Joseph refuses Potiphar's wife

Cyril: And if one turns to the celebrated Joseph himself, he will find that Joseph neglected no part of uprightness, but understood that God would work with him in anything at all and come to his help, if he refused outright to let himself be defiled. For he could have prospered and given himself up to luxuries, letting himself run with the fiery leaps of youth toward whatever was sweet and dear, and be carried along by impulses that no one rebuked. This he did not do; far from it. Instead he reckoned the portion that is with God the better, as it were, and preferred the labors of self-control to everything that pampers for the moment. For he knew that the stirring of the flesh is somehow sweet at first and bewitches the mind as if with honey, so far as there is pleasure in such things; yet in the end it turns to what is no longer sweet. For at once penalties and punishments, and every evil of that kind, will hang over the head of the one who has sinned. Shall we recount a few of the things written about him?

Palladius: By all means.

Cyril: ‘And Joseph,’ it says, ‘was handsome in form and very beautiful in appearance. And after these things his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he would not, and he said to his master’s wife, “If because of me my master knows nothing of what is in his house, and he has given into my hands all that he has, and nothing in this house is above me, and nothing has been kept back from me except you, because you are his wife, how then shall I do this evil thing and sin before God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to sleep with her and be with her. Then a certain day came, and Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the household was inside; and she caught hold of him by his garments, saying, “Lie with me.” And leaving his garments in her hands, he fled and went outside. And when she saw that he had left his garments in her hands and fled and gone outside, she called those who were in the house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew servant to us to make sport of us. He came in to me, saying, ‘Lie with me,’ and I cried out with a loud voice. And when he heard that I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garments with me and fled and went outside.”’ (Genesis 39:6–15) You see how the wretched woman tried to force him to her bed against his will, yet his mind stood firm in self-control and was overcome by nothing at all? He was still a lad, only about seventeen years old (Genesis 37:2), with his first beard just coming, at the height of pleasure, amid the most fiery stirrings and, if we may put it so, amid hard desires that heed no warning. For youth is always somehow given to impulses of craving that are still unbroken, and it does not readily bear the bridles that lead to self-control.