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Genesis 46-50
This reading's kind of long but I felt that it should be read as one piece because of its content. It also concludes the book of Genesis.
The drought continues in Egypt and the people lose their cattle, land and freedom to Joseph and Pharaoh. This sets up Exodus quite nicely.
I'm still trying to look beyond the money and power of The Family to see God's divine plan for humanity but frankly, all I see is a wealthy dynasty in the making, and using a supernatural being as their leverage.
As I believe someone mentioned in an earlier comment, God seems to have very little to do in this story. Joseph says that God is interrupting the dreams but that's coming from a man who sees an opportunity to get out of prison. Again using God as leverage.
The last part of Genesis has Jacob/Israel foretelling the future of his twelve sons and establishing the twelve tribes of Israel before dying. Joseph's dream is fulfilled when his brothers bow before him and he forgives them for their horrible treatment of him.
Joseph has been my favorite story so far in The Bible. It has a timeless story that is very much at home in today's society.
Besides the musical, does anyone know if this story has been retold in a modern setting?
Note the only female descendants mentioned are Dinah daughter of Leah and Serah daughter of Asher. The Bible has no stories about Serah though she appears in several of the genealogies but midrash does. According to one, when the brothers got back from Egypt with the news of Joseph still being alive they were afraid that telling him outright would kill him from the shock. Instead they got Serah to sing to him and weave the news in the song she sang.
ReplyDeleteAlso the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, are adopted by Jacob as his sons and blessed but Jacob says the younger, Ephraim, will have more than Manasseh (much like the younger son in previous generations).
We also have the blessing of Jacob on all all his sons though the eldest three, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, seem to get more of a curse. Judah the fourth is named as one to whom the others will bow down (David and his line are of the tribe of Judah). Leah's death is not described but it is stated that she is buried in the cave with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, and Jacob.
Uh anyway, that was Genesis! Pretty awesome.I started to add up the names in 46:8-27, to figure out how 66 + 2 = 70, but I got bored.
ReplyDelete47:26 Does the esoteric details of Egyptian economics and law imply the author had inside knowledge of Egyptian culture? (Something to keep in mind for Exodus. I've heard claims that there's no detailed Egyptian references, and claims that there is.)
48
Jacob adopts his grandkiddies Ephraim and Manasseh as his own children, and then promptly forgets he had done so, and doesn't even recognize them. ("Who are these?") Then he adopts them again. Senility? Or... contradiction arising from independent sources being stacked together? (P and E, btw)
Jacob blesses Ephraim over Manasseh. Ephraim is a place-name we'll encounter far more frequently- it contained the seat of power for the northern kingdom.
48:22 is an obscure reference to Shechem, which was in West Manasseh. Apparently the Amorites had it at some point. Whoever they are. Don't confuse them with Ammonites.
The Blessing of Jacob!
Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, seem to get more of a curse
Yep, this would probably be to explain their eventual decline. Reuben dwindled, Simeon disappeared into Judah, and Levi became a class of priests.
My annotation considers the Judah section to contain references to the David monarchy, which would date this poem to soon after 1000 BCE. Another source claims this poem is premonarchal, but then claims the poem says Judah will hold the monarchy forever, which makes no sense.
In Joseph's section, no mention is made of Ephraim and Manasseh. This despite the Song of Deborah, thought to be older than this, mentioning Ephraim as a tribe.
50:23 Another adoption: Machir (son of Manasseh) is added to the roster of Twelve Tribes. Machir is also mentioned in the Song of Deborah; in Numbers 32 he invades Gilead, but doesn't get much screentime.
It's hypothesized that Machir in the SoD is just another name for western Manasseh.
@Bruce
ReplyDelete"Joseph says that God is interrupting the dreams but that's coming from a man who sees an opportunity to get out of prison."
I don't think this is something you would want to play around with. And no man uses God "as leverage" If Joseph got it wrong, death would be the price he would pay. Not the same king, but i think the outcome will still apply(Daniel 2:5).
"I'm still trying to look beyond the money and power of The Family to see God's divine plan for humanity but frankly, all I see is a wealthy dynasty in the making, and using a supernatural being as their leverage."
No you have it backwards. God is using them, as they are willing, to fulfil His divine plan (Deuteronomy 8:18).
Well I, for one, am psyched that we've finished an entire book of the bible! I think everyone should pat themselves on the back. I agree that Joseph has been my favorite story thus far. Much more readable than others and probably moreso than some of what's ahead.
