An Atheist Explores the Bible Part Ten: The End of Jacob's Story (Genesis 46-50)
Genesis 46-50
The End of Jacob's Story
Genesis 47
The End of Jacob's Story
Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores
Sacred Texts (Bible version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through
the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as
literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
And now:
“And they took
their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and
came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him”
This chapter mainly lists all the various offspring of
Jacob, and their offspring (I personally love “Huppim, Muppim and Ard”, sons of
Benjamin, because they sound like a cartoon trio. That’s really about it,
except that at the end Jospeh warns his family to say that their trade “hath
been in cattle” when Pharaoh asks them, because apparently the Egyptians don’t
like shepherds. Which is only part of a lie, since as I recall Jacob takes
cattle, sheep and goats from Laban.
“And when
money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians
came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy
presence? for the money faileth”
After the dire warning at the end of the last chapter not
to mention shepherding, what’s the first thing that Joseph’s brothers say when
Pharaoh asks them their trade? “Thy
servants are shepherds, both we, and also our
fathers.” Once again the brothers of Joseph reveal themselves to be a pack of
idiots. But turns out it doesn’t matter since Pharaoh grants them land, so the
warning at the end of the last chapter seems to have been kind of pointless
really.
The chapter
then moves on to the times of famine. Now, I thought that Joseph had stored up
the grain in order to allow some kind of corn dole during the lean times but
no, he only bloody sells it the
Egyptians (except for the priests who have an exemption). First for money, then
for cattle, then for land, which he passes on to the Pharaoh. Finally he doles
out the remaining grain to plant, on the proviso that the people pay a 20% tax
on all that they grow. Seems like the family tradition of sharp practice
continues!
Finally at the end of the chapter Jacob is dying and
wants to return to Canaan to die.
Genesis 48
“And it came
to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took
with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim”
Not a lot
happens in this chapter. Jacob reiterates the theme that God has promised that
his family will be numerous and prosperous, and then blesses the two sons of
Joseph. He grants the greater blessing to Ephraim, who as the younger brother
should be getting the lesser blessing, but really this is yet another
repetition of the younger brother inheriting over the older, as with Jacob and
Esau, and as with Joseph, who is 11th out of 12 brothers (and Isaac over Ishael as well?). Which I
can’t help but feel means the narrative is running out of steam, although if
one assumes this is based on a real genealogy then this can’t be helped if in
each case the younger brothers did do better than their elders.
Genesis 49
“And Jacob
called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you
that which shall
befall you in the last days”
Did you know,
I hate prophecies? Which is basically what we get here, prophetic descriptions
from a dying Jacob about his twelve sons and, we can assume, by extension the
Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Annoying, in
that they are couched in such metaphorical terms as to be meaningless. Or
perhaps I should say that the meaning is so vague that it can be interpreted
however the reader wants, so in one way it will always work as a prophecy, a
bit like fortune telling.
And they don’t
sound very hopeful for a lot of the sons/tribes. Reuben, although “excellent in
strength”, is also “unstable as water” and destined to excel. There’s something
about defiling his father’s bed, which I don’t wish to know anything more
about. Simeon and Levi are angry and violent (it was they who destroyed the
Hivites in revenge for the rape of Dinah. Judah sounds destined for greatness,
although; “his eyes shall be red with wine” sounds … unpleasant. Zebulun will
basically establish a port city, Issachar is an “ass couching down between two
burdens” and it sounds like his people will serve and like it; Dan will be a
judge and an adder; Gad and Naphtali – I don’t even know what to make of their
prophecies. Joseph is a vine that will be shot by answers (odd method of
pruning) and Benjamin is the wolf.
I’m sure much
has been made of what these mean, and maybe interpretations will be forthcoming
in future books, but to me they mean little (apart from Judah and Jospeh) and don’t
really matter. Finally Jacob dies.
Genesis 50
“And Joseph
went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh,
the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt”
Most of this
chapter are concerned with Jacob’s funeral arrangements, which appear to be: he
is embalmed by the Egyptians, followed by forty days of mourning, then a huge
entourage travel back to Canaan to inter him in the cave where Abraham, Sarah,
Isaac, Rebekah etc. are buried. There’s a strange moment “And when Joseph's
brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him”
which doesn’t make any sense since they’ve already done all that bit and have
been living with him in Egpyt for the past seven years. Someone should have
checked the continuity here; this is almost like an older fragment that had
since been expanded into the whole hiding the silver jug incident.
Then the
chapter fast-forwards to the end of Jospeh’s life, when his great-grandchildren
are alive when he dies aged 110.
And with that
we have reached the end of the Book of Genesis. Parts had some really nice
poetic turns of phrase, other parts were a bit laboured and functional. There
were a few typical tropes of myth and folklore, particularly in the repetition
of phrases or events, and sometimes there was evidence of the same story being
expanded. I was surprised how little agency God has in the overall book. After
some large scale natural events at the beginning – creation, flood, destruction
of the Tower of Babel and Sodom and Gomorrah, He doesn’t directly interfere
much in the latter half of the book concerning Abraham’s dynasty. His test of
Abraham notwithstanding, the rest of His influence is generally popping up to
remind Abraham and his descendants that he Has A Destiny. I’m sure that it is
argued by believers that the more supernatural elements of Jospeh’s story –
both the prophetic dreams and their interpretation – are the work of God,
otherwise Abraham and his descendants seem to get by more by canny business
sense, self-determination and a bit of blind luck. Also polygamy and
concubinage help increase their numbers rapidly. Which is another aspect I was
surprised by; bar these cultural elements the role of women is not as
subservient or denigrated as I was expecting. Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel
particularly come across as fairly strong characters in their own right – it
makes a kind of sense, in that cultures where survival is difficult tend to
have greater equality between the sexes as everyone is needed to help. So it
will be interesting to see if the role of women changes as the Hebrews become
more settled later on.
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