TNDL: “WHAT WAS THE HISTORICITY OF JOSEPH WHO WAS SOLD INTO EGYPT AND HIS FATHER JACOB AND HIS 11 OTHER SONS LIKE? HERE IS A BRIEF SYNOPSIS ABOUT THEIR SOJOURN.”

Joseph, son of Jacob. Geneses 41, Geneses 47, AND Geneses 48.
Previous (Joseon Dynasty)Next (Joseph-Louis Lagrange)
Joseph interprets the dream of the Pharaoh, by Peter von Cornelius.
Joseph or Yosef (Hebrew: יוֹסֵף, Arabic: يوسف, Yusuf; "The Lord increases") is a major figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). He was Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first.
Known best for his coat of "many colors" and his God-given ability to interpret dreams, Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous half-brothers. He worked under the Egyptian official Potiphar but was freed and became the chief adviser (vizier) to the Egyptian Pharaoh. 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. Moses followed Joseph's pattern in rising from slavery to a position of royal favor in the court of the pharaohs, and would later lead the Israelites out of Egypt and back to the land of Canaan.
The historicity of Joseph's story is debated, with dates ranging from an early estimate beginning around 2000 B.C.E. during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, to a later time during the Hyksos Era (1648–1540 B.C.E.), and as recently as the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah about 1200 B.C.E.
Contents
[hide]
1 The Genesis story of Joseph
1.1 Joseph in Egypt
1.2 A strange reunion
1.3 Legacy
2 Joseph in rabbinical literature
3 Joseph in Christianity and Islam
4 Critical views
5 Joseph in literature and culture
6 References
7 Credits
The shrine called Joseph's Tomb in Nablus/Shechem is traditionally considered to be his tomb. In Jewish tradition, Joseph was the progenitor of the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, named for his two sons. 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.
The Genesis story of Joseph
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. yosef] to me another son." (Gen. 30:24) He was born in Padan-aram when Jacob was about 90 years old. Joseph would have been approximately six years old when his family returned from Haran to Canaan. He was present at Jacob's famous reconciliation with his brother Esau. Soon, the family took up residence in the town of Bethel and later moved to Hebron. In the interim, Joseph's mother died giving birth to his brother, Benjamin.
Jacob beholds Joseph's bloodied coat.
Joseph was the favorite son of his father, who made him a richly ornamented coat. popularly referred to as a "coat of many colors." As a result, he was envied by his half-brothers. His brothers' jealousy grew when Joseph told them of his two dreams (Gen. 37:11) in which all the brothers, as well as his parents, bowed down to him.
After this, his brothers plotted against him and would have killed him had not his brother Reuben intervened. He persuaded them to throw Joseph into a pit and secretly planned to rescue him later. 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. 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.
Joseph in Egypt
Joseph and the Wife of Potiphar, by Philipp Veit
The merchants, meanwhile, brought Joseph to Egypt, where he was sold to Potiphar, an "officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard" (Gen. 37:36). Joseph prospered in Potiphar's household and was eventually made head of the servants.
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. The story tells of two servants of Pharaoh's household who were in jail with Joseph and asked him to interpret their dreams. Joseph correctly predicted their futures: one would be reinstated in his post while the other would be executed. Joseph urged the first, a royal cupbearer, to get him out of prison once he was reinstated, but the cupbearer took no action on his behalf for two more years.
At the end of that period, the Pharaoh had a strange dream which none of his advisers could interpret. The cupbearer took this opportunity to inform the king of Joseph's gift and recommended his services. Joseph was brought from prison to interpret the king's dream. Joseph predicted seven years of plenty to be followed by seven years of famine and advised the Pharaoh to appoint someone to store up surplus grain. Pharaoh was pleased with Joseph's interpretation and gave him authority to carry out the suggested policy (Gen. 41:46). He became the second most powerful man in all Egypt. At the age 30, Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis.
As Joseph had foreseen, seven years of plenty came, during which he stored up a great abundance of grain in granaries built for the purpose. These years were followed by seven years of famine "over all the face of the earth," when "all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy grain" (Gen. 41:56, 57; 47:13,14). Thus, "Joseph gathered up all the money that was in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought."
A strange reunion
Joseph embraces Benjamin, detail of a painting by Peter von Cornelius
During this period of famine, Joseph's brothers, except for Benjamin, also came down to Egypt to buy grain. At their first meeting, the brothers did not recognize him. 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. 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. He then sent them away with grain, retaining Simeon as a hostage (Gen. 42:1-25), while ordering them not to return without Benjamin, the only one of his brothers born of Joseph's own mother, Rachel.
Upon their return to Egypt with Benjamin, Joseph received them kindly and prepared a feast for them. The narrative describes his emotional reaction upon seeing Benjamin: "Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there. After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, 'Serve the food'" (Gen 43:30-32). He then tested them further, by accusing Benjamin of theft. But Judah pleaded for Benjamin, offering himself as a slave instead. Convinced of his brothers' repentance and overcome with emotion, Joseph finally revealed himself to them. He forgave them and sent for Jacob and the entire household to come to Egypt.
The later reunion of Joseph with Jacob (Israel), though anti-climactic after two previous reunions with his brothers, is one of the most poignant in the Bible. Old and nearly blind, Jacob is overwhelmed with joy, saying: "I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too" (Gen 48:11). The scene is a fitting resolution to Jacob's own drama, in which his father, Isaac, had been old and blind when Jacob himself deceived deceived him in order to obtain his blessing, meant for Esau.
Joseph settled Jacob's growing clan with Pharaoh's blessing in the Land of Goshen (Gen. 47:29). After Jacob's death, Joseph received the Pharaoh's permission to travel with a great caravan to Canaan in order to bury the patriarch. "All Pharaoh's officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt—besides 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. It was a very large company." (Gen 50:7-9)
Joseph's own remains were reportedly taken by Moses with the Israelites during the Exodus (Exodus 13:19) and later buried at Shechem (Joshua 24:32).
Legacy
Jacob, before he died, blessed each of his sons and two of his grandsons, the two sons of Joseph. Indeed, he blessed Joseph's sons before all the rest. Though Manasseh was the older brother, Jacob placed his right hand on Ephraim, the younger, and gave him the greater blessing. He then gave his blessing upon all of his sons, and the blessing he gave to Joseph was the greatest of all:
Joseph is a fruitful tree by a spring
whose branches climb over the wall...
By the power of the Strong One of Jacob
by the name of the Shepherd of Israel,
by the God of your father—so may he help you!
by God Almighty—so may he bless you
with the blessings of heaven above
and the blessings of the deep that lies below!
the blessings of breast and womb
and the blessings of your father, stronger
than the blessings of the eternal mountains
and the bounty of the everlasting hills.
May they rest on the head of Joseph
on the brow of him who was prince among his brothers.' (Genesis 49:22-26)
Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh multiplied to become two separate tribes of Israel. Ephraim was one of the major northern tribes, just north of the territory of Judah. Half of Manasseh's tribe settled east of the Jordan, while the other half settled west of it. The two halves of Manasseh were often treated as two separate units in the biblical account. Both the term "Joseph" and the term "Ephraim" were also frequently used by the biblical writers to refer to the norther tribes generally or to the later northern kingdom, usually called Israel.