Joseph and His Coat of Many Colors

Genesis Chapter 37- 50

Amber makes fun of me, but I'm a huge fan of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. As a kid my dad used to tell me the story of Joseph and his brothers, but I never had it in the context of it being the foundation for Israel and the origin of the Jews. To me it was just a story about a bunch of dick brothers who sold their brother into slavery and how he became the Kings right hand man after interpreting his dreams.

There is much more to this story, however. This is not just a story of a crazy bout of sibling rivalry, this is a story of the begining of God's plan with the Hebrews. Yahweh has singled out a family, a single blood line, to be His chosen representatives on earth. However, we see right away that the twelve brothers, who are the foundation for the twelve tribes of Israel, are not the most righteous of personalities. In fact, their children are sometimes even worse. Remember Er and Onan when you get to that part, 'cause that is some messed up stuff.

For some ultra-biblical history there is a similarity between the character and storyline of Joseph and a chancelor very close to the Pharoh in ancient Egyptian history. We have all heard the name Imhotep from the classic horror movie The Mummy and the modern Brenden Fraiser remake, but there is an actual story of a real Imhotep that lived during BC 2600 and was a very close advisor to the Pharoh. In fact he was second in command. According to a series of Heiroglyphics, known as the Famine Stela, during the reign of King Djoser a famine hit the country that lasted for seven years. Imhotep interpreted Pharoh's dream and through a series of events averted the disaster. Because of this Imhoteph was made second in command of all of Egypt. He is also credited for building the first Step Pyramid and very close by it is a storehouse that connects to eleven other silos that contained (some still containing) grain. This is where the people came during the seven years of famine to get food.

Also interestingly enough the name Im-Hotep means 'the mouth or voice of Im'. Yet, there is no Egyptian god named Im. Funny how Yahweh is translated as I Am....I'M.... that is almost a ridiculous connection, and admitedly my own, but it made me smile. Similarily, in Genesis they say that Joesph was known to the Egyptians as Zaphenath-Paneah, which means something like 'God speaks and lives'.

Finally, what I found interesting is that there is no tomb for Imhotep. There is an empty tomb near where he would have been buried in Egypt, but there is no body in there. Some think that he built his own resting place in a place that has just not been discovered yet. In the Genesis account (SPOILER) Joseph died at the age of 110 (so did Imhotep, btw) and told the Israelites that whenever they left Egypt to take his bones with them. We shall find out in Exodus if they remember to do that.