JO'SEPH (lieb. Yoseph, be increases, per haps an abbreviation of niseph 'El, God in creases). The son of Jacob and Rachel (Gen. xxx. 22-24), eponym of the tribe of Joseph. The story of Joseph is given with much detail in the last fourteen chapters of the Book of Genesis. He is represented as the favored son of his father; for this reason and because of his own boyish arrogance in consequence of it, he gains -the ill-will of his brethren. Taking advantage of a favorable opportunity. they decide to kill him. but ultimately think better of their purpose and sell him into slavery instead. He is taken to Egypt and becomes the slave of Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. Resisting the advances of Potiphar's wife, he gains her enmity and is put in prison on a false accusation by her. His skill in interpreting dreams secures his release and brings him into favor with Pharaoh. He saves Egypt in a time of famine and becomes the high est official in the land. The famine extends to Palestine. and Joseph's brethren come to Egypt for provisions. A reconciliation follows, and Jacob and all his family remove to Egypt and take up their residence in the land of Goshen.
The critical scholars think that the story of Joseph. like those of Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob. i- a combination of two sources, the Yahwistic and Elohistic narratives. (See ELout:ST A.ND YAII WIST.) The combination represents the welding together of 'a much larger number of elements than in any of the other narratives in Genesis. In the minds of both writer: and El .Toseph is the representative of the northern kingdom of Israel. and the importance assigned to him in dicates a northern origin of these stories. This is particularly evident in those portions of the composite narrative which belong to F (a north ern writer). and, while .T (a Judean writer) also must admit the superiority to be accorded to Joseph over other tribes represented as his breth ren, he saves his national pride by according to his own tribe, Judah, as favorable a position as possible by the side I if Joseph. It is Judah who, according to .1, proposes saving Joseph from the jealousy of his on(thers, whereas according to E it is I1euben( a northern clan) who intervenes.
Four elements are distinguished in the story of Joseph: ( I) Northern traditions, reflecting the rivalry between various tribes which (or sonic of ) formed parts of the later Hebrew con federation; (2) recollections of the sojourn of certain Hebrew clans in Egypt, subsequently en larged into the tradition which brought all the twelve clans into Egypt; (3) an Egyptian folk tale of a faithful servant wrongfully accused by his master; (4) a story of a Hebrew who rose to a high official position in Egypt. Approach ing the story of Joseph from this point of view, its component puts become tolerably clear. Joseph is the favorite son of Jacob, the eldest son of the patriarch's favorite wife, Rachel. He belongs to Shechem (the chief sanctuary in the northern kingdom) in the same sense in which Jacob belongs to Bethel and Abraham to Hebron. Ile rouses the jealousy of his brothers, according to J, because of a garment with sleeves (befitting one of superior rank) given to him by Jacob; according to E, because of his dreams. which be tokened future greatness and superiority over his brothers. The result is that the brothers decide to kill him, but are persuaded by Reuben (ac cording to E) or by Judah (according to J) to spare his life. According to the northern ver sion, he is found by J(lidianites in a cistern and carried to Egypt ; according to the southern ver sion, he is sold by his brothers to Ishmaelites, and in this way is carried down to Egypt. In this incident two factors are distinguished: (a) the story of Joseph's superiority. and (h) the story of his humiliation by his brothers. The former reflects the natural pride of the northern writer, the 'latter embraces a recollection of a combina tion of a number of tribes against one which had become too powerful. In actual Hebrew history, there is no tribe of Joseph, but instead we have two clans, Ephraim and .Manasseh (qq.v.), who are the main props of the northern kingdom and who are represented in tradition as the sons of Joseph. It would seem, therefore, that a Joseph tribe, after being large enough to produce two offshoots, aroused such opposition and fear be cause of growing power as to lend to a combina tion which succeeded in driving this dangerous tribe from its territory. Such an event is just what we encounter among Arabic clans. The story of Joseph in Egypt contains again two ele ments: (a) tradition of the sojourn of sons of the Hebrew tribes in Goshen (q.v.), combined
