Joseph of Genesis: A Hero's Journey

Beth Moore, in her book The Patriarchs: Encountering the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob states that the evolution of character is what the book of Genesis is all about (Moore 2005). Beginning in chapter eleven, Abraham is introduced as the Patriarch. He is the man that the Hebrew God has chosen to enter into a covenant with and to “make into a great nation” (Gen.12:2) (New International Version). Abraham has two sons; the first is Ishmael (who is revered in Islam) and the second is Isaac. The Hebrew God has declared that the covenant between Abraham and Himself will be fulfilled through Isaac. Isaac has a set of twins, Esau and Jacob (whose name means “heel-grabber”) (Moore 2005). Jacob tricks his blind father and steals the blessing that would have given his brother the rights of the first born son. Jacob then runs away, marries two sisters, keeps their maids as concubines, and has twelve sons. Jacob, like his father and grandfather, has direct conversations with the Hebrew God and even at one point physically wrestles with an angel. The angel declares that no longer would Jacob be named Jacob, but that his name would be Israel, “because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome” (Gen. 32: 26-28) (NIV). The eleventh of Israel’s sons is a boy named Joseph, the first of two sons born to the wife he loved, who was named Rachel.
Scholars have discovered that Genesis 37-50 was not the work of a single author. Because of the degree that human psychology and personal details about the characters are present in the telling of the story of Joseph, several scholars view this story as a separate novella. It is a novella concerned with the overcoming of obstacles (Brettler 2005). The story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is a story of the Hero’s Journey.
Chapter 37 of Genesis begins the story of Joseph by telling the reader that Joseph was seventeen years old and that he was his father’s favorite. In order to convey his love, his father gives Joseph a “richly ornamented robe” (Gen. 37: 3) (NIV). It also states that his brothers hated him because he held their father’s favor. The reader is also informed that Joseph has a special talent, what might be considered a magical gift in another genre of story telling. Joseph is a dreamer of dreams, and an interpreter of dreams. The first of these dreams he boldly declares to his brothers, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it” (Gen. 37: 6-7) (NIV). His brothers were outraged. Joseph then had another dream in which he saw his entire family bow down to him, including his father. It was not long after this that his father sent Joseph out into the fields to his brothers, and the Hero’s Journey of Joseph began.
The Hero’s Journey is usually divided into eight steps and occurs in three stages (Harris 2003). The first of these stages is the stage of Separation. When Joseph goes out to his brothers in the field, they decide to strip him of the robe his father gave him and throw him in an empty cistern. The brothers then sit down to eat a meal together and discuss their options. Should they kill their brother or just fake his death and really sell him to the Ishmaelites they see approaching in the distance? In the end, they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They then slaughter a goat and smear Joseph’s magnificent coat with the goat’s blood and deliver the garment to their father as evidence of Joseph’s demise. Their father, Jacob, is beyond heart broken and can not be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning I will go down to the grave to my son” (Gen. 37: 36) (NIV).
Joseph, in the meantime, is on his way to Egypt. This is the first step in the Separation stage of his Hero’s Journey, entitled The Call. During this step, Joseph will have to face an alien world during this adventure, but he will gain something of value through this experience (Harris 2003).
Once he arrives in Egypt, Joseph is sold as a slave to one of the Pharaoh’s officials, a captain of the guard named Potiphar. This is the second step in the Separation stage of Joseph’s Hero’s Journey, entitled the Threshold. The threshold is described as a “world filled with challenges and dangers” (Harris 2003). At first, Potiphar’s household doesn’t seem a very challenging or dangerous setting. Chapter 39 of Genesis describes Potiphar as an easy going man, perhaps a man who had already made his fortune and wanted to rest on his laurels. Genesis 39:6 (NIV) states, “So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.” Potiphar acts in the Threshold stage as a guardian and helper to Joseph as he adjusts to life as a slave in Egypt.
There was, though, another prestigious person living in Potiphar’s house: Potiphar’s wife. Potiphar’s wife is the Challenge that Joseph must face during this first phase of his Initiation and Transformation on his Hero’s Journey (Harris 2003). The next verses state that “Joseph was well-built and handsome and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’” (Gen.39: 6-7) (NIV). Joseph tries to tell Potiphar’s wife that he can not misuse his master in such a way. When she will not accept that argument, Joseph then declares he can not betray his God in such a manner. Joseph then begins to avoid Potiphar’s wife, but one day she grabs him by his cloak and attempts to seduce him once more. Joseph escapes, but leaves his cloak in her hands. Potiphar’s wife uses Joseph’s cloak as evidence against him in an accusation of rape. Potiphar, on hearing his wife’s story throws Joseph into prison.
