When we left him last Sunday, Joseph had been convicted and sentenced on the basis of a false accusation from his master's wife. He's been consigned to a prison facility which, given Potiphar's likely role in executions, is naturally below ground on his very estate (Genesis 39:20; 40:7).1 At first Joseph's “feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron” (Psalm 105:18), yet “he endured all this in being tested like gold.”2 There in prison, God's grace so aided him that his warden trusted him with administrative power (Genesis 39:21-23).
An uncertain length of time goes by – could be months, could be years – until, one day, two more prisoners join the party. It's a pair of palace officials, the royal cupbearer and the royal baker; together, these two take the lead in provision of royal food and drink, on which the king's life – despite his pretensions to be a god – depends.3 Those who serve in a sensitive role like chief cupbearer might be one of the pharaoh's closest friends since before he took the throne.4 Yet somehow, the pair of them had “sinned against their lord, the king of Egypt” (Genesis 40:1) – how exactly, we're never told, but as a result of Pharaoh's anger, he had them placed “under guard in the house of the chief of the butchers” (Genesis 40:2-3). And that's Potiphar. So he appointed Joseph to pay special attention to these two. Obedient still to Potiphar, Joseph “ministered to them” (Genesis 40:4), the same way he was “made overseer” of Potiphar's house and “ministered to him” as a personal attendant (Genesis 39:4). Why might Potiphar want Joseph to get close to the two fallen officials? Either as a spy to get intelligence to solve their case,5 or as a way of buttering them up in case they're restored to favor.6
Some amount of time passes, maybe a year; “they continued days under guard,” until one night “they dreamed a dream, the two of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the cupbearer and the baker who belonged to the king of Egypt, who were bound in the round house” (Genesis 40:4-5). It's a wordy, awkward sentence, hinting at a big question. Clearly, these two are a pair – all that's been done to or by them has been attributed to them together – and now they've “dreamed a dream,” it says, not dreams – but “each man his dream.” So which is it? One dream, or two?7 Whichever the case, they or it has meaning. To ancient Egyptians, known for their “confidence in the ominous value of dreams,” dreams “open up perspectives on another world.”8 But these men can't decipher the omen they're sure is there.
In the morning, as 28-year-old Joseph makes his regular check-in, “he saw them, and beholds” – weird choice of words – “beholds, they were vexed” (Genesis 40:6), “troubled and confounded and despairing.”9 It's all over their expressions. So he asks them what the matter is: “Why are your faces evils today?” (Genesis 40:7). The same Joseph who used to thrust his dreams unwanted in his brothers' faces has grown inquisitive and sensitive to others' feelings,10 and is “concerned to relieve the sadness of others.”11 In unison they answer, “We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it” (Genesis 40:8). Having already conferred, they're convinced the dream is a shared experience,12 but, severed from court by this prison, they'll never know the meaning.
Joseph doesn't buy that. “Don't interpretations belong to God?” That's a new way of looking at it for them. In Egypt, dreams were “fixed signs which portend good or bad events” without a god needing to be involved; that's why humans skilled in consulting the right manuals could deduce the right connection and assign a clear 'good' or 'bad' rating to what was coming.13 Joseph urges them to “please recount to me” what they've dreamed – a pretty bold transition, from God's ability to Joseph's ear!14 But remember, Joseph's now on the other side of his temptation-in-Eden crucible. In the garden, the man and woman stole divine knowledge; Joseph hopes, and rightly, that God will grace him with a taste thereof freely offered, for the sake of others and not for self.15
One's got to go first, and that's “the chief of the cupbearers,” who “recounted his dream to Joseph” (Genesis 40:9). The vivid dream starts normally enough, with him standing facing a grapevine with three – count 'em, one, two, three – branches. But then, as if he's watching a time lapse video, the vine buds and then blossoms and then the grape clusters ripen on each branch – three phases (Genesis 40:10). At this point, the cupbearer realizes he's holding Pharaoh's cup, the implement of his former service at court. Actively reaching out to the vine, he takes hold and squeezes the clusters, letting grape juice run into Pharaoh's cup; then, as it ferments on fast-forward, he takes it and delivers it up to Pharaoh: mission accomplished (Genesis 40:11).
But why? Joseph – who just suggested interpreting dreams is a divine gift – will tell him. The number of the branches stands out, so that hieroglyphic-static image must mean units of time, especially since they all know there's a holiday three days away.16 So what's in store in three days? Joseph might notice that the cupbearer said the words 'cup' and 'Pharaoh' three times each.17 For that matter, the cupbearer saw 'blossoms,' and Joseph knows that in Hebrew the same word means 'falcons,' like the falcon-headed god Horus whom Pharaoh was believed to manifest. Joseph sees that the speedy production of wine and its safe service to Pharaoh bode well: it means the cupbearer will get back to work, requiring that his head be lifted graciously in Pharaoh's presence and that he be reinstated in office as chief of the cupbearers (Genesis 40:12-13).
