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Topic:
Persons Of The Bible - Joseph
The name "Joseph" is from the Latin Iosephus, which was
from the Greek Ιωσηφος (Iosephos),
which was from the Hebrew name
יוֹסֵף (Yosef) meaning "he will
add." The name also means "remover or increaser."
There are numerous persons in scripture named "Joseph."
- A person named "Joseph" was the elder of the two sons of
Jacob by Rachel (Gen. 30:23, 24), who, on the occasion of his birth,
said, "God hath taken away [Heb. 'asaph] my reproach."
"The Lord shall add [Heb. yoseph] to me another son" (Gen.
30:24). He was a child of probably six years of age when his father
returned from Haran to Canaan and took up his residence in the old
patriarchal town of Hebron. "Now Israel loved Joseph more than
all his children, because he was the son of his old age," and
he "made him a long garment with sleeves" (Gen. 37:3, R.V.
marg.), i.e., a garment long and full, such as was worn by the
children of nobles. This seems to be the correct rendering of the
words. The phrase, however, may also be rendered, "a coat of
many pieces", i.e., a patchwork of many small pieces of divers
colours. When he was about seventeen years old Joseph incurred the
jealous hatred of his brothers (Gen. 37:4). They "hated him,
and could not speak peaceably unto him." Their anger was
increased when he told them his dreams (37:11). Jacob desiring to
hear tidings of his sons, who had gone to Shechem with their flocks,
some 60 miles from Hebron, sent Joseph as his messenger to make
inquiry regarding them. Joseph found that they had left Shechem for
Dothan, whither he followed them. As soon as they saw him coming
they began to plot against him, and would have killed him had not
Reuben interposed. They ultimately sold him to a company of
Ishmaelite merchants for twenty pieces (shekels) of silver (about
$2, 10s.), ten pieces less than the current value of a slave, for
"they cared little what they had for him, if so be they were
rid of him." These merchants were going down with a varied
assortment of merchandise to the Egyptian market, and thither they
conveyed him, and ultimately sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an
"officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard" (Gen.
37:36). "The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's
sake," and Potiphar made him overseer over his house. At length
a false charge having been brought against him by Potiphar's wife,
he was at once cast into the state prison (39; 40), where he
remained for at least two years. After a while the "chief of
the cupbearers" and the "chief of the bakers" of
Pharaoh's household were cast into the same prison (40:2). Each of
these new prisoners dreamed a dream in the same night, which Joseph
interpreted, the event occurring as he had said. This led to
Joseph's being remembered subsequently by the chief butler when
Pharaoh also dreamed. At his suggestion Joseph was brought from
prison to interpret the king's dreams. Pharaoh was well pleased with
Joseph's wisdom in interpreting his dreams, and with his counsel
with reference to the events then predicted; and he set him over all
the land of Egypt (Gen. 41:46), and gave him the name of
Zaphnath-paaneah. He was married to Asenath, the daughter of the
priest of On, and thus became a member of the priestly class. Joseph
was now about thirty years of age. As Joseph had interpreted, seven
years of plenty came, during which he stored up great abundance of
corn in granaries built for the purpose. These years were followed
by seven years of famine "over all the face of the earth,"
when "all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn"
(Gen. 41:56, 57; 47:13, 14). Thus "Joseph gathered up all the
money that was in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for
the corn which they bought." Afterwards all the cattle and all
the land, and at last the Egyptians themselves, became the property
of Pharaoh. During this period of famine Joseph's brethren also came
down to Egypt to buy corn. The history of his dealings with them,
and of the manner in which he at length made himself known to them,
is one of the most interesting narratives that can be read (Gen.
42-45). Joseph directed his brethren to return and bring Jacob and
his family to the land of Egypt, saying, "I will give you the
good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.
Regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land is yours."
