Difference between revisions of "Joseph"

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== Hastings' Dictionary
== American Tract Society Bible Dictionary <ref
          
          
== Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary <ref name="term_48019" /> ==
        <p> The well known son of Jacob, whose history we have in [[Genesis]] from the thirtieth chapter to the end of the book. This made, in the margin of the Bible, is Adding—from Jasaph, to increase. It were needless to enter particulars of Joseph's history, when the [[Bible]] hath given it so beautifully. But perhaps it may not be an unacceptable service to observe on the history of this patriarch, what a remarkable character he is, and in what numberless instances he appears as a type of Christ: taken altogether, perhaps the greatest in the whole Scriptures. I shall particularize in a few leading features. </p> <p> As [[Joseph]] was the beloved son of Jacob, and distinguished by his father with special tokens, of his affection, and which excited the envy of his brethren; so Christ, the beloved and only begotten son of God, by means of that distinguishing token of JEHOVAH, in setting him up, the Head of his body the church, and giving him a kingdom, in his glorious character of Mediator, called forth, as is most generally believed, that war we read of in heaven in the original rebellion of angels. (See Revelation 12:1-17) The coat of many colours Joseph wore might not unaptly be said to represent the several offices of the Lord [[Jesus]] when on earth—his prophetical, priestly, and kingly character. The dreams of Joseph, implying his superiority over his brethren and his father's house, interpreted with an eye to Christ, are very striking circumstances of the preeminency of his character. Of him, indeed, might the prophecy of [[Jacob]] respecting [[Judah]] be fully applied: "Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, and thy father's children shall bow down be fore thee." ( Genesis 49:8) The mission of Joseph to his brethren, by the father, to see if they were well, and how they fared, ( Genesis 37:14) is a striking representation of the mission of God's dear Son to this our world. He came indeed, not only to seek, but to save that which was lost; but like another Joseph, the treatment he received corresponded in all points, only in an infinitely higher degree of baseness and cruelty. They sold Joseph for a slave, for twenty pieces of silver, and he was carried down into Egypt, and from the pit and the prison he arose, by divine favour, to be [[Governor]] over the whole land. But our Joseph was not only sold for thirty pieces of silver, but at length crucified and slain, and from the grave which he made with the wicked and with the rich in his death, by his resurrection and ascension, at the right hand of power, he is become the universal and eternal Governor both of heaven and earth. </p> <p> The temptations of Joseph, by the wife of Potiphar, bear no very distant resemblance to the temptations of the Lord Jesus by Satan. The trial to the one, was the lusts of the flesh; the trial to the other, was the pride of life. But the grace imparted to Joseph, to repel the temptation, and the punishment he suffered by a false imputation, very beautifully set forth the innocency of [[Christ]] triumphing over the Devil's temptation in the wilderness, and the imputation of our sin to Jesus, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, though himself without sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. In the exaltation of Joseph at the right hand of Pharaoh, and all the famished country coming to him for bread, we behold a lovely type, indeed, of our [[Almighty]] Joseph exalted at the right hand of God, and dispensing blessings of grace and mercy in the living bread, which is himself, to a famished world. And as then the Zapnathpaaneah of [[Egypt]] revealed secrets, and the cry was, Go unto Joseph, what he saith unto you do: so now, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we do, indeed, behold our [[Wonderful]] Counsellor, who hath made known to us his and his Father's will, and the one desire of every soul is, to go unto Jesus, whatsoever he saith unto us is blessed, and our duty to obey. </p> <p> In the going down of [[Israel]] into Egypt with all his house, constrained by famine to seek bread-what a striking portrait is here also drawn of the true Israel of God, constrained by the famine of soul to seek to Jesus for supply. And though like the brethren of Joseph, little do we at first know, that the Lord of the country is our brother, though in the first awakenings of spiritual want the Governor may seem with us, as Joseph did to them, to speak roughly; yet when the whole comes to be opened tour view, and Jesus is indeed discovered to be Lord of all the land, how, like Joseph's brethren, are we immediately made glad, and eat and drink at his table with him, forgetting all past sorrow in present joy, and partaking of that "bread of life, of which whosoever eateth shall live forever!" Such, among many other striking particularities, are the incidents in the history of the patriarch Joseph, which are highly typical of Christ. </p> <p> Under the article of Joseph we must not forget to observe, that there are several more of the name mentioned in Scripture, and of some importance: </p> <p> ·Joseph the husband of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 1:15; Mat 1:18. </p> <p> ·Joseph, or Joses, son of Mary and Cleophas, supposed to be one of those who did not at first believe on Christ, but was afterwards converted, John 7:5. </p> <p> ·Joseph, called Barsabas, a candidate for the apostleship with Matthias. See Acts 1:23. </p> <p> ·Joseph of Arimathea, John 19:38. </p> <p> ·Joseph, husband to Salome. </p>
== Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_52144" /> ==
        <p> <strong> JOSEPH </strong> (in OT and Apocr. [Note: Apocrypha, Apocryphal.] ). <strong> 1. </strong> The patriarch. See next article. <strong> 2. </strong> A man of [[Issachar]] ( Numbers 13:7 ). <strong> 3. </strong> A son of [[Asaph]] ( 1 Chronicles 25:2; 1 Chronicles 25:9 ). <strong> 4. </strong> One of the sons of Bani who had married a foreign wife ( Ezra 10:42 ); called in 1Es 9:34 <strong> Josephus. 5. </strong> A priest ( Nehemiah 12:14 ). <strong> 6. </strong> An ancestor of [[Judith]] ( Jdt 8:1 ). <strong> 7. </strong> An officer of [[Judas]] Maccabæus ( 1Ma 5:18; 1Ma 5:56; 1Ma 5:60 ). <strong> 8. </strong> In 2Ma 8:22 , and probably also 10:19, [[Joseph]] is read by mistake for <strong> John </strong> , one of the brothers of Judas Maccabæus. </p> <p> <strong> JOSEPH. </strong> Jacob’s eleventh son, the elder of the two sons of Rachel; born in Haran. The name is probably contracted from <em> Jehoseph </em> ( Psalms 81:5 ), ‘May God add’ (cf. [[Genesis]] 30:23 f., where etymologies from two sources are given). Joseph is the principal hero of the later chapters of Genesis, which are composed mainly of extracts from three documents. J [Note: Jahwist.] and E [Note: Elohist.] supply the bulk of the narrative, and as a rule are cited alternately, the compiler often modifying a quotation from one document with notes derived from the other. From P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] some six or seven short excerpts are made, the longest being Genesis 46:6-27 , where the object and the parenthetic quality are evident. For the details of analysis, see Driver <em> LOT </em> <em> [Note: OT Introd. to the Literature of the Old Testament.] </em> 6 , 17 ff. The occasional differences of tradition are an evidence of original independence, and their imperfect harmonization in the joint narrative is favourable to its substantial historicity. </p> <p> At present the date of Joseph can be only provisionally fixed, as the account of his life neither mentions the name of the ruling [[Pharaoh]] nor refers to distinctive [[Egyptian]] manners or customs in such a way as to yield a clue to the exact period. The Pharaoh of the oppression is now generally taken to be [[Rameses]] ii. of the 19th dynasty ( <em> c </em> <em> [Note: circa, about.] </em> . b.c. 1275 1208); and if this be correct, the addition of the years of residence in [[Egypt]] ( Exodus 12:41 ) would bring Joseph’s term of office into the reign of the later [[Hyksos]] kings ( <em> c </em> <em> [Note: circa, about.] </em> . b.c. 2098 1587; for dates and particulars, see Petrie, <em> History of Egypt </em> ). </p> <p> With the return of [[Jacob]] to [[Hebron]] ( Genesis 35:27 ) he ceases to be the central figure of the story, and Joseph takes his place. Of his life to the age of 17 ( Genesis 37:2 ) nothing is told, except that he was his father’s favourite, and rather too free in carrying complaints of his brothers and telling them of his boyish dreams. Sent to Shechem, he found that his brothers had taken their flocks northwards fifteen miles, to the richer pasturage of Dothan. As soon as he came within sight, their resentment perceived its opportunity, and they arranged to get rid of him and his dreams; but the two traditions are not completely harmonized. J [Note: Jahwist.] represents [[Judah]] as inducing his brothers to sell Joseph to a company of Ishmaelites; but E [Note: Elohist.] makes [[Reuben]] a mediator, whose plans were frustrated by a band of Midianites, who had in the interval kidnapped Joseph and stolen him away ( Genesis 40:15 ). The phraseology is against the identification of the two companies; and the divergent traditions point to a natural absence of real agreement among the brothers, with a frustration of their purposes by means of which they were ignorant. What became of Joseph they did not really know; and to protect themselves they manufactured the evidence of the blood-stained coat. </p> <p> In Egypt, Joseph was bought by Potiphar, a court official, whose title makes him chief of the royal butchers and hence of the body-guard; and the alertness and trustworthiness of the slave led quickly to his appointment as <em> major domo </em> (Egyp. <em> mer-per </em> ), a functionary often mentioned on the monuments (Erman, <em> Life in Anc. Egypt </em> , 187 f.). Everything prospered under Joseph’s management; but his comeliness and courtesy attracted the notice of his master’s wife, whose advances, being repelled, were transformed into a resentment that knew no scruples. By means of an entirely false charge she secured the removal of Joseph to the State prison, which was under the control of [[Potiphar]] ( Genesis 40:3 ), and where again he was soon raised to the position of overseer or under-keeper. Under his charge were placed in due course the chief of the Pharaoh’s butlers and the chief of his bakers, who had for some unstated reason incurred the royal displeasure. Both were perplexed with dreams, which Joseph interpreted to them correctly. Two years later the Pharaoh himself had his duplicated dream of the fat and lean kine and of the full and thin ears; and as much significance was attached in Egypt to dreams, the king was distressed by his inability to find an interpreter, and ‘his spirit was troubled.’ Thereupon the chief butler recalled Joseph’s skill and his own indebtedness to him, and mentioned him to the Pharaoh, who sent for him, and was so impressed by his sagacity and foresight that exaltation to the rank of keeper of the royal seal followed, with a degree of authority that was second only to that of the throne. The Egyptian name of <strong> Zaphenath-paneah </strong> (of which the meaning is perhaps ‘The God spake and he came into life,’ suggesting that the bearer of the name owed his promotion to the [[Divine]] use of him as revealer of the Divine will) was conferred upon him, and he married <strong> [[Asenath]] </strong> , daughter of one of the most important dignitaries in the realm, the priest of the great national temple of the sun at On or Heliopolis, seven miles north-east of the modern Cairo. </p> <p> So far as Egypt was concerned, Joseph’s policy was to store the surplus corn of the years of plenty in granaries, and afterwards so to dispose of it as to change the system of land-tenure. Famines in that country are due generally to failure or deficiency in the annual inundation of the Nile, and several of long endurance have been recorded. Brugsch ( <em> Hist </em> . 2 i. 304) reports an inscription, coinciding in age approximately with that of Joseph, and referring to a famine lasting ‘many years,’ during which a distribution of corn was made. This has been doubtfully identified with Joseph’s famine. Other inscriptions of the kind occur, and are sufficient to authenticate the fact of prolonged famines, though not to yield further particulars of the one with which Joseph had to deal. His method was to sell corn first for money (rings of gold, whose weight was certified by special officials), and when all this was exhausted ( Genesis 47:15 ), corn was given in exchange for cattle of every kind, and finally for the land. The morality of appropriating the surplus produce and then compelling the people to buy it back, must not be judged by modern standards of justice, but is defensible, if at all, only in an economic condition where the central government was responsible for the control of a system of irrigation upon which the fertility of the soil and the produce of its cultivation directly depended, and where the private benefit of the individual had to be ignored in view of a peril threatening the community. Instead of regarding the arrangement as a precedent to be followed in different states of civilization, ground has been found in it for charging Joseph with turning the needs of the people into an occasion for oppressing them; and certainly the effect upon the character and subsequent condition of the people was not favourable. The system of tenure in existence before, by which large landed estates were held by private proprietors, was changed into one by which all the land became the property of the crown, the actual cultivators paying a rental of one-fifth of the produce ( Genesis 47:24 ). That some such change took place is clear from the monuments (cf. Erman, <em> Life in Anc. Egypt </em> , 102), though they have not yielded the name of the author or the exact date of the change. An exception was made in favour of the priests ( Genesis 47:22 ), who were supported by a fixed income in kind from the Pharaoh, and therefore had no need to part with their land. In later times (cf. [[Diodorus]] Siculus, i. 73 f.) the land was owned by the kings, the priests, and the members of a military caste; and it is not likely that the system introduced by Joseph lasted long after his death. The need of rewarding the services of successful generals or partisans would be a strong temptation to the expropriation of some of the royal lands. </p> <p> The peculiarity of the famine was that it extended over the neighbouring countries ( Genesis 41:56 f.); and that is the fact of significance in regard to the history of Israel, with which the narrative in consequence resumes contact. The severity of the famine in [[Canaan]] led Jacob to send all his sons except [[Benjamin]] ( Genesis 42:4 ) to buy corn in Egypt. On their arrival they secured an interview with Joseph, and prostrated themselves before him ( Genesis 37:7 , Genesis 42:6 ); but in the grown man, with his shaven face [on the monuments only foreigners and natives of inferior rank are represented as wearing beards] and Egyptian dress, they entirely failed to recognize their brother. The rough accusation that they were spies in search of undefended ways by which the country might be invaded from the east, on which side lines of posts and garrisons were maintained under two at least of the dynasties, aroused their fears, and an attempt was made to allay Joseph’s suspicions by detailed information. Joseph catches at the opportunity of discovering the truth concerning Benjamin, and, after further confirming in several ways the apprehensions of his brothers, retains one as a hostage in ward and sends the others home. On their return ( Genesis 42:35 E [Note: Elohist.] ), or at the first lodging-place ( Genesis 42:27 J [Note: Jahwist.] ) on the way, the discovery of their money in their sacks increased their anxiety, and for a time their father positively refused to consent to further dealings with Egypt. At length his resolution broks down under the pressure of the famine ( Genesis 43:11 ff.). In Egypt the sons were received courteously, and invited to a feast in Joseph’s house, where they were seated according to their age ( Genesis 43:33 ), and Benjamin was singled out for the honour of a special ‘mess’ (cf. 2 Samuel 11:8 ) as a mark of distinction. They set out homewards in high spirits, unaware that Joseph had directed that each man’s money should be placed in his sack, and his own divining-cup of silver ( Genesis 44:5; the method of divination was hydromancy an article was thrown into a vessel of water, and the movements of the water were thought to reveal the unknown) in that of Benjamin. Overtaken at almost their first halting-place, they were charged with theft, and returned in a body to Joseph’s house. His reproaches elicited a frank and pathetic speech from Judah, after which Joseph could no longer maintain his <em> incognito </em> . He allayed the fears of his conscience-stricken brothers by the assurance that they had been the agents of [[Providence]] ‘to preserve life’ ( Genesis 45:5; cf. Psalms 105:17 ff.); and in the name of the Pharaoh he invited them with their father to settle in Egypt, with the promise of support during the five years of famine that remained. </p> <p> Goshen, a pastoral district in the [[Delta]] about forty miles north-east of Cairo, was selected for the new home of Jacob. The district was long afterwards known as ‘the land of Rameses’ ( Genesis 47:11 ) from the care spent upon it by the second king of that name, who often resided there, and founded several cities in the neighbourhood. In Egypt swine-herds and cow-herds were ‘an abomination’ to the people ( Genesis 46:34; cf. Hdt. ii. 47, and Erman, <em> op. cit. </em> 439f.), but there is no independent evidence that shepherds were, and the contempt must be regarded as confined to those whose duties brought them into close contact with cattle, for the rearing of cattle received much attention, the superintendent of the royal herds being frequently mentioned in the inscriptions. Joseph’s household and brothers flourished during the seventeen years ( Genesis 47:27 f.) Jacob lived in Egypt. Before his death he blessed Joseph’s two sons, giving preference to the younger in view of the greatness of the tribe to be derived from him, and leaving to Joseph himself one portion above his brethren, viz. [[Shechem]] ( Genesis 48:22 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ). After mourning for the royal period of seventy days ( Genesis 50:3; cf. Diod. Sic. i. 72), Joseph buried his father with great pomp in the cave of Machpelah, and cheered his brothers by a renewed promise to nourish and help them. He is said to have survived to the age of 110 ( Genesis 50:22 ), and to have left injunctions that his body should be conveyed to Canaan when [[Israel]] was restored. The body was carefully embalmed ( Genesis 50:26 ), and enclosed in a mummy-case or sarcophagus. In due course it was taken charge of by [[Moses]] ( Exodus 13:19 ), and eventually buried at Shechem ( Joshua 24:32 ). </p> <p> Of the general historicity of the story of Joseph there need be no doubt. Allowance may be made for the play of imagination in the long period that elapsed before the traditions were reduced to writing in their present form, and for the tendency to project the characteristics of a tribe backwards upon some legendary hero. But the incidents are too natural and too closely related to be entirely a product of fiction; and the Egyptian colouring, which is common to both of the principal documents, is fatal to any theory that resolves the account into a mere elaboration in a distant land of racial pride. Joseph’s own character, as depicted, shows no traces of constructive art, but is consistent and singularly attractive. Dutifulness ( 1Ma 2:53 ) is perhaps its keynote, manifested alike in the resistance of temptation, in uncomplaining patience in misfortune, and in the modesty with which he bore his elevation to rank and power. Instead of using opportunities for the indulgence of resentment, he recognizes the action of Providence, and nourishes the brothers ( Sir 49:15 ) who had lost all brotherly affection for him. On the other hand, there are blemishes which should be neither exaggerated nor overlooked. In his youth there was a degree of vanity that made him rather unpleasant company. That his father was left so long in ignorance of his safety in Egypt may have been unavoidable, but leaves a suspicion of inconsiderateness. When invested with authority he treated the people in a way that would now be pronounced tyrannical and unjust, enriching and strengthening the throne at the expense of their woe; though, judged by the standards of his own day, the charge may not equally lie. On the whole, a very high place must be given him among the early founders of his race. In strength of right purpose he was second to none, whilst in the graces of reverence and kindness, of insight and assurance, he became the type of a faith that is at once personal and national ( Hebrews 11:22 ), and allows neither misery nor a career of triumph to eclipse the sense of Divine destiny. </p> <p> R. W. Moss. </p> <p> <strong> JOSEPH </strong> (in NT). <strong> 1. 