He wept so loudly that even the Egyptian household heard it outside. Edit: I have been getting some great questions so I will share my answers. (Genesis 30:24).[10][11]. Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, lived in the land of Canaan with ten half-brothers, one full brother, and at least one half-sister. Joseph understood what they were saying and removed himself from their presence because he was caught in emotion. In Jewish tradition, Joseph was the progenitor of the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, named for his two sons. She was no longer the mother of all of Jacobs children Rachel had a child now and she was the one who was truly regarded, by Jacob, as his wife. He interpreted the dream as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, and advised the Pharaoh to store surplus grain. I pray you will be preserved by our maker. Of all the sons, Joseph was preferred by his father, who gave him a "long coat of many colors". The baker's dream was about three baskets full of bread for the Pharaoh, and birds were eating the bread out of those baskets. They commemorate him on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (two Sundays before Christmas) and on Holy and Great Monday (Monday of Holy Week). This mandate lasted until the days of Moses (Genesis 47:2031). According to the biblical account, Joseph was the son of Jacob by Rachel, the patriarch's favorite wife (Gen. 30:23, 24), who, on the occasion of Joseph's birth, said, "The Lord shall add [Heb. Mary and Joseph ended up in Bethlehem where the birth took place. How many children did Jacob have? Joseph was brought from prison to interpret the king's dream. He even forced them to throw out their babies to die. His prophetic powers are sited as an example of "faith" in Hebrews 11:22. So Joseph supplied them Egyptian transport wagons, new garments, silver money, and twenty additional donkeys carrying provisions for the journey. Nice going! He was Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first. Yes, the Bible does indicate that Jacob had more than one daughter. well, that did go well. Abraham then died at 175 years of age (25 . Following the prediction, Joseph became Vizier, under the name of Zaphnath-Paaneah (Hebrew: pna Pana),[e][19] and was given Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On,[f] to be his wife. [26][27] The plot begins by showing Joseph as a dreamer; this leads him into trouble as, out of jealousy, his brothers sell him into slavery. Jacob's favoritism for Joseph made his half-brothers so jealous that they were ready to murder him (see Genesis 37). Stories about Jacob in the Bible begin at Genesis 25:19. [c] Thereafter the guilty brothers painted goat's blood on Joseph's coat and showed it to Jacob, who therefore believed Joseph had died (Genesis 37:1235). He wanted to know if they would be willing to risk danger in order to save their half brother Benjamin. Your email address will not be published. Judah (left) talking to Tamar (right) (1606-1669), by Rembrandt. He was Rachel's firstborn and Jacob's eleventh son. This sets up the climax of the story, which many regard to be the moment Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers (Gen 45:3). He withdrew to his chambers and wept. Charles L. Zimmerman holds the B. Pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. 1:26). Jacob with Ephraim and Manasseh. The musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is about Joseph's story. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob (From thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), Even by the God of your father who shall help thee; and by the Almighty who shall bless thee With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lieth under, Blessings of the breasts and of the womb. Certain rabbis declared that Joseph was ready to yield to his mistress, but that his father's image suddenly appeared to him and called him to his duty (Sotah 36b; Gen. R. 87:9). Thus, Israel was able to bless the Pharaoh. Through his father, he also has six half-brothers: Dan and Naphtali (whose . He is the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Joseph. Seeing only the powerful minister who controlled their lives and fortunes, they "bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground" (Gen. 42:6), thus fulfilling in part his earlier prophetic dream. 42-45), Jacob, his sons, and all of his descendants moved to Egypt to be with Joseph. The story of Joseph also inspired the popular autobiographical song "Coat of Many Colors," written and recorded early in the career of country icon. Some declare that during the 22 years he was away from home he drank no wine (Shab. In the sixth year, Asenath bore two children to Joseph: Manasseh and Ephraim. (Genesis 48:122). The brothers then dipped Joseph's coat in goat's blood and, returning home, showed it to their father, who concluded that Joseph had been torn apart by a wild beast. Rachel is his mom, one of them gasped. His estranged brothers later reunited with him when they came to Egypt to buy grain during a famine, and thus Joseph became the central figure to lead the children of Israel (Jacob) during their course of exile in Egypt. How many kids did Mary have? Joseph settled Jacob's growing clan with Pharaoh's blessing in the Land of Goshen (Gen. 47:29). Judah, too, counseled against murder and convinced the brothers to sell Joseph to a company of Ishmaelite merchants, who bought him in exchange for 20 shekels of silver. Jacob should not have had more than one wife.) They betrayed him by. They were directed into the province of Goshen and Joseph readied his chariot to meet his father there. So they named this spot Abel Mizraim. It was the first successful production in the career of Andrew Lloyd Webber. So if