|
|
| (21 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| | | == Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament <ref name="term_56325" /> == |
| | | <p > <b> JOSEPH </b> <b> ( </b> Ἰωσήφ).— <b> 1 </b> . The patriarch, mentioned only in the description of the visit of Jesus to [[ Sychar]] ( John 4: 5). — <b> 2. 3 </b> . [[ 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.] — <b> 4 </b> . 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). </p> <p> <b> 5 </b> . 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.). </ p> < p> 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). </p> <p> 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). </p> <p> <b> 6 </b> . 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. <i> Ep </i> . i. xvi. 48; Plautus, <i> Mil. Glor </i> . 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 ( <i> Digest </i> , 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]] ( <i> Op </i> . 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. </p> <p> J. Herkless. </p> |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| == American Tract Society Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_16384" /> == | |
| <p> 1. The son of [[Jacob]] and his beloved Rachel, born in Mesopotamia, [[Genesis]] 30:22-24 , B. C. 1747. [[He]] is memorable for the wonderful providence of God, which raised him from a prison to be the grandvizier of Egypt, and made him the honored means of saving countless human lives. [[His]] history 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 rehearsal. It throws much light on the superintending providence of God, as embracing all things, great and small in the perpetual unfolding of his universal plan. [[No]] narrative in the [[Bible]] more strikingly illustrates the protective and elevating power of the fear of God, and its especial value for the young. To behold this lovely image of filial piety and unwavering faith, of self-control in youth and patience in adversity, of discretion and fidelity in all stations of life, serenely walking with [[God]] through all, and at death intrusting soul and body alike into his hands, Hebrews 11:22; may well lead the young reader to cry, [[Oh]] that the God of [[Joseph]] were my God, Genesis 37:1-36 39:1-50:26 . Joseph died, aged on hundred and ten, B. C. 1637; and when the Israelites, a century and a half later, went up from Egypt, they took his bones, and at length buried them in Shechem, [[Exodus]] 13:19 [[Joshua]] 24:32 . A [[Mohammedan]] wely or tomb covers the spot regarded generally, and it may be correctly, as the place of his burial. It is a low stone enclosure, and stands in quiet seclusion among high trees, at the western entrance of the valley of Shechem, at the right of the traveller's path and nearer mount [[Ebal]] than mount Gerizim. </p> <p> 2. The husband of Mary, Christ's mother. His genealogy is traced in [[Matthew]] 1:1-15 , to David, Judah, and Abraham. [[See]] [[Mark]] 6:3 . He was a pious and honorable man, as appears from his whole course towards [[Mary]] and her son. They both attended the [[Passover]] at [[Jerusalem]] when [[Christ]] was twelve years of age, [[Luke]] 2:41-51; and as no more is said of him in the sacred narrative, and Christ committed Mary to the care of one of his disciples, he is generally supposed to have died before Christ began his public ministry. He seems to have been well known among the Jews, Mark 6:3 [[John]] 6:42 . </p> <p> 3. A native of Arimathea, but at the time of Christ's crucifixion a resident at Jerusalem. He was doubtless a believer in the Messiah, and "waited for the kingdom of God." He was a member of the [[Jewish]] Sanhedrim, and opposed in vain their action in condemning the Savior, Luke 23:51 . When all was over, he "went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus." It was now night and the Jewish [[Sabbath]] was at hand. He therefore, with the aid of Nicodemus, wrapped the body in spices, for the time, and laid it in his own tomb, Mark 15:43-46 John 19:38-42 . </p> <p> 4. A disciple of Christ, also named Justus, and Barsabas. See [[Barsabas]] . </p> | |
|
| |
| == Easton's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_32208" /> ==
| |
| <li> [[Surnamed]] [[Barsabas]] (Acts 1:23 ); also called Justus. [[He]] was one of those who "companied with the apostles all the time that the [[Lord]] [[Jesus]] went out and in among them" (Acts 1:21 ), and was one of the candidates for the place of Judas. <div> <p> [[Copyright]] StatementThese dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., [[Illustrated]] [[Bible]] Dictionary, [[Third]] Edition, published by [[Thomas]] Nelson, 1897. [[Public]] Domain. </p> <p> Bibliography InformationEaston, [[Matthew]] George. [[Entry]] for 'Joseph'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/j/joseph.html. 1897. </p> </div> </li> | |
|
| |
| == Fausset's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_36116" /> ==
| |