2. </strong> Two ancestors of our Lord, Luke 3:24; Luke 3:30 . </p> <p> <strong> 3. The husband of Mary and ‘father’ of Jesus. </strong> Every Jew kept a record of his lineage, and was very proud if he could claim royal or priestly descent; and Joseph could boast himself ‘a son of David’ ( Matthew 1:20 ). His family belonged to Bethlehem, David’s city, but he had migrated to [[Nazareth]] ( Luke 2:4 ), where he followed the trade of carpenter ( Matthew 13:55 ). He was betrothed to Mary, a maiden of Nazareth, being probably much her senior, though the tradition of the apocryphal <em> History of Joseph </em> that he was in his ninety-third year and she in her fifteenth is a mere fable. The tradition that he was a widower and had children by his former wife probably arose in the interest of the dogma of Mary’s perpetual virginity. The [[Evangelists]] tell us little about him, but what they do tell redounds to his credit. (1) He was a pious Israelite, faithful in his observance of the [[Jewish]] ordinances ( Luke 2:21-24 ) and feasts ( Luke 2:41-42 ). (2) He was a kindly man. When he discovered the condition of his betrothed, he drew the natural inference and decided to disown her, but he would do it as quietly as possible, and, so far as he might, spare her disgrace. And, when he was apprised of the truth, he was very kind to Mary. On being summoned to [[Bethlehem]] by the requirements of the census, he would not leave her at home to suffer the slanders of misjudging neighbours, but took her with him and treated her very gently in her time of need ( Luke 2:1-7 ). (3) He exhibited this disposition also in his nurture of the [[Child]] so wondrously entrusted to his care, taking Him to his heart and well deserving to be called His ‘father’ ( Luke 2:33; Luke 2:41; Luke 2:48 , Matthew 13:55 , John 1:45; John 6:42 ). Joseph never appears in the [[Gospel]] story after the visit to [[Jerusalem]] when [[Jesus]] had attained the age of twelve years and become ‘a son of the Law’ ( Luke 2:41-51 ); and since Mary always appears alone in the narratives of the public ministry, it is a reasonable inference that he had died during the interval. Tradition says that he died at the age of one hundred and eleven years, when Jesus was eighteen. </p> <p> 4. One of the Lord’s brethren, Matthew 13:55 , where AV [Note: Authorized Version.] reads <strong> [[Joses]] </strong> , the [[Greek]] form of the name. Cf. Mark 6:3 . </p> <p> <strong> 5. Joseph of Arimathæa. </strong> A wealthy and devout [[Israelite]] and a member of the Sanhedrim. He was a disciple of Jesus, but, dreading the hostility of his colleagues, he kept his faith secret. He took no part in the condemnation of Jesus, but neither did he protest against it; and the likelihood is that he prudently absented himself from the meeting. When all was over, he realized how cowardly a part he had played, and, stricken with shame and remorse, plucked up courage and ‘went in unto Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus’ ( Mark 15:43 ). It was common for friends of the crucified to purchase their bodies, which would else have been cast out as refuse, a prey to carrion birds and beasts, and give them decent burial; and Joseph would offer Pilate his price; in any case he obtained the body ( Mark 15:45 ). Joseph had a garden close to Calvary, where he had hewn a sepulchre in the rock for his own last resting-place; and there, aided by Nicodemus, he laid the body swathed in clean linen ( Matthew 27:57-61 = Mark 15:42-47 = Luke 23:50-56 = John 19:38-42 ). </p> <p> <strong> 6. Joseph Barsabbas </strong> , the disciple who was nominated against [[Matthias]] as successor to Judas in the Apostolate. He was surnamed, like James the Lord’s brother, <em> [[Justus]] </em> ( Acts 1:23 ). Tradition says that he was one of the [[Seventy]] ( Luke 10:1 ). <strong> 7. </strong> See Barnabas. </p> <p> [[David]] Smith. </p>
== Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament <ref name="term_56332" /> ==
        <p> ( Ἰωσήφ) </p> <p> <b> 1. The elder of Jacob’s two sons </b> by Rachel, the eleventh Patriarch, the ancestor of the tribes of [[Ephraim]] and Manasseh. In St. Stephen’s address before the [[Sanhedrin]] reference is made to Joseph’s being sold by his brothers, God’s presence with him in Egypt, his promotion to be governor of the land, his manifestation of himself to his brethren, his invitation to his father and all his kindred to migrate to [[Egypt]] ( Acts 7:9-14), and finally, at a much later date, the rise of a [[Pharaoh]] who ‘knew not Joseph’ (7:18). </p> <p> The question of the historicity of the narrative in [[Genesis]] was never raised by the Apostolic Church, nor by the modern [[Church]] till the dawn of the age of criticism. The critical verdict is that the story is based upon facts which have been idealized in the spirit of the earlier [[Hebrew]] prophets. That the tradition of a Hebrew minister in Egypt, who saved the country in time of famine, ‘should be true in essentials is by no means improbable’ (J. Skinner, <i> Genesis </i> [ <i> International Critical [[Commentary]] </i> , 1910] 441). Driver thinks it credible that an actual person, named Joseph, ‘underwent <i> substantially </i> the experiences recounted of him in Gn.’ ( <i> Hasting's Dictionary of the [[Bible]] (5 vols) </i> ii. 771 <sup> b </sup> ). See H. Gunkel, <i> Genesis </i> , 1910, p. 356f. </p> <p> In Hebrews 11:21 allusion is made to the blessing received by Joseph’s two sons from his dying father. In Hebrews 11:22 [[Joseph]] is placed on the roll of the ‘elders’-saints of the OT-who by their words and deeds gave evidence of their faith. The particular facts selected as proving his grasp of things unseen-which is the essence of faith ( Hebrews 11:1)-are his death-bed prediction of the exodus of the children of [[Israel]] and his commandment regarding the disposal of his bones ( Genesis 50:24-25; cf. Joshua 24:32). Though he was an [[Egyptian]] governor, speaking the Egyptian language, and married to an Egyptian wife, he was at heart an unchanged Hebrew, and his dying eyes beheld the land from which he had been exiled as a boy, the homeland of every true Israelite. </p> <p> <b> 2. Joseph Barsabbas </b> , surnamed <b> [[Justus]] </b> , was one of those who accompanied [[Jesus]] during His whole public ministry and witnessed His Resurrection. He was therefore nominated, along with Matthias, for the office made vacant by the treachery and death of [[Judas]] [[Iscariot]] ( Acts 1:21-23). After prayer ‘the lot fell upon Matthias’ ( Acts 1:26). It is admitted even by radical critics that Jesus deliberately chose twelve disciples (corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel), and it was natural that these should seek to keep their sacred number unimpaired. The name ‘Barsabbas’ (or ‘Barsabas,’ C, [[Vulgate]] , Syrr.) has been variously explained as ‘child of the Sabbath,’ ‘son of Sheba,’ ‘warrior,’ or ‘old man’s son.’ The [[Roman]] surname <i> Justus </i> was adopted in accordance with a [[Jewish]] custom which prevailed at the time-cf. ‘John whose surname was Marcus’ ( Acts 12:12; Acts 12:25), and ‘Saul, who is also Paulus’ ( Acts 13:9). It is a natural conjecture-no more-that this Joseph was the brother of Judas Barsabbas ( Acts 15:22). [[Eusebius]] ( <i> HE </i> <sup> [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).] </sup> i. 12) regards him as one of ‘the Seventy’ ( Luke 10:1), and records (iii. 39) that a ‘wonderful event happened respecting Justus, surnamed Barsabbas, who, though he drank a deadly poison, experienced nothing injurious ( μηδὲν ἀηδές), by the grace of God.’ </p> <p> <b> 3. Joseph </b> , surnamed <b> [[Barnabas]] </b> ( Acts 4:36). See Barnabas. </p> <p> James Strahan. </p>
== Morrish Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_67182" /> ==
        <p> Eleventh son of [[Jacob]] and first of Rachel. The interesting history of [[Joseph]] is too well known to need being given in its detail, but attention should be given to the many respects in which Joseph was a striking type of the Lord Jesus. He was the beloved one of his father: this with the intimations given to him of his future position, destined for him by God in the midst of his family, stirred up the envy of his brethren and resulted in his being sold to the Gentiles: as the Lord was hated by His brethren the Jews, and sold by one of them. Joseph was accounted as dead. He was brought very low, being cast into prison, under a false accusation against him because he would not sin: his feet were 'made fast in the stocks,' and the iron entered his soul: in all these circumstances he was foreshadowing the Lord in His humiliation. </p> <p> On the elevation of Joseph to power he was unknown to his brethren, as the Lord in exaltation is now to His brethren after the flesh. During thistime he had a [[Gentile]] wife and children and became 'fruitful': so while the Lord is rejected by the Jews, God is gathering from the nations a people for His name. Joseph ruled over the Gentiles, as the Lord will do. Then all Joseph's brethren bowed down to him, as eventually all the twelve tribes will bow down to the Lord. This is followed by all the descendants of Jacob being placed in a fruitful part of the country, as the nation will be gathered to the pleasant land in the millennium. </p> <p> The beautiful and touching way in which Joseph dealt with his brethren, will be repeated in a magnified way by the Lord's tender and loving dealing with the remnant of [[Judah]] when they come to speak to Him about the wounds in His hands, and to mourn over the way He was treated by them. They will then see that, notwithstanding their hatred, He laid the foundation in His death for their future blessing. </p> <p> When Jacob prophetically blessed His sons, Joseph had a prominent place. [[Genesis]] 49:22-26 . He was to be very fruitful, with branches running over the wall: so the blessing of [[Israel]] through [[Christ]] extends to the Gentiles. He was sorely grieved, hated, and shot at, as was the Lord; but his bow abode in strength, and from him was the shepherd, the stone of Israel (two titles of the Lord). Then the blessings of heaven and of the deep, of the breasts and of the womb, are multiplied on the head and on the crown of Joseph, as the one separated from his brethren: all foreshadowing, though to be far exceeded by, the many crowns and the glory in heaven and on earth of the true Nazarite, now sanctified in heavenly glory, the Lord Jesus. For the blessing by [[Moses]] cf. Deuteronomy 33:13-17 . Joseph, when about to die, had faith that God would surely deliver Israel from [[Egypt]] and gave directions concerning his bones. Genesis 37 — Genesis 50; Exodus 13:19 . For the [[Egyptian]] king under whom it is supposed that Joseph lived, see EGYPT. </p> <p> 2. Father of Igal, of Issachar. Numbers 13:7 . </p> <p> 3. Son of Asaph: appointed to the service of song. 1 Chronicles 25:2,9 . </p> <p> 4. One who had married a strange wife. Ezra 10:42 . </p> <p> 5. [[Priest]] 'of Shebaniah' who returned from exile. Nehemiah 12:14 . </p> <p> 6. [[Husband]] of Mary the mother of Jesus. He was 'a just man,' and was obedient to the instructions he received from God as to his wife, and in protecting the infant Jesus. He was of the house and lineage of David, his genealogy being given in Matthew 1 and perhaps in Luke 3 . The visit to Jerusalem, when the Lord was twelve years old, is the last incident recorded of him. He is once called 'the carpenter,' Matthew 13:55 , as is the Lord also in Mark 6:3 . It was a custom for all Jews to learn a trade. Matthew 1:16-25; Matthew 2:13,19; Luke 1:27; Luke 2:4-43; Luke 3:23; Luke 4:22; John 1:45; John 6:42 . </p> <p> 7. Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, and a rich man. He was a secret disciple of Jesus, and had not consented to the action of the [[Sanhedrim]] in condemning the Lord. He boldly asked for the body of Jesus, and interred it in his own new tomb, thus fulfilling Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57,59; Mark 15:43; Luke 23:50; John 19:38 . </p> <p> 8-10. Son of Mattathias; son of Juda; and son of [[Jonan]] — three in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. Luke 3:24,26,30 . </p> <p> 11. Disciple, also called BARSABAS, surnamed JUSTUS, who, with Matthias, was selected as fit to take the place of Judas, but the lot fell on Matthias. Acts 1:23 . </p>
== People's Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_70341" /> ==
        <p> [[Joseph]] ( jô'zef), increase, 1. The elder of Jacob's two sons by Rachel, [[Genesis]] 37:3, and beloved by his father. The gift of the new robe, or coat of many colors, was perhaps intended to give him the rights of primogeniture, as the son of his first wife, in place of [[Reuben]] who had forfeited them. Genesis 35:22; 1 Chronicles 5:1. He was born in Mesopotamia. Genesis 30:22-24. By a wonderful providence of God he was raised from a prison to be the chief ruler of [[Egypt]] under Pharaoh. "The story of his father's fondness, of his protest against sin among his brothers, of their jealous hostility and his prophetic dreams, of his sale by his brethren to [[Midianites]] and by them to [[Potiphar]] in Egypt, of the divine favor on his pure and prudent life, his imprisonment for three to twelve years for virtue's sake, his wonderful exaltation to power and his wise use of it for the good of the nation, of his tender and reverent care of his father, his magnanimity to his brethren, and his faith in the future of God's chosen people, is one of the most pleasing and instructive in the Bible, and is related in language inimitably natural, simple, and touching. It is too beautiful for abridgment, and too familiar to need full rehearsal."— Hand. The history of Joseph is strikingly confirmed by the [[Egyptian]] monuments. Joseph married the princess Asenath, daughter of Potipherah, priest of On; and his two sons, [[Manasseh]] and Ephraim, Genesis 41:50, whom [[Jacob]] adopted. Genesis 48:5, became the heads of two of the twelve tribes of Israel. 2. The son of Heli and reputed father of [[Jesus]] Christ. He was a just man, and of the house and lineage of David. He lived at [[Nazareth]] in Galilee. He espoused Mary, the daughter and heir of his uncle Jacob, and before he took her home his wife received the angelic communication recorded in Matthew 1:20. When Jesus was twelve years old, Joseph took his mother and Jesus to keep the passover at Jerusalem, and when they returned to Nazareth he continued to act as a father to the child Jesus, and was reputed to be so indeed. But here our knowledge of Joseph ends. That he died before our Lord's crucifixion is indeed tolerably certain, by what is related, John 19:27; and, perhaps, Mark 6:3, may imply that he was then dead. But where, when, or how he died, we know not. 3. Joseph of Arimathæa, a rich and pious Israelite, probably a member of the Great [[Council]] or Sanhedrin. He is further characterized as "a good man and a just." Luke 23:50. We are told that he did not "consent to the counsel and deed" of his colleagues in the death of Jesus. On the evening of the crucifixion Joseph "went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus." Pilate consented. Joseph and [[Nicodemus]] then, having enfolded the sacred body in the linen shroud which Joseph had bought, placed it in a tomb hewn in a rock, in a garden belonging to Joseph, and close to the place of crucifixion. There is a tradition that he was one of the seventy disciples. 4. Joseph, called Barsabas, and surnamed Justus: one of the two persons chosen by the assembled church, Acts 1:23, as worthy to fill the place in the apostolic company from which [[Judas]] had fallen. </p>
== Smith's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_73468" /> ==
