Genesis 46, or, "Who's Joe Daddy"

Wherein Jacob is reunited with Joseph

Jacob has a dream where God tells him to take all of his family to go meet Joseph in Egypt, where a great nation will be made for them.

Jacob complies and gathers his vast family (70 in all, and the Bible lists the name of each and every one of them), and they head to Egypt. When they arrive, there is a joyous reunion between Joseph and Jacob. Joseph tells his family that he will try to get the Pharaoh to allow them to settle in the land of Goshen.

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I have to remind myself that the Bible isn't just a book of stories. It's a catalog, a reference book, a written record of things which were important to ancient Hebrews.

That's why sometimes it's about as interesting to read as a phone book. Here in Genesis 46, we get another long genealogical list of names. I suppose if you were the one writing Genesis, you'd probably want to write everything down, including all the names of people in important families. But for us modern readers, it is hard to see the possible value in knowing that Eri was a son of Gad. Or the exact names of Baeriah's two sons (Heber and Malchiel). As I'm writing this though, I do find it interesting (although not in the way the Bible intended, I'm guessing) that this chapter only bothers to list the names of Jacob's male descendants.

Also in this chapter is another weird factoid about the ancient world. Here, Joseph tells us that "all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians." Why?

This was the best answer I could find, courtesy of the blog of Marlin and Sally Vis:

The herdsman’s herd was a threat to a plowman’s field of barley or wheat. Because there was no room for the herdsman’s herd in the cultivated areas of Egypt, the occupation of shepherd became something abhorrent to the Egyptians. So the keepers of cattle had to be separated from the keepers of the crop.

Basically, a shepherd's herd could potentially ruin land where crops were being grown. The Egyptians, unlike the Canaanites, didn't trust shepherds to be responsible enough to protect cultivated lands. Goshen was a land north of Egypts cultivated fields, sufficiently separated from them, and so that is where Joseph relocated his family, most of whom were shepherds.

GENESIS 45, or "Peace out, bro"

Wherein Joseph finally reveals the truth to his brothers

Moved by Judah's pleas, Joseph clears the room of everyone except for his brothers. He then tells them the truth: he is Joseph, the brother that they believed to have been dead (or possibly enslaved).

After that, there's a lot of astonishment, explaining, and hugging. Joseph tells his brothers to go back to Canaan and bring their father to Egypy, where their family will be given the best land of the nation.

The brothers do as Joseph asks, with the chapter concluding with Jacob about to travel to Egypt, hoping to see Joseph before he dies.

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This is a pretty straightforward chapter, and I'm struggling to think of something further I can say about it. So instead of exploring something relating to the chapter, how about another name of God, hmm?

Since the last time we visited this topic we focused on El Shaddai, a name for God that might have come from the word "destroy," lets focus on the kinder, gentler "Shalom," which is most simply translated as "peace."

Though the word "shalom" occurs many times in the Old Testament, it is only used as a name for God once, in Judges 6:24: "So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites."

More than referring just to peace, "shalom" comes from the Hebrew root "shalam" which means "safe" and "complete." It can also be used as way of saying hello or goodbye. Even though shalom can be used to express all these things, since it is a name of God, one must be careful when and how it is used. For example, uttering a name of God in an unholy place, such as a bathroom, is strictly forbidden under Jewish orthodoxy.

GENESIS 44, or "What the Sheol?"

Last we left Joseph and his brothers, they were together in Egypt with the bros still unaware of Joe's true identity. Now it's time for the brothers to leave again. Before they do, Joe tells one of his servants to plant a small piece of treasure into Benjamin's bag.

The brother's leave, but before they can get too far, Joseph sends some soldiers to catch up with them. The soldiers search their bags, and sure enough, they find the treasure.

The brother's are hauled back to Egypt where they are brought before Joseph, who accuses them of stealing. Judah pleads with Joseph, saying that he will bear Benjamin's punishment for him.

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One thing that I've been on the lookout for while working my way through Genesis is any mention of Hell. It's such a fundamental Christian concept that you'd think it would be written about somewhere towards the beginning of the Bible.

This hasn't been the case. So far there's been NO mention of Hell.