someone is pushing polygamy, know that according to Paul (an expert in the Law and in the Scriptures) they have disqualified themselves for leadership rendering their opinion merely an opinion. Later we read, "His . He comforted them and their ties were reconciled. God blessed Leah with a firstborn son named Reuben. In Genesis 29:31-30:24 the birth of twelve of Jacob's children is recorded. The name of Reuben's wife is 'Ad 1 and the name of Simeon's wife is 'Adb'a, a Canaanite; 1 and the name of Levi's wife is Mlk, 2 of the daughters of Aram, of the seed of the sons of Terah; and the name of Judah . It was after this that Isaac married Rebekah and Abraham took Keturah as a wife (possibly a concubine) (see Genesis 24 and 25:1). The composition of the story can be dated to the period between the 7th century BCE and the third quarter of the 5th century BCE, which is roughly the period to which scholars date the Book of Genesis. Then Joseph buried Israel in the cave of Machpelah, the property of Abraham when he bought it from the Hittites. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. I think some translators/editors have erred when they separate the two sections. Now Jacob had twelve sons. I smiled. Information much needed for understanding context. In the Elohist version it is Rueben intervenes on Joseph's behalf, while in the Yahwist version it is Judah that saves him. Joseph's half-brothers were jealous of him; (Genesis 37:1820) wherefore, in Dothan, most of them plotted to kill him, with the exception of Reuben,[12][13] who suggested to have Joseph thrown into an empty cistern, intending to rescue Joseph himself. Ultimately, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard (Genesis 37:36, Genesis 39:1). The narrative also indicates that they went straight to Joseph or were directed to him, even by the Pharaoh himself (Genesis 41:3757). Elkannah had two women but again, one of them was barren so I suspect that Peninah was a concubine. She named him Joseph. [53] These come in the forms of allusions written by the Bb and Bah'u'llh. [5], In rabbinic tradition, he is considered the ancestor of a second Messiah called "Mashiach ben Yosef", who will wage war against the forces of evil alongside Mashiach ben David and die in combat with the enemies of God and Israel. The genealogy of Jesus in the New Testament traces Jesus' ancestry lineally, from Abraham to David, and then from David to Jesus. He received the same name as two great prophets, one past and one future: Joseph of Egypt and the Prophet Joseph Smith. Her father contracted with her husbands father that she would be a wife in that house, that she would provide heirs to the house who would have rights to his share of the inheritance. Jacob lives in Egypt for seventeen years after his arrival (Genesis 47:28). Then he prepared a great ceremonial journey to Canaan leading the servants of the Pharaoh, and the elders of the houses Israel and Egypt beyond the Jordan River. The story of Joseph's near seduction by his master's wife bears a marked similarity to the Egyptian story of the Tale of Two Brothers, which was popular at the time of Pharaoh Seti II. 1) Reuben was Jacob's firstborn. No, he had two (and not by his choosing) wives and two concubines four women to whom he was connected through children. When Jacob calls his wives to him in Gen thirty-one only Leah and Rachel are named. Even John Calvin, sometimes hailed as the father of modern grammatico-historical exegesis,[39] writes "in the person of Joseph, a lively image of Christ is presented. The final group, where a transaction is made, is among the Egyptians in the same verse. After being beaten by his brethren, Joseph was thrown by Simeon into a pit, among serpents and scorpions; but Joseph prayed to God and the reptiles retired to their holes (Targ. [b] Upon imprisoning Joseph, the brothers saw a camel caravan carrying spices and perfumes to Egypt, and sold Joseph to these merchants. Bah' commentaries have described these as metaphors with the garment implying the recognition of a manifestation of God. When the Pharaoh's advisers failed to interpret these dreams, the cup-bearer remembered Joseph. The true faith in Jesus Christ stands the test and wins victory. He was the first of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's twelfth child and eleventh son). Cindy Crawford's son Presley Gerber, 23, opens up about 'mistakes' he made during his battle with depression: 'I feel like it should be talked about a lot more than it is' .". More rabbinical literature has been generated concerning him than any of the other sons of Jacob, and he is also a significant figure in Islamic tradition. Tap the title above, next to the arrow, to go to thatlesson with a link back to thispage. The account of the birth of Jacob's children is found in Genesis 2930, 35. His story functions as an explanation for Israel's residence in Egypt. Manasseh, Ephraim are between 19 and 26. Who is Dans mom? I asked. Paul even specifically said that male leadership within the Body was to be limited to those men who only had one wife (I Tim 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6). Genesis 35:21-27 gives a list of Jacob's sons and the various woman he had them with. 'ewe') was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the . They stopped at Atad where they observed seven days of mourning. Ephraim was one of the major northern tribes, just north of the territory of Judah. 20 And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him. [6], The Bible offers two explanations of the name Ysf: first it is compared to the Hebrew root (-s-p), meaning "to gather, remove, take away":[7] "And she conceived, and bore a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach" (Genesis 30:23);[8] Ysf is then identified with the similar root (y-s-p), meaning "to add":[9] "And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son." Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. Finally, after 20 years of marriage, they were blessed with twin boys, Jacob and Esau. Levirate marriage served two functions that a mans name would not cease to go forward and that a woman would not be bereft of support. According to the Midrash, Joseph would have been immediately executed by the sexual assault charge against him by Potiphar's wife. The first group identified, are Joseph's brothers when Judah brings up the idea of selling Joseph in verses 26 and 27. Who was the wife of Joseph son of Jacob? Sarah died when she was 127 (23:1) - so Abraham would have been 137 and Isaac would have been 37. Every time a son was born I asked my boys to tell me who the sons belonged to and it worked fine until we got to Dan. Jacob became greatly distressed, feeling deprived of successive sons: Joseph, Simeon, and (prospectively) Benjamin. I have questioned this over the years, but didnt understand the cultural context as well as you have laid out. Joseph did very well with God's help. For example, just before his death he predicted that God would visit the children of Israel and lead them out of Egypt and into the promised land. The house of Israel acquired many possessions and multiplied exceedingly during the course of seventeen years, even through the worst of the seven-year famine. The cupbearer took this opportunity to inform the king of Joseph's gift and recommended his services. Deceptively, Joseph also ordered the steward to put his silver cup in Benjamin's sack. Is the word Bible pagan? [35] This tendency is represented in John Chrysostom who said that Joseph's suffering was "a type of things to come",[36] Caesarius of Arles who interpreted Joseph's famous coat as representative of the diverse nations who would follow Christ,[37] Ambrose of Milan who interpreted the standing sheaf as prefiguring the resurrection of Christ,[38] and others. However Jacob gave the greater blessing to the younger Ephraim, Moses, before he died, gave a similar blessing to the house of Joseph, which he called, Jospeh had great faith in God. Because Joseph the Dreamer predicts the future by analyzing dreams, alternative Jewish tradition claims that he practiced divination using this silver cup as the steward charged[33] and as Joseph himself claimed in Genesis 44:15.[34]. Abraham married Sarah, who was his niece; Isaac married Rebekah, who was his first cousin once removed; and Jacob married Leah and Rachel, who were his first cousins. Jacob, before he died, blessed each of his sons and two of his grandsons, the two sons of Joseph. 17:1; 1 Ne. ACTS 7:13-15 13 And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh. For the New Testament Joseph, see, Another possible translation is "coat with long sleeves" (. The next two instances of dream interpretation establish his reputation as a great interpreter of dreams; first, he begins in a low place, interpreting the dreams of prisoners. After Joseph rejected the attempts of Potiphar's wife to seduce him, she accused him of attempted rape, and he was cast into the state prison (Gen. 39:40), where he became the most trusted inmate and remained for at least two years. Joseph named his eldest Manasseh ('to forget' in Hebrew) because "God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household," while his younger son was named Ephraim ('to be fruitful') "because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." (Genesis 41 . They may have been: (1) the sons of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph (the most natural inference); (2) sons of the Mary named in Mark 15:40 as "mother of James and Joses", whom Jerome identified with the wife of Clopas and sister of Mary the mother of Jesus; or (3) sons of Joseph by a former marriage. 2. Posted by Tyler Dawn | Nov 19, 2015 | Biblical Context Studies, Women's issues | 6 |, (Note: Yes, I do understand that it is actually called polygyny when a man has multiple wives, and polygamy can be either male or female but for purposes of using a familiar term to everyone I am simplifying this by calling it polygamy). (Genesis 49:3350:14), After their father died, the brothers of Joseph feared retribution for being responsible for Joseph's deliverance into Egypt as a slave. [a] When Joseph was seventeen years old, he shared with his brothers two dreams he had had: in the first dream, Joseph and his brothers gathered bundles of grain, of which those his brothers gathered, bowed to his own. We can have a conquering faith in Jesus though we are tested by many tribulations. Cushan and Midian are equated with each other, as are tents and curtains and affliction and trembling. Joseph prospered in Potiphar's household and was eventually made head of the servants. To Joseph, he gave a portion more of Canaanite property than he had to his other sons; land that he fought for against the Amorites. The Wives of Jacob's Sons (xxxiv. It was because of his virtue that the children of Israel passed over the Red Sea and the Jordan dry-shod (Gen. R. 84). To the modern proponents of polygamy (as opposed to Biblical polygamy, which was entirely different), our forefather Jacob is the shining example after all, he had four wives right? 2. Sign me up for that! According to the Old Testament, Jacob was the younger twin brother of Esau, who was the ancestor of Edom . 