A Judah Edition of the Joseph Story

The story of Joseph, chapters 37 through 50 of Genesis, is a sustained narrative that differs markedly from earlier sections of the book, which are comprised of loosely bound story collections, such as the Abraham and Jacob Cycles.^[1]

Biblical scholars are divided about the provenance of the Joseph Story. Some argue that the Joseph Story as a whole can be dated to the post-exilic period, and that it may have originated in diaspora.^[2] Others maintain that the core of the Joseph Story was written significantly earlier in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, as the history of a prominent northern hero—and only later incorporated by scholars in Judah into a history of the two kingdoms.^[3]

I ascribe to the latter position and see the core of the story as an early, northern, Joseph account, which was appropriated and revised by scribes in the Southern Kingdom of Judah and used for their own purposes.^[4]

A Story about Joseph

The first chapter of the Joseph Story introduces Joseph as its hero. The introductory verse clearly presents Joseph as Jacob’s main son and the story’s protagonist:

^{בראשית לז:ב} אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב יוֹסֵף בֶּן שְׁבַע עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה...

^{Gen 37:2} These are the descendants of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old…

Joseph is the elder son of Jacob’s loved wife, Rachel, and is clearly the preferred son:

^{בראשית לז:ג} וְיִשְׂרָאֵל אָהַב אֶת יוֹסֵף מִכָּל בָּנָיו כִּי בֶן זְקֻנִים הוּא לוֹ וְעָשָׂה לוֹ כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים.

^{Gen 37:3} Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him an ornamented (or “long-sleeved” robe. ^[5]

The reference to the robe that Jacob gave Joseph is the first of a number of allusions to royalty and uses of monarchic imagery connected with Joseph. The only other such person to wear a robe/coat described this way is King David’s daughter Tamar:

^{שמואל ב יג:יח} וְעָלֶיהָ כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים כִּי כֵן תִּלְבַּשְׁןָ בְנוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ הַבְּתוּלֹת מְעִילִים...

^{2 Sam 13:18} Now she was wearing an ornamented (or “long-sleeved”) robe; for this is how the virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times…

Kingship imagery continues in the next scene in which Joseph has dreams in which sheeves of grain, and then sun, moon, and stars, bow down to him—a thinly veiled allegory for his brothers and parents. Joseph’s dreaming of royal status makes his brothers quite angry at him—they mock his royal aspirations:

^{בראשית לז:ח} וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ אֶחָיו הֲמָלֹךְ תִּמְלֹךְ עָלֵינוּ אִם מָשׁוֹל תִּמְשֹׁל בָּנוּ...

^{Gen 37:8} His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?”

In sum, at the beginning of the story, the focus is very much on Joseph, and all of the allusions to royalty suggest that he is to have a bright future. The ending of the Joseph Story, in Genesis 50, fits well with the beginning, and it seems that much of what was initially predicted has come to pass. Joseph has risen to the very top of the Egyptian power hierarchy. It is Joseph who takes the lead in burial of the brothers’ father, Jacob. And it is before Joseph that the brothers bow down in Genesis 50:18.

Enter Judah, Stage Left

In between the middle and the end, however, readers cannot help but notice another protagonist in the story. When the brothers declare they will kill Joseph, first Reuben talks them into merely throwing him into a pit, then Judah convinces them to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites (37:26–27). In the next chapter (38), we have an entire story just about Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar.

After the brothers return from their first trip to buy food from Egypt, first Reuben tries to convince their father to send them back with Benjamin, and fails, then Judah tries and succeeds (Gen 43:1–10). Then, when Joseph, hiding who he really is, wants to take Benjamin as a permanent slave, it is Judah’s speech that moves him so profoundly that he gives up the charade and reveals his true identity (44:18–45:1).

When Joseph sends his brothers to bring their father and families back to Egypt, Judah is chosen to scout out the land upon their return (Gen 46:28). Finally, when Jacob blesses his twelve sons, Judah receives a blessing just as long as Joseph’s. As we will see shortly, despite being the same length as Joseph’s blessing, Judah’s is actually superior and sets up him up as the firstborn amongst his brothers, displacing Joseph from the centre of his own story.

Why Southern Scribes Added Judah

While for good reason no one refers to Genesis 37–50 as “the Judah story,” it seems clear that Judahite scribes revised the originally northern tale to give Judah the prominent place in the story. Two apparently antithetical purposes suggest themselves.

First, it appears that these southern scribes wished, by borrowing northern stories, to write a unified, or pan-israelite, history.^[6] At the same time, however, they sought to displace the Northern Kingdom as the “elder brother” in the partnership, promoting the Southern Kingdom, Judah, to seniority. This required a great deal of ingenuity, as the north had begun producing written material well before the south, and its stories and their heroes were far better developed and known than those of the south.

