Difference between revisions of "Joseph"

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== Fausset's Bible Dictionary <ref name="term_36116" /> ==
== Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament <ref name="term_56325" /> ==
<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 (&nbsp;Genesis 30:23-24; &nbsp;Genesis 37:2; &nbsp;Genesis 41:46), &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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]] (&nbsp;1 Chronicles 5:1; &nbsp;Genesis 35:22; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Ecclesiastes 4:4; compare the [[Antitype]] &nbsp;John 1:11; &nbsp;John 5:17-20; &nbsp;John 7:5; &nbsp;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, &nbsp;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, &nbsp;Matthew 24:29-30; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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" (&nbsp;Luke 2:19; &nbsp;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, &nbsp;Matthew 21:38; &nbsp;Matthew 27:1. [[Stephen]] and the apostles evidently contemplated Joseph as type of Jesus (&nbsp;Acts 7:9-14; &nbsp;Acts 3:13-18). Jacob's special love shadows God's love to His Only [[Begotten]] (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Psalms 40:6-7; &nbsp;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: &nbsp;Hebrews 10:5; &nbsp;Philippians 2:6-8); and while he was in the pit "eat bread" (&nbsp;Proverbs 30:20; compare &nbsp;John 18:28; &nbsp;Zechariah 9:11). [[Ishmaelite]] or [[Midianite]] merchants from Gilead, with spicery, balm, and myrrh (gum ladanum), for Egypt, the land of embalming the dead (&nbsp;Genesis 50:2-3), passed by; and Judah, type of Judas, proposes the new plan of selling their brother for 20 pieces of silver (&nbsp;Leviticus 27:5) to the strangers (compare &nbsp;Matthew 20:19; &nbsp;Luke 18:32; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Acts 4:25-28; &nbsp;Isaiah 28:29; &nbsp;Proverbs 19:21). Joseph's anguish of soul is noticed incidentally in the brothers' self reproach (&nbsp;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, &nbsp;Matthew 27:46. His chief inquiries long afterward were about his father (&nbsp;Genesis 43:7; &nbsp;Genesis 45:13; &nbsp;Genesis 45:28; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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, &nbsp;Genesis 30:27); &nbsp;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 &nbsp;Matthew 7:18; &nbsp;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 &nbsp;Psalms 51:4; &nbsp;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 &nbsp;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" (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Amos 6:6); compare the Antitype, &nbsp;Psalms 31:12, He "remembered" the companion of His suffering (&nbsp;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 &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Job 31:26, Sabeanism). Joseph probably drew Asenath to his own purer faith. Joseph certainly professed openly his religion without molestation (&nbsp;Genesis 42:18), and Pharaoh recognizes the God of Joseph and His Spirit as the true God (&nbsp;Genesis 41:32-38-39). </p> <p> Like the Antitype (&nbsp;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 &nbsp;Psalms 90:15; &nbsp;Isaiah 65:16-17; &nbsp;Isaiah 61:7; &nbsp;Isaiah 62:4; &nbsp;Revelation 7:14-17; spiritually, &nbsp;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 &nbsp;Genesis 49:22; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Acts 27:6; &nbsp;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: &nbsp;John 6:45 ff; &nbsp;John 2:5). His brethren too came and bowed before him, unconsciously fulfilling the dream which they had so striven to frustrate (&nbsp;Acts 4:27-28; &nbsp;Proverbs 19:21; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Philippians 2:6-11; &nbsp;Psalms 22:22; &nbsp;Psalms 22:26-29). He knows His people before they know Him (&nbsp;John 15:16; &nbsp;John 10:14; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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, &nbsp;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; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Genesis 42:21-22): retribution in kind (&nbsp;Numbers 32:23 ff; &nbsp;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" (&nbsp;Proverbs 21:13). Joseph, though cherishing no revenge nay feeding his enemy when hungry (&nbsp;Romans 12:20), saw that temporary affliction was needed to bring them to penitence (&nbsp;Hosea 5:15; &nbsp;Job 36:8-9). He filled their sacks (Hebrew, "vessels") and restored their money (&nbsp;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 &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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: &nbsp;Jeremiah 31:20; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 &nbsp;Matthew 14:26; the Antitype and His future comforting of Zion, &nbsp;Isaiah 40:2; &nbsp;Isaiah 61:2-3). Joseph soothes their remorse, "be not angry with yourselves, for God did send me before you to preserve life." So &nbsp;Acts 3:12-18; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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" (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Hebrews 11:22). His body was embalmed, and in due time carried by Israel to Shechem his burying place (&nbsp;Exodus 13:19; &nbsp;Joshua 24:32; &nbsp;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.''' &nbsp;Numbers 13:7. </p> <p> '''3.''' &nbsp;Ezra 10:42. </p> <p> '''4.''' &nbsp;Nehemiah 12:14. </p> <p> '''5.''' &nbsp;Luke 3:30. </p> <p> '''6.''' Joseph or Josek (&nbsp;Luke 3:26). </p> <p> '''7.''' Another (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Matthew 1:19) merciful and tenderly considerate man. Recognized by his contemporaries as of David's lineage (&nbsp;Luke 2:4; &nbsp;Matthew 1:20; &nbsp;John 1:45). Joseph as well as Mary lived at [[Nazareth]] before their actual marriage; probably their common grandfather [[Matthat]] had settled there (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Matthew 13:55; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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]] (&nbsp;Mark 15:43). Joseph "waited for the kingdom of God" (&nbsp;Luke 2:25; &nbsp;Luke 2:38; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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>
<p> <b> JOSEPH </b> <b> ( </b> Ἰωσήφ).— <b> 1 </b> . The patriarch, mentioned only in the description of the visit of Jesus to [[Sychar]] (&nbsp;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. (&nbsp;Luke 3:24; &nbsp;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, &nbsp;Matthew 13:55 (Authorized Version Joses, the form adopted in both Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 in &nbsp;Matthew 27:56, &nbsp;Mark 6:3; &nbsp;Mark 15:40; &nbsp;Mark 15:47. See Joses). </p> <p> <b> 5 </b> . Joseph, the husband of Mary and the reputed father of Jesus (&nbsp;Luke 3:23), is not mentioned in Mk., and only indirectly in Jn. (&nbsp;John 1:45; &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Matthew 1:1 ff., &nbsp;Luke 3:23 ff.). Joseph, who was a carpenter (&nbsp;Matthew 13:55) and a poor man, as his offering in the temple showed &nbsp;Luke 2:24), lived in [[Nazareth]] (&nbsp;Luke 2:4) and was espoused to Mary, also of Nazareth (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Matthew 1:19), a strict observer of the Law. The law was stern (&nbsp;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’ (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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’ (&nbsp;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. &nbsp;Leviticus 12:2-4), she and Joseph took Jesus to the temple in [[Jerusalem]] (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Exodus 13:2, &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Matthew 2:14). In Egypt they were to remain till the angel brought word to Joseph (&nbsp;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]] (&nbsp;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’ (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Mark 3:31; &nbsp;Mark 6:3). </p> <p> <b> 6 </b> . Joseph of [[Arimathaea]] (Ἰωσὴφ ὁ ἀπὸ Ἀριμαθαίας, see Arimathaea).—A rich and pious [[Israelite]] (&nbsp;Matthew 27:57), a member of the [[Sanhedrin]] (&nbsp;Mark 15:43), who, secretly for fear of the Jews, was Jesus’ disciple (&nbsp;John 19:38). He had not consented to the death of Jesus (&nbsp;Luke 23:51), and could not therefore have been present at the Council, where they all condemned Him to be guilty of death (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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. &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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 (&nbsp;Matthew 27:60, &nbsp;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 (&nbsp;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>
          