While in prison, Joseph undoubtedly experiences the Abyss of his Hero’s Journey. By now, the book of Genesis has made it clear that Joseph is a competent and reliable young man. He is in prison no time before “…the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there” (Gen.39:22) (NIV). But, what Joseph must do during the Abyss phase of his Hero’s Journey is come to terms with the ability he possessed that so enraged his brothers and even his father against him in the first place. Joseph must accept the fact the he is an interpreter of dreams.
While Joseph is in prison, the Pharaoh becomes angry with both his baker and his cupbearer and throws them both into the prison. On the same night, each of these two men has a dream. The following morning, Joseph notices that the two men seem heavy hearted and asks them what is troubling them. Both men confess that they have had dreams, but can’t understand what the dreams mean. Joseph then tells them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams” (Gen.40:8) (NIV). It should be noted here that while Joseph credits all his abilities and the narrator of Genesis credits all of Joseph’s good fortune to the blessings and grace of the Hebrew God, the Hebrew God is strangely absent throughout the Joseph novella. Joseph never speaks with his God, much less wrestles with him in the form of an angel as one of his ancestors did. He does not have personal encounters with his God, as Moses, the hero of Exodus (the next book in the Old Testament) does. Scholar Walter Breuggemann describes the story of Joseph as a story about the hiddenness of God, and many other scholars agree with him. It has been noted that the total focus of the story is on the action of humans and their behavior. God never appears or speaks to Joseph at all (Vallet 2001).
Although Joseph gives the credit to his God, Joseph interprets the dreams of the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and the baker. For the cupbearer, the interpretation brings good news. The Pharaoh will calm down and release the cupbearer from prison in three days time. For the baker, though, the interpretation is not so good. Joseph tells the baker that in three days time, the Pharaoh will “…hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat your flesh” (Gen.40: 19) (NIV). Joseph asks the cupbearer to remember him and mention him to the Pharaoh, but for two years, the cupbearer totally forgets about the existence of Joseph.
At the end of those two years, the Pharaoh himself begins to have a strange dream. He tells his dream to all his magicians and to all the wise men who counsel him, but none of them can discern the meaning of the dream. At this point in the story, the cupbearer suddenly remembers Joseph and his ability to interpret dreams. The Pharaoh sends for Joseph, and this begins the Transformation step of his Hero’s Journey.
The transformation is described as a point in the Hero’s Journey when a part of the hero dies so that a new part can be born (Harris 2003). Joseph is literally physically transformed before he can appear before the Pharaoh. He must be cleaned up, shaved and given a change of clothes. As the Pharaoh tells Joseph that he wants him to interpret his dream, Joseph once again gives the credit for his ability to interpret dreams to his God. “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires” (Gen. 40:16) (NIV).
The Pharaoh then goes on to tell Joseph a dream that Joseph interprets to mean that Egypt will have seven years of bounty followed by seven years of severe famine. Joseph advises the Pharaoh to appoint commissioners to insure that one fifth of the harvest in the seven years of bounty is held back to prepare for the seven years of famine. The Pharaoh is so impressed with Joseph’s interpretation of the dream and with Joseph’s advice concerning the famine that he declares Joseph “shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you” (Gen.40:39) (NIV). The Pharaoh then places his signet ring on Joseph’s finger and dresses him in luxurious robes. He gives Joseph a golden chain to put around his neck, and puts him in charge of Egypt. Genesis tells us at this time, Joseph is thirty years old. He takes an Egyptian wife and in time has two sons. The first he names Manasseh, which means “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household” (Gen. 41:51) (NIV). His second son he names Ephraim, which means “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering” (Gen. 41:52) (NIV). Joseph has suffered, yet overcome. He has forgotten everything unpleasant that happened to him and even forgotten where he came from. In short, Joseph the Hebrew had been transformed into Joseph the Egyptian.
Rarely, though will the past stay buried, whether in fiction or in actual life. The famine has covered the entire region, and back in Canaan, Jacob, his sons and their families are starving. Jacob sends his sons except Joseph’s younger and full brother, Benjamin, to Egypt in search of food. The book of Genesis describes Joseph as “the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people” (Gen.42:6) (NIV). Joseph’s brothers are brought before him and they bow down, their faces on the ground. It is exactly the scene that Joseph foretold in his first dream. Joseph recognizes his brothers, but his brothers do not recognize him. Joseph must now struggle through the step of his Hero’s Journey known as the Revelation (Harris 2003). Is he who he has become, or is he who he was? How can these two be reconciled? Joseph’s first reaction to his brothers is one of anger, brought on perhaps by being caught off guard. He accuses them of being spies and throws them all in prison for three days.
On the third day, Joseph makes his brothers an offer. He tells them that in order to prove to him that they are not spies, they must leave one brother in his custody and bring before him the younger brother (Benjamin) that they had mentioned to him. That will prove to Joseph, he claims, that they are honest men. But, before they go, Joseph carries out an act of mercy. He fills their sacks with grain and even returns the silver they had brought to pay for it.
