The first thing we need to note is that the Torah as a whole, and Genesis in particular, has a way of focusing our attention on a major theme: it presents us with recurring episodes. Robert Alter calls them “type scenes.” There is, for example, the theme of sibling rivalry that appears four times in Genesis: Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau and Joseph and his brothers. There is the theme that occurs three times of the patriarch forced to leave home because of famine, and then realizing that he will have to ask his wife to pretend she is his sister for fear that he will be murdered so that she can be taken into the royal harem. This happens two times with Abraham and Sarah and once with Isaac and Rebekah.
And there is the theme of finding-future-wife-at-well, which also occurs three times: Rebecca, Rachel and Jethro’s daughter Zipporah.
The encounter between Joseph and his brothers is the fifth in a series of stories in which clothes play a key role.
The first is Jacob who dresses in Esau’s clothes while bringing his father a meal so that he can take his brother’s blessing. Genesis 27:1-27
1 Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 2 Then Isaac said, “Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; 4 and prepare a delicious meal for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5 Now Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying, 7 ‘Bring me some game and prepare a delicious meal for me, so that I may eat, and bless you in the presence of the LORD before my death.’ 8 So now, my son, listen to me as I command you. 9 Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from there, so that I may prepare them as a delicious meal for your father, such as he loves. 10 Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.” 11 But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. 12 Perhaps my father will touch me, then I will be like a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.” 13 But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get the goats for me.” 14 So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made a delicious meal such as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 16 And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 She also gave the delicious meal and the bread which she had made to her son Jacob.
18 Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Come now, sit and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.” 20 Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the LORD your God made it come to me.” 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come close, so that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, and he touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. 24 And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am.” 25 So he said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that I may bless you.” And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come close and kiss me, my son.” 27 So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said…(Genesis 27:1-27)
Second is Joseph’s finely embroidered robe or “coat of many colors,” which the brothers bring back to their father stained in blood, saying that a wild animal must have seized him.
Third is the story of Tamar taking off her widow’s dress, covering herself with a veil, and making herself look as if she were a prostitute. Fourth is the robe Joseph leaves in the hands of Potiphar’s wife while escaping her attempt to seduce him. The fifth is the one in which Pharaoh dresses Joseph as a high-ranking Egyptian, with clothes of linen, a gold chain and the royal signet ring.
What all cases have in common is that they facilitate deception. In each case, they bring about a situation in which things are not as they seem. Jacob wears Esau’s clothes because he is worried that his blind father will feel him and realize that the smooth skin does not belong to Esau but to his younger brother. In the end it is not only the texture but also the smell of the clothes that deceives Isaac: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field the Lord has blessed” (Gen. 27: 27).
Joseph’s stained robe was produced by the brothers to disguise the fact that they were responsible for Joseph’s disappearance. Jacob “recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” (Gen. 37: 33).
Genesis 37:29-33
29 Now Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments. 30 He returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?” 31 So they took Joseph’s tunic, and slaughtered a male goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood; 32 and they sent the multicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, “We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” 33 Then he examined it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A vicious animal has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” (Genesis 37:29-33)
Tamar’s appearance dressed as a veiled prostitute was intended to deceive Judah into sleeping with her since she wanted to have a child to “raise up the name” of her dead husband Er. Judah was duly deceived, and only realized what had happened when, three months later, Tamar produced the cord and staff she had taken from him as a pledge (Genesis 37:25).
Potiphar’s wife used the evidence of Joseph’s robe to substantiate her claim that he had tried to rape her, a crime of which he was wholly innocent. Genesis 38:7-18
7 And it came about after these events that his master’s wife had her eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Sleep with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put me in charge of all that he owns. 9 There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil, and sin against God?” 10 Though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. 11 Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the people of the household was there inside. 12 So she grabbed him by his garment, saying, “Sleep with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside. 13 When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make fun of us; he came in to me to sleep with me, and I screamed. 15 When he heard that I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside.” 16 So she left his garment beside her until his master came home. 17T hen she spoke to him with these words: “The Hebrew slave, whom you brought to us, came in to me to make fun of me; 18 but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.” (Genesis 38:7-18)
Lastly, Joseph used the fact that his brothers did not recognize him to set in motion a series of staged events to test whether they were still capable of selling a brother as a slave or whether they had changed.
So the five stories about garments tell a single story: things are not necessarily as they seem. Appearances deceive. An important thing to note, the Hebrew word for garment, b-g-d, is also the Hebrew word for “betrayal”.
Is this a mere literary conceit, a way of linking a series of otherwise unconnected stories? Or is there something more fundamental at stake?
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