CHAPTER VIII.

THE TRADITIONS OF JOSEPH.

THE eleventh original chapter of Genesis opens with verse two of our chapter thirty-seven, and continues to the end of the book [xxxvii. 2-1.]. Its heading is, "These are the generations of Jacob." We naturally expect to find the traditions of the twelve sons of Jacob; but, as we proceed, we discover that, while eleven of the sons do indeed appear and disappear in the story, they do so simply as secondary figures, revolving around the central personage, Joseph. We have here The Traditions of Joseph, which, of necessity, take up into them somewhat of the story of the other brothers. There is no trouble about this peculiarity while we read these stories as purely personal memories. Jacob's household would not stand alone in history as having only one great son among many children. Joseph is the next heroic figure, and the last, in the patriarchal group; the Head of the House, after Jacob. These traditions undoubtedly do preserve memories of an illustrious personality, a real Joseph; though there are difficulties in the way of reading the story throughout as unadorned history. Such difficulties

1

indeed there must needs be in a body of ancient traditions like these. A true substance of personal history, when handed down from generation to generation in oral story, could not fail to draw upon it a drapery of fancy.

There are, however, ample hints that these stories of the Sons of Jacob hide again, beneath the memories of individuals, reminiscences of tribal personalities; legends whose shadow-figures were cast by the large forms of the Clans which bodied round these Hebrew Sheikhs. And then the question recurs with new significance-Why have we merely the traditions of Joseph, and not the traditions of all the sons of Jacob? An answer is not hard to find, though indeed it may not be the whole answer.

The tribe of Joseph, if indeed it ever definitely formed out of the clan or family, soon broke up into the brother-tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, whose traditional heads were the sons of Joseph. The historians are careful to emphasize Jacob's formal blessing of these sons of Joseph, and his acceptance of them as his own sons. They represent the aged patriarch also as insisting upon reversing the natural order of age in the sons, and as laying his right hand upon the younger, Ephraim; his reason for which he explained thus to the "displeased" Joseph-" He (Manasseh, the first born) shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he." "And he set Ephraim

before Manasseh."1 The tribe of Ephraim became. the leader of the group of tribes which broke away from the kingdom of Solomon, after his death, and formed the Northern Kingdom. This vigorous and numerous tribe so completely mastered its associates that its name was used for the kingdom of the ten tribes, interchangeably with that of the great Head of the Hebrews, which belonged to this kingdom as embracing the chief part of the race. The prophets and historians call it, indifferently, Ephraim or Israel.

It was natural that the heroic ancestor of the tribe which dwarfed the others, himself having been the worthy father of such children, should dwarf the other sons of Jacob. Their traditions paled away before the glories of the father of such a tribe. Over the noble tales of their illustrious ancestor the children of Ephraim must have lingered with delight and reverence. The Great Brother grew greater in the growing life of this remarkable people. He became an idealization of the character reverenced by their better natures. The two striking features of the Northern Kingdom were its purity and its piety. Both of these traits appear in the revolt that Ephraim led against the son of Solomon. The polygamy and the polytheism of the brilliant court of Solomon offended the conscience of the simpler, hardier, and more spiritual

1 1 Gen. xlviii. 5-20.

people of the north country; where the purity of the home and the worship of Jehovah were held to be of supreme importance, of far greater consequence than any splendor of political power or so cial refinement. It was a movement for the reform of society and of religion. The Song of Songs-that noble poem of pure passion-was written probably about the period of this revolt: and, if it was too late to feed this movement, it at least expressed the spirit of outraged domesticity which had fired the rebellion, as it told the story of the country maiden, who scorned all Solomon's blandishments, and held herself true to her shepherd lover. It was in Ephraim that the battles of the higher religion were fought, whose heroes were Elijah and Elisha. The memory of the great and good Joseph crystallized the visions of purity and piety that rose above this people, and his figure grew as lofty as the religious ideal which moved before the prophets of Israel.

The character of Joseph, as thus portrayed, is one of majestic nobleness and fascinating sweetness-an almost ideal hero. The story is set against a dreamy background, in which an Egyptian atmosphere suffuses the scenes with beauty and mystery. The artistic character of the narrative I never felt so strongly as when, a few years since, in preaching a course of sermons to children upon it, I found myself unconsciously arranging its sections as the

scenes of a drama. Such it may have been, among the early Israelites, a Hebrew "Mystery;" which, like the Medieval Mysteries, beginning with the recitation of a sacred story, interspersed with music, gradually took on a rude action, representing the personages of the plot.

Chapter thirty-seven gives us the familiar tale of Jacob's partiality for Joseph, of Joseph's dreams, of his brethren's jealousy, of their sale of him to a Midianite caravan, and of his sale by these "merchant-men" to Potiphar, in Egypt. The shadow of Jacob's deceit still creeps after him, and he is cruelly left to long years of suffering the recoil upon him of his own false nature in his sons. There seems to be in this story a blending of different traditions; one indication of which is found in the change of name of Joseph's purchasers, taken in connection with the manner in which these names are introduced. Verses twentyfive, etc., read: "And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels.

brethren Ishmaelites.

And Judah said unto his come and let us sell him to the And his brethren were con

tent." Verse twenty-eight takes up the story, as from some other source that had not mentioned this consultation. "Then there passed by Midianites,"