Jacob, though, despite the pleading of the oldest brother, Reuben, will not hear of the brothers taking Benjamin out of his sight. “My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my grey head down to the grave in sorrow” (Gen. 42:38) (NIV). In the end, however, the famine is so long in its endurance and so severe that Jacob is left with no choice but to allow the other brothers to take Benjamin with them to Egypt.
When Joseph sees his younger brother, he has to turn away to hide his tears. Benjamin, like his other brothers, does not recognize Joseph. He then inquires – is their elderly father still alive and well? Once it is established that Jacob is fine, Joseph serves the brothers a feast, and there is whispering because Benjamin is served five times as much as everyone else. When the time comes for the brothers to depart, they are loaded down with grain, but Joseph, it seems, can not bear to part with Benjamin. He has one of his servants hide his silver cup in Benjamin’s bag. He then proclaims that which ever brother has the cup in his bag must remain in Egypt and be his slave for life. This proclamation motivates Judah, the second oldest brother, to get down on his knees and beg eloquently for Benjamin. He knows if they return without Benjamin, it will kill Jacob. He goes on to tell Joseph how Jacob had already lost one son and that he can not bear to lose another.
At this point, Joseph can no longer maintain his conflicting identities. “[Joseph] wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and the Pharaoh’s house heard about it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified.”(Gen. 45:2-3) (NIV). Joseph then begins the final stage of his Hero’s Journey, the Atonement (Harris 2003). Joseph goes on to tell his brothers, “I am Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you….Tell my father about all the honor accorded to me in Egypt and about everything that you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly” (Gen. 45:5, 13) (NIV).
The Hebrew God, who has been strangely silent to Joseph throughout this novella, does speak to Jacob in a vision at the beginning of chapter 46. He tells Jacob not to be afraid to go down to Egypt, so Jacob takes everyone and all they own on the journey. When Joseph and Jacob meet, Joseph “threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time” (Gen. 46: 29) (NIV). Ron Vallet, author of The Stewart Living in Covenant, describes the scene in the following way: “In the climax of Joseph’s story we see his dream vindicated. Alive, not dead as his father believed for so many years, Joseph has risen in power and influence. The boy who had been looked at with derision by his brothers and described by them as a dreamer had become great – not in spite of being a dreamer but because of it” (2001).
The Pharaoh welcomes Jacob and the rest of Joseph’s family into Egypt, and there they remain. Technically, this is the end of Joseph’s Hero’s Journey. The famine, however, continues. Joseph develops a plan to preserve his people, but through this plan, the Hebrew population sells everything they own to the Pharaoh in order to stay alive. In the end, the Hebrew people are in bondage to the Pharaoh, owing him a fifth of the all they produce in return for the seeds the Pharaoh has provided them.
In chapter 50, just before he dies, Joseph again reassures his brothers, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children” (Gen. 50:24) (NIV).
However, the first chapter of the book of Exodus tells the rest of the story, “Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt. ‘Look,’ he said to his people, ‘the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor…They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly” (Exodus 1:8-10,14) (NIV).
Joseph Campbell, in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, explains that the individual’s immediate Hero’s Journey may come to an end, but that the journey itself is an ongoing cycle. “The supreme hero, however,” states Campbell, “is not the one who merely continues the dynamics of the cosmogonic round, but he who re-opens the eye – so that through all the comings and goings, delights and agonies of the world panorama, the One Presence will be seen again” (1968).
The end of Joseph’s Hero’s Journey puts in place a set of circumstances that are the seeds for the next hero in the cycle, Moses, to begin his Hero’s Journey. Philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel has stated, “The grand premise of religion is that man is able to surpass himself; that man who is part of the world may enter into a relationship with Him who is greater than the world; that man may lift up his mind and be attached to the absolute; that man who is conditioned by a multiplicity of factors is capable of living with demands that are unconditioned” (Heschel 1955).
The great appeal of the heroes of the early books of the Old Testament is that none of them were men who were conditioned towards greatness. They face the challenges placed before them, however daunting, and still achieve their goals and the goals of their God. Joseph’s story stands out among these stories because at least in his lifetime, his story does end seemingly “happily ever after.” He is able to die as he lived. He is still a hero.



Reference List

Brettler, Marc Zvi. 2005. How to Read the Bible. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.
Campbell, Joseph. 1968. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Bollingen Foundation, Inc.
Harris, Reg. 2003. The pattern of human experience. The Hero’s Journey. Ariane Publications. http://www.yourheroicjourney.com .
Heschel, Abraham Joshua. 1955. God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Life Application Study Bible: New International Version. 1991. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Moore, Beth. 2005. The Patriarchs: Encountering the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Nashville, Tennessee: LifeWay Press.
Vallet, Ronald E. 2001. The Steward Living in Covenant: A New Perspective on Old Testament Stories. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.