Now the deposed chief of bakers, having been more reluctant to share, “saw that the interpretation was good” – whether he thinks reliable, or just favorable (Genesis 40:16). And since they've been assuming their dreams are a shared dream with a shared meaning, he suddenly feels relieved and confident, “expecting a prediction similar to that made” to his colleague.18 Now “also I, in my dream – and behold, there were three baskets of cakes upon my head, and in the basket most high were from all foods of Pharaoh, from bakery products, and the bird ate it from the basket from upon my head” (Genesis 40:16-17). The baker hopes the bird represents Horus, and so Pharaoh has come and received his offering with pleasure.19
Here again, “Joseph received an interpretation of it from heavenly revelation,” consciously or not.20 Joseph sure starts out the same way: “This is the interpretation: the three baskets,” like the other man's three branches, “are three days.” What that portends is that “in three days, Pharaoh will lift your head” – word-for-word what he just told the cupbearer (Genesis 40:18-19). So we wait with bated breath for Joseph to continue with the phrase 'and restore you to your office' again.21 But Joseph yanks the wheel hard to the left. Now he's off-roading. Yes, Pharaoh will lift your head – “from off of you!” And then “he will hang you on a tree, and the bird” – no falcon of Horus, but a hateful vulture – “will eat your flesh from off of you” (Genesis 40:19). That's terrible!
How'd Joseph get here? The baker dreamt of himself as a totally passive figure. Where the cupbearer squeezed grapes into wine, we never saw the baker baking any of the dainties in his baskets.22 Where the chief cupbearer dreamt at a fast pace, the baker's dream is stagnant as a tomb.23 Where the cupbearer delivered the cup to the king, the baker's own dream never gets him handing over the baked goods to Pharaoh.24 Seemingly motionless and apathetic, he fails to defend them from scavenging birds. In Hebrew, 'baker' and 'bird' sound alike, and real birds will dine on the baker's very substance, his very own flesh after it's impaled, hung up on a stake.25 And that's the most horrible fate the baker could fear, because in Egyptian belief, the ba soul had to be able to revisit the body at night to remember who it was; if he's bird food, he's condemned to lose himself eternally.26
It's a hard lesson in how omens of grace and wrath, salvation and damnation, can sound “chillingly close.”27 I'm guessing the rest of that day and the next were awkward in the prison, now that everyone knows their own and the other's fate – assuming, of course, that this 28-year-old Hebrew prison slave has credibility to do what even trained experts accomplish only with arduous study. But then came the third day, Pharaoh's Birthday – not the anniversary of when his mama bore him, but a celebration of his rise to the throne, understood as his divine rebirth as the Horus on earth.28 To mark the occasion, Pharaoh “made a feast for all his servants,” and called up this pair of officers from prison, lifting both their heads; but, exactly as Joseph predicted, the cupbearer was “returned to his cupbearership, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand,” while Pharaoh “hanged the chief of the bakers” (Genesis 40:20-22). “With the spirit of wisdom, [Joseph had] interpreted the truth of the dreams he had heard and revealed the course of future events,” which now have come to pass.29
A dream interpreter customarily got paid, or at least tipped, for his services,30 so Joseph had no compunctions about asking the cupbearer, “when it is good with you,” to remember Joseph, have mercy on Joseph, remember Joseph to Pharaoh. With salvation and destruction so alike, Joseph's nervously wondering what his own future might have in store.31 He pleads that he's been a victim of human trafficking, “utterly stolen out of the land of the Hebrews,” and is an innocent undeservedly behind bars, having done nothing to merit this confinement in “the pit” (Genesis 40:14-15). He admits no fault, however partial, in the chain of events that led here.32 And it could be that Joseph here “forsook the favor that is from above... and trusted... in flesh that passes, in flesh that tastes the cup of death,” for his redemption.33 For all Joseph's pleading, “the chief of the cupbearers did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Genesis 40:23), “forgot about his benefactor and the prayers of the just one.”34 And so, disappointed and chastened, Joseph “remained in prison, a forgotten man,” two more years.35
But at the end of “two years of days,” we meet a third dreamer – and this time, he's got a real spiffy hat. “Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he was standing by the Nile; and behold, out of the Nile arose seven cows, fair of appearance and fat of flesh, and they grazed among the reeds” (Genesis 41:1-2). Cattle were crucial to the Egyptian economy,36 but there's a little joke: the Hebrew spelling of 'pharaoh' is just one extra letter stuffed into their word for 'cow.'37 Pharaoh, thinking in Egyptian, wouldn't get it. Then, “behold, seven cows more arose after them out from the Nile, awful of appearance and lean of flesh; and they took their stand by the cows on the lip of the Nile. And the cows awful of appearance and lean of flesh devoured the seven cows fair of appearance and fat – and Pharaoh awoke” (Genesis 41:3-4). Of course, to Pharaoh, dreaming was awakening, becoming watchful at the borders of the next world.38 So Pharaoh fell back asleep, “and he dreamed a second time: and behold, seven grain-ears,” spikes of emmer wheat, “arose on one stalk, fat and good; and behold, seven grain-ears lean and scorched from the east wind sprang up after them. And the lean grain-ears swallowed down the seven grain-ears fat and full – and Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream” (Genesis 41:5-7).