        <p> Jo'seph. (increase). </p> <p> 1. The elder of the two sons of Jacob, by Rachel. He was born in Padan-aram (Mesopotamia), probably about B.C. 1746. He is first mentioned when a youth, seventeen years old. [[Joseph]] brought the evil report of his brethren to his father, and they hated him because his father loved him more than he did them, and had shown his preference by making a dress which appears to have been a long tunic with sleeves, worn by youths and maidens of the richer class. [[Genesis]] 37:2. </p> <p> He dreamed a dream foreshadowing his future power, which increased the hatred of his brethren. Genesis 37:5-7. He was sent by his father to visit his brothers, who were tending flocks in the fields of Dothan. They resolved to kill him, but he was saved by Reuben, who persuaded the brothers to cast Joseph into a dry pit, to the intent that he might restore him to Jacob. The appearance of the [[Ishmaelites]] suggested his sale for "twenty pieces (shekels) of silver." Genesis 37:28. Sold into [[Egypt]] to Potiphar, Joseph prospered and was soon set over Potiphar's house, and "all he had he gave into his hand;" but incurring the anger of Potiphar's wife, Genesis 39:7-13, he was falsely accused and thrown into prison, where he remained at least two years, interpreting during this time the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker. </p> <p> Finally [[Pharaoh]] himself dreamed two prophetic dreams. Joseph, being sent for, interpreted them in the name of God, foretelling the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine. Pharaoh, at once, appointed Joseph, not merely governor of Egypt, but second only to the sovereign, and also gave him to wife Asenath, daughter of [[Potipherah]] priest of On (Hieropolis), and gave him a name or title, Zaphnath-paaneah. (preserver of life). Joseph's first act was to go throughout all the land of Egypt. </p> <p> During the seven plenteous years, there was a very abundant produce, and he gathered the fifth part and laid it up. When the seven good years had passed, the famine began. Genesis 41:54-57. See [[Famine]] . After the famine had lasted for a time, apparently two years, Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they brought, and brought it into Pharaoh's house, Genesis 47:13-14, and when the money was exhausted, all the cattle, and finally all the land, except that of the priests, and apparently, as a consequence, the Egyptians themselves. He demanded, however, only a fifth part of the produce as Pharaoh's right. </p> <p> Now Jacob, who had suffered also from the effects of the famine, sent Joseph's brother to Egypt for corn. The whole story of Joseph's treatment of his brethren is so graphically told in Genesis, Genesis 42-45, and is so familiar, that it is unnecessary here to repeat it. On the death of [[Jacob]] in Egypt, Joseph carried him to Canaan, and laid him in the cave of Machpelah, the burying-place of his fathers. </p> <p> Joseph lived "a hundred and ten years," having been more than ninety in Egypt. Dying, he took an oath of his brethren that they should carry up his bones to the land of promise: thus showing in his latest action, the faith, Hebrews 11:22, which had guided his whole life. Like his father, he was embalmed, "and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." Genesis 50:26. His trust, [[Moses]] kept, and laid the bones of Joseph in his inheritance in Shechem, in the territory of Ephraim, his offspring. His tomb is, according to tradition, about a stone's throw from Jacob's well. </p> <p> 2. Father of Igal, who represented the tribe of [[Issachar]] among the spies. Numbers 13:7. </p> <p> 3. A lay [[Israelite]] who had married a foreign wife. Ezra 10:42. (B.C. 459). </p> <p> 4. A representative of the priestly family of Shebaniah. Nehemiah 12:14. (B.C. after 536). </p> <p> 5. One of the ancestors of Christ, son of Jonan. Luke 3:30. </p> <p> 6. Another ancestor of Christ, son of Judah. Luke 3:26. (B.C. between 536-410). </p> <p> 7. Another ancestor of Christ, son of Mattathias. Luke 3:24. (B.C. after 400). </p> <p> 8. Son of Heli, and reputed father of [[Jesus]] Christ. All that is told us of Joseph in the New [[Testament]] may be summed up in a few words. He was a just man, and of the house and lineage of David. He lived at [[Nazareth]] in Galilee. He espoused Mary, the daughter and heir of his uncle Jacob, and before he took her home as his wife, received the angelic communication recorded in Matthew 1:20. </p> <p> When Jesus was twelve years old, Joseph and Mary took him with them to keep the [[Passover]] at Jerusalem, and when they returned to Nazareth, he continued to act as a father to the child Jesus, and was reputed to be so indeed. But here, our knowledge of Joseph ends. That he died before our Lord's crucifixion is indeed tolerably certain, by what is related, John 19:27, and perhaps , Mark 6:3, may imply that he was then dead. But where, when or how he died we know not. </p> <p> 9. Joseph of Arimathaea, a rich and pious Israelite, probably a member of the Great [[Council]] or Sanhedrin. He is further characterized as "a good man and a just." Luke 23:50. We are expressly told that he did not "consent to the counsel and deed" of his colleagues in conspiring to bring about the death of Jesus; but he seems to have lacked the courage to protest against their judgment. </p> <p> On the very evening of the crucifixion, when the triumph of the chief priests and rulers seemed complete, Joseph "went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus." Pilate consented. Joseph and [[Nicodemus]] then, having enfolded the sacred body in the linen shroud which Joseph had bought, consigned it to a tomb hewn in a rock, in a garden belonging to Joseph, and close to the place of crucifixion. There is a tradition that he was one of the seventy disciples. </p> <p> 10. Joseph, called Barsabas, and surnamed Justus; one of the two person chosen by the assembled church, Acts 1:23, as worthy to fill the place in the apostolic company from which [[Judas]] had fallen. </p>
== Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary <ref name="term_80963" /> ==
        <p> son of [[Jacob]] and Rachel, and brother to Benjamin, [[Genesis]] 30:22; Genesis 30:24 . The history of [[Joseph]] is so fully and consecutively given by Moses, that it is not necessary to abridge so familiar an account. In place of this, the following beautiful argument by Mr. Blunt for the veracity of the account drawn from the <em> identity </em> of Joseph's character, will be read with pleasure:—I have already found an argument for the veracity of [[Moses]] in the identity of Jacob's character, I now find another in the identity of that of Joseph. There is one quality, as it has been often observed, though with a different view from mine, which runs like a thread through his whole history, his affection for his father. [[Israel]] loved him, we read, more than all his children; he was the child of his age; his mother died while he was yet young, and a double care of him consequently devolved upon his surviving parent. He made him a coat of many colours; he kept him at home when his other sons were sent to feed the flocks. When the bloody garment was brought in, Jacob in his affection for him,—that same affection which, on a subsequent occasion, when it was told him that after all Joseph was alive, made him as slow to believe the good tidings as he was now quick to apprehend the sad; in this his affection for him, I say, Jacob at once concluded the worst, and "he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days, and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning." </p> <p> Now, what were the feelings in Joseph which responded to these? When the sons of Jacob went down to Egypt, and Joseph knew them, though they knew not him; for they, it may be remarked, were of an age not to be greatly changed by the lapse of years, and were still sustaining the character in which Joseph had always seen them; while he himself had meanwhile grown out of the stripling into the man, and from a shepherd boy was become the ruler of a kingdom; when his brethren thus came before him, his question was, "Is your father yet alive?" Genesis 43:7 . </p> <p> They went down a second time, and again the question was, "Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake, is he yet alive?" More he could not venture to ask, while he was yet in his disguise. By a stratagem he now detains Benjamin, leaving the others, if they would, to go their way. But [[Judah]] came near unto him, and entreated him for his brother, telling him how that he had been surety to his father to bring him back; how that his father was an old man, and that this was the child of his old age, and that he loved him; how it would come to pass that if he should not see the lad with him he would die, and his gray hairs be brought with sorrow to the grave; for "how shall I go to my father, and the lad be not with me, lest, peradventure, I see the evil that shall come on my father?" Here, without knowing it, he had struck the string that was the tenderest of all. Joseph's firmness forsook him at this repeated mention of his father, and in terms so touching: he could not refrain himself any longer; and, causing every man to go out, he made himself known to his brethren. Then, even in the paroxysm which came on him, (for he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard,) still his first words uttered from the fulness of his heart were, "Doth my father yet live?" He now bids them hasten and bring the old man down, bearing to him tokens of his love and tidings of his glory. He goes to meet him; he presents himself unto him, and falls on his neck, and weeps on his neck a good while; he provides for him and his household out of the fat of the land; he sets him before Pharaoh. By and by he hears that he is sick, and hastens to visit him; he receives his blessing; watches his death bed; embalms his body; mourns for him threescore and ten days; and then carries him, as he had desired, into [[Canaan]] to bury him, taking with him, as an escort to do him honour, "all the elders of Israel, and all the servants of Pharaoh, and all his house, and the house of his brethren, chariots, and horsemen, a very great company." How natural was it now for his brethren to think that the tie by which alone they could imagine Joseph to be held to them was dissolved, that any respect he might have felt or feigned for them must have been buried in the cave of Machpelah, and that he would now requite to them the evil they had done! "And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil." And then they add of themselves, as if well aware of the surest road to their brother's heart, "Forgive, we pray thee, the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father." In every thing the father's name is still put foremost: it is his memory which they count upon as their shield and buckler. </p> <p> It is not the singular beauty of these scenes, or the moral lesson they teach, excellent as it is, with which I am now concerned, but simply the perfect artless consistency which prevails through them all. It is not the constancy with which the son's strong affection for his father had lived through an interval of twenty years' absence, and, what is more, through the temptation of sudden promotion to the highest estate;—it is not the noble- minded frankness with which he still acknowledges his kindred, and makes a way for them, "shepherds" as they were, to the throne of [[Pharaoh]] himself;—it is not the simplicity and singleness of heart which allow him to give all the first-born of Egypt, men over whom he bore absolute rule, an opportunity of observing his own comparatively humble origin, by leading them in attendance upon his father's corpse to the valleys of Canaan and the modest cradle of his race;—it is not, in a word, the grace, but the <em> identity </em> of Joseph's character, the light in which it is exhibited by himself, and the light in which it is regarded by his brethren, to which I now point as stamping it with marks of reality not to be gainsayed. </p> <p> Some writers have considered Joseph as a type of Christ; and it requires not much ingenuity to find out some resemblances, as his being hated by his brethren, sold for money, plunged into deep affliction, and then raised to power and honour, &c; but as we have no intimation in any part of [[Scripture]] that Joseph was constituted a figure of our Lord, and that this was one design of recording his history at length, all such applications want authority, and cannot safely be indulged. The account seems rather to have been left for its moral uses, and that it should afford, by its inimitable simplicity and truth to nature, a point of irresistible internal evidence of the truth of the [[Mosaic]] narrative. </p> <p> <strong> 2. </strong> JOSEPH, the husband of Mary, and reputed father of Jesus, was the son of Jacob, and grandson of Matthan, Matthew 1:15-16 . The place of his stated residence was Nazareth, particularly after the time of his marriage. We learn from the evangelists that he followed the occupation of a carpenter, Matthew 13:55; and that he was a just man, or one of those pious Israelites who looked for the coming of the Messiah, Matthew 1:19 . It is probable that Joseph died before [[Christ]] entered upon his public ministry; for upon any other supposition we are at a loss to account for the reason why Mary, the mother of Jesus, is frequently mentioned in the evangelic narrative, while no allusion is made to Joseph; and, above all, why the dying [[Saviour]] should recommend his mother to the care of the beloved disciple John, if her husband had been then living, John 19:25-27 . </p> <p> <strong> 3. </strong> JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, a [[Jewish]] senator, and a believer in the divine mission of [[Jesus]] Christ, John 19:38 . St. Luke calls him a counsellor, and also informs us that he was a good and just man, who did not give his consent to the crucifixion of Christ, Luke 23:50-51 . And though he was unable to restrain the sanhedrim from their wicked purposes, he went to Pilate by night, and solicited from him the body of Jesus. Having caused it to be taken down from the cross, he wrapped it in linen, and laid it in his own sepulchre, which, being a rich man, he appears to have recently purchased, and then closed the entrance with a stone cut purposely to fit it, Matthew 27:57-60; John 19:38-42 . </p>
== Whyte's Dictionary of Bible Characters <ref name="term_197288" /> ==
        <p> THE LORD WAS WITH JOSEPH </p> <p> JOSEPH, the future ruler of Egypt, was tlie late-born and the greatly-beloved son of [[Jacob]] and Rachel. [[Joseph]] inherited all his mother's proverbial gracefulness and sweetness and attractive beauty. And then Joseph's intellectual gifts were such that, taken along with the purity and the nobility of his character, they lifted him up out of a pit, and out of a prison, and set him in a seat of power and of honour scarcely second to the seat of [[Pharaoh]] himself. At the same time Joseph climbed up to that high seat through many great risks and out of many great sufferings; and he ran some of the greatest of those risks at the hand of his too-doting father. Were it not that our own hearts so continually condemn us, we would turn on Jacob with indignation for his mischievous treatment of Joseph. Can Jacob have forgotten the sea of trouble into which his father's favouritism, and his mother's indulgence, cast both themselves and their children? The woful harvest of all that long past folly is still making both Jacob's life and many other lives as bitter as death to this day; and vet here is Jacob poisoning the whole of his family life also, and spoiling Joseph, just as [[Isaac]] and [[Rebekah]] had spoiled and poisoned their own and their children's lives when Jacob and Esau were still their children. We would denounce Jacob for his insane treatment of Joseph were it not that we are all ourselves repeating sins and follies every day from which we and our families have suffered for generations. </p> <p> Joseph's coat of many colours was like to have been his winding-sheet, such was the envy and the hatred of his half-brothers at Rachel's well-favoured, richly-talented, and over-ornamented son. 'Our coats be of one colour; so should his,' grumbled Dan, and all Dan's brothers agreed with his spiteful and angry words. The patriarchs, moved with envy, says [[Stephen]] in the Acts, sold Joseph into [[Egypt]] And Jacob, on his death-bed, when he was blessing Joseph, said of him that the archers had hated him, and had shot their arrows at him, and had sorely wounded him. It is usual for mankind, says [[Josephus]] on the text, to envy their nearest relatives and their best friends for their eminence and for their prosperity. And yet, if Dan would but wait a little, and would but command himself a little, the brightness will soon begin to fade out of his brother's many-coloured coat. Let a short season run and there will be nothing to pain Dan's eye and to wring and heat his heart. Some other fond father will soon begin to clothe his spoiled son in a coat full of more and more brilliant colours than Joseph's coat; till Joseph's coat will be so eclipsed that he also will join the archers' ranks, and will shoot at his rival with their envious arrows. Another author will soon rise and will take the public taste. His new books will soon be on every table, and his new name in every mouth, till that success which so galls you today will be completely forgotten by you and forgiven. His crowded pews will before long begin to thin out, and new orators will spring up and will attract and draw off that preacher's painful crowd. And if none of these considerations will quiet Dan's evil eye, and if he really feels his eye to be an evil and a wicked and a murderous eye, let him take his evil eye to God. To whom else can such an eye as that bo taken? Let him lift his so sorely stung eye up to Joseph's God. Ask the God of love to consider you and to pity you. Ask Him not to spurn and spit on you. Ask Him to be merciful to your secret and incessant misery. Shut your door on God and yourself, and on your knees ask Him still to add to your brother's goodliness, and to his talents, and to his honour, and to his happiness, and to his usefulness; if only He will anoint your eyes with enough love, and if only He will take out of your eyes that same evil light that glanced so murderously in the patriarchs' eyes as often as they again saw Joseph in his shining coat. Importune Him to enable you to love Joseph, till you enjoy, as if they were your own, those so many and so shining colours of his coat. If ever [[Almighty]] God has wrought that salvation in Dan, or in any of Dan's brothers on this side the new Jerusalem, ask Him, for Christ's sake, to do it a little to you. </p> <p> Joseph was only seventeen years old when his two so intoxicating dreams came to him. You must always recall Joseph's unripe age, and his complete inexperience, before you blame him too much for the way he talked about his prerogatives and prospects of greatness. The time will come when all Joseph's splendid achievements, and all his matchless honour and glory, will not make Joseph open a lip about himself. But he was only seventeen as yet, and he had never been for an hour out of his father's flattering sight. And thus it was that Joseph's future modesty, and humility, and self-command, and knowledge of other men's hearts, and thoughtfulness for other men's feelings and temptations, had not yet begun to come to him. Had Joseph been but a little older, and had he been but once or twice at Dothan, he would have hidden his dreams in his heart like so many guilty secrets. But, innocent child that be was, he must up and out of his bed, and tell all his dreams to all the house. And so intent was he in what so much interested himself that he did not see the ugly looks on the faces of his brothers. And, like Joseph, till we are well past seventeen, and have been for some time away from home, we talk about nothing else but our own dreams also. Other men dreamed last night as well as we, but they never get their mouths open where we are. We talk the whole table down. We have just come home from the pulpit, or from the platform, or from the desk, or from the instrument, or from a visit, or from an entertainment, or from what not, and our vain hearts are full. We never think that all the other people at table are as full of themselves as we are. We never see that they also are bursting to get at the only topic that interests them, which is not at all the same topic that so interests us. We mistake that silence and that suspense. We think that all that silence and all that suspense means that all our audience are as full of our interests as we are ourselves, and are waiting to hear us. While all the time, they can scarcely command themselves with weariness and disgust. Be sure your company is as full of you as you are of yourself before you again give the reins to your galloping tongue. Be sure that they all worship you. Be sure that you are their god. Be sure that they are all your wife and children. Be sure that they have no interests, or occupations, or vanities of their own. Be sure of all their love and devotion and patience. In short, be sure that you are in heaven before you keep the whole house waiting to break their fast till you have told out to the end all your dreams of last night. And it came to pass that they stripped Joseph of his coat, his coat of many colours, that was upon him. And they took him and cast him into a pit, and then they sat down to eat bread. Is that another subtlety of Moses? Does [[Moses]] insinuate that Joseph's brothers had never till now sat down to eat bread in entire peace since the day that Joseph began to dream? With all their faults, Joseph would have been eating bread at that moment with the patriarchs but for his spotted coat and his irrepressible dreams. I overheard a conversation something like this not long ago: 'Shall we ask him to dinner, and invite So-and-so to meet him?' 