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Simeon and Levi's taste for murder
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Eustathius is contrasting Joseph's self-control with the violent habits of his brothers Simeon and Levi.
For Simeon and Levi and their company had tasted murder in no small measure, and by now they had made a settled habit of the deed; they even longed to go creeping around the scent of blood.
Greek Οἱ γὰρ ἀμφὶ τὸν
Συμεῶνα καὶ τὸν Λευῒ, οὐ μετρίως ἀπογευσάμενοι τῆς ἀνδροφονίας, ἐν συνηθείᾳ μὲν ἤδη ποτὲ τοῦ πράγματος ἐγεγόνεισαν, ἕρπειν δὲ περὶ τὰς τοιαύτας ὠρέγοντο κνίσας
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About this text On Joseph attributed to Eustathius of Antioch.
This homily was written by Eustathius of Antioch (fl. c. 320–337). It is a moral exhortation on the story of Joseph, focusing on his self-control in the house of his master.
The occasion is a homiletic treatment of the Joseph story. Eustathius praises Joseph for preserving his self-control when the master's woman desired him for his beauty, and he contrasts Joseph's virtue with the violence of Simeon and Levi.
A reader will meet Joseph, his master described as a eunuch, the master's woman, and Joseph's brothers Reuben, Judah, Simeon, and Levi. Eustathius argues that Joseph, though sold to a eunuch and living before the written law, kept a pure conscience and defended a natural law of self-control. He cites the commandment 'You shall not commit adultery' as an unwritten law. The surviving fragments suggest a moral exhortation on self-control and the superiority of Joseph's conduct over his brothers' murder of the Shechemites. The biblical references are to Genesis.
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