Who
Rachel’s first son and Jacob’s favourite, to whom his father gave “a tunic of many colors” (Genesis 37:3). Sold by his jealous brothers into Egypt, he was imprisoned on a false charge, rose to rule Egypt under Pharaoh, and in the famine saved his own family: “God sent me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45:5); “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Stephen tells his story as a figure of Christ rejected by his brothers (Acts 7:9). Ambrose, in his book on Joseph, and the Fathers generally saw in him Christ betrayed, humbled and exalted, who feeds the nations with bread.
Key verses
- Genesis 35:24
The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
- Genesis 37:3
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a tunic of many colors.
- Genesis 45:5
Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
- Genesis 50:20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.
- 1 Chronicles 2:2
Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
- Acts 7:9
“The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him
Where the Bible names him
Named 199 times in 20 books.
- ✓ In the deuterocanon, which the verse index does not cover: found in the text and checked by hand.
Verse index: TIPNR, STEPBible.org (Tyndale House), CC BY 4.0.
Family
Discussed by
Comments on the verses that name him.
- John Cassian, Conferences XI–XVII XIII.11
Whether the grace of God precedes or follows our good will. And so these are somehow mixed up and indiscriminately confused, so that among many persons, which depends on the other is involved in great questionings,…
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew Homily 49
Matthew XIV. 13. Matt. XIV. 13. “But when Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart; and when the multitudes had heard thereof, they followed Him on foot out of all the cities.” See Him…
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC 312
In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me here, but God.
- Aphrahat — Demonstration 21.9
'Joseph who was persecuted was a type of the persecuted Jesus.' The fourth-century Persian sage had already drawn the Joseph–Jesus parallels Pitre's class rediscovered.