'No, I think not.' 'Why?' 'Why? Because the last time he was with us he talked two mortal hours about himself, till everybody but himself must have seen contempt and disgust written as plain as day on every face. No. But if only he were not so full of himself, what a welcome guest he would be! And with such talents, and with such a position, what might he not do!' </p> <p> There are some men, on the other hand, whom you can never waylay into once opening their lips about themselves. Two such men stand out enviably and honourably to me in my acquaintance. And they are just the two men in all my acquaintance I would most like to hear on themselves. But, no. Never they. Whether it is pride-I sometimes think it is; or whether it is scorn of their company-as it may well be; or whether it is absence of mind, or age, or experience, or knowledge of the hearts of men, till they will not commit themselves to men, I am sometimes divided; but, be it what it may, I never yet saw either of them take up a single moment of Joseph's time. There is such a thing as having too much of a good thing. And there is a golden mean in this matter also, if Joseph from the one side, and my two friends from the other side, could only strike it. </p> <p> That dreadful pit in [[Dothan]] was the beginning of Joseph's salvation. The first night he spent in that pit recalled to Joseph's mind what his father had often told him of his first night from home, as also of that other night at the Jabbok. And as Joseph lay in that horrible pit, and dreamed and prayed, behold, the very same ladder of [[Bethel]] is let down into the bottom of the pit. 'I am the Lord God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob thy father. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest. For I will not leave thee till I have done all that which I have spoken to thee of.' And, all that night after, Joseph could think of nothing else but the sins of his youth; his vanity, his proud superiority and superciliousness to his brothers, his evil reports concerning his brothers, his talkativeness about himself, and all the temptations and provocations into which he had led his brothers. That deep pit was brimful of such remorseful thoughts and prayers, when [[Judah]] appeared at its mouth with cords and grappling irons to draw Joseph up to the daylight. But it was only to kill him with a far worse death; for that morning Joseph was sold to the [[Midianite]] slave-dealers of Egypt for twenty pieces of silver. [[Twenty]] pieces of silver was Joseph's whole price that day in Dothan. Those who know Joseph's after-history will flash forward their minds, and will contrast the [[Prime]] [[Minister]] of Pharaoh with that slave lad sold for that paltry price at the mouth of that pit that day. And, tomorrow, when you buy an apprentice, or a message boy, of his widowed mother for five shillings a week, think of Joseph for a moment, and say to yourself, Who knows what the future may have in store for my message boy and for me? Who knows how I may go down, while he goes up? Who knows the talents of God that may lie hidden in that friendless buy? Who knows what place he may be predestined to fill in the church and in the world? And even if he comes to nothing of all that; if he never becomes a great man, yet, even so, such thoughts, such imaginations, such forecasts will help you to treat him well, and will help to make you a good man and a good master, whatever your slave-boy may come, or may not come, to be. </p> <p> </p> <p> The good work that the pit in Dothan began in Joseph, those still more terrible days and nights on the way down to Egypt carried on. Lashed to the loaded side of a huge cane-waggon, and himself loaded with the baggage of [[Gilead]] for the [[Egyptian]] market, Joseph toiled on under the mid-day sun, thankful to be left alone of his churlish masters in the red-hot air. Put yourself in Joseph's place. The fondling of his father; a child on whom no wind was ever let blow, and no sun was ever let strike; with servants to wait on his every wish, and to dress and anoint him for every meal; with loving looks and fond words falling continually upon him from the day he was born; and now, lashed to the side of a slave caravan, and with the whistling whip of his [[Ishmaelite]] owner laid on his shoulder till he sank in the sand. But you must add this to the picture, else you will not have the picture complete: 'The Lord was with Joseph, and Joseph found grace in the sight of the Lord.' Yes, the Lord was more with Joseph, more and better far, than ever He had been as long as Joseph was the spoiled child of his father, and the continual snare of his brothers. And there are young men in this city suffering hardships and persecutions in workshops and in offices as sore to bear as was Joseph's load of labour and ill-usage of the Ishmaelites. And the Lord is with them also as He never was so long as they were spoilt sons at home, getting all things their own way. And as they silently and prayerfully take up their cross daily, and wait out the will of God, they are thereby putting off a past that would have been their sure destruction-and had almost been-and are preparing themselves for a future as sure, and as full of the providence of God, as ever was Joseph's future. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off for ever; but, though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. 'How many saints,' [[William]] Law rejoices, 'has adversity sent to heaven! And how many poor sinners has prosperity plunged into everlasting misery! This man had never been debauched, but for his fortune and advancement; that had never been pious, but through his poverty and disgrace. She that is envied for her beauty may perchance owe all her misery to it; and another may be for ever happy for having no admirers of her person. One man succeeds in everything, and so loses all; another meets with nothing but crosses and disappointments, and thereby gains more than all the world is worth.' </p> <p> Even if [[Potiphar]] paid thirty or even forty pieces of silver for his [[Hebrew]] slave, we know now what a good bargain he got that day. For that handful of silver the captain of Pharaoh's guard came into possession of all the splendid talents that lay hid in Joseph's greatly gifted mind, and all the magnificent moral character the first foundations of which had been laid in the pit in Dothan, and had been built up in God every step of the long wilderness journey. All Joseph's deep repentance also, and all his bitter remorse; all his self-discovery, and all his self-condemnation; with all his reticence and all his continence,-Potiphar took all that home from the slave-market that day in exchange for his handful of Egyptian silver. Joseph was now to be plunged into the most corrupt society that rotted in that age on the face of the earth. And had he not come into that pollution straight out of a sevenfold furnace of sanctifying sorrow, Joseph would no more have been heard of. The sensuality of Egypt would have soon swallowed him up. But his father's God was with Joseph. The lord was with Joseph to protect him, to guide him, and to give him the victory. The Lord was with him to more imprisonment, and then to more promotion; to more and more honour, and place, and power, till this world had no more to bestow upon Joseph. And, through it all, Joseph became a better and an ever better man all his days. A nobler and an ever nobler man. A more and more trustworthy, and a more and more trusted and consulted man. More and more loyal to truth and to duty. More and more chaste, temperate, patient, enduring, forgiving; full of mind and full of heart; and full, no man ever fuller, of a simple and a sincere piety and praise of God, till he became a very proverb both in the splendour of his services, and in the splendour of his rewards. </p>
== Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types <ref name="term_197978" /> ==
        <p> [[Genesis]] 37:9-10 (c) This character is a type of the Lord JESUS in many respects. Forty-two different aspects of CHRIST may be seen in his life. In this Scripture, [[Joseph]] is a type of CHRIST in that he is honored by his father and mother. They and all of his brothers must bow down in obeisance to him, as every knee shall bow to CHRIST. </p> <p> Genesis 43:3 (c) Here Joseph is a true type of GOD, the Judge, and [[Benjamin]] is a type of the Lord JESUS. It is almost a repetition of that beautiful truth in John 14:6. No man can see the Father's face unless he comes with the Lord JESUS, the elder brother. </p> <p> Genesis 49:22 (c) This is a type of the fruitful [[Christian]] who, though persecuted and hindered by others, nevertheless continues to bear fruit in the regions round about as well as in the home parish. [[Israel]] was to be a blessing to Gentiles. </p>
== Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia <ref name="term_315" /> ==
        <ol> <li> <i> [[Jacob]] </i> s Age at His Birth'. [[Joseph]] was thirty years old when he Stood before [[Pharaoh]] ( [[Genesis]] 41:46 ). The seven plenteous years and two years of the famine had passed when Jacob went into [[Egypt]] (30+7+2=39) ( Genesis 41:46,53,54; Genesis 45:4-6; Genesis 47:1-9 ). Jacob was one hundred thirty years old when he entered Egypt ( Genesis 47:1-9 ). Jacob was, therefore, (130 - 39 = 91) ninety-one years old at the birth of Joseph. <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> [[Early]] Life </i> . Joseph was the son of Rachel, born to Jacob in his Old age ( Genesis 30:1-24 ), and was therefore the favorite ( Genesis 37:3; Joseph had two remarkable dreams, resulting in the estrangement of his Brothers and the suspicion of his father ( Genesis 37:5-11 ). His brothers sold him into slavery, and deceived their father by dipping the coat of Many colors into the blood of a goat, assuring him that they had found It ( Genesis 37:15-35 ). <p> </p> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> [[Lessons]] from Jacob </i> s Mourning'. Jacob mourned for Joseph, Believing that he was dead ( Genesis 37:31-35 ). We may learn from this, <ol> <li> to be careful about acting on the testimony of prejudiced witnesses, </li> <li> and that a lie conscientiously believed and acted upon will produce substantially the same effects as the truth. </li> </ol> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Early Life in Egypt </i> . Joseph was sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. ( Genesis 39:1; Acts 7:9 ). On a false charge he was thrown into prison. In prison he enjoyed the confidence of the keeper, and Interpreted the dreams of the butler and baker ( Genesis 39:21-23; Genesis 40:1-23 ). <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Pharaoh </i> s Dreams'. The king had two dreams: <ol> <li> He stood by the river and saw seven well-favored and fat-fleshed Kine come up out of the river and feed in a meadow, and seven Other kine that were ill-favored and lean-fleshed followed and Devoured them. </li> <li> He beheld seven ears of corn upon one stalk, rank and good, and They were followed by seven thin and blasted ears by which They were devoured ( Genesis 41:1-7 ). </li> </ol> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Joseph </i> s Interpretation'. The wise men failed to give the king's Mind any relief, and Pharaoh, on the suggestion of the chief butler, Called for Joseph, who declared that the dreams were one, and predicted That there would immediately follow seven years of plenty, succeeded by [[Seven]] years of famine ( Genesis 41:8-32 ). <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> His Elevation </i> . Pharaoh immediately clothed Joseph in royal Vestures, made him ride in the second chariot, and required the people To prostrate themselves before him ( Genesis 41:33-45 ). <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> His Marriage </i> . Pharaoh gave him the name Zaphnathpaaneah (Preserver of the age, or revealer of secrets), and also gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, to wife. By this Union were two sons ( Genesis 41:44-52 ). <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> [[Preparation]] for the [[Famine]] </i> . Joseph immediately began to make Preparations for the famine. He gathered corn "as the sands of the Sea" and stored it in the cities ( Genesis 41:47-52 ). <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Famine in Egypt </i> . The famine began as Joseph had predicted and Covered the entire land of Egypt ( Genesis 41:53-57 ). <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Famine in [[Canaan]] </i> . The famine extended to Canaan ( Genesis 42:1,2 Acts 42:1, 7:11 ). Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy corn. Joseph recognized them, but they did not know him. He supplied their wants, and they Returned to their home ( Genesis 42:3-38 ). On their return to Egypt, Joseph made himself known to them and sent for his father to come to Egypt ( Genesis 43:1-34; Genesis 44:1-34; Genesis 45:1-24; Acts 7:12,14 ). Jacob received the news of Joseph's glory with incredulity ( Genesis 45:25-28 ). <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Lessons from Joseph </i> s Brothers'. We may learn from this, <ol> <li> to investigate thoroughly before coming to a conclusion, </li> <li> and that after a man is once settled in error, it takes a tremendous influence to deliver him from it. </li> </ol> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Jacob </i> s Descent into Egypt'. Jacob at once departed for Egypt Accompanied by his entire family; they also took their possessions ( Genesis 46:1-26 ). <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> [[Harmony]] of Genesis 46:26; Deuteronomy 10:22; Acts 7:14 </i> . The first passage counts the direct descendants (sixty-six) of Jacob who went with him Into Egypt ( Genesis 46:26 ). The second counts the sixty-six, Jacob, Joseph, and his two sons ( Deuteronomy 10:22 ). The third counts the seventy, and five of Joseph's "kindred" whose names are not given. <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Jacob </i> s Introduction to Pharaoh'. Joseph introduced his father To Pharaoh, who received him with respect. Jacob in return blessed Pharaoh twice, and departed from his presence ( Genesis 47:7-10 ). <p> </p> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Settled in [[Goshen]] </i> . Jacob and his family were given permission To dwell in Goshen where they enjoyed peace, plenty, and general [[Prosperity]] ( Genesis 47:1-27 ). <p> </p> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Date </i> . <ol> <li> It was twenty-five years from the death of [[Terah]] to the birth of [[Isaac]] ( Genesis 11:32; Genesis 12:1-5; Genesis 21:5; Acts 7:1-4 ). </li> <li> It was sixty years from the birth of Isaac to the birth of Jacob ( Genesis 25:26 ). </li> <li> It was one hundred thirty years from the birth of Jacob to his introduction to Pharaoh. (25 + 60 + 130 = 215) ( Genesis 47:7-10 ). </li> </ol> <p> The settling of the Hebrews in Egypt was therefore two hundred fifteen years after the death of Terah or Abram's entrance into Canaan. </p> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Last Days of Jacob </i> . The closing of Jacob's life was distinguished by <p> (A) obtaining a promise from Joseph to bury him with his Fathers ( Genesis 47:26-31 ); (b) reminding Joseph of the promises of God ( Genesis 48:1-4 ); (c) adopting Joseph's two sons ( Genesis 48:5,6 ); (d) placing [[Ephraim]] before [[Manasseh]] ( Genesis 48:8-20 ); (e) predicting the restoration of his family to Canaan ( Genesis 48:21 ); (f) giving Joseph an extra portion of his estate ( Genesis 48:21,22 ); (g) prophesying of the coming [[Shiloh]] ( Genesis 48:8-12; Hebrews 7:14; Revelation 5:1-5 ); (h) blessing all his sons ( Genesis 49:1-28 ). </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Death and [[Burial]] of Jacob </i> . Jacob died in Egypt, was embalmed by Joseph's orders, carried to Canaan, and buried with great honors and great lamentation ( Genesis 50:1-13; Acts 7:15,16 ). <p> </p> <p> </p> </li> <li> <i> Last Days of Joseph </i> . Joseph's last days were distinguished by <ol> <li> forgiving his brothers; </li> <li> enjoying the pleasures of family relation; </li> <li> predicting the restoration of his brethren to the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; </li> <li> and taking a pledge of his brethren to carry his bones with them on their departure ( Genesis 50:15-26 ). </li> </ol> </li> </ol> <p> </p>
== Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature <ref name="term_15919" /> ==
