Appearances versus Reality

 Finally after twenty-two years and many twists and turns, Joseph and his brothers meet in Genesis 42:6-8:

6 Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. 7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” 8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. (Genesis 42:6-8)

We sense the drama of the moment. The last time they had been together, the brothers planned to kill Joseph and eventually sold him as a slave. Genesis 37:18-28:

18 When they saw him from a distance, and before he came closer to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer! 20 Now then, come and let’s kill him, and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A vicious animal devoured him.’ Then we will see what will become of his dreams!” 21 But Reuben heard this and rescued him out of their hands by saying, “Let’s not take his life.” 22 Then Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—so that later he might rescue him out of their hands, to return him to his father. 23 So it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the multicolored tunic that was on him; 24 and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it.

25 Then they sat down to eat a meal. But as they raised their eyes and looked, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying labdanum resin, balsam, and myrrh, on their way to bring them down to Egypt. 26 And Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him out and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. So they brought Joseph into Egypt. (Genesis 37:18-28)

One of the reasons they did so is that they were angry at his reports about his dreams. He twice dreamed that his brothers would bow down to him. To them that sounded like hubris, which is excessive confidence and conceit. Joseph’s brothers sold Jospeh for a mere 2 shekels of silver each. (There were 10 brothers present plus Joseph. Benjamin seems to have been at home or at least was not part of this scene.) This was not even enough money to buy a pair of shoes.

Hubris is usually punished by nemesis, which is an opponent or rival whom the person cannot overcome. And so it was in Joseph’s case. Far from being a ruler, his brothers turned him into a slave. That, however, turned out not to be the end of the story but only the beginning. Unexpectedly, the dream has just come true. The brothers do bow down to him, “their faces to the ground” (Gen. 42: 6). Now, we feel, the story has reached its end. Instead it turns out only to be the beginning of another story altogether, about sin, repentance and forgiveness. Biblical stories tend to defy narrative conventions.

The reason, though, that the story does not end with the brothers’ meeting is that only one person present at the scene, Joseph himself, knew that it was a meeting. “As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them … Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.” (Genesis 46:7-8)

There were many reasons they did not recognize him. They did not know he was in Egypt. They believed he was still a slave while the man before whom they bowed was a viceroy. Besides which, he looked like an Egyptian, spoke Egyptian and had an Egyptian name, Tsofenat Paneakh. Most importantly, though, he was wearing the uniform of an Egyptian of high rank. That had been the sign of Joseph’s elevation at the hand of Pharaoh when he interpreted his dreams:

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.’ Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain round his neck.  He made him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, ‘Make way.’ Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. (Gen. 41: 41-43)

We know from Egyptian wall paintings and from archeological discoveries like Tutankhamen’s tomb, how stylized and elaborate were Egyptian robes of office. Different ranks wore different clothes. King Tutankhamen and his wife wore elaborate gold headdresses which sat upon an indigo dyed wig. The robes and headdresses were richly decorated with gold and elaborate designs.

Early pharaohs had two headdresses, a white one to mark the fact that they were kings of upper Egypt, and a red one to signal that they were kings of lower Egypt. Like all uniforms, clothes told a story, or as we say nowadays, “made a statement.” They proclaimed a person’s status. Someone dressed like the Egyptian before whom the brothers had just bowed could not possibly be their long lost brother Joseph. Except that it was.

This seems like a minor matter, but the opposite is true. It turns out to be a very major matter indeed.