Joseph (Hebrew Bible)

Joseph, in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament), appears in the Book of Genesis (his name Yosef, Hebrew: יוֹסֵף means "The Lord increases", (Tiberian Hebrew Yôsēp̄), later called Zaphnath-paaneah or Tzáfnat panéach צפנת פענח, Standard Hebrew Ẓáfənat paʿnéaḥ, Tiberian Hebrew Ṣāp̄ənaṯ paʿănēªḥ : Egyptian origin "Discoverer of hidden things"), the eleventh son of Jacob, born of Rachel. He is one of the best-known figures in the Scriptures, famous for his coat of many colours and his God-given ability to interpret dreams. Owing to jealousy from his brothers, he was sold as a slave, eventually working under the Egyptian Potiphar, but was later freed, and became the chief adviser (vizier) to the Egyptian Pharaoh around 1600 BC.

Critical view

The narratives concerning Joseph (Gen. 37 and 39) are composed of two principal strata: a Yahwistic stratum and an Elohistic one, with a few details here and there from the compiler of the Priestly Code (for details see J. E. Carpenter and G. Harford-Battersby, Hexateuch, pp. 58-79). According to the Yahwistic narrative, Joseph is rescued by Judah when his brethren plot against him, and is afterward sold to Ishmaelites, who in turn sell him to an Egyptian of high position whose name is not given. The wife of this Egyptian brings an accusation against Joseph, and he is cast into prison; but the jailer makes him overseer of the other prisoners.

Related Topics:
Yahwistic - Elohistic - Priestly Code

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The Yahwistic account of his escape from prison has been omitted; and in the sequel nothing is said about Simeon's becoming a hostage. The brethren open their sacks at a halting-place and find their money; Judah offers to become surety to his father for Benjamin's return; the Israelites settle in the land of Goshen; and Jacob's life closes with his poetic blessing. In the Elohistic portions Joseph is rescued from his other brethren by Reuben and thrown into a pit, from which he is taken and sold to the Midianites; they in turn sell him to Potiphar, captain of the guard, who makes him ruler over the prisoners confined in his house. Afterward, when his brethren are accused of being spies, they volunteer the information about the younger brother. Simeon is left in Egypt as a hostage; the others open their sacks at the end of their homeward journey; Reuben offers to become security for Benjamin's return; and there is no mention of Goshen.

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In other respects the narratives seem to have been closely parallel. The Priestly Code adds a few statistics and gives a list of the people who went down to Egypt. Modern critics have made various estimates of the historical worth of these narratives of Joseph. As the reputed ancestor of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, he is regarded by some as altogether legendary or even mythical. Thus Winckler held the story of Joseph to be a sun-myth ("Gesch. Israels," part ii., pp. 73-77; see, however, his "Abraham der Babylonier, Joseph der Egypter," 1903); while the fact that "Jacob-el" and "Joseph-el" appear in a list of Tutmoses III as the names of places in the Land of Israel (W. Max Müller, Asien und Europa, pp. 163ff), lends to the legendary view some probability.

Related Topics:
Ephraim - Manasseh - Tutmoses III - Land of Israel - Max Müller

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Still, even if these narratives should prove to be legendary, not every legend is a sun-myth. On the other hand, archeological evidence has been urged in favor of the historical character of Joseph. Two of the Amarna tablets (Schrader, "K. B." v., Nos. 44, 45) show that a Semite held a position in Egypt quite analogous to that attributed to Joseph. The Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers shows that such situations as that in which Joseph found himself with the wife of his master were not unknown in Egypt (comp. Sayce, Verdict of the Monuments, pp. 209-211). The Egyptians attached great significance to dreams, as they are said to have done in the Biblical narrative (comp. Brugsch, History of Egypt, pp. 200, 314, 406); famines of long duration were also not infrequent, being produced by the failure of the Nile overflow. One such drought (1064-1071), is attested by the Arabic historian al-Makrizi (comp. Stanley, "Jewish Church," i. 79).

Related Topics:
Amarna tablets - Semite - Tale of Two Brothers - Dream - Famine - 1064 - 1071 - Al-Makrizi

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Such instances of the correctness of the portraiture from an Egyptian standpoint might be greatly multiplied. At the most, however, they do not prove the historical character of the narrative, but that, if it is fiction, it is very realistic fiction. In either case the narratives were not written till after the ninth century BC; for such names as Potiphar (Gen. 39:1) and Zaphenath-paneah (Gen. 41:45) do not occur in Egyptian before that century (comp. Brugsch in Old Testament Student, xi. 481).

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Those who regard the Joseph stories as historical generally hold that the Pharaoh by whom Joseph was made the practical ruler of Egypt was one of the Hyksos kings. This result is reached partly by reckoning back from Rameses II, who is regarded as the Pharaoh of the oppression, and partly by assuming that the Hyksos were Semitic or Asiatic, and that such a situation was more possible under them. The El-Amarna tablets cited above make it clear, however, that it would have been equally possible under the kings of the eighteenth dynasty, such as Amenhotep III or Amenhotep IV (about 1400 BC).

Related Topics:
Hyksos - Rameses II - Asiatic - Eighteenth dynasty - Amenhotep III - Amenhotep IV - 1400 BC

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