with (b) two stories that have nothing to do with the I lebrews. That some of the tribes afterwards forming, part of the confederation of the Itene Israel came at one time to Egypt. in connection either with a Semitic invasion of the land of the Nile, or in connection with that steady process leading Semitic nomads to make more or less permanent settlements on the frontier distriets of Egypt, is hardly open to doubt, as on the other band it is equally certain that not all of the tribes came into this region. The pragmatic method of history-writing which prevails in Gene sis (as in the whole Pentateuch, or rather Oeta tench) represents the Bene Israel as forming a unit from time immemorial and hence the popular tradition is so modified as to bring all the Helnew tribes into Egypt and to bring them out again in a body under the leadership of Moses. Besides Joseph, the tribes of Simeon, Reuben, and Levi appear to have gone to Egypt and, as it would seem, Joseph and Levi disappeared there, for we hear nothing of Joseph after the Exodus, and the tribe of Levi in the Pentateuchal codes is something quite different from the original tribe of Levi. (See LEVITES. ) Of the two 'Egyptian' stories told of Joseph one is a folk-tale, probably of Egyptian origin, the other embodies a reminis cence based upon an actual occurrence. The folk talc is that of a faithful servant intrusted by his master with the care of his household and who re sists the temptations offered by the faithless wife of the master. The .errant is wrongfully accused and thrown into prison. The sequel of the story in its original forM no doubt told of the proof that was forthcoming, establishing the innocence of the servant, his reward for his tidehty and hon esty and the punishment of the bad wife. This story, the Egyptian parallel to which exists in the so-called Tale of Two Brothers (consult l'etrie, Egyptian Talcs, London,. 1895-99), is at tached to Joseph as a favorite character of northern Hebrew legend. It is a species of Midrash very much of the order of the stories found in the Midrashim to illustrate Abra ham's piety or Moses' faith. Instead, however, of presenting the story with its original sequel, it is attached to another tale about a foreigner who rose to a position of great eminence at the Egyptian Court, and who manifested his Wisdom and devotion to the interest of his royal master in various ways. The period to which this in cident belongs can no longer be determined. From the Tell el-Ama•na tablets we learn that in the fifteenth century n.c. it was not uncommon for Semites to 1101(1 high positions in Egyptian domains; and it has therefore been supposed that it was at the period of Egyptian supremacy over Palestine, when the relations between Egyptians and Semites were naturally quite close, that the Hebrew vizier lived, the memory of whose re markable career was thus preserved. This story, too, is attached to Joseph as a familiar subjeet of legend and an appropriate personage of whom it could be told, and, being combined with the folk lore tale, becomes another incident in the life of one and the same person.
The visit of •oseph's brothers, with its dra matic incidents, and the emigration of Jacob and his sons and their families into Egypt, may he due to the pragmatic lUstorieal scheme of the Old Testament writers: while the meeting be tween Jacob and Joseph, and -Jacob's interview with Pharaoh, from this point of view, are an other specimen of early Jewish Midrash. There remains the scene at the death of Jacob (xlviii. 15-20) when Joseph brings his two sons to his father, who, in them, gives Ephraim, although the younger, the preference over Manas seh. This touch is due to the pride of the Eph raimitie writer who in this way justifies the greater prominence which, as a matter of fact. the tribe of Ephraim obtained in the northern kingdom. Joseph dies in Egypt, which may be taken perhaps as another indication that the tribe actually never left Egypt. The name of Joseph, however, survives largely through the northern clans, Ephraim and Manasseh, and in the local legendary talcs gradually assumes almost the same position as Israel until, with the prophets, 'house of Joseph' becomes synonymous with the house of Israel, and the terms 'house of Joseph' and 'house of Jacob' embrace the Hebrews as a body. For the results of critical investigation regarding Joseph, consult the commentaries on Genesis of Gunkel, Holzinger, and Dillmann, and the Hebrew histories of Stade, Guthe, Piepen bring, Kittel, and Wellhausen.