ReplyDeleteGreat job Bruce!
Gen. 47:23 et al - Joseph invents sharecropping.
ReplyDeleteGenesis (and the forthcoming Exodus) seems to have a love-hate relationship with Egypt. Jacob refuses to be buried there, but two kids of an Egyptian mother get to be tribes of Israel. What's the deal, Egypt?
Thomas Mann has his 1492 page tetralogy, Joseph and His Brothers .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Joseph-His-Brothers-Stories-Provider/dp/1400040019/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295271823&sr=1-1
Once more, a second born son is favored over the firstborn. Does anyone have more insight into this? I had never noticed how often this came up until reading all the stories back-to-back.
ReplyDelete@Bruce
ReplyDeletefrankly, all I see is a wealthy dynasty in the making, and using a supernatural being as their leverage."
I can hear the Dallas theme song in the background.....
@ betterthanesdras
ReplyDelete"Another source claims this poem is premonarchal, but then claims the poem says Judah will hold the monarchy forever, which makes no sense."
This is one of those foreshadowing or types that point to the Christ. (Again, the Christ is the focus even in the OT.)Christ is the king who will reign forever, and his lineage goes through David, back to Judah, and on back to Abraham. All of these "potsherds" we pick up along the way finally yield enough pieces to arrange and to construct a vase in the NT.
@Bruce
"I'm still trying to look beyond the money and power of The Family to see God's divine plan for humanity but frankly, all I see is a wealthy dynasty in the making, and using a supernatural being as their leverage."
We will see later that The Family, chosen by God to be the instrument of his plan, was not chosen because of their money and power but because God chose whom he wanted to choose. He seems to specialize in using the unexpected so that people can see it is his doing and not man's.
I don't know about any of you, but I was glad to see the end of Jacob. More times than not he was a miserable character. His messing around with the Joseph's sons blessing and especially his venomous blessings to his sons just doubled my attitude.
ReplyDelete(This story may have been written much later so the writer was "giving" Jacob prophetic power by having him say what the writer knew about what happened to the tribes, but still.)
Jacob, the most overrated biblical character (so far).
A couple things, God never talks to Joseph, but as soon as Jacob (the miserable old sod) appears in the story, God starts opening up, but doesn't say anything he hasn't before.
Also, when did Jacob become "Jacob" again, and why do you suppose? Even God calls him that, twice.
Although Genesis seems to end on a high note, the fact that the foreign Hebrews have their freedom and seem fairly well off while the native Egyptians do not is a dicey political situation. We know what will happen, but I'm dying to know if the writers use it as the reason.
@bananacat1
ReplyDeleteSecond born sons are more important than firstborn sons because the firstborn son of humanity (Adam) failed to obey God in the garden. God is teaching his people that salvation will not come from the one who would naturally receive inheritance but from the second oldest (Seth/Isaac/Jacob/etc.) Ultimately this points us to Christ who is the second Adam (Rom 5).
"I'm still trying to look beyond the money and power of The Family to see God's divine plan for humanity but frankly, all I see is a wealthy dynasty in the making, and using a supernatural being as their leverage."
ReplyDeleteJoseph is foreshadowing what will happen to all of Israel. They will start off well in Egypt but then they will become despised by a new pharaoh because of the greatness in number (Exodus 1). Then they will become prisoners in the land. God will then deliver the Israelites through signs and wonders as Josephs was delivered by interpretation from God. The Israelites will leave the land of Egypt in a greater state than when Jacob and his company went down just as Joseph was placed in greater authority than with Potipher.
God is also teaching us a pattern of death and resurrection. Humility is a type of death. You must die before you can be glorified. Joseph loses his status with his family and is thrown into a pit(death) and then brought up into Potipher's house (glorification). He is then thrown into prison (death) and then glorified as second to Pharaoh (resurrection). Israel will be brought low as slaves and the resurrected as a nation that makes the other nations tremble.
Remember the covenant that God made with Abraham throughout the entire bible. God is building a nation of His on Earth. Change your perspective. You're looking at man using God, when in reality God is using man. Sin separated man from God and God is working to bring man back.
ReplyDeleteThis nation God is creating is to be a kingdom of priests, a kingdom that is to show the rest of the world how God loves them and wants them to live (in reliance of Him and not themselves).