There have, however, been a few mentions of "Sheol," which up until now hasn't caught my eye - mostly because the NIV translates it as "grave" and only gives footnotes identifying the word more accurately as "Sheol." Here in Gen 44, Judah tells Joseph, "And so, should I come to your servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, since his life is bound to the lad's, when he saw the lad was not with us, he would die, and your servants would bring down the gray head of your servant, our father, in sorrow to Sheol"

So what is Sheol? From what I gather, Sheol doesn't exactly mean grave, nor does it mean hell, nor heaven. It seems to be a conception of the afterlife though, with most sources I found describing it as a place where the dead congregate. The website jewishencyclopedia.com offers that Sheol might come from the Assyro-Babylonian word "Shu'alu," which was also used to describe a place for the dead.

I find it interesting that the Bible has a word for the afterlife that isn't Heaven or Hell. Was Sheol meant to simply be a generalized term that encompasses both Heaven and Hell? Or does it open up the possibility that there is some third kind of afterlife that could await us? Or was Heaven and Hell created sometime after the events in Genesis?

I can only keep reading and hope to find out.

GENESIS 43, or "A God by any other name..."

Wherein Joseph's brothers return to Egypt.

Wow, has it really been half a year since I last blogged? At this rate, I'll be done with the Bible by the time I'm as old as Methuselah! (HAHAHAHA... Eh, sorry... Bible humor isn't always the funniest).

Even though my contributions to this blog aren't always frequent, it's never too far from my mind. And this Christmas, the best girlfriend in the world gave me The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (yes, that R. Crumb), which is what I'll be using for the remainder of my Genesis entries. I took it as a not-so-subtle hint from both her and the man upstairs that I should really get around to finishing this darned thing.

Okay, so let's dive in....

With the famine in full swing, Israel requests that his sons return to Egypt so that they can buy more food. The only caveat is that the brothers know that they will not be allowed back unless they bring their youngest brother Benjamin. As was the case in Genesis 42, Israel is not thrilled by this idea. But their situation is dire, and so Israel allows Benjamin to go too.

The brothers head to Egypt where they again meet with Joseph (remember that they don't know recognize him though). Joe is so overwhelmed by the sight of Benjamin that he runs off into his room and cries. Afterward, he regains his composure and treats his brother to food and wine, giving Benjamin five times as much to eat as the others.

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A couple of interesting things to note here:

1) I always get a kick out of the passages of the Bible that offer some random detail. In Gen 43, Israel tells his sons to bring Joseph "some balm and some honey, gum and ladanum, pistachio nuts and almonds." Evidently these were things that were fit to give one of the most powerful men in Egypt.

What the heck is ladanum? Wikipedia sez:

In ancient times, the resin was scraped from the fur of goats and sheep that had grazed on the cistus shrubs. It was collected by the shepherds and sold to coastal traders. The false beards worn by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were actually the labdanum soaked hair of these goats. Later long poles with leather or cloth strips were used to sweep the shrubs and collect the resin which was later extracted. It was used to treat colds, coughs, menstrual problems and rheumatism.

2) In his version of Gen 43, R. Crumb has opted to use the phrase "El Shaddai" instead of "God". This is actually much more accurate than using the word "God" - which is how the King James Version of the Bible has it written in Gen 43 - because El Shaddai is how the original Hebrew identifies God in this passage.

I think that I've covered this before, so forgive me if I have, but there are in fact many names that God goes by in the Bible. Me personally, I used to just think of "God" as "God", or maybe "The Lord", but I certainly didn't realize that in Hebrew, "God" actually goes by many names, and each of them have a different meaning, and thus, describe a different facet of God's nature.

Some of these names are: YHWH, Elohim, El, Adonai, Ba'ai, Ẓeba'ot, Shalom, and as we've already discussed, El Shaddai. I will hopefully explore all the names of God in future posts, but for the time being let's focus on El Shaddai, since that is the one used in Gen 43.

Simply put, "El" can be translated as "God" and "Shaddai" can be translated as "Almighty", so put together, "El Shaddai" literally means "God Almighty."

But let's dig a little deeper, shall we?