Let’s look in more depth at the two most prominent examples of how they worked: The Judah and Tamar story (ch. 38) and the blessing of the twelve sons (ch. 49), both of which are generally considered later insertions, or, what Michael Fishbane calls, “interludes,” i.e., stand-alone chapters that tell stories related to, but apparently independent of, the text either side of them, and that function as an interval between the surrounding action.^[7]

Judah & Tamar vs. Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife: Genesis 38–39

At first glance, the story of Judah and Tamar is unrelated to the Joseph Story in which it has been placed, and therefore, has often been overlooked in interpretation of that larger story.^[8] Increasingly, however, scholars are recognizing close links between Genesis 38 and 39.^[9]

Both chapters concern a sexual “test” of the male protagonist. Judah in Genesis 38 encounters and solicits a prostitute, who proves to be his daughter-in-law. Joseph in Genesis 39 is sexually propositioned (in the baldest of terms) by the wife of his master, Potiphar. The reader gets an opportunity to compare the responses of the two characters.

On the face of it, Joseph comes out cleaner in the match-off. He refuses Mrs. Potiphar’s entreaty with pious speeches. Judah, meanwhile, is publicly exposed as having failed to fulfil his levirate obligations and having hypocritically accused Tamar of prostitution. Under the surface of the narrative, however, in what Jonathan Sacks termed the “counter-narrative,”^[10] things look different.^[11]

Joseph remains apparently unchanged by his encounter. He carries on functioning as he always has, collecting father-figures—Jacob, Potiphar, the chief jailer, and eventually Pharaoh—and betraying other people, in order to further ingratiate himself with these senior men.

If anything, Joseph’s conduct becomes increasingly problematic: he reduces the population of Egypt to a state of slavery in order to ingratiate himself further with Pharaoh, he treats his brothers in bizarre fashion, and he assimilates more and more to Egyptian life, adopting Egyptian styles of dress, taking an Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife, and even practising divination.^[12]

Judah, on the other hand, grows positively. His portrayal in Genesis 37 had not been favorable, his sole contribution to proceedings having been to propose the sale of his brother for profit (Gen 37:26–27). But his public humiliation in Genesis 38 apparently influences him for good. Rather than bluster and insist on his innocence, Judah compares himself unfavorably with his non-Israelite daughter-in-law, the climax of the chapter.:

^{בראשית לח:כו} וַיַּכֵּר יְהוּדָה וַיֹּאמֶר צָדְקָה מִמֶּנִּי כִּי עַל כֵּן לֹא נְתַתִּיהָ לְשֵׁלָה בְנִי...

^{Gen 38:26} Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.”…

A Transfer of Divine Favor

Even if it isn’t immediately obvious, Judah’s declaration makes another allusion to Israel’s stories about kings. When Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, realizes that David, whom he was chasing down, had the opportunity to kill him but did not, he gives David credit:

^{שמואל ב כד:יז} וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל דָּוִד צַדִּיק אַתָּה מִמֶּנִּי כִּי אַתָּה גְּמַלְתַּנִי הַטּוֹבָה וַאֲנִי גְּמַלְתִּיךָ הָרָעָה.... ^כד:כ וְעַתָּה הִנֵּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי מָלֹךְ תִּמְלוֹךְ וְקָמָה בְּיָדְךָ מַמְלֶכֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{2 Sam 24:17} He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil…. ^24:20 Now I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.”

In this passage, the transfer of divine favor from Saul to David is established. Judah’s speech about Tamar alludes to this passage. Saul’s sentence, “You are more righteous than I” is mimicked by Judah’s “She is more in the right than I.” Only three verses later in the Saul and David story, as set out above, Saul says to David “now I know that you that you shall surely be king.”’

The phrase “you shall surely be king” uses the root מ.ל.כ twice for emphasis. The only other place in the Hebrew Bible where the root מ.ל.כ is used twice for emphasis is the verse quoted above where the brothers ask Joseph if he intends to rule over them.^[13] By means of this pair of allusions, the authors of Genesis 38 adopt the tradition of the transfer of favour and of power from Saul to David as a model for understanding a transfer of favour and power from Joseph to Judah.

The Judah and Tamar story, accordingly, functions to commence the process of Judah’s rehabilitation from the brother who sold Joseph into slavery. Now the reader is prepared there to meet the Judah who can convince his father to send Benjamin, and whose speech effectively breaks the stand-off between Joseph and the brothers, leading to their reconciliation.^[14]

Comparing the Blessings of Judah and Joseph: Genesis 49

As already noted, both Judah and Joseph receive lengthy, fulsome blessings from their father on his deathbed. While, however, Genesis 49 echoes the royal language found in Genesis 37—of prostration, scepter, tribute, obedience, and robes of red—this language is used not in respect of Joseph, but of Judah.