| <p> The older of Jacob's two sons by Rachel. Having been long barren, she said at his birth "God hath taken away (asaph ) my reproach"; "the [[Lord]] (I regard this son as the earnest that He) will add (yaacaph ) to me another son, " a hope fulfilled afterward in Benjamin's birth. [[ Seventeen]] years old when sold into [[Egypt]] (Jacob being 108, and [[Isaac]] living 12 years afterward), 30 when made governor ( Genesis 30:23-24; [[Genesis]] 37:2 ; Genesis 41: 46) , Genesis 41:39 before [[Jacob]] came into Egypt; so born 1906 B. C. [[He]] is called" son of Jacob's old age, " as the comfort of his father's declining years, when his elder brothers by misconduct grieved their father, and [[Benjamin]] as yet was too young to minister to him. While Jacob was with the aged Isaac at [[ Hebron]] his sons were tending flocks. [[ Joseph]] reported their evil doings to Jacob, early manifesting moral courage and right principle under temptation (Exodus 23:2). Jacob marked his love to Joseph by giving him a "coat of many colors" (ketonet pacim ), the distinctive mark of kings' daughters who were virgins (2 [[ Samuel]] 13: 18) , strictly a long "tunic reaching to the extremities" or ankles. </p> <p> These robes generally had a stripe round the skirts and sleeves. [[On]] the tomb of Chnumhotep at Benihassan, under the 12th dynasty, the [[Semitic]] visitors are represented in colored robes, of pieces sewn together. Jacob probably designed hereby to give Joseph, the firstborn of [[Rachel]] who, but for Laban's trick, was his rightful first wife as she was his dearest,the primogeniture forfeited by [[Reuben]] (1 [[Chronicles]] 5:1; Genesis 35:22; Genesis 49:4). The [[Arab]] chief to this day wears an aba or garment of different colored stripes as emblem of office. The more his father loved the more his brethren hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him (Ecclesiastes 4:4; compare the [[Antitype]] [[John]] 1:11; John 5:17-20; John 7:5; John 15:23-25). The preeminence given him by his earthly was confirmed by his heavenly [[Father]] in two successive dreams. </p> <p> [[In]] his simplicity, possibly with some degree of elation, but certainly with the divine approval (for the revelation was given to be made known, [[Matthew]] 10:27), he told the dreams to his brethren, which only aggravated their hatred: the first, their sheaves bowing to his sheaf (pointing to his coming office of lord of the [[Egyptian]] granaries); the second, the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowing to him (these heavenly bodies symbolizing authorities subject to his chief rule; compare the coming eclipse of the natural luminaries and earthly potentates before the Antitype, Matthew 24:29-30; [[Revelation]] 6: 12). In the Antitype the [[ Old]] [[ Testament]] prophecies answer to Joseph's dreams; the [[Jewish]] rulers rejected Him, though knowing, yet practically knowing not, the prophecies concerning Him ( Acts 13: 27) . [[ Leah]] or else Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, answers to the "moon, " "thy mother," as Jacob to the "sun, " and the 11 stars to the 11 brothers ( Genesis 37: 6-10). </p> <p> He told his second dream to his father as well as to his brethren, because it affected not merely them but Jacob and his mother also. [[ His]] father at first was displeased with what seemed at variance with a son's submission to his parent. But, like [[ Mary]] in the case of the Antitype, he "observed the saying" (Luke 2:19 ; [[Luke]] 2:51). Unbelief, along with a secret misgiving that it might prove true after all, and bitter envy, wrought upon the brothers. [[ So]] upon their father sending Joseph from the vale of Hebron in the S. to [[Shechem]] in the N. to inquire after their welfare and the flocks, when they saw him afar off at Dothan, they conspired to slay him, saying "we shall see what will become of his dreams. " So as to the Antitype, Matthew 21:38; Matthew 27:1. [[Stephen]] and the apostles evidently contemplated Joseph as type of [[Jesus ]] ( Acts 7:9-14; Acts 3: 13-18) . Jacob's special love shadows God's love to His Only [[Begotten]] ( Matthew 3: 17) . </p> <p> Joseph 's readiness at his father's calls answers to the good Shepherd, the [[ Son]] of God's volunteering to come securing our eternal welfare at the cost of His life (Psalms 40:6-7; John 10:11). [[Providence]] turned aside their first plan. Reuben persuades them to avoid the guilt of blood by casting him into a dry pit or cistern, intending to return and deliver him. In his absence (the narrative with the artlessness of truth never explains why Reuben was absent at the crisis; a forger would have carefully made all plain) they strip off his coat of many colors (type of the human body with its manifold perfections which the Father "prepared" the Son, and which His unnatural brethren stripped Him of: Hebrews 10:5; Philippians 2:6-8); and while he was in the pit "eat bread" (Proverbs 30:20; compare John 18:28; [[ Zechariah]] 9:11). [[Ishmaelite]] or [[Midianite]] merchants from Gilead, with spicery, balm, and myrrh (gum ladanum), for Egypt, the land of embalming the dead ( Genesis 50:2-3), passed by; and Judah, type of Judas, proposes the new plan of selling their brother for 20 pieces of silver (Leviticus 27: 5) to the strangers (compare Matthew 20:19; Luke 18:32; Luke 20:20, the [[ Jews]] delivering Jesus to the [[Gentile]] Romans). </p> <p> Thus, they thought they had foiled forever the prediction of his elevation, but this was the very means of realizing it , by God's overruling and matchless counsels. [[Compare]] the Antitype ( Acts 4: 25-28; [[Isaiah]] 28:29; Proverbs 19:21). Joseph's anguish of soul is noticed incidentally in the brothers' self reproach (Genesis 42:21). [[Affection]] for his father is a trait characterizing him throughout, even as the father loved him, so that at his supposed loss through a wild beast (his sons having sent him Joseph's tunic dipped in blood) Jacob refused to be comforted. [[Severance]] from his father was the bitterest ingredient in his cup of slavery. So the