Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brothers were content.
All Commentaries on Genesis 37:27 Go To Genesis 37
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
And so that we may recognize that all this is a mystery in reference to the people and to the Lord Jesus, “Come, let us sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites.” What is the interpretation of the name Joseph? Only that it means “God’s grace” and “expression of God the highest.” And so who is being sold? Only that man who “since he was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” … They sold him to traders; the latter bought a good fragrance from traitors. Judah sold him, the Ishmaelites bought him, and in our tongue their name means “holding their own God in hatred.” Therefore we find that Joseph was bought for twenty gold pieces by one account, for twentyfive by another and thirty by another, because Christ is not valued at the same price by all people. To some he is worth less, to others more. The faith of the buyer determines the increase in the price. To one who is more pious, God is more valuable; to a sinner a Redeemer is more valuable. He is also more valuable to the people who have more grace. But he is more valuable as well to the one to whom many things have been given, because he loves more to whom more has been forgiven. The Lord himself said just this in the Gospel in reference to the woman who poured ointment over his feet, bathed them with her tears, wiped them with her hair and dried them with her kisses. Of her Christ says to Simon, “Wherefore I say to you, her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has loved much. But he to whom less is forgiven, loves less.”
