Jacob, Joseph, and Pharaoh

JOSEPH FINALLY reveals himself to his brothers, unable to continue his deception any longer. His brothers had returned to Egypt to buy more grain, bringing Joseph’s only full brother, Benjamin, with them as he’d ordered.But when Judah pleaded for Joseph to allow Benjamin to return to Jacob, Joseph was overcome with emotion and told them who he was. Jacob and the entire family entourage returned to Egypt and settled in the Nile delta, a land set apart from the native Egyptians who had a strong dislike of “Asiatics,” who they called “sand-dwellers.”We discuss the significance of Joseph’s silver cup. Did he really practice divination, or did he just say so because that’s what his brothers expected from Egyptians? We also explain why the difference in the number of Jacob’s household—70 in English Bibles, 75 in the Septuagint—is significant; the translators of the Masoretic Hebrew text deemphasized the divine council worldview because it offers scriptural support for Jesus’ claims of divinity.