In fact, the Pharisees were inflamed with anger against the beloved, that is, Christ, because he had been clothed by God the Father with a multiform glory. He was admirable in different forms, partly as a vivifying God, partly as a light that was able to illuminate those who were in the darkness, and to purify the lepers, and to raise from the dead those who were already decomposing, and to reprove the seas and to be carried on the waves through his power. And the Jews being in difficulty and burning with the flames of envy, said to each other, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.” The multicolored garment is the symbol of the multiform glory with which God the Father clothed the Son made similar to us through his human nature. However, with regard to his own nature, he himself is the Lord of glory, even though, because of the likeness he has with us, he says, “Father, glorify your Son.” Therefore for the reasons that I have examined, the sons of the concubines were induced to anger and envy and became suspicious after the dream was related. Since they knew in advance that in time they would have become subjects to their brother and would have adored him, and he would have been superior to them by far and would have been brought to such a glory to be adored by their own parents, they gnashed their teeth and planned to kill him. And so the Jews were angered too, and not less afflicted, since they understood that the Immanuel would have been superior to the holy patriarchs themselves and would have been necessarily adored by all the people and indeed by the whole world. And being aware of this, they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” ,