        <p> Joseph, 1 </p> <p> Jo´seph (God-increased), son of [[Jacob]] and Rachel, born under peculiar circumstances, as may be seen in; on which account, and because he was the son of his old age , he was beloved by his father more than were the rest of his children, though Benjamin, as being also a son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, was in a peculiar manner dear to the patriarch. The partiality evinced towards [[Joseph]] by his father excited jealousy on the part of his brethren, the rather that they were born of different mothers . Joseph had reached his seventeenth year, when some conduct on the part of his brothers seems to have been such as in the opinion of Joseph to require the special attention of Jacob, to whom, accordingly, he communicated the facts. This greatly increased their dislike to him, and they henceforth 'hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him' . Their aversion, however, was carried to the highest pitch when Joseph acquainted them with two dreams, which appeared to indicate that Joseph would acquire preeminence in the family, if not sovereignty; and while even his father rebuked him, his brothers were filled with envy. Jacob, however, was not aware of the depth of their ill will; so that, on one occasion, having a desire to hear intelligence of his sons, who were pasturing their flocks at a distance, he did not hesitate to make Joseph his messenger for that purpose. His appearing in view of his brothers was the signal for their malice to gain head. They began to devise means for his immediate destruction, which they would unhesitatingly have effected, but for his half-brother, Reuben, who, as the eldest son, might well be the party to interfere on behalf of Joseph. A compromise was entered into, in virtue of which the youth was stripped of the distinguishing vestments which he owed to his father's affection, and cast into a pit. Having performed this evil deed, and while they were taking refreshment, the brothers beheld a caravan of [[Arabian]] merchants, who were bearing the spices and aromatic gums of [[India]] down to the well-known and much-frequented mart, Egypt. On the proposal of [[Judah]] they resolved that, instead of allowing Joseph to perish, they should sell him to the merchants. This was accordingly done. Joseph was sold for a slave, to be conveyed by his masters into Egypt. While on his way thither, [[Reuben]] returned to the pit, intending to rescue his brother, and convey him safely back to their father. Joseph was gone. On which Reuben went to the wicked young men, who, not content with selling a brother into slavery, determined to punish their father for his partiality towards the unoffending sufferer. With this view they dipped Joseph's party-colored garment in the blood of a kid and sent it to Jacob, in order to make him believe that his favorite child had been torn to pieces by some wild beast. The trick succeeded, and Jacob was grieved beyond measure. </p> <p> Meanwhile the merchants sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the royal guard, who was a native of the country. In Potiphar's house Joseph enjoyed the highest confidence and the largest prosperity. A higher power watched over him; and whatever he undertook succeeded, till at length his master gave everything into his hands. But a second time he innocently brought on himself the vengeance of the ill-disposed. Charged by his master's wife with the very crime to which he had in vain been tempted, he was at once cast by his master into the state prison. </p> <p> The narrative, which is obviously constructed in order to show the workings of divine Providence, states, however, that Joseph was not left without special aid, in consequence of which he gained favor with the keeper of the prison to such an extent that everything was put under his direction. Two of the regal officers, 'the chief of the butlers' and 'the chief of the bakers,' having offended their royal master, were consigned to the same prison with Joseph. While there, each one had a dream, which Joseph interpreted correctly. The butler, whose fate was auspicious, promised the young [[Hebrew]] to employ his influence to procure his deliverance; but when again in the enjoyment of his 'butlership,' he 'forgat' Joseph (Genesis 40). [[Pharaoh]] himself, however, had two dreams, which found in Joseph a successful expounder; for the butler then remembered the skill of his prison-companion, and advised his royal master to put it to the test in his own case. Pharaoh's dream, as interpreted by Joseph, foreboded the approach of a seven years' famine; to abate the evils of which Joseph recommended that some 'discreet and wise' man should be chosen and set in full power over the land of Egypt. The monarch was alarmed, and called a council of his advisers. The wisdom of Joseph was recognized as of divine origin and supereminent value; and the king and his ministers (whence it appears that the [[Egyptian]] monarchy—at Memphis—was not despotic, but constitutional) resolved that Joseph should be made (to borrow a term from Rome) [[Dictator]] in the approaching time of need. The highest honors were conferred upon him. He was made ruler over all the land of Egypt, and the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, given him to wife. </p> <p> [[Seven]] years of abundance afforded Joseph opportunity to carry into effect such plans as secured an ample provision against the seven years of need. The famine came, but it found a prepared people. The visitation did not depend on any mere local causes, for 'the famine was over all the face of the earth;' 'and all countries came into [[Egypt]] to Joseph to buy corn' . Among these customers appeared ten brethren, sons of the Hebrew Jacob. They had of necessity to appear before Joseph, whose license for the purchase of corn was indispensable. Joseph had probably expected to see them, and he seems to have formed a deliberate plan of action. His conduct has brought on him the always ready charges of those who would rather impeach than study the Bible, and even friends of that sacred book have hardly in this case done Joseph full justice. Joseph's main object appears to have been to make his brothers feel and recognize their guilt in their conduct towards him. For this purpose suffering, then as well as now, was indispensable. Accordingly Joseph feigned not to know his brothers, charged them with being spies, threatened them with imprisonment, and allowed them to return home to fetch their younger brother, as a proof of their veracity, only on condition that one of them should remain behind in chains, with a prospect of death before him should not their words be verified. Then it was, and not before, that 'they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul and would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us' . On which, after weeping bitterly, he by common agreement bound his brother Simeon, and left him in custody. At length Jacob consented to Benjamin's going in company with his brothers, and provided with a present consisting of balm, honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds, and with double money in their hands (double, in order that they might repay the sum which Joseph had caused to be put into each man's sack at their departure, if, as Jacob supposed, 'it was an oversight'), they went again down to Egypt and stood before Joseph and there, too, stood Benjamin, Joseph's beloved brother. The required pledge of truthfulness was given. If it is asked why such a pledge was demanded, since the giving of it caused pain to Jacob, the answer may be thus: Joseph knew not how to demean himself towards his family until he ascertained its actual condition. That knowledge he could hardly be certain he had gained from the mere words of men who had spared his life only to sell him into slavery. How had these wicked men behaved towards his venerable father? His beloved brother Benjamin, was he safe? or had he suffered from their jealousy and malice the worse fate with which he himself had been threatened? Nothing but the sight of [[Benjamin]] could answer these questions, and resolve these doubts. </p> <p> Benjamin had come, and immediately a natural change took place in Joseph's conduct: the brother began to claim his rights in Joseph's bosom. Jacob was safe, and Benjamin was safe. Joseph's heart melted at the sight of Benjamin: 'And he said to the ruler of his house, [[Bring]] these men home, and slay and make ready, for these men shall dine with me at noon' . But guilt is always the ready parent of fear. Accordingly the brothers expected nothing but being reduced to slavery. When taken to their own brother's house, they imagined they were being entrapped. A colloquy ensued between them and Joseph's steward, whence it appeared that the money put into their sacks, to which they now attributed their peril, was in truth a present from Joseph, designed, after his own brotherly manner, to aid his family in their actual necessities. Noon came, and with it Joseph, whose first question regarded home: 'He asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? is he yet alive? And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son!' 'And Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother, and he sought where to weep, and he entered into his chamber and wept there.' Does this look like harshness? </p> <p> The connection brings into view an Egyptian custom, which is of more than ordinary importance, in consequence of its being adopted in the [[Jewish]] polity: 'And they set on (food) for him by himself (Joseph), and for them by themselves (the brethren), and for the Egyptians which did eat with them, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination with the Egyptians' . This passage is also interesting, as proving that Joseph had not, in his princely grandeur, become ashamed of his origin, nor consented to receive adoption into a strange nation: he was still a Hebrew, waiting, like [[Moses]] after him, for the proper season to use his power for the good of his own people. </p> <p> Joseph, apparently with a view to ascertain how far his brethren were faithful to their father, hit upon a plan which would in its issue serve to show whether they would make any, and what, sacrifice, in order to fulfill their solemn promise of restoring Benjamin in safety to Jacob. Accordingly he ordered not only that every man's money (as before) should be put in his sack's mouth, but also that his 'silver cup in which my lord drinketh, and whereby he divineth,' should be put in the sack's mouth of the youngest. The brethren departed, but were soon overtaken by Joseph's steward, who charged them with having surreptitiously carried off this costly and highly-valued vessel. They on their part vehemently repelled the accusation, adding, 'with whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my lord's bondmen.' A search was made, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Accordingly they returned to the city. And now came the hour of trial: Would they purchase their own liberation by surrendering Benjamin? After a most touching interview, in which they proved themselves worthy and faithful, Joseph declared himself unable any longer to withstand the appeal of natural affection. On this occasion Judah, who was the spokesman, showed the deepest regard to his aged father's feelings, and entreated for the liberation of Benjamin even at the price of his own liberty. In the whole of literature we know of nothing more simple, natural, true, and impressive. </p> <p> Most natural and impressive is the scene also which ensues, in which Joseph, after informing his brethren who he was, and inquiring, first of all, 'Is my father alive?' expresses feelings free from the slightest taint of revenge, and even shows how, under [[Divine]] Providence, the conduct of his brothers had issued in good—'God sent me before you to preserve a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.' Five years had yet to ensue in which 'there would be neither earing nor harvest,' and therefore the brethren were directed to return home and bring Jacob down to Egypt with all speed. 'And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them; and after that his brethren talked with him' . </p> <p> The news of these striking events was carried to Pharaoh, who being pleased at Joseph's conduct, gave directions that Jacob and his family should come forthwith into Egypt. The brethren departed, being well provided for—'And to his father Joseph sent ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.' </p> <p> The intelligence which they bore to their father was of such a nature that 'Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.' When, however, he had recovered from the thus naturally told effects of his surprise, the venerable patriarch said, 'Enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die' . </p> <p> Accordingly Jacob and his family, to the number of threescore and ten souls, went down to Egypt, and by the express efforts of Joseph, were allowed to settle in the district of Goshen, where Joseph met his father: 'And he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.' There Joseph 'nourished his father and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families' . </p> <p> Meanwhile the predicted famine was pauperizing Egypt. The inhabitants found their money exhausted, and their cattle and substance all gone, being parted with in order to purchase food from the public granaries, until at length they had nothing to give in return for sustenance but themselves. 'Buy us'—they then imploringly said to Joseph—'and our land for bread, and we and our land will be slaves unto Pharaoh.' 'And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, so the land became Pharaoh's.' The people too, 'Joseph removed to cities from one end of the borders of the land to the other end.' Religion, however, was too strong to submit to these political and social changes, and so the priests still retained their land, being supplied with provisions out of the common store gratuitously. The land, which was previously the people's own, was now leased to them on a tenancy, at the rent of one-fifth of the produce: the land of the priests being exempted. </p> <p> Joseph had now to pass through the mournful scenes which attend on the death and burial of a father. Having had Jacob embalmed, and seen the rites of mourning fully observed, the faithful and affectionate son proceeded into the land of Canaan, in order, agreeably to a promise which the patriarch had exacted, to lay the old man's bones with those of his fathers, in 'the field of [[Ephron]] the Hittite.' Having performed with long and bitter mourning Jacob's funeral rites, Joseph returned into Egypt. The last recorded act of his life forms a most becoming close. After the death of their father, his brethren, unable, like all guilty people, to forget their criminality, and characteristically finding it difficult to think that Joseph had really forgiven them, grew afraid, now they were in his power, that he would take an opportunity of inflicting some punishment on them. They accordingly go into his presence, and, in imploring terms and an abject manner, entreat his forgiveness. 'Fear not'—this is his noble reply—'I will nourish you and your little ones.' </p> <p> Joseph lived an hundred and ten years, kind and gentle in his affections to the last; for we are told, 'The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knees' . And so having obtained a promise from his brethren, that when the time came, as he assured them it would come, that God should visit them, and 'bring them unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,' they would carry up his bones out of Egypt, Joseph at length 'died and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin' . This promise was religiously fulfilled. His descendants, after carrying the corpse about with them in their wanderings, at length put it in its final resting-place in Shechem, in a parcel of ground that Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, which became the inheritance of the children of Joseph . </p> <p> By his Egyptian wife, Asenath, daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis, Joseph had two sons, [[Manasseh]] and [[Ephraim]] ( sq.), whom Jacob adopted , and who accordingly took their place among the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. </p> <p> Joseph, 2 </p> <p> Joseph, 'the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ' . By Matthew He is said to have been the son of Jacob, whose lineage is traced by the same writer through [[David]] up to Abraham. Luke represents Him as being the son of Heli, and traces His origin up to Adam. How these accounts are to be reconciled, is shown under Genealogy. </p> <p> The statements of Holy Writ in regard to Joseph are few and simple. According to a custom among the Jews, traces of which are still found, Joseph had pledged his faith to Mary; but before the marriage was consummated she proved to be with child. Grieved at this, Joseph was disposed to break off the connection; but, not wishing to make a public example of one whom he loved, he contemplated a private disruption of their bond. From this step, however, he is deterred by a heavenly messenger, who assures him that Mary has conceived under a divine influence. 'And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins' ( sq.; ). To this account various objections have been taken; but most of them are drawn from the ground of a narrow, shortsighted and half-informed rationalism, which judges everything by its own small standard, and either denies miracles altogether, or admits only such miracles as find favor in its sight. </p> <p> Joseph was by trade a carpenter, in which business he probably educated [[Jesus]] . The word rendered 'carpenter' is of a general character, and may be fitly rendered by the English word 'artificer' or 'artisan.' Schleusner asserts that the universal testimony of the ancient church represents our Lord as being a carpenter's son. Hilarius, on Matthew, asserts, in terms which cannot be mistaken, that Jesus was a smith. Of the same opinion was the venerable Bede; while others have held that our Lord was a mason, and [[Cardinal]] Cajetan, that he was a goldsmith. The last notion probably had its origin in those false associations of more modern times which disparage hand-labor. Among the ancient Jews all handicrafts were held in so much honor, that they were learned and pursued by the first men of the nation. </p> <p> [[Christian]] tradition makes Joseph an old man when first espoused to Mary, being no less than eighty years of age, and father of four sons and two daughters. The painters of Christian antiquity conspire with the writers in representing Joseph as an old man at the period of the birth of our Lord—an evidence which is not to be lightly rejected, though the precise age mentioned may be but an approximation to fact. </p> <p> It is not easy to determine when Joseph died, but it has been alleged, with great probability, that he must have been dead before the crucifixion of Jesus. There being no notice of Joseph in the public life of Christ, nor any reference to him in the discourses and history, while 'Mary' and 'His brethren' not infrequently appear, these circumstances afford evidence not only of Joseph's death, but of the inferior part which as legal father only of our Lord, Joseph might have been expected to sustain. So far as our scanty materials enable us to form an opinion, Joseph appears to have been a good, kind, simple-minded man, who, while he afforded aid in protecting and sustaining the family, would leave Mary unrestrained to use all the impressive and formative influence of her gentle, affectionate, pious, and thoughtful soul. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
== Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature <ref name="term_46589" /> ==
        <p> Bibliography InformationMcClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Joseph'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/j/joseph.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870. </p>
== The Nuttall Encyclopedia <ref name="term_75360" /> ==
        <p> The name of four persons in Scripture. 1, </p> <p> he son of [[Jacob]] and Rachel, and the story of whose life is given in [[Genesis]] 2 , </p> <p> arpenter, the husband of the [[Virgin]] Mary and the reputed father of Jesus. 3, </p> <p> member of the [[Jewish]] Sanhedrin, who begged the body of [[Jesus]] to bury it in his own tomb. 4, </p> <p> urnamed </p> <p> ne of the disciples of Jesus, and deemed worthy to be nominated to fill the place vacated by Judas. </p>
==References ==
==References ==
<references>
<references>


