In the article, Anderson refers to a quote from Levenson that describes Joseph’s story as “the crescendo to the theme of the beloved son,” and when you look closely at the text, this is true. Anderson points out that the four themes of the “beloved son” story are surprise, cost, rivalry, and mystery. He then accounts how Joseph’s story fulfills each of these themes: there is surprise because Joseph is not expected to be the beloved son, as he is not the oldest; there is a cost because Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers (which represents a sort of “death” for Joseph); there is rivalry between Joseph and his brothers; and there is mystery becaue it is unclear as to why exactly Joseph is the beloved son. As Anderson points out, there is also mystery in Jacob blessing Joseph’s sons, as this provides a second blessing for Joseph, and Jacob chooses makes a preference for the youngest son by blessing him with his right hand instead of his brother.
But where does the planting silver cup fall within this narrative? Joseph does this as a sort of test: he wants to see if his brothers will betray Jacob’s favorite son again, or if they’ve changed. To his delight, his brothers (specifically Judah) prove that they have learned from their mistakes by protecting Benjamin. This allows for another aspect of the beloved son story: the forgiveness. Joseph is able to forgive his brothers for what they did to him because he sees that they are not the same people that they once were. This also provides the counter to Joseph’s previous death (the well). Joseph is able to be “reborn” as he rejoins his family and provides for them. The story as a whole is able to encapsulate all of the themes that are explored in Genesis.
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I like your summary of Anderson’s points in the first paragraph. This idea of testing his brothers – what do you think was required of Joseph to do such a thing? If Judah had not offered to sacrifice himself in Benjamin’s place, what do you think would have happened?
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I didn’t think about forgiveness as the reason for planting the cup — I like your reading of that. I also think it’s interesting that you say that Joseph getting sold into slavery is a kind of death for him. If this is the case, then is his resurrection when the Pharaoh brings him into power? Something else?
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You made a good point about that Joesph planted the cup in order to test the brothers to see if they deserved his forgiveness. Do you thing that planting the cup was also a way of seeing his father again or was it purely to reconcile with his brothers?
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I like how you brought in Anderson’s four themes of surprise, cost, rivalry, and mystery. Do you think these themes have been present in our previous readings from Genesis, or is this the first emergence of this theme that can be found throughout the rest of the Bible?
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