And Joseph said unto his brothers, I am Joseph; does my father yet live? And his brothers could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.
All Commentaries on Genesis 45:3 Go To Genesis 45
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
And Joseph ordered all to withdraw so that he could be recognized by his brothers. For, even as Jesus said, he had not come except to the lost sheep that were the lost of the house of Israel. And lifting up his voice with weeping he said, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” This means, Jesus stretched out his hands to an unbelieving and contradicting people, for he did not seek an envoy or messenger but, as their very Lord, desired to save his own people. “I myself who spoke, I am here,” and “I was made manifest to those who sought me not; I appear to those who asked me not.” What else did he cry out at that time but “I am Jesus”? When the leaders of the Jews tempted him and asked, “Are you the Son of God?” he answered, “You say that I am,” and to Pilate he said, “You say that I am a king; in this I was born.” And when the chief priest said, “I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are Christ, the Son of God,” Jesus responded, “You have said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming upon the clouds of heaven.” This is what Joseph means when he says, “I am Joseph.”
