Joseph (Jacob’s Son)

Basic Info

Genesis 37:1—50:26

Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son; he was the first born of the wife Jacob loved the most, Rachel. Joseph was good at dream interpretation, and Jacob gave him a coat of many colors. Joseph’s older brothers were jealous of the attention that their father gave Joseph, so they took him out to the desert to kill him. Instead of dying, Joseph ended up enslaved to an Egyptian, Potiphar. He was doing well until Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him. He was a good and faithful servant, so he ran from her, but she cried rape and Joseph was thrown in jail.

Even in jail Joseph did okay. He earned a reputation for being able to interpret dreams. The Pharaoh had some dreams that the regular interpreters couldn’t understand, so Joseph was sent for. Joseph told Pharaoh that the dreams meant there would be 7 years of good harvests and 7 years of famine. He also counseled that if Pharaoh rationed the grain well during the good years, the people of Egypt would survive the famine. And so Joseph got a new job rationing grain for Pharaoh.

When famine hit, Jacob’s family in Canaan was suffering. Joseph’s brothers came to him asking for help, but they didn’t know he was their brother Joseph. He hid his identity from them for a while, but eventually he revealed himself and invited Jacob and the rest of the family to come live with him in Egypt where he was fairly well off. This is how the people of Israel, the Hebrew speaking people, landed in Egypt for a couple hundred years.

The multi-colored coat, the story of Joseph’s brothers’ dumping him in the desert, the episode with Potiphar’s wife, and the reunion with his family are often depicted in the art tradition. The main themes in these tend to be Joseph always being faithful to God and good, despite the bad things that happened to him.

What to Look For

• The multi-colored coat
• Joseph’s brothers expressions and gestures
• Joseph’s expression, gestures, authority
• The reaction of others to Joseph’s presence
• The physical appearance of Potiphar’s wife (Is this an artist’s excuse to paint a naked woman?)
• Joseph’s reaction to the invitation from Potiphar’s wife

Questions to Focus a General Interpretation

Does the artwork emphasize more the favor God shows to Joseph, the troubles Joseph suffered, the faith Joseph showed in God, or some combination of these?

Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation

Do Joseph’s troubles remind you of any of your own troubles with family or false accusations?

Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation

Joseph can serve as a symbol for either of two human situations—the family member who is ‘lost’ but later returns to save the day, or the good man wrongly accused. Do you know of any situations in the artist’s time and place that might have made this symbol particularly poignant (the Crusades, chivalry, etc.)?

A Reflection on an Artwork Depicting Scenes from Joseph's Life