Antitype, Matthew 27: 46. His chief inquiries long afterward were about his father (Genesis 43: 7; Genesis 45:13; Genesis 45:28; Genesis 41 :51), and the remembrance of "his father" was with him the strongest plea after Jacob's death, that the brothers thought they could urge for their being forgiven (Genesis 50:16-17). </p> <p> Reuben with characteristic instability forbore to tell his father the truth, while he had not consented to their deed. Jacob's cry, "I will go down into sheol unto my son, " implies his belief in a future state, for he thought his son devoured by wild beasts, therefore not in the "grave." The [[Midianites]] sold Joseph to [[Potiphar]] ( "one devoted to the royal house"; phar ) , an eunuch, i. e. court attendant, of Pharaoh, chief of the executioners (Hebrew, or "commander of the body guard"), the superintendence of executions belonging to the chiefs of the military caste. Potiphar controlled the king's prison (Genesis 39:20), which was in "the house of the captain of the guard" (Potiphar's successor according to some, but Potiphar, where also Joseph was prisoner (Genesis 40:3). (See POTIPHAR. ) Joseph at first "prospered" as Potiphar's steward ("Jehovah making all that he did to prosper in his hand"), supervising his gardens, lands, fisheries, and cattle. [[Farming]] in Egypt was carried on with the utmost system, as the Egyptian monuments attest; the stewards registering all the operations, to check the notorious dishonesty of the workmen. </p> <p> Joseph's knowledge of flocks qualified him in some degree for the post, and his integrity made him trustworthy in it, so that his master felt he could safely entrust to his charge his household and all that he had, and "the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake" (as in Jacob's case, Genesis 30:27); Psalms 1:3. But now his virtue encountered a severer test than that of his brothers' bad example; Potiphar's wife, with the lustfulness of Egyptian women, conceived a passion for his beauty and tempted him. Seemingly, his safety was in compliance, his danger if he should provoke her by non-compliance. Had he given way to animal appetite he would have yielded; but his master's absolute confidence in him, which gave him the opportunity with probable impunity ("my master wotteth not what is with me in the house"), was just the reason he gives for not abusing that confidence. Above all, regard for [[God]] restrained him instinctively: "how CAN (not merely shall) I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" </p> <p> So Matthew 7:18; 1 John 3:9, "cannot." [[Willful]] sin is impossible so long as one is under the principle of grace. On "against God," the feature of sin which constitutes its chief heinousness, see Psalms 51:4; 2 Samuel 12:13. When she importuned him day by day, he avoided being with her; they who would escape sin should flee temptation and occasions of sin. When she caught his garment he fled, leaving it in her hand. Then she accused him of the very sin to which she tried in vain to tempt him. An Egyptian story, in the papyrus d'Orbiney in the [[British]] Museum, The [[Two]] Brothers, in later times, seems founded on that of Joseph, the elder brother's wife tempting the younger with almost the same words as Potiphar's wife used to Joseph. The story of Saneha in one of the oldest papyri records his elevation to high rank under a [[Pharaoh]] of the 12th dynasty, and his developing the resources of Egypt just as Joseph did. Potiphar's not putting Joseph to death implies that he did not feel sure of his wife's story, and half suspected Joseph might be innocent. </p> <p> It cannot have been he but another who entrusted the prisoners to Joseph; for if Potiphar believed him innocent, as the committing of prisoners to him would imply, he would not have left him in prison. His doing so was providentially ordered for Joseph's elevation. Joseph's lettering, "the iron entering into his soul," is alluded to in Psalms 105:17-18. The keeper of the prison, however, discovered his trustworthiness, and committed to him all the prisoners, "the Lord giving him favor in the keeper's sight" (Proverbs 16:7). After a time the chief of Pharaoh's cupbearers (Hebrew), and the chief of his bakers or confectioners, were cast into prison by the king; the captain of the guard committed them as men of rank to Joseph's custody. His interpretation of their dreams, the vine with three branches and the pressing the grape juice into Pharaoh's cup, and the three baskets of white bread (the [[Egyptians]] being noted for their fancy bread and pastry) out the uppermost of which the birds ate, came to pass; Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer, and decapitated the chief baker. </p> <p> The mention of wine is confirmed by the monuments, which make it the beverage of the rich, beer that of the poor, and represent the process of fermenting wines in early times. The chief cupbearer forgot his promise and his benefactor Joseph (Amos 6:6); compare the Antitype, Psalms 31:12, He "remembered" the companion of His suffering (Luke 23:42). After two years Pharaoh's two dreams of the seven fat and seven lean kine out of the river (Nile, yeowr Hebrew, aa Αur Egyptian, "great river": also Hapi, i.e. Apis, the sacred name; appropriately "kine" come out of "the river," fertilizing the land by its overflow in the absence of rain, for grain and pasture of cattle, [[Apis]] the god being represented as a bull, and Athor, Isis, or mother earth, as a cow), feeding