Resentment and Negativity in the Service of Ultimate Goodness
Contents:
1. Preamble.
2. The Legacy of Motherhood.
3. Acheiving Greatness.
4. Joseph is both Egalitarian and Aristoctratic even snobbish.
1. Preamble.
Joseph was divided into 2 Tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh.
These two Tribes were quite different from each other.
Nevertheless we are going to deal with them both together, at least until we get deeper into the subject.
We propose at the beginning to concentrate on Biblical Sources. Later we will also consider Rabbinical texts. These too are usually based on the Bible but to an English-speaking reader in a less obvious way.
For the time being we are using THE LIVING BIBLE (TLB) possibly with slight adaptations here and there, e.g. we replace the name of God with commonly accepted English equivalents such as LORD for the name of God.
The TLB may not be accurate on every point but its suits our purposes. We will also use other transaltions such NKJB, etc., according to convenience.
2. The Legacy of Motherhood.
The mother of Joseph was Rachel. She was the sister of Leah. Both Leah and Rachel were wives of Jacob and sisters to each other. Technically speaking Leah was the first wife of Jacob. Jacob was to beget six sons from Leah and two sons from each of his other wives. Altogether Jacob had four wives.
Sons of Leah:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon. Also Dinah a daughter.
Sons of Zilpah handmaiden of Leah:
Gad
Asher
Sons of Bilhah handmaiden of Rachel:
Dan
Naphtali
Sons of Rachel:
Joseph
Benjamin
First Leah gave birth to her first four sons as we are told in Genesis 29. After that Leah for a while ceased from bearing (Genesis 29:35)
Then in Genesis 30 it tells us how Rachel gave her handmaiden, Bihah, to Jacob who begat from her Dan and Naphtali.
Leah then gave her handmaiden, Zilpah, to Jacob who bore Gad and Asher.
Leah then bore two more sons Issachar and Zebulon and Dinah her daughter.
After all this Rachel gave birth to Joseph.
Genesis 30:23-24
FOR SHE BECAME PREGNANT AND GAVE BIRTH TO A SON. GOD HAS REMOVED THE DARK SLUR AGAINST MY NAME, SHE SAID. AND SHE NAMED HIM JOSEPH (MEANING MAY I ALSO HAVE ANOTHER!), FOR SHE SAID, MAY THE LORD GIVE ME ANOTHER SON.
"THE DARK SLUR AGAINST MY NAME" mentioned by Rachel apparently refers to the fact that she had not, up until then, succeeded in getting pregnant despite the fact that her husband had been quite successful in that department with his other wives. Perhaps people were insinuating that there was something wrong with her?
Later Rachel bore another son, Benjamin (Genesis 18:30) and died in childbirth.
Joseph was therefore younger all the other sons apart from Benjamin who came later.
He was the son of Rachel who was the favorite wife but only second in seniority which in effect she had been cheated out of. Jacob had been tricked into marrying Leah under the impression that it was Rachel (Genesis 29:23-25)!
Perhaps Rachel transmitted such an emotion of almost subliminal resentment to Joseph?
Things like this may happen all the time BUT we are now speaking of real people who were ALSO primordial prototypes, and ancestors of the Hebrew Peoples.
What the Bible records as happening to them may still be embedded in the feelings of their descendants.
Such instincts may have been needed by descendants of Joseph who were often contentious and rebellious.
This is one of the characteristics that helped make them great peoples.
The English created modern Constitutional Democracy by fighting Civil Wars and beheading one of their kings (1649) and other shenanigans.
So too, America came into being after the fratricidal War of Independence (1776) that was allegedly initiated due to irritation over taxes on the price of tea!
This may also explain the popularity of Conspiracy Theories in the USA.
Otherwise good, intelligent well-informed citizens seem to get a kick out of imagining that the 'boys at the top" are stealing all their money, engineering their very beings, and manipulating them!
See:
Know your enemy.
Conspiracy Theories are one Big Conspiracy!
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/conspire.html
Jacob was to bless Joseph,
Genesis (LTL) 49:
22 JOSEPH IS A FRUITFUL TREE BESIDE A FOUNTAIN. HIS BRANCHES SHADE THE WALL. 23 HE HAS BEEN SEVERELY INJURED BY THOSE WHO SHOT AT HIM AND PERSECUTED HIM, 24 BUT THEIR WEAPONS WERE SHATTERED BY THE MIGHTY ONE OF JACOB, THE SHEPHERD, THE ROCK OF ISRAEL. 25 MAY THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS, THE ALMIGHTY, BLESS YOU WITH BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN ABOVE AND OF THE EARTH BENEATH, BLESSINGS OF THE BREASTS AND OF THE WOMB, 26 BLESSINGS OF THE GRAIN AND FLOWERS, BLESSINGS REACHING TO THE UTMOST BOUNDS OF THE EVERLASTING HILLS. THESE SHALL BE THE BLESSINGS UPON THE HEAD OF JOSEPH WHO WAS EXILED FROM HIS BROTHERS.
Notice here that Jacob juxtaposed the blessing to Joseph with a list of the offences, injuries, and injustices done to him. It seems that in order to achieve the blessings Joseph needed to feel a degree of instinctive entitlement emanating from what had been done to him and what he had missed out on.
The exiled Lost Ten Tribes of Israel headed by Joseph were to become one of the most numerous groups of people on earth (Genesis 15:5, 22:17, 24:60, 32:12, Numbers 23:10, Deuteronomy 1:11, Isaiah 10:22, 24:16, 26:15, Hosea 1:10); to be the most powerful (Genesis 27:9, Numbers 24:7, Michah 5:7-9), to be the richest, to possess the most mineral and agricultural resources (Genesis 27:28, 49:25, Deuteronomy 33:13-16, Hosea 2:8), to live in the best places (Isaiah 41:8-9), to be in islands (Isaiah 42:4, 49:1-6 Jeremiah 31:9-10), peninsulas (Jeremiah 31:8), and at continental extremities (Deuteronomy 33:13, Isaiah 24:16, 26:15, 41:8-9, 49:6), to be sea-farers (Isaiah 42:6), to gain control over strategic points regarding their potential adversaries (Genesis 22:16-17, 24:60), to be like a lion, and unicorn (Numbers 24:8-9), and bald-headed eagle (Micah 1:16). And much more.
All this was to be achieved by way of nature, by propitiously being in the right place at the right time.
It meant doing what had to be done.
A certain degree of resentment , of feeling deprived coupled with other more positive qualities may well have helped them get where they did!
4. Joseph is both Egalitarian and Aristoctratic even snobbish.
This brings us to the dichotomy within Joseph.
Joseph as son of the favored wife and beloved by his father had an advantage.
On the other hand he seems to have been resented by his older brothers and was shunted away to team up with the sons of the handmaidens.
He identified with them, as we shall see.
These two apparently contradictory tendencies were to be reflected in names given to his sons.
The name Manasseh can mean Responsible Representation and the principles of democracy.
One of the meanings of Ephraim connotes aristocrat.
Descendants of Joseph have both tendencies. They may be fair and considerate of others but they also tend to respect the established order and take things as they are. When outside influences appear to unduly distrub the established order they may react drastically.
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