Understandably, “in the morning, his spirit was disturbed.” Ancient Egyptians were deeply worried that dreaming could put them within range of dark spirits and the neglected dead, which is why Egyptians engraved their headrests with magic spells to ward them off, and also recited charms after waking up from nightmares.39 So the king “sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men, and Pharaoh recounted to them his dream” (Genesis 41:8). The word for 'magicians' is an Egyptian word, meaning the lector-priests and experts who worked in the 'House of Life,' a temple scriptorium where various disciplines of magic and religion were studied, including dream interpretation.40 This scene reminds us of another, set centuries later, where a Babylonian king “dreamed dreams; his spirit was disturbed, and his sleep left him; and the king said to call to the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams” (Daniel 2:1-2).
But in this august assembly in Egypt, “there was none interpreting them to Pharaoh” (Genesis 41:8). Royal dreams were supposed to be clear messages straight from a god's mouth, promising rule or victory or charging the king to look after a certain temple – and this was obviously none of those.41 These cows and grains were no page of the manual. So these experts' best guesses prove simplistic, reductive, flat.42 They're all “completely without the knowledge required to be able to explain what was revealed,”43 certainly not in a way that satisfies Pharaoh's own instincts of what the dream ought to mean.44
Amidst this frustration, a switch flips in the brain of the chief cupbearer. Suddenly he tells Pharaoh, “My sins I remember today!” – plural, covering both his earlier offense against Pharaoh and also the added offense of failing to remember Joseph in gratitude. Now he recalls Joseph “not out of gratitude but out of calculation.”45 He rehearses the highlights of the “Hebrew lad, a slave of the chief of the butchers,” interpreting the two officials' linked pair of dreams (Genesis 41:9-13). That's just the man Pharaoh needs right now, a reader of dreams in pairs.46 And now we can see why God, in his wisdom, “allowed forgetfulness to affect the chief cupbearer” until just this moment, “the right moment for release.”47
With that, Pharaoh gives the order, and his servants go hustle Joseph out of the pit, hastily bringing him back to the light, his first glimpse of the outside world in at least three years. He's in no position to enter the presence of Pharaoh, reeking of prison filth. In Egyptian belief, the pharaoh was a living god on earth; their sages called on people to “worship the king..., the begetter who creates the subjects..., for the one who worships him will be one whom his arm shelters.”48 So he changes from his dirty prison clothes into something presentable that they offer him, and he allows them to shave his face and head. Where most in the Middle East grew beards, the Egyptians were opposite, preferring to be clean-shaven all over – and Joseph here accepts their Egyptian custom and ditches his hair as both prisoner and Hebrew.49 Only then “he came in before Pharaoh” (Genesis 41:14).
Pharaoh explains – and here we catch his irritation with his lector-priests and experts – that “a dream I have dreamed, and there is none who interprets it” (Genesis 41:15), where when they tried their hand at his dream, “there was none interpreting them” (Genesis 41:8) – he, consciously or not, requires it to all fit together as one thing, but they kept viewing the scenes as separate. But, the king's been told about Joseph, “you hear a dream to interpret it” (Genesis 41:15). Amazingly, Joseph dares to correct Pharaoh. “Apart from me!” he says. Don't go thinking, Pharaoh, that Joseph's just so smart. Give credit where credit's really due: “God will answer the peace of Pharaoh” (Genesis 41:16), much as Daniel assured the king that “no wise men... can show to the king the mysteries that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries” (Daniel 2:27-28). In this case, too, “God alone has it in his power to bring it to light,” Joseph insists.50 Pharaoh's not offended; he can respect what Joseph's saying. Ancient Egyptians “had an intensely personal relationship with their gods.”51
So Pharaoh narrates his dream all over again; Genesis is daring us to play spot-the-difference. Notice that, where the narrator said the first seven cows were “fair of appearance and fat of flesh” (Genesis 41:2), Pharaoh switches it to “fat of flesh and fair of form” (Genesis 41:18). But he's especially obsessed with the second set of cows, calling them “poor and most awful of form and lean of flesh,” adding that “never have I seen such as these in all the land of Egypt for badness” (Genesis 41:19). He's disgusted, leaping straight to the scene of carnage; as he describes it, the original cows are described purely in terms of their fatness – making Pharaoh all the more surprised that “when they had entered into their innards, no one would've known that they'd entered into their innards, for their appearance was awful, just as from the beginning” (Genesis 41:21). His focus is on the terrifying ugliness of the seven cannibal cows and how the immense fatness of their bovine prey is powerless to nourish them. He doesn't treat the next scene as a second dream, but as though, falling asleep, he just picked up where he left off.52 Here he sticks closer to the original, but drops all references to wheat as 'fat,' instead calling the first seven ears “full and good” and then just “good” (Genesis 41:22, 24), while expanding the negative description of the second seven by adding “withered” (Genesis 41:23). Pharaoh closes his rendition, not with his troubled spirit, but with his dissatisfaction with his lector-priests and experts. Listen to Pharaoh closely, and he's deeply unsettled by images of “apparent power swallowed up by impotence,” and he fears that whatever this dream portends, it's a threat that his own reign and dynasty be swallowed up by failure.53