Shaddai is a word that may have derived from several other Hebrew words, the first of which is "shad." In Hebrew, "shad" means "breast", and one can see how this could make sense within the context of God being nourishing and parental. The second word is "sadu", meaning "mountain", suggesting strength, power, and enormous size. There is also at least one more possibility that the word comes from the root verb "shadad", which means to "overpower" or "destroy" - a distinctly different flavor from the kinder, gentler "shad".


Resources:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/misc/name_god.cfm#link2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Shaddai
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=N
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/El/el.html

GENESIS 42, or, "Nice Joe versus Mean Joe"

Wherein Joseph is reunited with his brothers, sort of

For Courtney's sake, I'm trying to go easier on ol' Joe. So, I'll be generous and chalk up his slightly schizophrenic behavior in this chapter to conflicting emotions about his brothers. You'll notice that he switches from "Nice Joe" to "Mean Joe" pretty quickly:

Feeling the effects of the famine like everyone else, Jacob sends all but one of his sons to Egypt in order to buy grain (the distance from Egypt to Canaan was somewhere between 250-300 miles, btw. Hardly a trip 'round the block to the convenience store). There they are faced with Joseph, now a powerful ruler and administrator of the food reserves. Joseph recognizes his brothers, but they don't recognize him. He pretends not to know them (Mean Joe). The brothers bow down to him, just like in the dream Joseph had as a kid.

In a turn of the proverbial tables, Joseph throws his brothers into prison, accusing them of being spies (Mean Joe). After three days he releases them (Nice Joe). But to prove they aren't spies, the brothers are forced by Joseph to return to Canaan and bring back the last of their brothers, Benjamin (Mean Joe). Joseph gives the bros grain, provisions for their journey, and surreptitiously places silver in their bags (Nice Joe).

Before they leave Egypt, the bros discuss how they are most likely being punished for their misdeeds against Joseph years ago, and Reuben gets all "I told you so!" about it. Joseph is moved to tears by this (Nice Joe). He then sends them on the beginning of the their 600 mile round trip journey across the desert (Mean Joe).

They return to Jacob and give him the bad news: Benjamin must go back to Egypt with them. Jacob is less than thrilled with the idea.

A Word From Courtney

Regarding my last post about Genesis 41, my friend Courtney sez:

"Wait a minute here... God isn't testing him? his brothers want to kill him but settle on selling him into slavery? then he gets thrown into jail? you're right, piece of cake :) But Abraham never got thrown into jail..."

Okay, I'll admit. A couple of years in the slammer is no easy ordeal. I'll give Joseph that.

Maybe my problem with the Joseph story has more to do with how passive he is. I feel the other heroes in Genesis made more choices, and then either suffered the consequences or reaped the benefits of those choices. Adam chose to bite into the fruit of knowledge. Abraham chose to sacrifice his son. Ol' Joe on the other hand seems to be lead around more by circumstance than choice.

I've heard it said before that one of the keys to writing a good story is to make sure that your characters are actively choosing to do things. So maybe this is why the Joseph story is falling flat for me.

That, and I still think he's kind of a spoiled blabber mouth.



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GENESIS 41, or, "Dream On"

Wherein Joseph soothsays his way into Pharaoh's good graces

Here's the basic rundown of Genesis 41:

Pharaoh has a disturbing dream involving cows. The next day, he sends for all the wise men and magicians of Egypt, but unfortunately they are unable to interpret the dream. The magicians were heard to say:


"I've made a huge mistake"

Then the chief cupbearer remembers Joseph and tells Pharaoh about his talent for dream interpretation. Joe is summoned and tells Pharaoh that his dream means that there will be seven years of prosperity and then seven years of famine. So it's best if they stockpile food during the years of prosperity.

Pharaoh makes it so, appointing Joe as his right hand man. When the famine comes seven years later, Egypt has their food surpluses ready and are able to make it through the harsh seven years.

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As far as Biblical forefathers go, Joseph is kind of a wimp. God isn't him testing him all that much. He isn't asking Joseph to sacrifice his own son, like Abraham. God isn't wrestling with him in the desert, like Jacob. God just seems to give him this great gift of being able to interpret dreams without Joseph really earning it in any way.

I'm just saying: the story of Joseph so far is a bit of a snoozer, and I'll be glad to move onto the next patriarch.


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