It's a story of a God deeply in love with His creation and pursuing them throughout history...even when they run away.
@Faris Hey, say "Spoiler alert!" or something ;-)
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the insight on the second son. I had interpreted as your value doesn't come from an unearned position but by skill/action.
I've heard about Christ being considered the "second Adam" before, but not in this context with the other second sons.
But I'm having trouble with the bad-things-happen-then-good-things-happen cycle as being some sort of lesson, but it does make a good story arc. I see where the cycle idea may come from, but to identify every other story that has this common story cycle as significant seems a reach.
Personally I like imagining the ancient Hebrews as a mob family.
ReplyDelete@Chasia: One reason that the bad-things-happen-then-good-things-happen cycle may have been used and preserved in the stories of the Israelites is to answer a question than many of them probably had throughout the ages: "If we are the chosen people of a powerful god, why does terrible stuff keep happening to us?" If I remember correctly, we'll find that a cycle of this type is ubiquitous throughout the DTR history (Joshua-2Kings). The people behave wickedly in the sight of Yahweh, some crisis results, Yahweh raises up a leader from amongst them, they overcome then do wicked stuff again, etc..
ReplyDeleteI agree with many here that the Joseph story seems strikingly distinct from the rest of Genesis in several ways: easier and more entertaining to read, less interference from God, warm fuzzies at the end, etc. I think one reason for this is that of the many, many genres of ancient literature that we find pieced together in the Bible (many of which we've seen in Genesis), the Joseph story seems to my untrained eye to fit best into the genre of the folk tale.
Formalist scholars have identified basic narrative elements that consistently characterize folklore from around the world and Joseph fits the mold of a folk hero quite well. For those interested, I recommend looking at the Wikipedia entry on formalist Vladimir Propp to see how well the identified elements of folk tale structure apply to Joseph, and the other Genesis protagonists for that matter. Perhaps we relate to the Joseph story more easily because it resembles all the tales we grew up with.
The twelve tribes bit at the end interrupts this flow and seems more geared at explaining political aspects of the tribes that will become Israel (such as the decline of the decline of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi that Esdras pointed out). I wonder what else historians know about these tribes and how it fits with what is written about them in this poem.
@Brian
ReplyDelete"the stories of the Israelites is to answer a question than many of them probably had throughout the ages: "If we are the chosen people of a powerful god, why does terrible stuff keep happening to us?"
That's a great explanation for this repeating story arc. The notion of 'blaming the victim' comes to mind.
@David, OK, I saw how that fits. Perhaps I was hung up on the provocative labels "death" and "redemption" to see the connection. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteBTW, what's is DTR? I tried to find it on acronym finder and google without success (lots of sites with "DTR," but always assuming the reader knows what it means).
@Chasia: Sorry, I was using shorthand for the Deuteronomistic history, which is what source critics call the books of Joshua through 2 Kings. It shares a lot of literary elements with the book of Deuteronomy and is thought to come largely from the same author(s), known as the D source.
ReplyDeleteIf you'll indulge a general comment:
ReplyDeleteReading Genesis along with everyone's comments here has been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to Exodus and beyond.
The discussion here has been great and kind of an interesting experiment in what a discussion looks like without shared assumptions about the subject. Those of us who are non-believers handle the text as any other ancient literature, written by ancient people, for ancient people, about things that are important to them, and subject to all the revision and discontinuity that inevitably occurs over time.
On the other hand, a faith-based reading assumes that a divine hand has guided not just the writing, but the preservation of the integrity of the text over the centuries and many translations. On top of that, as Esdras said in a previous comment, layers upon layers of interpretation have been constructed in order to see the whole Bible as telling a cohesive story about the redemption of sin by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
With different assumptions from the start we can't really argue about which interpretation is right, but we still manage to have a productive discussion that illuminates and contrasts the different ways of looking at the same text. For the most part, I think everyone here acknowledges that there are multiple ways to interpret what we are reading.
It's not like anyone is going to say "Oh, I didn't realize there was a secular interpretation of the Bible. I'd better abandon my Christian worldview." Likewise, nobody is going to say "Oh, that's how Christians interpret this? In that case I accept Jesus Christ as my personal lord and savior. Pray with me. Now where can I go to church?"
With one book down, I just want to encourage fellow readers/commenters to keep it up and keep posting thoughts that help us understand each other rather than picking fights or proselytizing. Thanks, Bruce, for starting this project.