At this point in Daniel's story, he'd retreat to his house to pray until the secret was shown to him in a vision by night (Daniel 2:17-19). We don't hear Joseph praying here; he gets right to work, for God “gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt” (Acts 7:10). God already “arranged for Joseph to judge the dreams” of Pharaoh,54 and to “penetrate right into the innermost depths of the chamber of truth.”55 Joseph can recognize that, with Pharaoh starting out on the bank of the Nile, which is Egypt's literal lifeline, that this dreamscape is of clear significance for the whole land and Pharaoh's reign over it.56 He opens his answer by stating his starting principles. First, “the dream of Pharaoh, it is one,” “not two separate dreams, but a single vision.”57 Where cupbearer and baker had similar dreams with different meanings, Pharaoh's divergent scenes are a single dream with a common meaning, just as Pharaoh clearly felt in his bones.58 Second, this dream is a divine message about the imminent future, a means for “the God” to loop Pharaoh in on his plans (Genesis 41:25), much as, in Daniel's story, God “made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days” (Daniel 2:27). For “the Spirit's instruction” can occur “by dreams, as has happened not only with many saints but also with Pharaoh and King Nebuchadnezzar, who saw what neither of them was capable of understanding.”59
Applying these principles, Joseph says the original “seven good cows” and “seven good grain-ears” must point to the same reality; and, applying his third principle that countable things are units of time, Joseph reasons that they mean seven good years. So “the seven lean and bad cows” and “the seven empty grain-ears scorched by the east wind” are a following set of seven lean, bad, empty years. Joseph repeats again his two lead principles: “the dream, it is one,” and “it is the word which I have spoken to Pharaoh: what the God is about to do, he has shown to Pharaoh” (Genesis 41:26-28). With that unpacked, Joseph can lay out the meaning plainly: first, “seven years will come of great plenty in all the land of Egypt” – that's great news! But “there will arise seven years of famine after them,” seven years where the Nile won't flood enough to irrigate the farmland – that's not so great. The famine will be so severe that what's left from the seven plenteous years won't satisfy, as Pharaoh saw with the cows (Genesis 41:29-31). The detail Joseph's saved for last is why Pharaoh's dream looked like two dreams. Says Joseph, “The basis for repeating the dream to Pharaoh another time is because the thing is fixed by the God, and the God will hasten to do it” (Genesis 41:32). “Joseph who understood... was more of a prophet than Pharaoh who saw,”60 and “easily disclosed the things which were not apprehended by others,”61 in the process showing up the lector-priests of Egypt in the Bible's first clash of truth versus pagan magic.62
The message, though, is hard news, the kind none of the courtiers would've wanted to give Pharaoh even if they could've apprehended it – we've seen what Pharaoh's anger is like. So Joseph dares to offer unsolicited advice, because if you're going to give the king a dark prophecy, you'd best serve it with a side dish of bright ideas! If there's one thing Joseph knows all too well, it's that life is full of rising floods and crashing dry spells, seasons of plenty and seasons of the pit.63 He lives now by the conviction that “even divinely inspired dreams are meant to open doors, not close them.”64 So he lays out for Pharaoh, before anyone can stop him, “operational advice on how to mobilize the Egyptian state to deal with this impending crisis.”65 Respectful as Joseph is, by palace standards he speaks bluntly.66 But with his insight into Pharaoh's concern, he knows reassurance that Pharaoh can survive and even thrive this time, this season, is just the spoonful of sugar to make this medicine go down.67
There's suspense over how Joseph's dream interpretation and pragmatic advice will go over, but no one argues with either. “The word was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants” (Genesis 41:37), relieved there are answers and solutions alike.68 Pharaoh turns to his court and challenges them to say where else they could “find such as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God” (Genesis 41:38), much as Daniel's king would declare that “the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you” (Daniel 4:9). Pharaoh congratulates Joseph for being receptive to revelation, that “God has shown you all this” (Genesis 41:39) – he believes the proverbs of Ptahhotep, that “the mind of those the god gives is great.”69
But on this basis, Pharaoh makes a stunning announcement: for the role Joseph has proposed, Joseph is the man – “after God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.” Therefore, “you shall be over my house, and according to your mouth shall all my people sit;70 only as regards the throne will I be greater than you” (Genesis 41:39-40). Once again, a position is outlined for Joseph where he has full authority to steward a master's resources, with a single defined limit. He's seemingly stunned speechless. As if to break through the mind-blown Hebrew before him, Pharaoh says it a second way: “See, I have given you to be over all the land of Egypt” (Genesis 41:41), “administrator of the entire land,”71 as Nebuchadnezzar “gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon” (Daniel 2:48).