          
== Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible <ref name="term_52144" /> ==
==
<p> <strong> JOSEPH </strong> (in OT and Apocr. [Note: Apocrypha, Apocryphal.] ).
          
          
==References ==
==References ==
<references>
<references>


<ref name="term_36116"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/fausset-s-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Fausset's 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_52144"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/hastings-dictionary-of-the-bible/joseph Joseph from Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible]</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_41513"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/holman-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Holman Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_73468"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/smith-s-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Smith's Bible Dictionary]</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_67182"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/morrish-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Morrish Bible Dictionary]</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_70341"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/people-s-dictionary-of-the-bible/joseph Joseph from People's Dictionary of the Bible]</ref>
       
<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_197978"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/wilson-s-dictionary-of-bible-types/joseph Joseph from Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_32208"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/easton-s-bible-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Easton's Bible Dictionary]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_135474"> [https://bibleportal.com/dictionary/webster-s-dictionary/joseph Joseph from Webster's Dictionary]</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_315"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/condensed-biblical-cyclopedia/joseph Joseph from Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia]</ref>
       
<ref name="term_75360"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/the-nuttall-encyclopedia/joseph Joseph from The Nuttall Encyclopedia]</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_5440"> [https://bibleportal.com/encyclopedia/international-standard-bible-encyclopedia/joseph+(2) Joseph from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia]</ref>
          
          
</references>
</references>

Latest revision as of 14:25, 16 October 2021

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]

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

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

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

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

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

J. Herkless.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [2]

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

I. The Joseph Story , A Literary Question

1. An Independent Original or an Adaptation?

2. A M onograph or a Compilation?

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

(2) A N arrative Full of Gems

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

II. The Story Of Joseph , A Biography

1. A B edouin Prince in Canaan

2. A B edouin Slave in Egypt

3. The Bedouin Slave Becomes Again the Bedouin Prince

4. The Prime Minister

5. The Patriarch

Literature

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

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

I. The Joseph Story, a Literary Question.

1. An Independent Original or an Adaptation?:

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

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

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

2. A M onograph or a Compilation?:

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

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

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

(2) A N arrative Full of Gems.

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

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

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

II. The Story of Joseph, a Biography.

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

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

1. A B edouin Prince in Canaan:

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

2. A B edouin Slave in Egypt:

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

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

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

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

3. The Bedouin Slave Becomes Again the Bedouin Prince:

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

4. The Prime Minister:

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

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

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

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

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

5. The Patriarch:

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

Literature.

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

References