The story of Jacob’s son Joseph is pivotal to all Jewish history and creed. For it was he who was instrumental in bringing his father and 11 brothers to Egypt where they eventually fell into slavery necessitating the rise of Moses, the deliverance from Egypt, the wanderings in the Sinai, the giving of the Law and Israel’s rebirth as a monotheist culture.
Jacob was a momma’s boy who followed his scheming mother’s prompting to steal his elder brother’s birthright. The son of his favourite wife, Rachel, Joseph too was a dreamer and a schemer who must have fondly reminded his aging father of his youthful self for he favoured him and showered gifts on him. Possessed of great vanity and self-importance the seventeen-year-old Joseph angered his older brothers who, when Joseph was sent to check up on them, plotted to murder him and take his bloodied long-sleeved coat to his father. Reuben’s scruples could not abide this deed so Joseph was thrown into a dry pit and sold by Judah to traders in Reuben’s absence who in turn traded him to a servant of Pharaoh in Egypt. The torn and bloodied long-sleeved robe was still presented to Jacob. So God uses less than perfect models to attain his ends.
Famine in the Middle East is a recurring theme and when it once more returned the brothers are sent to Egypt where it was rumoured grain was to be gotten. In the intervening years Joseph had ingratiated himself with Pharaoh and was in charge of his granaries. Recognizing his brothers Joseph deals harshly with them and plays tricks on them until they bring his young brother Benjamin to him and after revealing himself has them bring Jacob to Egypt as well.
The story continues with the Israelites settling in the Land of Goshen where they were fruitful and multiplied at a rate that alarmed their Egyptian hosts. They are enslaved, then their male offspring ordered killed to deplete their numbers. And so the story continues having begun in June with Abraham taking Isaac to the mount to offer as sacrifice, a tradition common among his Canaanite neighbours. It would seem that the intent is to parallel the development of Christian traditions and teachings with the similar myths that led to the Judaic tradition.
Understanding that the number 40 stood for a long time and not literally that exact figure looking at a map it seems impossible that the Israelites took more than a year or two to complete their journey to the Promised Land. The trip to Mt Horeb or Sinai for example would following the Biblical record have taken c. 44 days. The one important stipulation was that the trip took long enough for attrition, malnutrition, warfare, and disease to wipe out the generation that had been infected by Egyptian Culture and Religion. Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mt Nebo, only Joshua and Caleb actually made it all the way.
Jacob was a momma’s boy who followed his scheming mother’s prompting to steal his elder brother’s birthright. The son of his favourite wife, Rachel, Joseph too was a dreamer and a schemer who must have fondly reminded his aging father of his youthful self for he favoured him and showered gifts on him. Possessed of great vanity and self-importance the seventeen-year-old Joseph angered his older brothers who, when Joseph was sent to check up on them, plotted to murder him and take his bloodied long-sleeved coat to his father. Reuben’s scruples could not abide this deed so Joseph was thrown into a dry pit and sold by Judah to traders in Reuben’s absence who in turn traded him to a servant of Pharaoh in Egypt. The torn and bloodied long-sleeved robe was still presented to Jacob. So God uses less than perfect models to attain his ends.
Famine in the Middle East is a recurring theme and when it once more returned the brothers are sent to Egypt where it was rumoured grain was to be gotten. In the intervening years Joseph had ingratiated himself with Pharaoh and was in charge of his granaries. Recognizing his brothers Joseph deals harshly with them and plays tricks on them until they bring his young brother Benjamin to him and after revealing himself has them bring Jacob to Egypt as well.
The story continues with the Israelites settling in the Land of Goshen where they were fruitful and multiplied at a rate that alarmed their Egyptian hosts. They are enslaved, then their male offspring ordered killed to deplete their numbers. And so the story continues having begun in June with Abraham taking Isaac to the mount to offer as sacrifice, a tradition common among his Canaanite neighbours. It would seem that the intent is to parallel the development of Christian traditions and teachings with the similar myths that led to the Judaic tradition.
Understanding that the number 40 stood for a long time and not literally that exact figure looking at a map it seems impossible that the Israelites took more than a year or two to complete their journey to the Promised Land. The trip to Mt Horeb or Sinai for example would following the Biblical record have taken c. 44 days. The one important stipulation was that the trip took long enough for attrition, malnutrition, warfare, and disease to wipe out the generation that had been infected by Egyptian Culture and Religion. Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mt Nebo, only Joshua and Caleb actually made it all the way.
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