Speaking of honors and gifts, Pharaoh makes his words tangible with a series of gestures, combining investiture in office with a reward ceremony.72 He puts his own signet ring, which he'd been wearing, onto Joseph's finger, making him one of the royal sealbearers; he invests Joseph in garments of finest-quality linen, the same kind later used for Israel's tabernacle and priestly vestments; he hangs a gold chain around Joseph's neck, the Gold of Honor that could be awarded only at the personal initiative of the king (Genesis 41:42).73 Not only that, but Pharaoh has Joseph ride in a two-person chariot through the neighborhood, as heralds cry out for people to snap to attention (Genesis 41:43),74 a chariot ride home being the last part of the rewarding sequence.75
But if Joseph needs anything more to make it feel real, we now hear Pharaoh's third word: “I am Pharaoh!” he declares from his throne, “and apart from you” – using the same word Joseph used when crediting God for the interpretation of dreams – “no man shall lift up hand and foot in all the land of Egypt” (Genesis 41:44). Joseph has hereby shot “from the bottom to the top of Egyptian society,”76 “entrusted... with authority of the second rank among the Egyptians.”77 Pharaoh “made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom” (Psalm 105:21-22). Can't you just hear Joseph's praise here? “I was alone, and God came to help me....; I was in bonds, and he loosed me...; a slave, and he exalted me.”78 This is “a dramatic reversal, the greatest of his life,”79 “risen from rags to riches.”80 God “brought him the scepter of royalty and authority over his oppressors... and gave him eternal glory” (Wisdom 10:14).
Again Pharaoh follows his declaration with action, conferring on Joseph a new Egyptian name, as was common practice for Asiatics being assimilated into Egypt.81 The Bible records that “Pharaoh called the name of Joseph Zaphenath-paneah” (Genesis 41:45). Ancient readers guessed it meant 'Discoverer of Secrets,'82 or 'Diviner of Secrets,'83 or 'Explainer of Mysteries.'84 Modern suggestions have included 'God Speaks and He Lives,'85 'Sustainer of Life,'86 'My Provision is God the Living One,'87 or that the full phrase was actually 'Joseph who is called Pi-ankh,' where Pi-ankh is an Egyptian name meaning 'One Who Recognizes Life.'88 With all these tries at reconstructing the Egyptian name they were trying to write, we're pretty sure these days it's about life!
But Joseph doesn't just get a new Egyptian name; he gets a new Egyptian wife. Pharaoh “gave him Aseneth, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as a wife; and Joseph went out over the land of Egypt” (Genesis 41:45). This is a big deal. Potiphera is high priest at Iunu, which later Greeks called 'Heliopolis' or 'Sun City,' today in suburban Cairo. Iunu was the main center for worshipping the Egyptian sun-god Re, “the primeval one, lord of eternity, great to the far end of time,”89 “lord of grain..., creator and maker of all that exists..., lord of truth, father of the gods, who made mankind..., who created the tree of life.”90 Tending to Re's sacred bull Menwer and ministering at the site Egyptian tradition held to be the spot the world was created,91 Potiphera would've been an incredibly revered figure; his title at Iunu was 'Greatest of Seers.'92 This match is a “most distinguished marriage,”93 which integrates Joseph powerfully into “the elite of Egyptian nobility.”94
At the same time, it makes Joseph the son-in-law of a pagan priest. That's... awkward. Some Jews just changed Potiphera's job to a civic role – it'd be much less embarrassing that way.95 Others invented a story that Aseneth was adopted, and was in fact Joseph's niece, a daughter Dinah conceived when assaulted by Shechem, and who had been sent off to Egypt and taken in by Potiphera.96 But others wove a touching romance about the beautiful but reclusive Asenath's conversion, how after he prays for her to be purified from idolatry, she “repented of her gods whom she used to worship” and was then visited by an angel who shared a honeycomb from Eden with her and declared she'd “eaten bread of life and drunk a cup of immortality”; only then did Joseph marry her.97
While “the land brought forth in the seven years of plenty unto fistfuls..., like the sand of the sea, very much, so that he ceased to count it, for it couldn't be counted” (Genesis 41:46-49) – language we're more used to hearing applied to the seed of Abraham (Genesis 32:12) – and, we hope, Joseph “ruled all the people of the land uprightly, and the land of Egypt was at peace before the Pharaoh,”98 Joseph and Asenath began to build their family, having two sons. His firstborn is baby Manasseh, which means 'Forgetting,' because “God has made me forget all my hardship,” and the second is Ephraim, which means 'Fruitfulness,' because “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” (Genesis 41:50-52). Joseph thanks God for his change of fortune, that where he once suffered and was afflicted, now he's moved beyond that and entered a prosperous season.
Except... Joseph says, “God made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house” (Genesis 41:51). We're shocked – but then again, Joseph's now spent more of his life in Egypt than outside it. He's finally in a position where he could send messengers into Canaan to track down his family – but he has no interest in doing that. He only wants to “forget about his family with its painful past” of hatred and betrayal.99 Joseph is Egyptian now.100 And this balance of crediting God, on the one hand, but then disowning his Abrahamic family for a pagan land, on the other, forces us “to confront the ambiguity of Joseph's success.”101 Is he going to turn out to be “the hero of the wrong story”?102 Or does hope linger in the fact that he gives his half-Egyptian sons Hebrew names?103 The chapter winds down once the famine begins, as “all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain, to Joseph,” but we wonder what the cost will be, and how God will work in this (Genesis 41:57).