in a meadow (the sedge or rank grass by the river's edge, achuw ), and the seven rank ears of grain on one stalk, such as still is grown in Egypt, devoured by the seven thin ears which were blasted by the S.E. wind, called Joseph to the chief cupbearer's remembrance. </p> <p> Having in vain consulted his magicians or "sacred scribes" (chartumim , "bearers of spells"; the "sorcerers" do not occur until [[Exodus]] 7:11), Pharaoh through Joseph learned the interpretation, that seven years of famine (doubtless owing to failure of the Nile's overflow) should succeed to and consume all the stores remaining from the seven plenteous years. (See DIVINATION.) Like [[Daniel]] in the great heathen worldking's court at the close of Israel's history, so Joseph at its beginning, in like circumstances and with like abstinence from fleshly indulgences, interprets the Gentile monarch's dreams; marking, the immeasurable superiority of the kingdom of God, even at its lowest point, to the world kingdoms. It is an undesigned mark of genuineness that Joseph is represented as "shaving" before entering Pharaoh's presence, for the [[Hebrew]] wore a beard, but the Egyptians cut it and the hair close, and represent on the monuments the idea of slovenliness or low birth by giving a beard to a man. </p> <p> Joseph recommended the king to appoint a chief officer and subordinates to take up by taxation a fifth of the produce in the plenteous years against the famine years. The king raised Joseph as one" in whom the [[Spirit]] of God was," to be grand vizier over his house and his people, reserving the throne alone for himself. He put his signet ring (the names of the Pharaohs were always written in an elongated, signet like, ring) on Joseph's hand in token of delegated sovereignty, a gold chain about his neck, and arrayed him in the fine linen peculiar to the Egyptian priests; and made him ride in his second chariot, while the attendants cried "Abrech," ("Rejoice thou") (Egyptian), calling upon him to rejoice with all the people at his exaltation (Canon Cook, Speaker's Commentary) Pharaoh named Joseph "Zaphnath Paaneah." the food of life or of the living. Compare the Antitype (John 6:35) occupying the mediatorial throne with the Father's delegated tower, giving the bread of life first to His own brethren the Jews. then to the world. </p> <p> Then Joseph, who shrank from adulterous lusts, in righteous retribution received pure wedded joys in union with [[Asenath]] ("devoted to [[Neith]] and Isis") daughter of [[Potipherah]] ("devoted to Ra, the sun god") priest of ON , [[Heliopolis]] or [[Bethshemesh]] (the city of the sun god), the religious capital. Pharaoh doubtless ordered the marriage, to link his prime minister with the noblest in the land. Pharaoh himself was invested with the highest sacerdotal dignity, and could remove all disqualifications, so as to enable Joseph to be allied to the proud and exclusive priest caste. The Egyptian religion, though blended with superstitions, retained then much of the primitive revelation, the unity, eternity, and self existence of the unseen God. The sun was made His visible symbol, the earliest idolatry (Job 31:26, Sabeanism). Joseph probably drew Asenath to his own purer faith. Joseph certainly professed openly his religion without molestation (Genesis 42:18), and Pharaoh recognizes the God of Joseph and His Spirit as the true God (Genesis 41:32-38-39). </p> <p> Like the Antitype (Luke 3:23), Joseph was 30 in entering on his public ministry, so that he was 13 years in Egypt, in Potiphar's house and in prison, before his elevation. [[With]] characteristic energy as a steward he made an immediate tour throughout Egypt, and laid up grain in immense quantities, all registered accurately by scribes when the granaries were being filled (as Egyptian monuments represent). God gave him two children, to whom he gave Hebrew names, showing he remembered as ever the God of his fathers: Manasseh, "forgetting," "for God," said he, "hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's house" (i.e. not literally forgetting his relatives, for "his father" was uppermost in his affections; but has swallowed past sorrow in present joy; compare Psalms 90:15; Isaiah 65:16-17; Isaiah 61:7; Isaiah 62:4; Revelation 7:14-17; spiritually, Psalms 45:10); and Ephraim, "doubly fruitful," Joseph again attributing all to God, "God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction" (compare Genesis 49:22; John 15:2 ff). (See EGYPT, on Joseph.) </p> <p> [[Apophis]] the last of the shepherd kings was supposed to be the Pharaoh over Joseph. But Apophis was not master of all Egypt, as Joseph's Pharaoh was. "Shepherds were an abomination" in Joseph's time, which could not have been the case under a shepherd king. Osirtasin I, the second king of the 12th dynasty, was perhaps Joseph's Pharaoh. This dynasty was especially connected with On. There still stand Osirtasin's name and title on the famous obelisk, the oldest and finest in Egypt. Chnumhotep, Osirtasin's relative and favorite, is described upon the tombs of Benihassan as possessing the qualities so esteemed in Joseph "When years of famine occurred he plowed all the lands producing abundant food." The tenure under the crown, subject to a rent of a fifth of the increase, could only emanate from a native Pharaoh. Had it been a shepherd king's work, it would have been set aside on the return of the native dynasties. Amenemha III, sixth of the 12th dynasty, established a complete system