Joseph (Son of Jacob)

Biblical Account

Joseph was the firstborn son of Rachel, the wife whom Jacob loved (Genesis 30:22–24; see Rachel and Leah). His life story unfolds across Genesis 37–50.

• Dreams and sale into slavery: Favored by his father, he wore a coat of many colors. At seventeen he provoked his brothers' hatred by telling them of a dream in which they bowed down to him. His brothers threw him into a pit and then sold him to merchants for twenty pieces of silver (chapter 37).
• Hardship in Egypt: He became a servant in the house of Potiphar and was imprisoned after being falsely accused by his master's wife. In prison he interpreted the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker (chapters 39–40).
• Rise to power: He interpreted Pharaoh's dreams as foretelling seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. At the age of thirty he was placed in authority over Egypt. He married Asenath, who bore him Manasseh and Ephraim (chapter 41).
• Reconciliation: When his brothers came to buy grain during the famine, he tested them. After Judah offered to become a slave in Benjamin's place, Joseph revealed his identity. He then brought his entire family to Egypt (chapters 42–47).
• Death: He died at the age of 110, asking that his bones be carried to the Promised Land (50:25–26). His bones were carried out of Egypt at the Exodus and buried at Shechem (Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32).

Significance Within Scripture

The central confession of the Joseph narrative is "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good" (Genesis 50:20). This passage is read as a classic text illustrating providence: that God directs events even through the brothers' wrongdoing and through suffering. The Joseph story explains how Israel came to be in Egypt and thus leads into the Exodus narrative. Manasseh and Ephraim each became a tribe (chapter 48).

In the New Testament, Stephen recounted Joseph's life in his sermon (Acts 7:9–16). Hebrews 11:22 cites his instructions concerning his bones as an act of faith. Psalm 105:17–22 also celebrates his story in song.

Interpretation and Debated Issues

• Type of Christ: Since the early church, many interpreters have read Joseph as a figure who foreshadows Jesus Christ. They point to his rejection by his brothers, his exaltation after suffering, and his saving of those who had harmed him. However, the New Testament never explicitly calls Joseph a type of Christ, and some interpreters therefore caution against excessive allegorical interpretation (a reading that treats the details of a text as symbols in order to draw out a different meaning).
• Assessment of his character: Some view the young Joseph's telling of his dreams as arrogance, while others see it as naïveté. Likewise, some read his testing of his brothers as retaliation, while others read it as a way of confirming their repentance.
• Traditions outside the text: The meaning of the Hebrew expression rendered "coat of many colors" is uncertain, and some take it to mean "a long-sleeved robe." The names given to Potiphar's wife (such as Zulaikha) and the story of Asenath's conversion come from later Jewish literature, Islamic tradition, and the apocryphal work Joseph and Aseneth; they do not appear in Genesis.

In the Korean Church

Joseph is a figure frequently taught in Sunday school and Vacation Bible School. Common themes in sermons include "the man of dreams," "a prosperous man" (Genesis 39:2), forgiveness and reconciliation, and providence. Sermons that present Joseph as a model of success after hardship have drawn criticism. Critics note that the focus of the text is not individual success but God's providence and the reconciliation of a family, and that success-centered readings come to resemble prosperity theology.

For Mary's husband, see Joseph of Nazareth; for the man who buried the body of Jesus, see Joseph of Arimathea.