Joseph

Overview

• Joseph is the son of Jacob and Rachel, sold into slavery by his brothers, but who rose to become lord of Egypt and saved his family from famine. The Church venerates him as "Joseph the All-Comely."
• His life — the beloved son betrayed, humbled, and exalted to save those who rejected him — is read as a type of Christ, and he is commemorated on Great and Holy Monday.

His Story

Joseph was the son of Jacob's old age, firstborn of his beloved Rachel, whom Jacob loved more than all his sons and clothed in a coat of many colors (Genesis 37.3). His brothers hated him for their father's favor, and hated him the more for the dreams he told — of their sheaves bowing to his, and of the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing before him (Genesis 37.5-11). Sent to check on them, he was seized; they stripped off his coat (Genesis 37.23) and cast him into a pit (Genesis 37.24), then sold him for twenty pieces of silver to traders bound for Egypt (Genesis 37.26-28), and dipped his coat in goat's blood to persuade Jacob a beast had devoured him (Genesis 37.31-33).

In Egypt he was bought by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaohs, (Genesis 39.1), and because the Lord was with him he was set over all his master's house (Genesis 39.2-6); but when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him and he fled (Genesis 39.7-12), she accused him falsely, and he was thrown into prison (Genesis 39.13-20). There too God gave him favor (Genesis 39.21-23), and he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's imprisoned cupbearer and baker, each as he had said (Genesis 40).

See Dreams for some important information.

Josephs main encounters are with God are noticeably less extreme as with Abraham (who had a meal with God), Isaac (who heard and saw God), and Jacob (who wrestled with God). Joseph instead has dreams. Genesis 37.5-11

Two years later, when Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat and seven lean cattle (Genesis 41.1-7), the cupbearer remembered him (Genesis 41.9-13); Joseph read the dreams as seven years of plenty followed by seven of famine and counseled that grain be stored (Genesis 41.25-36), and Pharaoh set him over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 41.39-43).

When the famine reached Canaan, Jacob sent his sons to buy grain, and they bowed before Joseph without knowing him (Genesis 42.6-8) — his boyhood dreams fulfilled. He tested them, demanding they bring Benjamin (Genesis 42.15-20), and wept apart from them (Genesis 42.24); when Judah offered himself in Benjamin's place (Genesis 44.18-34), Joseph could restrain himself no longer and revealed himself: "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt" (Genesis 45.4), telling them, "it was not you that sent me hither, but God" (Genesis 45.5-8). He brought his father and all his house to dwell in Goshen (Genesis 46.28-47.12). After Jacob's death, when the brothers feared his revenge, Joseph reassured them with the words that crown his story: "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive" (Genesis 50.19-21). He lived to see his great-grandchildren, and dying charged that his bones be carried up to the promised land (Genesis 50.22-26).

Joseph and Christ

The Church reads Joseph's whole life as a foreshadowing of Christ: the beloved son sent by the father to his brethren, envied and sold for silver, stripped of his robe and cast into the pit, falsely condemned and numbered among prisoners, then raised from that humiliation to a throne from which he gives bread to the world and saves the very brothers who betrayed him. For this reason he is honored as "Joseph the All-Comely" (the Fair) and commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers and, above all, on Great and Holy Monday, at the opening of Christ's Passion.[^1] See Typology in Scripture.

Sources

[^1]: Liturgics, synaxarion Righteous Joseph the Patriarch — Joseph the Fair, son of Jacob and Rachel, sold by his brothers, made lord of Egypt, "you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50.20); read as a type of Christ and commemorated on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers and on Great and Holy Monday. Narrative: Genesis 37–Genesis 50.