of dikes, locks, and reservoirs, to regulate the Nile's overflow. </p> <p> He fitted the lake Moeris for receiving the overflow; near it was Pianeh, "the house of life," answering to Zaphnath Paaueah, "the food of life." [[If]] he be Joseph's Pharaoh Joseph was just the minister to carry out his grand measures. In the seven famine years the Egyptians as well as the people of adjoining lands, W. Africa, Ethiopia, Arabia, Syria, which shared in the drought (for the tropical rains on the [[Abyssinian]] mountains, on which the Nile's rise depends, have the same origin as the [[Palestine]] rains), and which partially depended on Egypt the granary of many countries (Acts 27:6; Acts 27:38), came to buy grain. Pharaoh's one reply to all was: "go to Joseph, what he saith to you, do" (compare the Antitype: John 6:45 ff; John 2:5). His brethren too came and bowed before him, unconsciously fulfilling the dream which they had so striven to frustrate (Acts 4:27-28; Proverbs 19:21; Proverbs 21:30). His speech and manners were Egyptian, so that they knew him not though he knew them. </p> <p> So the Antitype's brethren shall at last, like all others, bow before Him who is supereminently exalted just because He humbled Himself (Philippians 2:6-11; Psalms 22:22; Psalms 22:26-29). He knows His people before they know Him (John 15:16; John 10:14; [[Galatians]] 4:9). Joseph spoke roughly to his brethren, at once to avoid recognition and to bring them to repentance: "ye are spies, to see the nakedness (the assailable, because defenseless, points) of the land ye are come." Egypt was exposed to incursions of [[Canaanite]] [[Hittites]] and Arabs, and the invasion of the shepherds or [[Hyksos]] was already impending. (See EGYPT.) Joseph bartered grain successively for the Egyptian money (the money was in the form of rings not coined but weighed), cattle and land, of which he retained only a fifth of the produce for Pharaoh and took nothing from the priests. [[Diodorus]] adds the warriors as possessing land, but this was the king's special favor to them and apparently after Joseph. </p> <p> Not Joseph but Pharaoh it was who made the exception in behalf of the idolatrous priests, giving them grain without requiring their land (Genesis 47:22). [[Herodotus]] mentions the allotment of the soil by the crown among the people. The monuments record several famines and precautions taken against it. Joseph's statesmanship appears in the policy adopted. The Egyptians became the king's servants, and their property his, by their own voluntary act. His generous principle of dealing with them then, asking only a fifth after establishing the right to all, won their universal approval of an evenly distributed instead of an unequal taxation. A fifth was probably the sole tax on them. Joseph's policy was to centralize power in the monarch's hands, a well ordered monarchy being the best in the existing state of Egypt to guard against the recurrence of famines by stores laid by systematically, and by irrigation in the absence of the Nile's overthrow, and by such like governmental works, instead of leaving all to the unthrifty and unenterprising cultivators. </p> <p> The removal to cities (Genesis 47:19-26) facilitated his providing the people with food. The Egyptians did not regard one fifth as an exorbitant rent, but acknowledged "thou hast saved our lives" (compare the Antitype, Acts 5:31). Joseph's brethren in replying as to their father and family kept up the old lie, "one is not." Joseph required that one of them should fetch the youngest who was they said with his father, and kept them three days in ward, then let them take back grain for their households, but bound [[Simeon]] before their eyes as a hostage for their bringing Benjamin and so proving their truthfulness. [[As]] they had separated him from his father so he separated one from them, possibly the ringleader in their cruelty to Joseph (compare Genesis 34; Genesis 49:5-7.) As they had seen his anguish of soul so now their souls were in terrified anguish, with the stings of conscience added (Genesis 42:21-22): retribution in kind (Numbers 32:23 ff; Matthew 7:2). </p> <p> Joseph heard their self reproaching, remorseful cry, "we are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw ... and we would not hear" (Proverbs 21:13). Joseph, though cherishing no revenge nay feeding his enemy when hungry (Romans 12:20), saw that temporary affliction was needed to bring them to penitence (Hosea 5:15; [[Job]] 36:8-9). He filled their sacks (Hebrew, "vessels") and restored their money (Luke 6:34-35). divine guidance led Joseph to require Benjamin, the surest way of bringing Jacob and the whole family into their Egyptian house of bondage and training. His real kindness to them here shows that the severity was used in the interests of justice and their ultimate good by humiliation, while he retained all a brother's tenderness. The discovery of their money alarmed both the brothers and Jacob; "all these things are against me," but see [[Romans]] 8:31. Reuben offered to let his two sons be slain if he did not bring Benjamin back. </p> <p> At last, when want of grain forced him, Jacob gave a reluctant consent on Judah's undertaking to be surety for Benjamin. So with double money and a present of balm (balsam gum), honey (else grape juice boiled down to syrup, dibs ), spices (storax ), myrrh (ladanum ), and nuts (pistachio nuts), they brought Benjamin. Tremblingly they told the steward as to their money, for they feared