Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JOSEPH

(Heb. yôsēp, yĕhôsēp; Gk. Iōsḗph, Iosḗs) (also JOSES)

1. The 11th son of Jacob and the older son of Rachel. Rachel, the wife whom Jacob loved, was barren for a long time before giving birth to Joseph (Gen. 29:31–30:21). Her words upon giving birth to Joseph reflect the two possible derivations of Joseph’s name: “God has taken away (from Heb. ʾsp) my reproach” (Gen. 30:23) and “May the Lord add (from ysp) to me another son!” (v. 24).

As the firstborn of Rachel and a “son of his father’s old age,” Joseph was his father’s favorite, a fact made clear in Gen. 37:3: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children. . . and he made him a long robe with sleeves.” This robe (kĕṯōneṯ passîm) is the traditional “coat of many colors,” although the Hebrew actually refers simply to a sleeved tunic or robe reaching to the wrists and ankles (in 2 Sam. 13:18 it is the clothing of a princess). The significance of the special robe is that it set Joseph apart from his brothers and triggered hatred and jealousy in them (Gen. 37:4). To make matters worse, Joseph brought back to his father a bad report of his brothers (Gen. 37:2), then related two dreams in which his brothers, as well as his parents, bowed down to him (vv. 5-7, 9).

Joseph’s brothers first conspired to kill him, then to sell him into slavery. The latter suggestion was made by Reuben who hoped to rescue Joseph and bring him back to his father (Gen. 37:22). Joseph’s coat was stripped from him, and used as evidence of his death (Gen. 37:23, 31-33). Joseph himself was sold to slave traders (Gen. 37: 25-28), either Ishmaelites or Midianites (there are probably two traditions preserved here) who took him off to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, an officer of the pharaoh.

Although Joseph was now a slave in a strange land, the narrative makes it clear throughout that “the Lord was with Joseph,” and therefore everything Joseph did was successful, despite many setbacks that resulted from the actions of those in power. Joseph prospered in Potiphar’s service, and soon was overseer of everything that belonged to Potiphar (Gen. 39:4). But Joseph’s fortunes soon fell again. Potiphar’s wife desired Joseph. Joseph refused her advances, but left behind a garment that was later used as evidence against him (Gen. 39:12-16). Once again, Joseph was cast out, this time into prison, into a state lower still than slavery. Once again, however, God was with Joseph (Gen. 39:22-23).

An opportunity for release came when Joseph was able to interpret the dreams of two of Pharaoh’s officers, the chief baker and the chief cupbearer (Gen. 40), but Joseph languished for two more years (41:1).

Joseph’s release finally came when his ability to interpret dreams was brought to the attention of the pharaoh, whose own magicians and wise men had failed in that regard. Joseph not only foretold seven plentiful years to be followed by seven years of famine, but also advised Pharaoh to prepare for the coming leanness by gathering the surplus of the good years (Gen. 41:14-36). As a reward, Pharaoh set Joseph “over all the land of Egypt,” responsible for organizing the collection and storage of grain against the coming famine (Gen. 41:37-44). Pharaoh bestowed on Joseph the name Zephenathpaneah (“God speaks and he lives”), and gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as a wife (Gen. 41:45). Two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, were born to them before the famine (Gen. 41:50-52).

The famine provided the occasion for the reunion of Joseph with the brothers who had sold him into slavery. Jacob, having heard that there was grain in Egypt, sent his 10 older sons. It is Joseph they had to approach to buy the grain, bowing before him in fulfillment of Joseph’s dream (Gen. 42:6-9). Although he recognized his brothers, Joseph did not reveal himself immediately, but instead accused his brothers of being spies (Gen. 42:9). He demanded that they bring their youngest brother as evidence of their innocence, and required that they leave Simeon as hostage (Gen. 42:20, 24). Jacob at first refused to let Benjamin go along, but finally agreed when the need for more grain became acute. When the brothers returned with Benjamin, Joseph questioned them concerning their welfare and that of their father (Gen. 42:16-34). At their departure Joseph ordered their sacks filled with food and the money they had paid for the grain (Gen. 44:1). In addition, he ordered his own silver cup to be placed in the sack of the youngest, Benjamin (Gen. 44:2), and used that as a pretext for bringing the brothers back to Egypt, declaring that whoever had the cup would be his slave (v. 10). Judah, out of compassion for his father Jacob, offered himself in place of Benjamin (Gen. 44:33-34), at which point Joseph finally revealed himself and reconciled himself to his brothers. Jacob and his entire household were then given a home in the land of Goshen (Gen. 46:28), and Jacob and Joseph were at last reunited (46:29-30).

Upon Jacob’s (Israel’s) death, Joseph made one more journey to Canaan to bury his father. Joseph again forgave his brothers and promised to provide for them. He lived the rest of his life in Egypt. Before he died at age 110, he requested that his bones be taken back to Canaan when the time came for God to take the Israelites up from the land of Egypt.

Joseph’s descendants, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, were among those who went out of Egypt in the Exodus as part of the people of Israel. After the Conquest Ephraim was assigned an area west of the Jordan, between Manasseh on the north and Benjamin on the south. Half of the tribe of Manasseh settled on the east side of the Jordan in the area of Gilead, while the other half was assigned land west of the Jordan north of Ephraim and south of the Sea of Chinnereth (Galilee).

Bibliography. G. von Rad, Genesis, rev. ed. OTL (Philadelphia, 1972); N. M. Sarna, Genesis. JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia, 1989); R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel (1961, repr. Grand Rapids, 1997); G. Wenham, Genesis 16-50. WBC 2 (Dallas, 1994); C. Westermann, Genesis 12-36 (Minneapolis, 1985).

