Genesis 39:12

When Joseph was accused by his master's wife, he could be held by his clothing but was unable to be captivated in soul. He did not even tolerate her words for a long time, considering it a dangerous influence if he delayed any longer, lest through the hands of the adulteress the attractions of lust penetrate his soul. Therefore by removing his garments he shook off all accusation; leaving the clothes with which he was held he fled, robbed indeed but not naked, for he was covered still more with the clothing of purity. No one is naked except the man whom guilt has exposed. In earlier times too we have the fact that after Adam had disregarded God's command by his transgression and contracted the debt of serious sin, he was naked; for this reason he himself said, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid." Adam asserts he is naked because he has lost the adornment of divine protection; and he hid himself because he did not have the garment of faith, which he had laid aside by his transgression. You see an important fact: Adam was naked, although he did not lose his tunic; Joseph, who was stripped of his clothing, which he left in the hands of the adulteress, was not naked. The same Scripture asserts that the former was naked and the latter was not. Therefore Joseph despoiled himself rather than become naked when he preserved the garments of virtue incorrupt. He stripped himself of the old man with its actions, in order to put on the new man who is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of the Creator. Adam, however, remained naked because he could not clothe himself again after he was stripped of his singularly privileged virtue. For this reason he took a tunic made of skins, since as a sinner he could not have a spiritual one.

Further, she said to him, "Lie with me." The first weapons of the adulteress are those of the eyes, the second those of words, but one who is not seduced by the eyes can resist the word. A defense is at hand when the passions are still free. And so it is written that "he refused." Therefore Joseph first overcame her attack through a struggle in his heart and drove her back with the shield of his soul, so to speak; then he launched his word like a spear to force her retreat. "And he spoke to the wife of his master." She is correctly called the wife of the master, and not the mistress of the house, for she could not extort what she wanted to obtain. For how was she the mistress? She did not have the power of one who rules; she did not observe the discipline of a mistress; she provided mere servants with enticements to lust. But Joseph was a master who did not take up the torches of that lover, did not feel the bonds of that seducer, was not terrified by any fear of death and preferred to die free of sin rather than to choose participation in guilty power. He was free who believed it shameful not to make recompense for favor. Indeed, Joseph does not make his excuses as a frightened man, nor is he on his guard as one fearful of danger. Rather, he flees the charge of ingratitude and the stain of sin as one who owes a debt to his master's kindness and his own blamelessness, and, as a just man, he is terrified of the contagion of guilt. The adulteress threw her third dart by the persistency of her invitation, but Joseph did not listen to her. After the first words, one has something to guard against. Lust is not only impure but insolent, demanding and wanton as well, and the adulteress has respect for nothing. She who felt no sorrow at her first loss of modesty lies in wait to perform her seduction.Finally, when Joseph went in by reason of his duty and the office entrusted to him and the witnesses and household servants were far off, she seized him and said, "Lie with me." He is absolved by the testimony of Scripture, because he was unable to abandon the service entrusted to him by his master. Indeed, it is not enough that Joseph entered the inside of his house without concern as one who could not be seduced; the just man had an obligation to take care not to give opportunity to a woman in a state of frenzy, else she might be undone by his sin. But while he…