on being brought into the house they should be imprisoned there. The steward reassured them and brought forth Benjamin. [[Again]] they fulfilled the dream, bowing before Joseph twice to the earth. His tender affection all but burst out at the sight of Benjamin, but as before by turning from them and weeping (Genesis 42:24), so now by entering into a chamber and weeping there, he maintained composure (compare the Antitype's yearning love for His brethren after the flesh: [[Jeremiah]] 31:20; Isaiah 63:15). At dinner the Egyptians, dreading pollution from those who killed cows, which were sacred in Egypt, sat apart from the Hebrew, and Joseph sat alone according to his high rank. </p> <p> Each was served separately; all were ranged according to age, but the youngest had five messes for their one sent from before Joseph. The monuments accord with this representation. They drank freely ("were merry".) On the morrow, by putting his silver cup (bowl from which wine was poured into smaller cups) in Benjamin's sack, and sending his steward after them upon their leaving the city where Joseph lived, he elicited Judah's generous offer to be bondsman and so not bring his father's grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, bound up as Jacob's life was with Benjamin's. (See DIVINATION.) [[Divining]] cups were used by gazing into the water as a mirror. The [[Nile]] was "the cup of Egypt," the sacred cup symbolized it. Joseph to keep up his disguise spoke as an Egyptian. He was not faultless; here he exceeded legitimate bounds of disguise, and implied his use of divination, which his former disclaiming of all knowledge otherwise than by God's revelation proves he did not practice (Genesis 41:16). Joseph could refrain no longer. </p> <p> The thought of his father's loving anxiety moved him to make himself known to them. He wept aloud while "they were troubled at his presence"; it was as if the ghost of one whom they had murdered stood before them. They shrank from him, but he said "come near to me" (compare Matthew 14:26; the Antitype and His future comforting of Zion, Isaiah 40:2; Isaiah 61:2-3). Joseph soothes their remorse, "be not angry with yourselves, for God did send me before you to preserve life." So Acts 3:12-18; Acts 4:27-28. He gave them the kiss of reconciliation and wept over them. Above all he tells them: "haste ye ... to my father and say, God hath made me lord of all Egypt, come down and thou shalt dwell in [[Goshen]] near me." (See GOSHEN.) Pharaoh and his court were pleased at the arrival of his brethren, and rendered him all help in removing his father and the whole household. His knowledge of his brethren suggested his charge, "see that ye fall not out by the way," one laying the blame of their unnatural conduct on the other. </p> <p> His filial reverence and love appear in his meeting his father in his own state chariot and escorting him to Goshen, [[Judah]] having preceded Jacob to announce to Joseph his approach. Goshen was assigned as a separate settlement to the Hebrew as shepherds, to avoid offense to the Egyptians, who being themselves tillers of the ground looked down on their nomadic neighbours. [[Already]] the latter had made inroads on lower Egypt, and after Joseph's time established the dynasty of shepherd kings or Hyksos (Genesis 46:28-34). Jacob gave Joseph "one portion above his brethren, taken from the [[Amorites]] with sword and bow," therefore not Shechem (portion) which he bought (see 1 Chronicles 5:1-2). Joseph, though the birthright was transferred to him from Reuben by Jacob, was not entered into the family registers as firstborn, because Judah prevailed above the rest and king [[David]] was chosen front his tribe. </p> <p> [[Still]] Jacob the progenitor marked Joseph as firstborn by assigning to his two sons [[Ephraim]] and [[Manasseh]] two tribal domains according to the law of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:15-17); his dying blessing on Joseph beautifully expresses Joseph's "fruitfulness amidst affliction," as his "arms were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." Jacob's blessing on Joseph once "separate from his brethren" exceeded that of [[Abraham]] on Isaac, and of Isaac on Jacob, and lasts as long as "the everlasting hills." The mention of Joseph's "servants the physicians" (Genesis 50:2) accords with the Egyptian usage of great men having many physicians attached to each household, one for each kind of sickness and to embalm the dead. After embalming and burying his father he was accosted by his brethren, who judged him by their own ungenerous and deceitful characters; he reassured them by renouncing vengeance as God's prerogative not his (Romans 12:19), and by speaking kindly. </p> <p> Joseph lived to 110 years, of which 93 were spent in Egypt; seeing Ephraim's and Manasseh's grandchildren, and showing his faith to the end by still clinging amidst all his grandeur in Egypt to God's promise of his seed's settlement in [[Canaan]] and therefore commanding [[Israel]] on oath to carry his remains there (Hebrews 11:22). His body was embalmed, and in due time carried by Israel to Shechem his burying place (Exodus 13:19; [[Joshua]] 24:32; Acts 7:16). Ephraim and Manasseh followed the idolatries out of which their mother had come rather than the pure faith of Joseph. He is one of the most faultless human heroes of Scripture. [[Decision]] in good, yet versatility in adapting itself to all circumstances, strong sense of duty, strict justice combined