When Daniel had gained the meaning of a royal dream sent by God, he then blessed the name of the God who “changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who know understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what's in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you” (Daniel 2:20-23). Later, his words were echoed by someone much greater and wiser, who prayed, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and have revealed them to little children” (Luke 10:21). That was Jesus Christ, “the True Hebrew, the Interpreter not of a dream but of reality.”104
Joseph, when the right moment of release came, was hastened up out of the pit to shave and change his clothes; and when the appointed hour came on Easter morning, so Christ hastened up out of the pit of death, out of the pit of the underworld, and clothed himself anew in a risen body.105 Interpreting all things to his disciples over forty days, he then declared he'd been invested with “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18), a vastly greater domain than Joseph had under Pharaoh. And then in practice, as the apostles went forth on Jesus' authority, Christ “obtained dominion over the whole world through the knowledge of faith.”106
For we, too, had been imprisoned like Joseph – “held captive under the Law [or the elements of the world], imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed” (Galatians 3:23; 2:20). St. Paul speaks of “the mystery that was kept secret for long ages” (Romans 16:25), “hidden for ages and generations” (Colossians 1:26), “the mystery of Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations,” not even Joseph's (Ephesians 3:4-5). But this, he says while “a prisoner of Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:1), “God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10), “now revealed to his saints” (Colossians 1:26), “disclosed and... made known to all nations” (Romans 16:26), for the apostles “impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). Here's the mystery of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32), displayed in advance in the marriage of Joseph to his Asenath from the nations.107
Like the chief baker, Christ was “killed by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 5:30), so that he could give his flesh, not to the birds of the air, but to be “the bread that I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Like the clusters of grapes, Christ allowed himself to be pressed, pouring out his blood as wine into the cup of salvation, which he rose again, restored from the pit, to administer. Teaching his revelations and his mysteries, “the Lord Jesus, taking pity on the hungers of the world, opened his granaries and disclosed the hidden treasures of the heavenly mysteries..., and sold..., asking not monetary payments but the price of faith and the recompense of devotion.”108 In years of famine, we can always approach Christ to be fed the bread of life and the saving cup of immortality, to be anointed with the oil of incorruptibility sweeter and more fragrant than Eden's honey. In him do better dreams make their meanings known; in him do brighter hopes span the skies; in him do the secrets of God unfold. Now “to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen” (Romans 16:27).
1 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 275.
2 Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms 105.8, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 102:175.
3 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 551-552.
4 Susan Redford, The Tomb of Parennefer, Butler of Pharaoh Akhenaten: Theban Tomb 188 (Eisenbrauns, 2022), 137.
5 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 552.
6 David W. Cotter, Genesis (Liturgical Press, 2003), 295.
7 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 553 n.5.
8 Jean-Marie Husser, Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World (Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 59, 65.
9 John Chrysostom, Letters to Olympia 10.13.D, in Popular Patristics Series 56:122.
10 Mira Morgenstern, Conceiving a Nation: The Development of Political Discourse in the Hebrew Bible (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009), 20.
11 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 63.4, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 87:213.
12 Miriam Sherman, “Do Not Interpretations Belong to God? A Narrative Assessment of Genesis 40 as It Elucidates the Persona of Joseph,” in Sarah Malena and David Miano, eds., Milk and Honey: Essays on Ancient Israel and the Bible in Appreciation of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego (Eisenbrauns, 2007), 40; Jonathan Grossman, “Different Dreams: Two Models of Interpretation for Three Pairs of Dreams (Genesis 37-50),” Journal of Biblical Literature 135/4 (2016): 723.
13 Kasia Spzakowska, Behind Closed Eyes: Dreams and Nightmares in Ancient Egypt (The Classical Press of Wales, 2003), 63.
14 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 554; Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 399.
15 Brian O. Sigmon, “Between Eden and Egypt: Echoes of the Garden Narrative in the Story of Joseph and His Brothers” (Marquette University, Ph.D. Dissertation, 2013), 223-225.
16 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 557-558.
17 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 278.
18 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 2.72, in Loeb Classical Library 242:199.
19 Jonathan Grossman, “Different Dreams: Two Models of Interpretation for Three Pairs of Dreams (Genesis 37-50),” Journal of Biblical Literature 135/4 (2016): 724.
20 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 63.10, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 87:215.
21 Jonathan Grossman, “Different Dreams: Two Models of Interpretation for Three Pairs of Dreams (Genesis 37-50),” Journal of Biblical Literature 135/4 (2016): 724.
22 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 559.
23 Miriam Sherman, “Do Not Interpretations Belong to God? A Narrative Assessment of Genesis 40 as It Elucidates the Persona of Joseph,” in Sarah Malena and David Miano, eds., Milk and Honey: Essays on Ancient Israel and the Bible in Appreciation of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego (Eisenbrauns, 2007), 42; Camilla von Heijne, “The Dreams in the Joseph Narrative and Their Impact in Biblical Literature,” in Elizabeth R. Hayes and Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, eds., “I Lifted My Eyes and Saw”: Reading Dream and Vision Reports in the Hebrew Bible (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014), 39.