        <ref name="term_16384"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/american-tract-society-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary]</ref>
<ref name="term_56325"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hastings-dictionary-of-the-new-testament/joseph+(2) Joseph from Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_32208"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/easton-s-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Easton's Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_36116"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/fausset-s-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Fausset's Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_41513"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/holman-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Holman Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_46216"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hitchcock-s-bible-names/joseph Joseph from Hitchcock's Bible Names]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_48019"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hawker-s-poor-man-s-concordance-and-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_52144"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hastings-dictionary-of-the-bible/joseph Joseph from Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_56332"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hastings-dictionary-of-the-new-testament/joseph Joseph from Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_67182"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/morrish-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Morrish Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_70341"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/people-s-dictionary-of-the-bible/joseph Joseph from People's Dictionary of the Bible]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_73468"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/smith-s-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Smith's Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_80963"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/watson-s-biblical-theological-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_197288"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/whyte-s-dictionary-of-bible-characters/joseph Joseph from Whyte's Dictionary of Bible Characters]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_197978"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/wilson-s-dictionary-of-bible-types/joseph Joseph from Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_315"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/condensed-biblical-cyclopedia/joseph Joseph from Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_15919"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/kitto-s-popular-cyclopedia-of-biblial-literature/joseph Joseph from Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature]</ref>
       
        <ref name="term_46589"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/cyclopedia-of-biblical-theological-and-ecclesiastical-literature/joseph Joseph from Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature]</ref>
          
