Genesis 37:3

According to a mystical or allegorical interpretation Joseph prefigured a type of our Lord. Now if we consider the actions of Joseph, at least in part, we clearly recognize in him an obvious figure of the Lord.

(Chapter 37, Verse 3) And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. As for the coat of many colors, Aquila interprets it as a long-sleeved tunic, that is, a talar garment. Symmachus, a tunic with sleeves, or because it reached down to the ankles, and was distinguished by the wonderful variety of the craftsman's hands: or because it had sleeves: For the ancients used more often to wear woven garments.

Therefore, in order that our words do not wander from the right way, we say that the Immanuel was born to the Father as a Son of his old age, because he appeared in the latter times of the world, that is, in these times, and after him there will be no other. We expect to be saved in no one else. He alone is sufficient, because we say that the salvation and life of the world is placed in no one else. He shepherds us forever, according to the words of the psalmist, and we will be the subjects of him who is beloved, who appeared in the latter times of the world, as I just said, after he had assumed the flesh and who preexisted as God. In fact, we say that he is coeternal with the Father.

What is meant by "he loved Joseph more than all his other sons, as he was a son of his old age"? Since he was born in Jacob's old age, it is saying, toward the end of his life, on this account he loved Joseph more than all the others. You see, somehow the children born to one in old age seem particularly dear and manage to attract their father's favor in greater measure. For us to learn, however, that this was not the only factor in winning his father and causing him to prefer him to his brothers, sacred Scripture teaches us that even after him another son was born. If the manifestation of love had proceeded according to natural inclination, that last son would have been loved more for being truly a son of his old age and born at the time the good man reached the end of his life. So what can we say it means? That it was a kind of grace from on high that made the young man amiable and rendered him preferable to all the others on account of the virtue of his soul.… In Scripture the reason is given as his being a son of his old age and on that account he loved him more, in case the real reason might increase the brothers' envy.

When the Christian people devoutly come to church, of what benefit is it that they hear how the holy patriarchs took their wives or begot their children, unless they perceive in a spiritual sense why these things happened or what the facts prefigured?