Devotion for Tuesday, August 11th
Kevin Peterson
Devotional Text: Genesis 37 (To read and even listen to this text for free, click here.)
Verse in Focus: “These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more” (Genesis 37:2-5).
Related Verse: “Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, ‘God has taken away my reproach.’ And she called his name Joseph, saying, ‘May the LORD add to me another son!’” (Genesis 30:22-24).
Devotional Thought:
We have finally reached the story of Joseph. I say “finally” because Joseph is one of the few figures from the Old Testament—along with Adam and Eve—that people have hear of or are familiar with in our Biblically illiterate culture. And why do they know Joseph and not, say, Abraham or Jacob? Because of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” which high school theater groups continue to perform every year. It has been on Broadway, starring Donny Osmond. It’s been turned into a movie. It’s out on video and you can even purchase the soundtrack. Ned Flanders, on the Simpsons, is so overjoyed at finding the soundtrack at a garage sale, that he can’t stop singing one of the songs (click here.).
Now, what would you say if I told you that Joseph may never have had a “coat of many colors”? Seriously. The Hebrew phrase here—Kethoneth passim—is rather ambiguous. Actually, the first word—Kethoneth—is not. It simply refers to a garment—in particular, a tunic. The problem for translators lies in the second word: passim. It can alternately be translated: colorful, embroidered, striped, or with pictures. It can also refer to a long garment, coming down either to the palms of the hand or to the feet. It can even be used to refer to the fabric out of which the coat was made, identifying it either as wool or silk. So, depending on who’s doing the translating, Joseph could have had “a full-sleeved robe,” “a coat of many colors,” “a coat reaching to his feet,” “an ornamented tunic,” “a silk robe,” or “a fine woolen cloak.”
“So how come most English translations choose the “many colors” option?” Why, I am so glad you asked! The answer is actually rather simple: the Septuagint. As you may recall, the Septuagint is the name given to the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible put together in Alexandria, Egypt, several centuries before the time of Jesus. It seems that when they came to passim here in Genesis 37, they opted for a Greek word that translates best in the situation as “colorful.” The earliest English translations all followed the Septuagint. Hence our situation today.
But does the variety of translation options in the Hebrew change the meaning of the text? Not at all. We may not be able to lock in on a precise meaning for the Hebrew phrase in English, but all of the available options point to a very special—and easily recognizable—garment. In our text, it is a garment with significant meaning. Initially, it is a symbol of love, given by a father to his son. But in the eyes of that son’s “not-loved-as-much” brothers it is a symbol of their rejection—a symbol that they will soon strip from him (v. 23) and give back to their father, covered in lamb’s blood (vv. 31-32). While the former wearer of it is sold to slave traders headed to Egypt (v. 28).
To be sure, Jacob really blew it with his sons by showing such favoritism to Joseph. But, having spent as much time as we have with Jacob, such foolishness really comes as no surprise does it? This latest incident is but an extension of what’s been going on between him and his wives Rachel and Leah. The coat is just one more symbol of why polygamy is always problematic. For most folks today, however, that is not how this coat is viewed—and to be honest, that is not all bad. Consider this song by Dolly Parton, who uses it as the symbol of love between a parent and a child (click here). Blessings on your day!
Vaya con Dios!
Pastor Peterson
REMINDER: You can check out previous email devotions from Shepherd of the Valley Devotions by going to http://groups.google.com/group/salmonlutheran
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