The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Genesis 37–50: Joseph Story or Jacob Story?
Abstract
Genesis 37-50 universally known as the Joseph Story, leaves scholars with question about its boundaries and unity. This chapter brings to the fore two neglected aspects of the story: the rivalry between the brothers for firstborn status, and the brothers' recognition of a divine plan trumping their own plans. It argues that the Genesis theme of fraternal striving for firstborn status provides the major dramatic tension. It then explores the parallel between Joseph's and Judah's going down from their brothers and reached the conclusion that Judah's confession in 38:26 was nothing less than his recognition of the divine force increasing in his family in spite of his own sinful choices. Author elaborates the dramatic necessity of Jacob's Testament (ch. 49): Jacob regains his paternal authority by adjudicating his sons' status, declaring that firstborn privilege will be shared by Rachel's son Joseph and Leah's son Judah. Keywords:firstborn status; Genesis; Jacob; Joseph; Judah; Rachel
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Citations
Cites
Still being checked.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Bible, culture and ethics: Trickery in the narrative of Judah and Tamar
Pietersen, L., & Fourie, W. J. (2015) · HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies · doi:10.4102/hts.v71i3.2937 · Cited by 5
Boże wybraństwo Józefa. W poszukiwaniu ukrytych sensów narracji Rdz 37–50
Komarnytskyy, V. (2026) · Ruch Biblijny i Liturgiczny · doi:10.21906/rbl.3788
Metadata
- Authors
- Clifford, R. J.
- Corresponding author
- Clifford, Richard J.
- ORCID
- Clifford, Richard J.
- Venue
- The Book of Genesis
- Publisher
- BRILL
- Published
- 2012-01-01
- Pages
- 213-229
- OpenAlex
- W2295493943
- Semantic Scholar
- 45450d2b597295935da7ced38d35a5d537f5f431
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 9.71
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- BRILL eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Classical Studies and Philology
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity
- Keywords
- Joseph Story, Genesis 37-50, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, Rachel, Genesis 49, divine plan, patriarchal authority
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Genesis 37–50: Joseph Story or Jacob Story? https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1163/9789004226579_010
- The paper
- Clifford, R. J. (2012). Genesis 37–50: Joseph Story or Jacob Story? The Book of Genesis. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004226579_010