          
        <ref name="term_75360"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/the-nuttall-encyclopedia/joseph Joseph from The Nuttall Encyclopedia]</ref>
<ref name="term_5440"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/international-standard-bible-encyclopedia/joseph+(2) Joseph from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia]</ref>
          
          
</references>
</references>

Latest revision as of 14:25, 16 October 2021

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]

JOSEPH ( Ἰωσήφ).— 1 . The patriarch, mentioned only in the description of the visit of Jesus to Sychar ( John 4:5).— 2. 3 . Joseph son of Mattathias and Joseph son of Jonam are both named in the genealogy of Jesus given in Lk. ( Luke 3:24;  Luke 3:30).* [Note: Joseph the son of Juda in v. 26 (AV) becomes Josech the son of Joda in RV.] — 4 . One of the brethren of the Lord,  Matthew 13:55 (Authorized Version Joses, the form adopted in both Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 in  Matthew 27:56,  Mark 6:3;  Mark 15:40;  Mark 15:47. See Joses).

5 . Joseph, the husband of Mary and the reputed father of Jesus ( Luke 3:23), is not mentioned in Mk., and only indirectly in Jn. ( John 1:45;  John 6:42). He was of Davidic descent; and, though Mt. and Lk. differ in the genealogical details, they connect Jesus with Joseph and through him with David ( Matthew 1:1 ff.,  Luke 3:23 ff.). Joseph, who was a carpenter ( Matthew 13:55) and a poor man, as his offering in the temple showed  Luke 2:24), lived in Nazareth ( Luke 2:4) and was espoused to Mary, also of Nazareth ( Luke 1:26). By their betrothal they entered into a relationship which, though not the completion of marriage, could be dissolved only by death or divorce. Before the marriage ceremony Mary was ‘found with child of the Holy Ghost,’ but the angelic annunciation to her was not made known to Joseph. He is described as a just man ( Matthew 1:19), a strict observer of the Law. The law was stern ( Deuteronomy 22:23-24), but its severity had been mitigated and divorce had taken the place of death. Divorce could be effected publicly, so that the shame of the woman might be seen by all; or it could be done privately, by the method of handing the bill of separation to the woman in presence of two witnesses.† [Note: Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, i. 154. Dalman asserts that Edersheim is incorrect in stating that public divorce was possible (see Hastings’ DB, art. ‘Joseph’).] Joseph, not willing to make Mary a public example, ‘was minded to put her away privily’ ( Matthew 1:18). An angel, however, appeared to him in a dream, telling him not to fear to marry Mary, as the conception was of the Holy Ghost, and also that she would bring forth a son, whom he was to name Jesus ( Matthew 1:20 f.). The dream was accepted as a revelation,‡ [Note: cit. i. 155.] as a token of Divine favour, and Joseph took Mary as his wife, but did not live with her as her husband till she had brought forth her firstborn son ( Matthew 1:24 f.).

Before the birth of Christ there was an Imperial decree that all the world should be taxed, and Joseph, being of the house and lineage of David, had to leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem, to be taxed with Mary.§ [Note: On the question of the visit to Bethlehem see Ramsay’s Was Christ born at Bethlehem?] In Bethlehem Jesus was born; and there the shepherds, to whom the angel had announced the birth of the Saviour, found Mary and Joseph and ‘the babe lying in a manger’ ( Luke 2:16). At the circumcision, on the eighth day after the birth, the child received the name ‘Jesus’ which Joseph had been commanded to give Him; and on a later day, when Mary’s purification was accomplished (cf.  Leviticus 12:2-4), she and Joseph took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem ( Luke 2:22), to ‘present him to the Lord’* [Note: ‘The earliest period of presentation was thirty-one days after birth, so as to make the legal month quite complete’ (Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, i. 193).] and to offer a sacrifice, according to the requirements of the law ( Exodus 13:2,  Leviticus 12:8). Joseph fulfilled the law as if he were the father of Jesus; and after the ceremonies in the temple he must have returned with Mary and her son to Bethlehem, which was 6 miles distant from Jerusalem. In Bethlehem the Wise Men who had come from the East saw Mary and ‘the young child’ and worshipped Him; and after their departure the angel of the Lord appeared again to Joseph, bidding him take Mary and the child and flee into Egypt on account of Herod, who would seek to destroy Him ( Matthew 2:13). Joseph was quick to obey, and rising in the night he took the young child and His mother and departed for Egypt, where Herod had no authority ( Matthew 2:14). In Egypt they were to remain till the angel brought word to Joseph ( Matthew 2:13); and there they dwelt, possibly two or even three years, till the death of Herod, when the angel again appeared in a dream to Joseph. The angel commanded him to take the young child and His mother and go into the land of Israel. Obedience was at once given by Joseph, but he became afraid when he learned that Archelaus was reigning in Judaea. Again the angel appeared in a dream, and after a warning Joseph proceeded to Nazareth, which was not under the rule of Archelaus, who had an evil reputation, but under that of the milder Antipas ( Matthew 2:14-23).

It is recorded of Joseph that he and Mary went every year, at the Passover, to Jerusalem, and that when Jesus was twelve years of age He accompanied them. On that occasion Jesus tarried in Jerusalem, after Joseph and Mary, thinking He was with them in the company, had left the city. When they had gone a day’s journey they found He was not with them, and they turned back to Jerusalem. After three days they found Him in the temple among the doctors, and they were amazed. Mary’s words, ‘Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.’ called forth an answer which Joseph and Mary did not understand. But after the incident in Jerusalem, Jesus went with them to Nazareth and ‘was subject unto them’ ( Luke 2:41-51). Mary’s words and the record of the subjection of Jesus to her and Joseph indicate that Joseph stood to Jesus in the place of an earthly father. How long that relationship continued is unknown, since the time of the death of Joseph is not stated in the Gospels. It may be accepted as a certainty that he was not alive throughout the period of the public ministry of Jesus, seeing that he is not directly or indirectly mentioned along with His mother and brothers and sisters ( Mark 3:31;  Mark 6:3).

6 . Joseph of Arimathaea (Ἰωσὴφ ὁ ἀπὸ Ἀριμαθαίας, see Arimathaea).—A rich and pious Israelite ( Matthew 27:57), a member of the Sanhedrin ( Mark 15:43), who, secretly for fear of the Jews, was Jesus’ disciple ( John 19:38). He had not consented to the death of Jesus ( Luke 23:51), and could not therefore have been present at the Council, where they all condemned Him to be guilty of death ( Mark 14:64). The timidity which prevented him from openly avowing his discipleship, and perhaps from defending Jesus in the Sanhedrin, fled when he beheld the death of the Lord. Jewish law required that the body of a person who had been executed should not remain all night upon the tree, but should ‘in any wise’ be buried ( Deuteronomy 21:22-23). This law would not bind the Roman authorities, and the custom in the Empire was to leave the body to decay upon the cross (cf. Hor. Ep . i. xvi. 48; Plautus, Mil. Glor . II. iv. 19). But at the crucifixion of Jesus and of the two malefactors, the Jews, anxious that the bodies should not remain upon the cross during the Sabbath, besought Pilate that the legs of the crucified might be broken and death hastened, and that then the bodies might be taken away ( John 19:31). According to Roman law, the relatives could claim the body of a person executed ( Digest , xlviii. 24, ‘De cadav. punit.’). But which of the relatives of Jesus had a sepulchre in Jerusalem where His body might be placed? Joseph, wishing the burial not to be ‘in any wise’ (cf.  Joshua 8:29), but to be according to the most pious custom of his race, went to Pilate and craved the body. The petition required boldness ( Mark 15:43), since Joseph, with no kinship in the flesh with Jesus, would be forced to make a confession of discipleship, which the Jews would note. Pilate, too, neither loved nor was loved by Israel, and his anger might be kindled at the coming of a Jew, and the member of the Sanhedrin be assailed with insults. Pilate, however, making sure that Jesus was dead, gave the body. Perhaps he had pity for the memory of Him he had condemned, or perhaps the rich man’s gold, since Pilate, according to Philo ( Op . ii. 590), took money from suppliants, secured what was craved. Joseph, now with no fear of the Jews, acted openly, and had to act with speed, as the day of preparation for the Sabbath was nearly spent. Taking down the body of Jesus from the cross (and other hands must have aided his), he wrapped it in linen which he himself had bought ( Mark 15:46). In the Fourth Gospel it is told how Nicodemus, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight, joined Joseph, and how they took the body and wound it in linen clothes with the spices ( John 19:40). Near the place of crucifixion was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, which Joseph had hewn out in the rock, doubtless for his own last resting-place; and in that sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid, was placed the body of Jesus prepared for its burial ( Matthew 27:60,  John 19:41). In the court at the entrance to the tomb, the preparation would be made. All was done which the time before the Sabbath allowed reverent hands to do; and then Joseph, perhaps thinking of the pious offices that could yet be done to the dead, rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre and departed ( Matthew 27:60). On late legends regarding Joseph of Arimathaea see Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 778.

J. Herkless.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [2]

jō´zef ( יוסף , yōṣēph , "He will add"; Septuagint Ἰωσήφ , Iōsḗph ). The narrative (  Genesis 30:23 ,  Genesis 30:14 ) indicates not so much a double etymology as the course of Rachel's thoughts. The use of אסף , 'āṣaph , "He takes away," suggested to her mind by its form in the future, יוסף , yōṣēph , "He will add," "And she called his name Joseph, saying, Yahweh add to me another son"):

I. The Joseph Story , A Literary Question

1. An Independent Original or an Adaptation?

2. A M onograph or a Compilation?

(1) An Analytical Theory Resolving It into a Mere Compilation

(2) A N arrative Full of Gems

(3) The Argument from Chronology Supporting It as a Monograph

II. The Story Of Joseph , A Biography

1. A B edouin Prince in Canaan

2. A B edouin Slave in Egypt

3. The Bedouin Slave Becomes Again the Bedouin Prince

4. The Prime Minister

5. The Patriarch

Literature

The eleventh son of Jacob. The Biblical narrative concerning Joseph presents two subjects for consideration, the Joseph story, a literary question, and the story of Joseph, a biography. It is of the first importance to consider these questions in this order.

Cheyne in Encyclopedia Biblica reaches such conclusions concerning the Joseph story that the story of Joseph is mutilated almost beyond recognition as a biography at all. Driver in Hdb holds that the Joseph story was "in all probability only committed to writing 700-800 years" later than the time to which Joseph is attributed, points out that Joseph's name was also the name of a tribe, and concludes that "the first of these facts at once destroys all guarantee that we possess in the Joseph narrative a literal record of the facts," and that "the second fact raises the further question whether the figure of Joseph, in part or even as a whole, is a reflection of the history and characteristics of the tribe projected upon the past in the individual form." But he draws back from this view and thinks it "more probable that there was an actual person Joseph, afterward ... rightly or wrongly regarded as the ancestor of the tribe ... who underwent substantially the experience recounted of him in Genesis." In the presence of such critical notions concerning the literature in which the narrative of Joseph is embodied, it is clear that until we have reached some conclusions concerning the Joseph story, we cannot be sure that there is any real story of Joseph to relate.

I. The Joseph Story, a Literary Question.

1. An Independent Original or an Adaptation?:

This literary problem will be solved, if satisfactory answers may be found to two questions: Is it an independent original or an adaptation? Suitable material for such an adaptation as would produce a Joseph story has been sought at either end of the line of history: Joseph the progenitor and Joseph the tribe. The only contestant for the claim of being an early original of which the Joseph story might be an adaptation is the nasty "Tale of Two Brothers" ( Rp , series I, volume II, 137-46). This story in its essential elements much resembles the Joseph story. But such events as it records are common: why not such stories?

What evidence does this "Tale of Two Brothers" afford that the Joseph story is not an independent original? Are we to suppose that because many French romances involve the demi-monde , there was therefore no Madame de Pompadour? Are court scandals so unheard of that ancient Egypt cannot afford two? And why impugn the genuineness of the Joseph story because the "Tale of Two Brothers" resembles it? Is anyone so ethereal in his passions as not to know by instinct that the essential elements of such scandal are always the same? The difference in the narrative is chiefly in the telling. At this latter point the Joseph story and the "Tale of Two Brothers" bear no resemblance whatever.

If the chaste beauty of the Biblical story be observed, and then one turn to the "Tale of Two Brothers" with sufficient knowledge of the Egyptian tongue to perceive the coarseness and the stench of it, there can be no question that the Joseph story is independent of such a literary source. To those who thus sense both stories, the claim of the "Tale of Two Brothers" to be the original of the Joseph story cannot stand for a moment. If we turn from Joseph the progenitor to Joseph the tribe, still less will the claim that the story is an adaptation bear careful examination. The perfect naturalness of the story, the utter absence from its multitudinous details of any hint of figurative language, such as personification always furnishes, and the absolutely accurate reflection in the story of the Egypt of Joseph's day, as revealed by the many discoveries of which people of 700-800 years later could not know, mark this theory of the reflection of tribal history and characteristics as pure speculation. And besides, where in all the history of literature has it been proven that a tribe has been thus successfully thrown back upon the screen of antiquity in the "individual form?" Similar mistakes concerning Menes and Minos and the heroes of Troy are a warning to us. Speculation is legitimate, so long as it does not cut loose from known facts, but gives no one the right to suppose the existence in unknown history of something never certainly found in known history. So much for the first question.

2. A M onograph or a Compilation?:

Is it a monograph or a compilation? The author of a monograph may make large use of literary materials, and the editor of a compilation may introduce much editorial comment. Thus, superficially, these different kinds of composition may much resemble each other, yet they are, in essential character, very different the one from the other. A compilation is an artificial body, an automaton; a monograph is a natural body with a living soul in it. This story has oriental peculiarities of repetition and pleonastic expression, and these things have been made much of in order to break up the story; to the reader not seeking grounds of partition, it is one of the most unbroken, simply natural and unaffected pieces of narrative literature in the world. If it stood alone or belonged to some later portion of Scripture, it may well be doubted that it would ever have been touched by the scalpel of the literary dissector. But it belongs to the Pentateuch. There are manifest evidences all over the Pentateuch of the use by the author of material, either documentary or of that paradoxical unwritten literature which the ancients handed down almost without the change of a word for centuries.

(1) An Analytical Theory Resolving It into a Mere Compilation.

An analytical theory has been applied to the Pentateuch as a whole, to resolve it into a mere compilation. Once the principles of this theory are acknowledged, and allowed sway there, the Joseph story cannot be left untouched, but becomes a necessary sacrifice to the system. A sight of the lifeless, ghastly fragments of the living, moving Joseph story which the analysis leaves behind (compare Eb , article "Joseph") proclaims that analysis to have been murder. There was a life in the story which has been ruthlessly taken, and that living soul marked the narrative as a monograph.

