GENESIS 37–50: IS JOSEPH WISE?

Abstract

The story of Joseph is one of the best known parts of Genesis. The enduring popularity of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , has helped make the (adapted) story a minor contemporary cultural phenomenon. Alongside a steady flow of scholarly monographs is an equally steady flow of popular studies that seek to make the biblical story accessible to any thoughtful reader. Discussion of the theological significance of the Joseph narrative tends to focus on three interrelated aspects. First is the recurrence of dreams, implicitly or explicitly sent by God, whose interpretation is not straightforward (Gen 40:8: “Do not interpretations belong to God?”), and whose outworking is central to the storyline (41:25: “God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do”). Second are Joseph's statements to his brothers of divine sovereignty, both at their initial scene of reconciliation and then in the renewed context of reconciliation at the end: “You intended against me evil, God intended it for good” (50:20). Third is the character of Joseph himself, traditionally viewed positively by Christians as a type of Christ, and more recently as a model of wisdom, but open also to other readings of a more suspicious nature. A particular focus for this third issue is Joseph's treatment of his brothers in Genesis 42–44. This is never explained by the narrator, and so widely differing readings are possible. These range from those that see Joseph as wisely administering a searching moral and spiritual discipline for his brothers' ultimate well-being to those that see Joseph as cruel and vengeful.