An Atheistic Bible Study Of Genesis Chapters 36 And 37

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Chapter Thirty-Six This is little more than a list of the descendants of Esau (Edom). We are told that Esau’s clan and expanding family move some distance from Jacob’s estates. This is purely for geographical reasons as there is not enough grazing land for the cattle and sheep needed to feed the families of both brothers if they stay together. We are told that some of Esau’s descendants experimented in kingship long before the Israelis tried it (as will be described in the later two Old Testament books of Kings). We are not told how the kings descended from Esau fared. Chapter Thirty-Seven This chapter begins one of the Bible’s best known stories, that of Joseph, as later embodied in the dire musical, Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Joseph is not very loved by his many brothers, though he is seen as the favourite son to his father, Israel (finally named as such rather than by his former name, Jacob, but only sporadically. . Joseph antagonizes his brothers by reporting their limited efforts at tending the flocks when they work with him, and his claims to having dreamt that one day they will all bow before him. He compares himself to a tall sheaf of corn with all the other sheafs stunted by his growth, and bowing in before it. Joseph’s father makes him a richly ornamental robe (the dream coat), which Joseph wears with pride which further inflames the jealousy of his brothers. Joseph dreams again, this time that he is a very bright star, which even the sun, moon and other stars are in obedient awe of. Even Israel questions whether he is expected to revere his son some day, but Joseph decline to answer. His rampant egotism brings about the fall of Joseph. Israel sends Joeph to inspect their farming and livestock activity on the outskirts of Sheckem, with instructions to report his findings to his father Israel). Joseph arrives in Sheckhem where he learns from a stranger that the brothers have moved away towards Dotham. He heads there and sees them in the distance. They see him too, and as he approaches, they conpire to kill him. The plan is to throw Joseph in a deep well and then clam that they saw him devoured by wild animals. Only the brother called Reuben suggests they throw Joseph in the well alive rather than tabbing or strangling him first. They catch hold of Joseph, steal his fancy robe and chuck him in the well, which is empty. It has no water in it. The brothers then sit down to eat a meal together but that is interrupted by a passing caravan of traders descended from Ishmael, on route to Egypt. It is here that Judah suggests that instead of leaving Joseph rotting in the well, they raise him up and sell him as a slave to the traderand therefore don’t commit the in of murder (even though that commandment has not yet been issued). Alas, they reach the well too late as Joeph has already been rescued and enslaved by a rival band of traders who have already sold him to the party the brothers intended to sell him too. Reuben is the first to discover Joseph is no longer in the well. The brothers continue with their plan as if they themselves had old Joseph into slavery. They soak his colourful ornate robe in goat’s blood and show it to Israel, who laments that his favourite son has been eaten by wild animals. Jacob (now his original name is used again rather than Israel) is inconsolable. He takes to wearing sackcloth and covering himself in ashes, and vows to mourn this way even until he dies. Joseph meanwhile, is sold directly to an Egyptian Pharaoh’s high captain’s a man called Potiphar. After a lengthy list of names we see Joseph as an annoying egotistical teller of tall tales smugly singing his own praises, and his brothers becoming a murderous mob, who ultimately ease off and end up setting up the fulfilment of the very prophesy they were trying to defeat. The prophesy (written after the events, and as useful as a gamble on last week’s horse racing), fails to predict the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical though. The Any Dream Will Do song from the musical, with the ‘technicolour dreamcoat’ being just a single golden colour here Arthur Chappell