with generosity, self-control in adversity and prosperity alike, strength of character with sensitive tenderness and delicacy, modesty and magnanimity, strong filial love, above all abiding faith in God, appear throughout his remarkable history. As a statesman he got men unconditionally into his power that he might benefit them, and displayed extraordinary administrative ability. </p> <p> 2. [[Numbers]] 13:7. </p> <p> 3. [[Ezra]] 10:42. </p> <p> 4. [[Nehemiah]] 12:14. </p> <p> 5. Luke 3:30. </p> <p> 6. Joseph or Josek (Luke 3:26). </p> <p> 7. [[Another]] (Luke 3:24). </p> <p> 8. Son of Heli, husband of the [[Virgin]] Mary, daughter and heiress of his uncle Jacob. The frequent recurrence of the name in Luke's genealogy and its absence from Matthew's confirm the view that Luke's gives Joseph's line of parentage down from Nathan, David's son, but Matthew's the line of succession to the throne. (See GENEALOGY.) "A just" and yet (Matthew 1:19) merciful and tenderly considerate man. [[Recognized]] by his contemporaries as of David's lineage (Luke 2:4; Matthew 1:20; John 1:45). Joseph as well as Mary lived at [[Nazareth]] before their actual marriage; probably their common grandfather [[Matthat]] had settled there (Luke 1:26-27). His faith appears in his immediate obedience to the divine vision in a dream, no longer fearing to take to him Mary his wife (Matthew 1:24-25). [[Soon]] afterward Augustus' decree for the taxation obliged both to go to [[Bethlehem]] where Jesus was born (Luke 2). There the shepherds "found Mary and Joseph, and the [[Babe]] lying in a manger." </p> <p> After the wise men's departure another dream from the Lord caused him to flee from Herod's murderous agents by night with mother and [[Child]] to Egypt, where he remained until the angel of the Lord in another dream intimated Herod's death, He arose and returned; but fearing [[Archelaus]] who reigned in Judaea, and warned of God in a fourth dream (the divine mode of revelation in the early stage of the kingdom of God, less perfect than those vouchsafed in the advance, stages), Joseph turned aside to his old home Nazareth. Joseph is mentioned as with Mary in presenting the Babe in the temple and as "marvelling at those things spoken of" Jesus by Simeon, and as "blessed" by him. Lastly, when Jesus was taken at 12 years of age to the temple and tarried behind, Joseph and His mother knew not of it; and Mary on finding Him said, "Thy father and I have sought [[Thee]] sorrowing." </p> <p> He replied, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" [[Henceforward]] there is no more mention of the earthly father, and the heavenly and true Father is all in all. He was a "carpenter," and doubtless instructed the holy Jesus in this work (Matthew 13:55; [[Mark]] 6:3). Mary and Jesus' brethren are occasionally mentioned during His ministry, but Joseph never; evidently he had died previously, which Jesus' committal of the Virgin mother to John (John 19:27) confirms. [[Tradition]] has supplied by fiction what the [[Gospels]] under the Spirit's guidance do not contain. </p> <p> 9. [[Of]] Aramahea. (See ARIMATHEA.) "An honourable counselor," i.e. member of the [[Sanhedrin]] (Mark 15:43). Joseph "waited for the kingdom of God" (Luke 2:25; Luke 2:38; Luke 23:51), i.e. for [[Messiah]] and His kingdom, in accordance with prophecy. "A good man and a just." He had not consented to the Sanhedrin's counsel and deed in crucifying Jesus. [[Timidity]] was his failing. Mark was conscious of it; John (John 19:38) expressly records it, "a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews." [[Hence]] Mark records it as the more remarkable that "Joseph went in boldly unto [[Pilate]] and craved the body" just at a time when the boldest disciples might and did shrink from such a perilous venture. [[Feeble]] faith when real sometimes rises with the occasion, to face the most formidable dangers. The undesigned coincidence of Mark and John confirms their genuineness. The mighty signs both Joseph and [[Nicodemus]] witnessed at Jesus' crucifixion, and His own divine bearing throughout, changed cowards into brave disciples. </p> <p> God had foretold ages ago (Isaiah 53:9), "they (His enemies) appointed (designed) His grave with the wicked (by crucifying Him between two thieves), but He was with a rich man at His death," i.e. when He was dead. Up to the end this prophecy seemed most unlikely to be fulfilled; but when God's time had come, at the exact crisis came forward two men, the last one would expect, both rich and members of the hostile body of rulers. The same event which crushed the hopes and raised the fears of the avowed disciples inspired Joseph with a boldness which he never felt before. [[All]] four evangelists record his deed. He had the privilege of taking down from the cross the sacred body, wrapping in fine linen which he had bought, and adding spices with Nicodemus' help, and consigning to his own newly hewn rock tomb wherein no corpse had ever lain, and in his own garden near Calvary, and then rolling the stone to the door of the sepulchre. Tradition represents Joseph as sent to [[Great]] Britain by the apostle [[Philip]] (A.D. 63), and as having settled with a band of disciples at Glastonbury, Somersetshire. </p> | |
|
| |
| == Holman Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_41513" /> ==
| |
