Joseph, in the Old Testament, son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel. As Jacob’s name became synonymous with all Israel, so that of Joseph was eventually equated with all the tribes that made up the northern kingdom. According to tradition, his bones were buried at Shechem, oldest of the northern shrines (Joshua 24:32). His story is told in Genesis (37–50).
Joseph, most beloved of Jacob’s sons, is hated by his envious brothers. Angry and jealous of Jacob’s gift to Joseph, a resplendent “coat of many colours,” the brothers seize him and sell him to a party of Ishmaelites, or Midianites, who carry him to Egypt. There Joseph eventually gains the favour of the pharaoh of Egypt by his interpretation of a dream and obtains a high place in the pharaoh’s kingdom. His acquisition of grain supplies enables Egypt to withstand a famine. Driven by the same famine, his brothers journey from Canaan to Egypt to obtain food. They prostrate themselves before Joseph but do not recognize him. After Joseph achieves a reconciliation with his brothers, he invites Jacob’s whole household to come to Goshen in Egypt, where a settlement is provided for the family and their flocks. His brothers’ sale of Joseph into slavery thus proves providential in the end, since it protected the family from famine. The family’s descendants grew and multiplied into the Hebrews, who would eventually depart from Egypt for Israel.
The story of Joseph, often called a novella, is a carefully wrought piece of literary craftsmanship. Though it features the personality of Joseph, it is introduced (Genesis 37:2) as the “history of the family of Jacob.” Authorities agree that parts of the story show dependence upon the ancient Egyptian “Tale of Two Brothers,” but in characteristically Hebraic fashion, the narrator in Genesis has ignored the mythical and magical motifs in the Egyptian tale, and the focus of the outcome is placed on its meaning for the whole house of Israel.
The purpose of the story is to relate the preservation of Israel. Its people survive despite their own foolishness and wickedness, indeed, ironically, in part because of these. The story is told as a testimony to the operation of divine providence: “. . . you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good . . .” (Genesis 50:20) sums up its moral. But while the Lord had turned the provocations of the spoiled son and the jealousy and deceptions of his brothers to good account, he had realized his end through the faithfulness of Joseph, true to Israel’s ideals under all circumstances and ever mindful of his obligations to his people. Joseph has served throughout the ages as the model for the “court Jew,” the Israelite in a position of power who acts to rescue and help his people.