(2) A N arrative Full of Gems.

Where else is to be found such a compilation? Here is one of the most brilliant pieces of literature in the world, a narrative full of gems: (a) the account of the presentation of the brothers in the presence of Joseph when he was obliged to go out to weep ( Genesis 43:26-34 ), and (b) the scene between the terrified brothers of Joseph and the steward of his house ( Genesis 44:6-13 ), (c) Judah's speech (Gen 44:18-34), (d) the touching close of the revelation of Joseph to his brothers at last ( Genesis 45:1-15 ). The soul of the whole story breathes through all of these. Where in all literature, ancient or modern, is to be found a mere compilation that is a great piece of literature? So far removed is this story from the characteristics of a compilation, that we may challenge the world of literature to produce another monograph in narrative literature that surpasses it.

(3) The Argument from Chronology Supporting It as a Monograph

Then the dates of Egyptian names and events in this narrative strongly favor its origin so early as to be out of the reach of the compilers. That attempts at identification in Egyptian of names written in Hebrew, presenting as they do the peculiar difficulties of two alphabets of imperfectly known phonetic values and uncertain equivalency of one in terms of the other, should give rise to differences of opinion, is to be expected. The Egyptian equivalents of Zaphenath-paneah and Asenath have been diligently sought, and several identifications have been, suggested (Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs , 122; Budge, History of Egypt , V, 126-27). That which is most exact phonetically and yields the most suitable and natural meaning for Zaphenath-paneah is by Lieblein ( Psba , 1898,204-8). It is formed like four of the names of Hyksos kings before the time of Joseph, and means "the one who furnishes the nourishment of life," i.e. the steward of the realm. The name Asenath is found from the XIth Dynasty on to the Xviii th. Potiphar is mentioned as an Egyptian. Why not of course an Egyptian? The narrative also points distinctly to conditions obtaining under the Hyksos kings. When the people were like to perish for want of food they promised Joseph in return for help that they would be "servants of Pharaoh" ( Genesis 47:18-25 ). This suggests a previous antagonism to the government, such as the Hyksos kings had long to contend with in Egypt. But the revolution which drove out the Hyksos labored so effectually to eradicate every trace of the hated foreigners that it is with the utmost difficulty that modern Egyptological research has wrested from the past some small items of information concerning them. Is it credible that the editor of scraps, which were themselves not written down until some 700-800 years later, should have been able to produce such a life-story fitting into the peculiar conditions of the times of the Hyksos? Considered as an independent literary problem on its own merits, aside from any entangling necessities of the analytical theory of the Pentateuch, the Joseph story must certainly stand as a monograph from some time within distinct memory of the events it records. If the Joseph story be an independent original and a monograph, then there is in reality to be considered the story of Joseph.

II. The Story of Joseph, a Biography.

It is unnecessary to recount here all the events of the life of Joseph, a story so incomparably told in the Biblical narrative. It will be sufficient to touch only the salient points where controversy has raged, or at which archaeology has furnished special illumination. The story of Joseph begins the tenth and last natural division of Gen in these words: "The generations of Jacob" ( Genesis 37:2 ). Up to this point the unvarying method of Gen is to place at the head of each division the announcement "the generations of" one of the patriarchs, followed immediately by a brief outline of the discarded line of descent, and then to give in detail the account of the chosen line.

There is to be now no longer any discarded line of descent. All the sons of Jacob are of the chosen people, the depository of the revelation of redemption. So this division of Gen begins at once with the chosen line, and sets in the very foreground that narrative which in that generation is most vital in the story of redemption, this story of Joseph beginning with the words, "Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren" ( Genesis 37:2 ). Joseph had been born in Haran, the firstborn of the beloved Rachel, who died at the birth of her second son Benjamin. A motherless lad among the sons of other mothers felt the jealousies of the situation, and the experience became a temptation. The "evil report" of his brethren was thus naturally carried to his father, and quite as naturally stirred up those family jealousies which set his feet in the path of his great career ( Genesis 37:2-4 ). In that career he appears as a Bedouin prince in Canaan.

1. A B edouin Prince in Canaan:

The patriarchs of those times were all sheiks or princes of those semi-nomadic rovers who by the peculiar social and civil customs of that land were tolerated then as they are to this day under the Turkish government in the midst of farms and settled land tenure. Jacob favored Rachel and her children. He put them hindermost at the dangerous meeting with Esau, and now he puts on Joseph a coat of many colors ( Genesis 37:3 ). The appearance of such a coat a little earlier in the decoration of the tombs of Benichassan among Palestinian ambassadors to Egypt probably indicates that this garment was in some sense ceremonial, a token of rank. In any case Joseph, the son of Jacob, was a Bedouin prince. Did the father by this coat indicate his intention to give him the precedence and the succession as chieftain of the tribe? It is difficult otherwise to account for the insane jealousy of the older brethren ( Genesis 37:4 ). According to the critical partition of the story, Joseph's dreams may be explained away as mere reflections or adaptations of the later history of Joseph (compare Pentateuch ). In a real biography the striking providential significance of the dreams appears at once. They cannot be real without in some sense being prophetic. On the other hand they cannot be other than real without vitiating the whole story as a truthful narrative, for they led immediately to the great tragedy; a Bedouin prince of Canaan becomes a Bedouin slave in Egypt.

2. A B edouin Slave in Egypt:

The plot to put Joseph out of the way, the substitution of slavery for death, and the ghastly device for deceiving Jacob ( Genesis 37:18-36 ) are perfectly natural steps in the course of crime when once the brothers had set out upon it. The counterplot of Reuben to deliver Joseph reflects equally his own goodness and the dangerous character of the other brothers to whom he did not dare make a direct protest.

Critical discussion of "Ishmaelites" and "Midianites" and "Medanites" presents some interesting things and many clever speculations which may well be considered on their own merits by those interested in ethnology and etymologies. Many opinions advanced may prove to be correct. But let it be noted that they arc for the most part pure speculation. Almost nothing is known of the interrelation of the trans-Jordanic tribes in that age other than the few hints in the Bible. And who can say what manner of persons might be found in a caravan which had wandered about no one knows where, or how long, to pick up trade before it turned into the northern caravan route? Until archaeology supplies more facts it is folly to attach much importance to such speculations (Kyle, The Deciding Voice of the Monuments in Biblical Criticism , 221).

In the slave market in Egypt, Joseph was bought by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, "an Egyptian." The significant mention of this fact fits exactly into a place among the recovered hints of the history of those times, which make the court then to be not Egyptian at all, but composed of foreigners, the dynasty of Hyksos kings among whom an "Egyptian" was so unexpected as to have his nationality mentioned.

Joseph's native nobility of character, the pious training he had received in his father's house, and the favor of God with him gave him such prosperity that his master entrusted all the affairs of his household to him, and when the greatest of temptations assails him he comes off victorious ( Genesis 39 ). There is strong ground for the suspicion that Potiphar did not fully believe the accusation of his wife against Joseph. The fact that Joseph was not immediately put to death is very significant. Potiphar could hardly do less than shut him up for the sake of appearances, and perhaps to take temptation away from his wife without seeming to suspect her. It is noticeable also that Joseph's character soon triumphed in prison. Then the same Providence that superintended his dreams is leading so as to bring him before the king ( Genesis 40;  41 ).

3. The Bedouin Slave Becomes Again the Bedouin Prince:

The events of the immediately preceding history prepared Joseph's day: the Hyksos kings on the throne, those Bedouin princes, "shepherd kings" (Petrie, Hyksos and Israelite Cities ), the enmity of the Egyptians against this foreign dynasty so that they accounted every shepherd an "abomination" (  Genesis 46:34 ), the friendly relation thus created between Palestinian tribes and Egypt, the princely character of Joseph, for among princes a prince is a prince however small his principality, and last of all the manifest favor of God toward Joseph, and the evident understanding by the Pharaohs of Semitic religion, perhaps even sympathy with it ( Genesis 41:39 ). All these constitute one of the most majestic, Godlike movements of Providence revealed to us in the word of God, or evident anywhere in history. The same Providence that presided over the boy prince in his father's house came again to the slave prince in the Egyptian prison. The interpretation of the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker of Pharaoh ( Genesis 40:1 ) brought him at last through much delay and selfish forgetfulness to the notice of the king, and another dream in which the same cunning hand of Providence is plainly seen (Genesis 41) is the means of bringing Joseph to stand in the royal presence. The stuff that dreams are made of interests scarcely less than the Providence that was superintending over them. As the harvest fields of the semi-nomadic Bedouin in Palestine, and the household routine of Egypt in the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker, so now the industrial interests and the religious forms of the nation appear in the dreams of Pharaoh. The "seven kine" of the goddess Hathor supplies the number of the cows, and the doubling of the symbolism in the cattle and the grain points to the two great sources of Egypt's welfare. The Providence that had shaped and guided the whole course of Joseph from the Palestinian home was consummated when, with the words, "Inasmuch as thou art a man in whom is the spirit of God," Pharaoh lifted up the Bedouin slave to be again the Bedouin prince and made him the prime minister.

4. The Prime Minister:

The history of "kings' favorites" is too well known for the elevation of Joseph to be in itself incredible. Such things are especially likely to take place among the unlimited monarchies of the Orient. The late empress of China had been a Chinese slave girl. The investiture of Joseph was thoroughly Egyptian - the "collar," the signet "ring," the "chariot" and the outrunners who cried before him " Abrech ." The exact meaning of this word has never been certainly ascertained, but its general import may be seen illustrated to this day wherever in the East royalty rides out. The policy adopted by the prime minister was far-reaching, wise, even adroit (  Genesis 41:25-36 ). It is impossible to say whether or not it was wholly just, for we cannot know whether the corn of the years of plenty which the government laid up was bought or taken as a taxlevy. The policy involved some despotic power, but Joseph proved a magnanimous despot. The deep and subtle statesmanship in Joseph's plan does not fully appear until the outcome. It was probably through the policy of Joseph, the prime minister, that the Hyksos finally gained the power over the people and the mastery of the land.

Great famines have not been common in Egypt, but are not unknown. The only one which corresponds well to the Bible account is that one recorded in the inscription of Baba at el Kab, translated by Brugsch. Some scarcely justifiable attempts have been made to discredit Brugsch in his account of that inscription. The monument still remains and is easily visited, but the inscription is so mutilated that it presents many difficulties. The severity of the famine, the length of its duration, the preparation by the government, the distribution to the people, the success of the efforts for relief and even the time of the famine, as far as it can be determined, correspond well to the Bible account (Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs , chapter vi). The way in which such famines in Egypt come about has been explained by a movement of the sudd , a sedgelike growth in the Nile, so as to clog the upper river (Wright, Scientific Confirmations , 70-79).

Joseph's brethren came "with those that came," i.e. with the food caravans. The account does not imply that the prime minister presided in person at the selling of grain, but only that he knew of the coming of his brethren and met them at the market place. The watchfulness of the government against "spies," by the careful guarding of the entrances to the land, may well have furnished him with such information. Once possessed with it, all the rest of the story of the interviews follows naturally (compare traditions of Joseph, Jewish Encyclopedia).

The long testing of the brethren with the attendant delay in the relief of the father Jacob and the family ( Genesis 42 through 45) has been the subject of much discussion, and most ingenious arguments for the justification of Joseph. All this seems unnecessary. Joseph was not perfect, and there is no claim of perfection made for him in the Bible. Two things are sufficient to be noted here: one that Joseph was ruler as well as brother, with the habits of a ruler of almost unrestrained power and authority and burdened with the necessity for protection and the obligation to mete out justice; the other that the deliberateness, the vexatious delays, the subtle diplomacy and playing with great issues are thoroughly oriental. It may be also that the perplexities of great minds make them liable to such vagaries. The career of Lincoln furnishes some curious parallels in the parleying with cases long after the great president's mind was fully made up and action taken.

The time of these events and the identification of Joseph in Egypt are most vexed questions not conclusively settled. Toffteen quite confidently presents in a most recent identification of Joseph much evidence to which one would like to give full credence (Toffteen, The Historical Exodus). But aside from the fact that he claims two exodi, two Josephs, two Aarons, two lawgivers called Moses, and two givings of the law, a case of critical doublets more astounding than any heretofore claimed in the Pentateuch, the evidence itself which he adduces is very far from conclusive. It is doubtful if the texts will bear the translation he gives them, especially the proper names. The claims of Rameses II, that he built Pithom,. compared with the stele of 400 years, which he says he erected in the 400th year of King Nubti, seems to put Joseph about the time of the Hyksos king. This is the most that can be said now. The burial of Jacob is in exact accord with Egyptian customs. The wealth of the Israelites who retained their possessions and were fed by the crown, in contrast with the poverty of the Egyptians who sold everything, prepares the way for the wonderful growth and influence of Israel, and the fear which the Egyptians at last had of them. "And Joseph died, being 110 years old," an ideal old age in the Egyptian mind. The reputed burial place of Joseph at Shechem still awaits examination.

5. The Patriarch:

Joseph stands out among the patriarchs in some respects with preeminence. His nobility of character, his purity of heart and life, his magnanimity as a ruler and brother Patriarch make him, more than any other of the Old Testament characters, an illustration of that type of man which Christ was to give to the world in perfection. Joseph is not in the list of persons distinctly referred to in Scripture as types of Christ - the only perfectly safe criterion - but none more fully illustrates the life and work of the Saviour. He wrought salvation for those who betrayed and rejected him, he went down into humiliation as the way to his exaltation, he forgave those who, at least in spirit, put him to death, and to him as to the Saviour, all must come for relief, or perish.

Literature.

Commentaries on Genesis; for rabbinical literature, compare Seligsohn in Jewish Encyclopedia, some very interesting and curious traditions; Ebers, Egypten und die Bucher Moses  ; "The Tale of Two Brothers," Rp , series I, volume II, 13746; Wilkinson-Birch, The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians  ; Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt .

References

  1. ↑ Joseph from Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
  2. ↑ Joseph from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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