Marilyn J. Lundberg

2. The father of Igal of the tribe of Issachar, one of the 12 whom Moses selected to spy out the land of Canaan (Num. 13:7).

3. A member of the levitical guild of Asaph (“the sons of Asaph”) who prophesied accompanied by music under the direction of Asaph and the king (1 Chr. 25:2, 9).

4. A descendant of Binnui who was forced to divorce his non-Israelite wife as a result of the religious reforms of Ezra (Ezra 10:42; cf. 1 Esdr. 9:34).

5. A head of the priestly house descended from Shebaniah who was a contemporary of Joiakim the high priest (Neh. 12:14).

6. The son of Oziel, an ancestor of Judith (Jdt. 8:1).

7. A son of Zechariah who with Azariah held military command in Judah under Judas Maccabeus. Through an act of insubordination and in an effort to gain renown and personal glory, both commanders attacked Jamnia (ca. 163 b.c.) but their forces were routed (1 Macc. 5:18, 55-62).

8. According to 2 Macc. 8:22 one of the brothers of Judas Maccabeus (cf. 10:19). Joseph is not named among the sons of Mattathias at 1 Macc. 2:1-5. It may be that Joseph is simply a variant for the expected John in these texts (cf. 1 Macc. 9:36).

John D. Fortner

9. The husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Infancy narratives in Matt. 1-2; Luke 1-2 provide most of the information about this Joseph. In the Matthean version, Joseph is an important character who leads the story development. Being “righteous,” he plans to dismiss his fiancée Mary quietly, when she has been found pregnant (Matt. 1:18-19). However, following the guidance of the angels, Joseph accepts Mary, who he has learned is pregnant through the Holy Spirit, and protects the baby from Herod’s evil plot by fleeing with Mary and Jesus from Bethlehem to Egypt, later settling in Nazareth after Herod’s death. Matthew provides Jesus’ genealogy in the line of Joseph, in which the name of Joseph’s father is mentioned as a certain Jacob, descendant of King David (Matt. 1:1-17).

In the Lucan version of the Infancy narrative, in which Mary leads the story development, the portrayal of Joseph is somewhat different. Except for a brief designation as Mary’s fiancé (Luke 1:27), Joseph does not appear on the scene until the time of Jesus’ birth. It is not Joseph, therefore, but Mary who receives the angel’s announcement concerning the baby’s conception through the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-38). In Luke, Joseph’s home is not Bethlehem but Nazareth. Joseph and Mary only visit Bethlehem from Nazareth in order to be registered, and Mary gives birth to Jesus during the visit (Luke 2:4-7). Luke portrays Joseph mainly as a faithful observer of the torah. He circumcises the baby after eight days (Luke 2:21), dedicates the baby and offers a sacrifice for Mary’s purification (vv. 21-24), and makes annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the Passover (v. 41). With regard to the genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23-38), although as in Matthew Joseph is a descendant of King David, Luke presents him as son of Heli (v. 23), not Jacob (Matt. 1:16).

Except for some minor references, this Joseph completely disappears from the rest of the NT account. Jesus is designated by Jesus’ compatriots three times explicitly as the “son of Joseph” (Luke 4:22; John 1:45; 6:42) and once implicitly (“the carpenter’s son” in Matt. 13:55). Mark never mentions the father of Jesus; instead, Jesus is called “the carpenter, the son of Mary” (Mark 6:3). These considerations have contributed at least partly to the later Christian tradition that Joseph had died sometime after Jesus became 12 years old (Luke 2:41-50) but before Jesus began his public ministry. In fact, the Protevangelium of James, an apocryphal gospel written probably in the 2nd century, presents Joseph as already an old man with children from a previous marriage when he took Mary as wife.

Bibliography. R. E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, rev. ed. (New York, 1993).

Seung Ai Yang

10. A brother of Jesus along with James, Simon, and Judas (Matt. 13:55; called Joses at Mark 6:3).

11. A brother of James (“the younger”) and son of Mary, a woman who witnessed the crucifixion and burial of Jesus (Matt. 27:56; called Joses at Mark 15:40, 47).

12. A man from Arimathea, a small village in the Judean hill country, who asked Pilate for and received the body of Jesus for burial. He is described as a member of the council (Mark 15:43), probably the Sanhedrin. Clearly a person of high status and probably rich (Matt. 27:57), he wrapped the body of Jesus in linen cloth and buried it in his unused, rock-hewn tomb in Jerusalem.

It is possible that Joseph was motivated to bury Jesus to fulfill the Jewish law that required the burial of executed criminals on the day of their death (Deut. 21:23). As a good and righteous man who was unsympathetic to his Jewish colleagues’ actions against Jesus (Luke 23:50-51), he may have intervened simply to assure that the law was obeyed (Mark 15:42).

It is also possible that Joseph was a disciple of Jesus (Matt. 27:57; cf. John 19:38) and that he wanted to bury Jesus out of love and respect for him and his followers. In this way he is like Nicodemus (John 3), whom John links with Joseph in the burial of Jesus (19:39-42).

13. The father of Jannai and son of Mattathias in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:24).

14. The father of Judah and son of Jonam in the genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:30).

15. A disciple of Jesus called Barsabbas, surnamed Justus, who along with Matthias was a candidate to replace Judas Iscariot in the Twelve but was not selected when lots were cast (Acts 1:23-26).

16. A Christian Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles named Barnabas (Acts 4:36) and who became a colleague of Paul (12:25).

Warren C. Trenchard

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JOSEPH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)