| <p> 1. [[Joseph]] in the [[Old]] [[Testament]] primarily refers to the patriarch, one of the sons of Israel. Joseph was the eleventh of twelve sons, the first by Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel. [[His]] name, “may he [the Lord] add,” was a part of Rachel's prayer at his birth (Genesis 30:24 ). </p> <p> [[As]] the child of Jacob's old age and Rachel's son, Joseph became the favorite and was given the famous “coat of many colors” (Genesis 37:3; “long robe with sleeves,” NRSV, NEB; “richly ornamented robe” NIV) by his father. This and dreams which showed his rule over his family inspired the envy of his brothers, who sold Joseph to a caravan of [[Ishmaelites]] (Genesis 37:1 ). </p> <p> Joseph was taken to [[Egypt]] where he became a trusted slave in the house of Potiphar, an official of the pharaoh. [[On]] false accusations of Potiphar's wife, Joseph was thrown in the royal prison, where he interpreted the dreams of two officials who had offended the pharaoh (Genesis 39-40 ). [[Eventually]] Joseph was brought to interpret some worrisome dreams for the pharaoh. Joseph predicted seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine and recommended a program of preparation by storing grain. [[Pharaoh]] responded by making Joseph his second in command (Genesis 41:39-45 ). </p> <p> [[With]] the famine, persons from other countries came to Egypt to buy food, including Joseph's brothers. They did not recognize him, but Joseph saw the fulfillment of his earlier dreams in which his brothers bowed down to him. After testing their character in various ways, Joseph revealed himself to them on their second visit (Genesis 42-45 ). Under Joseph's patronage, [[Jacob]] moved into Egypt (Genesis 46:1-47:12 ). Joseph died in Egypt but was embalmed and later buried in [[Shechem]] (Genesis 50:26; [[Exodus]] 13:19; [[Joshua]] 24:32 ). </p> <p> That the influential Joseph (Genesis 47:13-26 ) is not known from [[Egyptian]] records would be expected if he served under a [[Hyksos]] pharaoh, as seems likely. [[See]] Exodus 1:8 , NRSV) did not “know” of him in a political or historical sense. </p> <p> While in Egypt, Joseph became the father of two sons, [[Manasseh]] and [[Ephraim]] (Genesis 41:50-52 ), who were counted as sons of Jacob (Genesis 48:5-6 ) and whose tribes dominated the northern nation of Israel. The name Joseph is used later in the Old Testament as a reference to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (Numbers 1:32; [[Numbers]] 36:1 ,Numbers 36:1,36:5; 1 Kings 11:28 ) or as a designation for the whole [[Northern]] [[Kingdom]] (Psalm 78:67; [[Ezekiel]] 37:16 ,Ezekiel 37:16,37:19; [[Amos]] 5:6 ,Amos 5:6,5:15; Amos 6:6; [[Obadiah]] 1:18; [[Zechariah]] 10:6 ). </p> <p> [[Four]] other men named Joseph are mentioned in the Old Testament: 2. the spy of the tribe of [[Issachar]] (Numbers 13:7 ); 3 . a [[Levite]] of the sons of [[Asaph]] (1 [[Chronicles]] 25:2 ); 4 . a contemporary of [[Ezra]] with a foreign wife (Ezra 10:42 ); and Ezra 10:5 . a priest in the days of high priest [[Joiakim]] (Nehemiah 12:14 ). </p> <p> New Testament 6. [[Several]] Josephs are mentioned in the New Testament, the most important being the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus. [[He]] was a descendant of David, a carpenter by trade (Matthew 13:55 ), and regarded as the legal or foster father of [[Jesus]] (Matthew 1:16 ,Matthew 1:16,1:20; [[Luke]] 2:4; Luke 3:23; Luke 4:22; [[John]] 1:45; John 6:42 ). [[Upon]] learning of Mary's pregnancy, Joseph, being a righteous man, sought to put her away without public disgrace. His response to God's assurances in a dream further demonstrated his piety and character (Matthew 1:18-25 ). Joseph took [[Mary]] to his ancestral home, Bethlehem, was with her at Jesus' birth, and shared in the naming, circumcision, and dedication of the child (Luke 2:8-33 ). [[Directed]] through dreams, Joseph took his family to Egypt until it was safe to return to [[Nazareth]] (Matthew 2:13-23 ). As dedicated father, he was anxious with Mary at the disappearance of Jesus (Luke 2:41-48 ). Joseph does not appear later in the Gospels, and it is likely that he died prior to Jesus' public ministry. </p> <p> 7. [[Also]] important in the New Testament is Joseph of Arimathea, a rich member of the [[Sanhedrin]] and a righteous man who sought the kingdom of [[God]] (Matthew 27:57; [[Mark]] 15:43; Luke 23:50 ). After the crucifixion, Joseph, a secret disciple of Jesus, requested the body from [[Pilate]] and laid it in his own unused tomb (Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:43-46; Luke 23:50-53; John 19:38-42 ). [[Arimathea]] is probably the same as Ramathaim-zophim (1 [[Samuel]] 1:1 ) northwest of Jerusalem. </p> <p> [[Two]] Josephs are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:24 ,Luke 3:24,3:30 ). [[Another]] was a brother of Jesus, apparently named after His father (Matthew 13:55; KJV “Joses” as in Mark 6:3 ). It likely but uncertain that the brother of [[James]] (Matthew 27:56; [[Joses]] in Mark 15:40 ,Mark 15:40,15:47 ) is a different person. Joseph was also another name of both [[Barsabbas]] (Acts 1:23 ) and [[Barnabas]] (Acts 4:36 ). </p> <p> [[Daniel]] C. [[Browning]] Jr. </p>
| |
|
| |
| == Hitchcock's Bible Names <ref name="term_46216" /> ==
| |
| | |
|
| |
| == 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. 771b). [[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> [Note: [[E]] Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).]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
| |
| | | |
| ==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> |
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
