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General Information
Saint Joseph was the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. Given prominent attention in the first two chapters of Matthew and Luke, Joseph is portrayed as a carpenter in Nazareth, a righteous descendant of Bethlehem's David, and a kind husband and father. Although little else is known of his life, Joseph's faithful cooperation in the birth of Christ earned him sainthood. He is venerated by Orthodox and by Roman Catholics, who consider him the patron saint of workers. Feast days: May 1 (Western); first Sunday after Christmas (Eastern).
Joseph, the 11th son of Jacob and the first son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, is the biblical hero in the drama of Genesis 37-50. Joseph's favored status and his coat of many colors, a gift from his father, caused his brothers to be jealous, and they staged his accidental "death." Joseph was actually taken to Egypt, where his ability to interpret dreams brought him into favor with the pharaoh. Joseph became a high Egyptian official. When, during a famine, his unsuspecting brothers sought grain in Egypt, the forgiving Joseph--whom his brothers did not at first recognize--arranged a family reunion. Thus the whole family of Jacob moved to Egypt and lived there until the Exodus.
Joseph, remover or increaser.
"Now Israel loved
Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old
age," and he "made him a long garment with sleeves" (Gen. 37:3, R.V.
marg.), i.e., a garment long and full, such as was worn by the children
of nobles. This seems to be the correct rendering of the words. The
phrase, however, may also be rendered, "a coat of many pieces", i.e., a
patchwork of many small pieces of divers colours.
When he was about
seventeen years old Joseph incurred the jealous hatred of his brothers
(Gen. 37:4). They "hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him."
Their anger was increased when he told them his dreams (37:11). Jacob
desiring to hear tidings of his sons, who had gone to Shechem with
their flocks, some 60 miles from Hebron, sent Joseph as his messenger
to make inquiry regarding them. Joseph found that they had left Shechem
for Dothan, whither he followed them.
As soon as they saw him coming
they began to plot against him, and would have killed him had not
Reuben interposed. They ultimately sold him to a company of Ishmaelite
merchants for twenty pieces (shekels) of silver (about $2,10s.), ten
pieces less than the current value of a slave, for "they cared little
what they had for him, if so be they were rid of him." These merchants
were going down with a varied assortment of merchandise to the Egyptian
market, and thither they conveyed him, and ultimately sold him as a
slave to Potiphar, an "officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard"
(Gen. 37:36).
"The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's
sake," and Potiphar made him overseer over his house. At length a false
charge having been brought against him by Potiphar's wife, he was at
once cast into the state prison (39; 40), where he remained for at
least two years. After a while the "chief of the cupbearers" and the
"chief of the bakers" of Pharaoh's household were cast into the same
prison (40:2). Each of these new prisoners dreamed a dream in the same
night, which Joseph interpreted, the event occurring as he had said.
This led to Joseph's being remembered subsequently by the chief butler
when Pharaoh also dreamed. At his suggestion Joseph was brought from
prison to interpret the king's dreams. Pharaoh was well pleased with
Joseph's wisdom in interpreting his dreams, and with his counsel with
reference to the events then predicted; and he set him over all the
land of Egypt (Gen. 41:46), and gave him the name of Zaphnath-paaneah.
He was married to Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On, and thus
became a member of the priestly class.
Joseph was now about thirty
years of age. As Joseph had interpreted, seven years of plenty came,
during which he stored up great abundance of corn in granaries built
for the purpose. These years were followed by seven years of famine
"over all the face of the earth," when "all countries came into Egypt
to Joseph to buy corn" (Gen. 41:56, 57; 47:13, 14). Thus "Joseph
gathered up all the money that was in the land of Egypt, and in the
land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought." Afterwards all the
cattle and all the land, and at last the Egyptians themselves, became
the property of Pharaoh.
During this period of famine Joseph's brethren
also came down to Egypt to buy corn. The history of his dealings with
them, and of the manner in which he at length made himself known to
them, is one of the most interesting narratives that can be read (Gen.
42-45).
Joseph directed his brethren to return and bring Jacob and his
family to the land of Egypt, saying, "I will give you the good of the
land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Regard not your
stuff; for the good of all the land is yours." Accordingly Jacob and
his family, to the number of threescore and ten souls, together with
"all that they had," went down to Egypt. They were settled in the land
of Goshen, where Joseph met his father, and "fell on his neck, and wept
on his neck a good while" (Gen. 46:29).
The excavations of Dr. Naville
have shown the land of Goshen to be the Wady Tumilat, between Ismailia
and Zagazig. In Goshen (Egyptian Qosem) they had pasture for their
flocks, were near the Asiatic frontier of Egypt, and were out of the
way of the Egyptian people. An inscription speaks of it as a district
given up to the wandering shepherds of Asia. Jacob at length died, and
in fulfilment of a promise which he had exacted, Joseph went up to
Canaan to bury his father in "the field of Ephron the Hittite" (Gen.
47:29-31; 50:1-14). This was the last recorded act of Joseph, who again
returned to Egypt.
"The 'Story of the Two Brothers,' an Egyptian
romance written for the son of the Pharaoh of the Oppression, contains
an episode very similar to the Biblical account of Joseph's treatment
by Potiphar's wife. Potiphar and Potipherah are the Egyptian
Pa-tu-pa-Ra, 'the gift of the sun-god.' The name given to Joseph,
Zaphnath-paaneah, is probably the Egyptian Zaf-nti-pa-ankh, 'nourisher
of the living one,' i.e., of the Pharaoh.
There are many instances in
the inscriptions of foreigners in Egypt receiving Egyptian names, and
rising to the highest offices of state." By his wife Asenath, Joseph
had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Gen. 41: 50). Joseph having
obtained a promise from his brethren that when the time should come
that God would "bring them unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob," they would carry up his bones out of Egypt, at
length died, at the age of one hundred and ten years; and "they
embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin" (Gen. 50:26). This promise
was faithfully observed.
Their descendants, long after, when the Exodus
came, carried the body about with them during their forty years'
wanderings, and at length buried it in Shechem, in the parcel of ground
which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor (Josh. 24:32; comp. Gen.
33:19). With the death of Joseph the patriarchal age of the history of
Israel came to a close.
The Pharaoh of Joseph's elevation was probably
Apepi, or Apopis, the last of the Hyksos kings. Some, however, think
that Joseph came to Egypt in the reign of Thothmes III. (see page 539),
long after the expulsion of the Hyksos. The name Joseph denotes the two
tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh in Deut. 33:13-17; the kingdom of Israel
in Ezek. 37:16, 19, Amos 5:6; and the whole covenant people of Israel
in Ps. 81:4.
jpseph
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