24 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 400.
25 Miriam Sherman, “Do Not Interpretations Belong to God? A Narrative Assessment of Genesis 40 as It Elucidates the Persona of Joseph,” in Sarah Malena and David Miano, eds., Milk and Honey: Essays on Ancient Israel and the Bible in Appreciation of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego (Eisenbrauns, 2007), 43.
26 Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Cornell University Press, 2005), 95-96; cf. James Chukwuma Okoye, Genesis 12-50: A Narrative-Theological Commentary (Cascade Books, 2020), 339.
27 Jon D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (Yale University Press, 1993), 165.
28 James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1997), 90-91; Nili Shupak, “The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story: Selected Issues Revisited,” in Richard E. Averbeck and K. Lawson Younger Jr., eds., “An Excellent Fortress for His Armies, a Refuge for the People”: Egyptological, Archaeological, and Biblical Studies in Honor of James K. Hoffmeier (Eisenbrauns, 2020), 343.
29 Ambrose of Milan, Jacob and the Happy Life 2.9 §42, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:173.
30 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 278.
31 David W. Cotter, Genesis (Liturgical Press, 2003), 296.
32 Miriam Sherman, “Do Not Interpretations Belong to God? A Narrative Assessment of Genesis 40 as It Elucidates the Persona of Joseph,” in Sarah Malena and David Miano, eds., Milk and Honey: Essays on Ancient Israel and the Bible in Appreciation of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego (Eisenbrauns, 2007), 45; Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 399.
33 Targum Neofiti Genesis 40:23, in Aramaic Bible 1A:184-185.
34 John Chrysostom, Letters to Olympia 10.14.A, in Popular Patristics Series 56:123.
35 R. R. Reno, Genesis (Brazos Press, 2010), 269.
36 Phyllis Saretta, Asiatics in Middle Kingdom Egypt: Perceptions and Reality (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), 122.
37 Barbara Green, “The Determination of Pharaoh: His Characterization in the Joseph Story (Genesis 37-50),” in Philip R. Davies and David J.A. Clines, eds., The World of Genesis: Persons, Places, Perspectives (Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 159.
38 Kasia Spzakowska, Behold Closed Eyes: Dreams and Nightmares in Ancient Egypt (The Classical Press of Wales, 2003), 16, 30.
39 Jean-Marie Husser, Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World (Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 60; Kasia Spzakowska, Behind Closed Eyes: Dreams and Nightmares in Ancient Egypt (The Classical Press of Wales, 2003), 175.
40 James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1997), 88; Jean-Marie Husser, Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World (Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 65; Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003), 351; Tawny L. Holm, Of Courtiers and Kings: The Biblical Daniel Narratives and Ancient Story-Collections (Eisenbrauns, 2013), 98-99.
41 Jean-Marie Husser, Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World (Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 61.
42 Mira Morgenstern, Conceiving a Nation: The Development of Political Discourse in the Hebrew Bible (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009), 22.
43 Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch 6.3.1, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 137:302.
44 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 282; Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 341.
45 Ambrose of Milan, On Joseph 7 §36, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:213.
46 Jonathan Grossman, “Different Dreams: Two Models of Interpretation for Three Pairs of Dreams (Genesis 37-50),” Journal of Biblical Literature 135/4 (2016): 725.
47 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 63.12, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 87:216-217.
48 Loyalist Instruction 10, 15-17, in James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian Literature: Eight Literary Works of the Middle Kingdom (Cambridge University Press, 2015), 157.
49 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 171; Nili Shupak, “The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story: Selected Issues Revisited,” in Richard E. Averbeck and K. Lawson Younger Jr., eds., “An Excellent Fortress for His Armies, a Refuge for the People”: Egyptological, Archaeological, and Biblical Studies in Honor of James K. Hoffmeier (Eisenbrauns, 2020), 350.
50 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 63.14, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 87:218.
51 Emily Teeter, Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 76.
52 Camilla von Heijne, “The Dreams in the Joseph Narrative and Their Impact in Biblical Literature,” in Elizabeth R. Hayes and Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, eds., “I Lifted My Eyes and Saw”: Reading Dream and Vision Reports in the Hebrew Bible (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014), 39-40; Jonathan Grossman, “Different Dreams: Two Models of Interpretation for Three Pairs of Dreams (Genesis 37-50),” Journal of Biblical Literature 135/4 (2016): 727.
53 Barbara Green, “The Determination of Pharaoh: His Characterization in the Joseph Story (Genesis 37-50),” in Philip R. Davies and David J.A. Clines, eds., The World of Genesis: Persons, Places, Perspectives (Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 159.
54 Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Psalm 77 6, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 141:354.
55 Ambrose of Milan, De officiis 2.84, in Ivor S. Davidson, tr., Ambrose: De Officiis (Oxford University Press, 2001), 1:315.
56 Mira Morgenstern, Conceiving a Nation: The Development of Political Discourse in the Hebrew Bible (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009), 23.
57 Augustine of Hippo, Expositions of the Psalms 74.3, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century III/18:41.
58 Jonathan Grossman, “Different Dreams: Two Models of Interpretation for Three Pairs of Dreams (Genesis 37-50),” Journal of Biblical Literature 135/4 (2016): 726-727.