^{בראשית מט:ח} יְהוּדָה אַתָּה יוֹדוּךָ אַחֶיךָ יָדְךָ בְּעֹרֶף אֹיְבֶיךָ יִשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ לְךָ בְּנֵי אָבִיךָ. ^מט:ט גּוּר אַרְיֵה יְהוּדָה מִטֶּרֶף בְּנִי עָלִיתָ כָּרַע רָבַץ כְּאַרְיֵה וּכְלָבִיא מִי יְקִימֶנּוּ. ^מט:י לֹא יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִיהוּדָה וּמְחֹקֵק מִבֵּין רַגְלָיו עַד כִּי יָבֹא שילה [שִׁילוֹ] וְלוֹ יִקְּהַת עַמִּים.

^{Gen 49:8} Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. ^49:9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness—who dares rouse him up? ^49:10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and the obedience of the peoples is his.

^מט:יא אֹסְרִי לַגֶּפֶן עירה [עִירוֹ] וְלַשֹּׂרֵקָה בְּנִי אֲתֹנוֹ כִּבֵּס בַּיַּיִן לְבֻשׁוֹ וּבְדַם עֲנָבִים סותה [סוּתוֹ]. ^מט:יב חַכְלִילִי עֵינַיִם מִיָּיִן וּלְבֶן שִׁנַּיִם מֵחָלָב.

^49:11 Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes; ^49:12 his eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk.

Joseph’s dream of royalty will be realized, but by his brother. In this manner, Judah’s blessing eclipses that of Joseph. Joseph’s blessing is no less fulsome than Judah’s but it is not royal. The closest thing to a royal expression is the phrase נְזִיר אֶחָיו, which NRSVue translates here as “set apart”:

^{בראשית מט:כו} בִּרְכֹת אָבִיךָ גָּבְרוּ עַל בִּרְכֹת הוֹרַי עַד תַּאֲוַת גִּבְעֹת עוֹלָם תִּהְיֶין לְרֹאשׁ יוֹסֵף וּלְקָדְקֹד נְזִיר אֶחָיו.

^{Gen 49:26} The blessings of your father are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills; may they be on the head of Joseph, on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.

The same phrase also appears in Moses’ final blessings over the twelve tribes in Deuteronomy 33. However, because Joseph’s blessing there does contain royal language the phrase is translated by NRSVue differently—“the prince among his brothers”:

^{דברים לג:טז} ... תָּבוֹאתָה לְרֹאשׁ יוֹסֵף וּלְקָדְקֹד נְזִיר אֶחָיו. ^לג:יז בְּכוֹר שׁוֹרוֹ הָדָר לוֹ וְקַרְנֵי רְאֵם קַרְנָיו בָּהֶם עַמִּים יְנַגַּח יַחְדָּו אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ....

^{Deut 33:16} … Let these come on the head of Joseph, on the brow the prince among his brothers. ^33:17 A firstborn bull—majesty is his! His horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he gores the peoples all together to the ends of the earth….

Although Jacob’s blessing of Joseph appears to borrow liberally from Moses’ blessing of the tribe of Joseph, it does not use the phrase “firstborn” or “majesty.” On the other hand, Jacob’s blessing of Judah does not resemble Moses’ blessing of the tribe of Judah (which is very brief and has no royal elements) at all.

The editors of Genesis have apparently borrowed much of Moses’ blessing of Joseph, but missed out the royal language, while creating an entirely new blessing for Judah with lots of royal language. Here is further evidence that scribes working in Genesis have altered an earlier tradition so as to replace Joseph as the eminent brother with his southern counterpart, Judah.^[15]

The Judah Story

The Joseph Story was once truly a story about Joseph. When it was incorporated into the larger scroll of Genesis, however, scholars in the south added two full chapters, and some smaller additions, to make a character with southern associations, Judah, replace Joseph as both Jacob’s firstborn and hero of the story.

The first and last chapters of the Joseph Story were allowed to remain as the framing, but the two interludes, Genesis 38 and 49, functioned first to rehabilitate Judah in the eyes of readers, and then once readers had been primed to accept Judah as a character of virtue, to present him as foremost amongst the brothers. This narrative innovation was accepted by the Chronicler, who lists all of Jacob’s sons, but traces his line only through the sons of Judah (1 Chron 2) and later explains that he will become their leader:

^{דברי הימים א ה:א} וּבְנֵי רְאוּבֵן בְּכוֹר יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי הוּא הַבְּכוֹר וּבְחַלְּלוֹ יְצוּעֵי אָבִיו נִתְּנָה בְּכֹרָתוֹ לִבְנֵי יוֹסֵף בֶּן יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלֹא לְהִתְיַחֵשׂ לַבְּכֹרָה. ^ה:ב כִּי יְהוּדָה גָּבַר בְּאֶחָיו וּלְנָגִיד מִמֶּנּוּ וְהַבְּכֹרָה לְיוֹסֵף.

