Joseph and His Brothers

​Some of you may know that this is the title of a four-novel series by the early-20th-century German author Thomas Mann. Written between 1933-43, it retells and significantly enlarges the Old Testament story. Even in the Bible, however, it ranks as one of the longest stories, running from Genesis chapter 37 to 50. Moreover, it concludes the first book of the Torah/Old Testament. Ironically so, because the happy outcome of this tale immediately precedes the beginning of Exodus, the Torah’s second book, which tells of a time when the Egyptian Pharaohs no longer remembered Joseph and his distinguished place in their national history. The Jewish people were now enslaved, requiring Moses with God’s miraculous help to lead his fellow Jews out of Egypt and, 40 years later, into the Promised Land.

The story of Joseph together with that of Ruth are my two Old Testament favorites, possibly for the same reason, since both show how history can be shaped by the kindness of a single individual. In addition, both are stories of how death in the case of Ruth and family disfunction in the case of Joseph can be reshaped and transformed by love. This theme is all the more important because, with some exceptions, even Jehovah is portrayed in the Torah as being transactional, mean, and vindictive.

​Okay, so here’s Joseph’s story. He is one of his father Jacob’s (Israel’s) 14 sons and one daughter by four different women. The story begins when Joseph, like David, is a shepherd, a lad of seventeen. The youngest child at a time, he is also his father’s favorite—a behavior not designed to win the affection of his older siblings, especially when dad gives him a lovely coat of many colors. One day when the boys are out in the desert, they conspire to kill him and pretend he died from an animal attack. But when a caravan heading to Egypt came by, they decided instead to sell him to the merchants to be resold into slavery. Joseph was also a dreamer of dreams he could interpret. In any case, he is sold to Potiphar, chief of the pharaoh’s guard. Potiphar’s wife, attracted by young Joseph’s good looks, keeps trying to sleep with him, but he keeps refusing. Aside from his good character, he is now Potiphar’s manager and didn’t want to lose his job or worse. More importantly for this story, he is the only individual in Egypt who can interpret Pharaoh’s dream predicting seven good crop years followed by seven bad ones. A good manager, Joseph has grain put aside nationally from the “fat years” to feed the people in the “lean” ones. So Pharaoh makes the now middle-aged Joseph his prime minister.

But here’s the important point in the story. During those lean years, the Jews back home had no food either, so Jacob sends Joseph’s older male siblings to Egypt for food. They of course think their brother long dead and at first don’t recognize him. When he reveals himself, they offer to be his slaves since they are sure he would avenge himself by killing them. Instead, he cries over them, introduces them to Pharaoh, and put precious coins in their bags of grain. “In Romans 12:14, the Apostle Paul instructs believers to ‘bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.’ This verse emphasizes the importance of responding to hostility with love and goodwill, reflecting the teachings of Christ” (quoted from the Internet). An important character in his own right, Joseph clearly previews the One to Come.

Joseph, as handsome as he is important, greets his brothers.