84, xl. R. 1:7). This also created rivalries between their sons. The story of Yusuf and Zulaikha was a favorite love song in the Near East. The "seven lean years" has been taken to refer to a Middle Eastern famine documented at that time. John 10:30) is hen and the word used by Paul in those instances is mia. Her name was Dinah. This caused a stir amongst the brothers. [16] Joseph requested that the cup-bearer mention him to Pharaoh to secure his release from prison,[17] but the cup-bearer, reinstalled in office, forgot Joseph. Afterward, Joseph's family personally met the Pharaoh of Egypt. "Give me children, or I shall die," she says to Jacob (Genesis 30:1). Angered by his running away from her, she made a false accusation of rape, and thus assured his imprisonment[d] (Genesis 39:120). Joseph would have been approximately six years old when his family returned from Haran to Canaan. 50 Before the year of famine came, Joseph had two sons, whom As'enath, the daughter of Poti'phera priest of On, bore to him. They returned with a wolf, but when Jacob began to reproach the beast for its cruelty, the wolf answered, in human language, that she had not committed the crime, and that she herself was searching for her lost cub. J. M. Sel. When they were brought to Joseph's house, they were apprehensive about the returned money in their money sacks. Joseph was called into his father's house and Israel pleaded with his son that he not be buried in Egypt. The two principle sources are the Yahwist and the Elohist versions, with a few details included as well from the Priestly source. 3. It is later mentioned in Genesis 41:50 that before the years of famine, Joseph had two sons with Asenath. Joseph was fully trusted by his master, Potiphars wife took a fancy to Joseph, but he refused to sin with her. When they flee Laban in chapter thirty-two, verse twenty-two specifically mentions two wives and two female servants, and again in thirty-three verse one, Leah and Rachel are named, along with the two female servants. In chapter thirty-five, after Rachels death, Reuben is specifically stated to have had sexual relations with his fathers concubine. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. pseudo-Jonathan). The coffin thereupon floated up (Ex. Now why? People just cherry pick with the descriptions to determine prescriptives without studying out the matter. After relaying his prophecies, Israel died. Zilpah bore Jacob his seventh and eighth sons, Gad and Asher. The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod commemorates him as a patriarch on 31 March. (Genesis 46:134). Pharaoh made Joseph governor over Egypt and all Pharaohs house. 9The fathers, moved by jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt as a slave; but God was with him. How long did Jacob in the Bible wait to marry his wife? When the brothers claimed to the father that a wolf had eaten Joseph, he observed patience. That night, Joseph ordered his steward to load the brothers' donkeys with food and all their money. | Servants of Grace Apologetics, Mishpatim in Context: Selling your daughter into slavery? Israel (Jacob) agreed to his son's invitation to move to Egypt and began the journey to see Joseph. Joseph had good reasons not to have an affair with Potiphar's wife: he did not want to abuse his master's trust; he believed in the sanctity of marriage; and it went against his ethical, moral and religious principles taught to him by his father Jacob. He and his family took everything they owned. Joseph! Unaware of this secondary intention, the others obeyed him first. He Was the Son of Isaac. M. degrees from Grace Theological Seminary. He could not control himself any longer and so he sent the Egyptian men out of the house. 13. The favoritism Israel showed Joseph and the plot against him by his brothers were divine means of getting him into Egypt. , romanized: Rl, lit. Judah appealed to the Vizier begging that Benjamin be released and that he be enslaved in his stead, because of the silver cup found in Benjamin's sack. Simeon in Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature). In the Qayyumu'l-Asma', the Bb refers to Bah'u'llh as the true Joseph and makes an analogous prophecy regarding Bah'u'llh suffering at the hands of his brother, Mrz Yahy. In his father's house, Joseph is the favored son: "Israel (another name for Jacob) loved Joseph more than all his sons since he was a child of his old age" (Genesis 37:3). "[40], In addition, some Christian authors have argued that this typological interpretation finds its origin in the speech of Stephen in Acts 7:9-15, as well as the Gospel of Luke and the parables of Jesus, noting strong verbal and conceptual collocation between the Greek translation of the portion of Genesis concerning Joseph and the Parable of the Wicked Tenants and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. "All Pharaoh's officials accompanied himthe dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egyptbesides all the members of Joseph's household and his brothers and those belonging to his father's household Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. 14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. Who was the angel of An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and he said; "Take Mary home as your wife.". Could Paul have been saying that the husband and wife need to be one (Hebrew echad) instead of limiting a man to one wife? This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Soon, the family took up residence in the town of Bethel and later moved to Hebron. Joseph is regarded as a saint by several Christian churches, including the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, which commemorates him as a patriarch on March 31. When the famine came which Pharoah had dreampt of, and Joseph had predicted, Joseph's father, brothers, and their families, settled in Egypt where there was food. Bilhah, they replied. Joseph became the slave of Potiphar a very high official in Egypt. Joseph disguised his identity and devised a plot to bring the rest of the family to him: He accused them of being spies and imprisoned them for three days.