^{1 Chron 5:1} The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel. He was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, so that he is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright; ^5:2 though Judah became prominent among his brothers and a ruler came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph.

It has often been observed that Genesis is at once a story of a family and a political account of twelve tribes.^[16] In the same way the Joseph Story, as edited, functions both as a story about a primogeniture struggle between Jacob’s sons Joseph and Judah, and a history that champions the priority of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, over its “elder brother,” the Northern Kingdom, Israel. The scribes responsible for what I have called the “Judah Edition” managed to write a history that at once unites the two nations and makes it clear that within the united entity, the south is the senior partner.

Appendix

Jacob’s Private Blessing to Joseph: A Subtle Critique?

Before blessing his twelve sons, a dying Jacob/Israel gives Joseph the double portion that Torah stipulates be given to the firstborn:

^{בראשית מח:כא} וַיֹּאמֶר יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל יוֹסֵף הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי מֵת וְהָיָה אֱלֹהִים עִמָּכֶם וְהֵשִׁיב אֶתְכֶם אֶל אֶרֶץ אֲבֹתֵיכֶם. ^מח:כב וַאֲנִי נָתַתִּי לְךָ שְׁכֶם אַחַד עַל אַחֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר לָקַחְתִּי מִיַּד הָאֱמֹרִי בְּחַרְבִּי וּבְקַשְׁתִּי.

^{Gen 48:21} Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your ancestors. ^48:22 I now give to you one portion more than to your brothers, the portion that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

On the surface, this looks like a straightforward affirmation of Joseph’s status. At the same time, it brings to mind Deuteronomy’s counter-text to Genesis 48:21–22, when it states in 21:5–16 that when a man has children by two mothers, one of whom is loved and the other hated, and the firstborn is the son of the hated mother, the man may not give the double portion to a son of the loved mother.^[17]

^{דברים כא:טו} כִּי תִהְיֶיןָ לְאִישׁ שְׁתֵּי נָשִׁים הָאַחַת אֲהוּבָה וְהָאַחַת שְׂנוּאָה וְיָלְדוּ לוֹ בָנִים הָאֲהוּבָה וְהַשְּׂנוּאָה וְהָיָה הַבֵּן הַבְּכוֹר לַשְּׂנִיאָה. ^כא:טז וְהָיָה בְּיוֹם הַנְחִילוֹ אֶת בָּנָיו אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה לוֹ לֹא יוּכַל לְבַכֵּר אֶת בֶּן הָאֲהוּבָה עַל פְּנֵי בֶן הַשְּׂנוּאָה הַבְּכֹר. ^כא:יז כִּי אֶת הַבְּכֹר בֶּן הַשְּׂנוּאָה יַכִּיר לָתֶת לוֹ פִּי שְׁנַיִם בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר יִמָּצֵא לוֹ כִּי הוּא רֵאשִׁית אֹנוֹ לוֹ מִשְׁפַּט הַבְּכֹרָה.

^{Deut 21:15} If a man has two wives, one of them loved and the other disliked, and if both the loved and the disliked have borne him sons, the firstborn being the son of the one who is disliked, ^21:16 then on the day when he wills his possessions to his sons, he is not permitted to treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the disliked, who is the firstborn. ^21:17 He must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the one who is disliked, giving him a double portion of all that he has; since he is the first issue of his virility, the right of the firstborn is his.

If we see the blessing to Joseph as part of the redacted layer, then it is one of several passages that build cumulative allusions to this provision of Deuteronomy. Joseph was the son of Jacob’s “loved” (אהב) wife Rachel, not his “hated” (שנא) wife Leah (Gen 29:30–31).^[18] Jacob calls Reuben his firstborn (בכר) and “the first fruits of his vigor” (ראשית אוני, Gen 49:3). The effect of all this quotation is that readers versed in Torah are reminded that Jacob was wrong to give Joseph the double inheritance due to the firstborn.^[19]

Jacob’s Military Conquest?

Jacob’s claim that he took the land with his sword and bow is surprising as the Hebrew Bible contains no such story.^[20] In fact, Jacob peacefully purchases a piece of land in or near Shechem (Gen 33:18–20). It is his sons, Simeon and Levi, that take the city Shechem by force,^[21] and this violence causes Jacob to curse them in his final words (Gen 49:5–7). Given his discounting of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi as candidates for “firstborn” status, because of their problematic behavior, the way is left free for Jacob’s fourth son, Judah, to inherit that honor.

These subliminal messages cut in two directions. A reader expecting to see Joseph being given the pre-eminent inheritance would have seen exactly that in the special blessing to Joseph. At the same time, a reader well-versed in Israel’s traditions, and not expecting Joseph to be the victor in his own story, would have seen a messier picture.