59 Augustine of Hippo, Miscellany of Questions in Response to Simplician 2.1.1, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century I/12:209.
60 Augustine of Hippo, Literal Meaning of Genesis 12.20, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century I/13:473.
61 Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 2.2.4, in T.C. Schmidt, tr., Hippolytus of Rome's Commentary on Daniel (Gorgias Press, 2022), 63-64.
62 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 282.
63 Jon D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (Yale University Press, 1993), 165.
64 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 402.
65 Casey A. Strine, “The Famine in the Land Was Severe: Environmentally Induced Involuntary Migration and the Joseph Narrative,” Hebrew Studies 60 (2019): 60.
66 Barbara Green, “The Determination of Pharaoh: His Characterization in the Joseph Story (Genesis 37-50),” in Philip R. Davies and David J.A. Clines, eds., The World of Genesis: Persons, Places, Perspectives (Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 159-160.
67 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 566.
68 Barbara Green, “The Determination of Pharaoh: His Characterization in the Joseph Story (Genesis 37-50),” in Philip R. Davies and David J.A. Clines, eds., The World of Genesis: Persons, Places, Perspectives (Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 160.
69 Instructions of Ptahhotep, maxim 13 (line 247), in James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian Literature: Eight Literary Works from the Middle Kingdom (Cambridge University Press, 2015), 188.
70 S. David Sperling, Ve-Eileh Divrei David: Essays in Semitics, Hebrew Bible, and History of Biblical Scholarship (Brill, 2017), 45.
71 Artapanus, On the Jews, fragment 2, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:897.
72 Susanne Binder, “Joseph's Rewarding and Investiture (Genesis 41:41-43) and the Gold of Honour in New Kingdom Egypt,” in S. Bar, D. Kahn, and J.J. Shirley, eds., Egypt, Canaan, and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology, and Literature (Brill, 2011), 55-56; cf. Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003), 349.
73 Susanne Binder, “Joseph's Rewarding and Investiture (Genesis 41:41-43) and the Gold of Honour in New Kingdom Egypt,” in S. Bar, D. Kahn, and J.J. Shirley, eds., Egypt, Canaan, and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology, and Literature (Brill, 2011), 47.
74 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 287.
75 Susanne Binder, “Joseph's Rewarding and Investiture (Genesis 41:41-43) and the Gold of Honour in New Kingdom Egypt,” in S. Bar, D. Kahn, and J.J. Shirley, eds., Egypt, Canaan, and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology, and Literature (Brill, 2011), 57-58; Nili Shupak, “The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story: Selected Issues Revisited,” in Richard E. Averbeck and K. Lawson Younger Jr., eds., “An Excellent Fortress for His Armies, a Refuge for the People”: Egyptological, Archaeological, and Biblical Studies in Honor of James K. Hoffmeier (Eisenbrauns, 2020), 344-346.
76 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 561.
77 Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 4.47, in Henry Chadwick, Origen: Contra Celsum (Cambridge University Press, 1953), 222.
78 Testament of Joseph 1.6-7, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:819.
79 Jeffrey Pulse, Figuring Resurrection: Joseph as a Death and Resurrection Figure in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism (Lexham Press, 2021), 101.
80 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 569.
81 Phyllis Saretta, Asiatics in Middle Kingdom Egypt: Perceptions and Reality (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), 111.
82 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 2.91, in Loeb Classical Library 242:207.
83 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 63.18, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 87:220.
84 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 104, in Library of Early Christianity 1:195.
85 Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 534.
86 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 288.
87 Yoshiyuki Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North-West Semitic (Society of Biblical Literature, 1999), 224.
88 Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003), 345-346; cf. James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1997), 86-87.
89 Horemheb, Hymn to Re, Thoth, and Maat, in Writings from the Ancient World 8:47.
90 Great Cairo Hymn of Praise to Amun-Re, in The Context of Scripture 1:38-40.
91 Stephen Quirke, Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt (Wiley Blackwell, 2015), 32, 143.
92 Emily Teeter, Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 193.
93 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 2.91, in Loeb Classical Library 242:207.
94 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 288.
95 Targum Neofiti Genesis 41:45, in Aramaic Bible 1A:189.
96 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 41:45, in Aramaic Bible 1B:138.
97 Joseph and Aseneth 9.1; 16.14-16; 21.1-9, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:214, 229, 235-236.
98 Jubilees 40:8-9, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:130.
99 Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 344; cf. James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 172.
100 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 569.
101 R. R. Reno, Genesis (Brazos Press, 2010), 270.
102 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 404.
103 Safwat Marzouk, “Migration in the Joseph Narrative: Integration, Separation, and Transnationalism,” Hebrew Studies 60 (2019): 75.
104 Ambrose of Milan, On Joseph 6 §31, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:210.
105 Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 92.5, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 47:57.
106 Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 93.5, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 47:60.
107 Ambrose of Milan, On Joseph 7 §40, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:216; Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch 6.3.1, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 137:103.
108 Ambrose of Milan, On Joseph 7 §41, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:216.
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