Accordingly Jacob and his family, to the number of threescore and
ten souls, together with "all that they had," went down to
Egypt. They were settled in the land of Goshen, where Joseph met his
father, and "fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good
while" (Gen. 46:29). The excavations of Dr. Naville have shown
the land of Goshen to be the Wady Tumilat, between Ismailia and
Zagazig. In Goshen (Egyptian Qosem) they had pasture for their
flocks, were near the Asiatic frontier of Egypt, and were out of the
way of the Egyptian people. An inscription speaks of it as a
district given up to the wandering shepherds of Asia. Jacob at
length died, and in fulfilment of a promise which he had exacted,
Joseph went up to Canaan to bury his father in "the field of
Ephron the Hittite" (Gen. 47:29-31; 50:1-14). This was the last
recorded act of Joseph, who again returned to Egypt. "The
'Story of the Two Brothers,' an Egyptian romance written for the son
of the Pharaoh of the Oppression, contains an episode very similar
to the Biblical account of Joseph's treatment by Potiphar's wife.
Potiphar and Potipherah are the Egyptian Pa-tu-pa-Ra, 'the gift of
the sun-god.' The name given to Joseph, Zaphnath-paaneah, is
probably the Egyptian Zaf-nti-pa-ankh, 'nourisher of the living
one,' i.e., of the Pharaoh. There are many instances in the
inscriptions of foreigners in Egypt receiving Egyptian names, and
rising to the highest offices of state." By his wife Asenath,
Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Gen. 41:50). Joseph
having obtained a promise from his brethren that when the time
should come that God would "bring them unto the land which he
sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob," they would carry up
his bones out of Egypt, at length died, at the age of one hundred
and ten years; and "they embalmed him, and he was put in a
coffin" (Gen. 50:26). This promise was faithfully observed.
Their descendants, long after, when the Exodus came, carried the
body about with them during their forty years' wanderings, and at
length buried it in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob
bought from the sons of Hamor (Josh. 24:32; comp. Gen. 33:19). With
the death of Joseph the patriarchal age of the history of Israel
came to a close. The Pharaoh of Joseph's elevation was probably
Apepi, or Apopis, the last of the Hyksos kings. Some, however, think
that Joseph came to Egypt in the reign of Thothmes III. (see PHARAOH
T0002923), long after the expulsion of the Hyksos. The name Joseph
denotes the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh in Deut. 33:13-17;
the kingdom of Israel in Ezek. 37:16, 19, Amos 5:6; and the whole
covenant people of Israel in Ps. 81:4.
- Another person named "Joseph" was one of the sons of
Asaph, head of the first division of sacred musicians (1 Chr. 25:2,
9).
Another person named "Joseph" was the son of Judah, and
father of Semei (Luke 3:26). Other two of the same name in the
ancestry of Christ are also mentioned (3:24, 30).
- Another person named "Joseph" was the foster-father of
our Lord (Matt. 1:16; Luke 3:23). He lived at Nazareth in Galilee
(Luke 2:4). He is called a "just man." He was by trade a
carpenter (Matt. 13:55). He is last mentioned in connection with the
journey to Jerusalem, when Jesus was twelve years old. It is
probable that he died before Jesus entered on his public ministry.
This is concluded from the fact that Mary only was present at the
marriage feast in Cana of Galilee. His name does not appear in
connection with the scenes of the crucifixion along with that of
Mary (q.v.), John 19:25.
(5.) A native of Arimathea, probably the Ramah of the Old Testament
(1 Sam. 1:19), a man of wealth, and a member of the Sanhedrim (Matt.
27:57; Luke 23:50), an "honourable counsellor, who waited for
the kingdom of God." As soon as he heard the tidings of
Christ's death, he "went in boldly" (lit. "having
summoned courage, he went") "unto Pilate, and craved the
body of Jesus." Pilate having ascertained from the centurion
that the death had really taken place, granted Joseph's request, who
immediately, having purchased fine linen (Mark 15:46), proceeded to
Golgotha to take the body down from the cross. There, assisted by
Nicodemus, he took down the body and wrapped it in the fine linen,
sprinkling it with the myrrh and aloes which Nicodemus had brought
(John 19:39), and then conveyed the body to the new tomb hewn by
Joseph himself out of a rock in his garden hard by. There they laid
it, in the presence of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Joses, and
other women, and rolled a great stone to the entrance, and departed
(Luke 23:53, 55). This was done in haste, "for the Sabbath was
drawing on" (comp. Isa. 53:9).
- Another person named "Joseph" was surnamed Barsabas
(Acts 1:23); also called Justus. He was one of those who
"companied with the apostles all the time that the Lord Jesus
went out and in among them" (Acts 1:21), and was one of the
candidates for the place of Judas.
Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries
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