An Atheistic Bible Study Of Genesis Chapter Forty

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Joseph is now virtually running the prison though he himself is still a lave-prisoner in Egypt. Two men are sent to the prison by the Pharaoh, his chief cup-bearer and his chief baker. Joseph looks after them, and after a while both men have strange dreams in the night. Joseph sees them the next day and each man looks quite distressed. They tell him that they have had weird frightening dreams. Joseph tells them that God can read dreams through him (he never claims it is his own skill, merely that God uses him as a vessel). The cup-bearer describes his dream. He has seen a vine grow quickly before his eyes. It has three branches which bloom and produce grapes. The cup-bearer squeezes the grapes into the Pharaoh’s wine cup and presents the wine to the Pharaoh to enable his master to drink it. Joseph interprets the dream simply to mean that the Cup-bearer will be pardoned within three days and that he will get to pour wine for the Pharaoh again as he is returned to his duties. Could there be another interpretation? Grapes are a slang term for Haemorrhoids (Piles) – could the giant plant represent a particularly bad attack starting in or lasting three days, with the wine actually a medication needed to ease the agony. – There is also more to making wine than just literally crushing grapes into a cup and handing it over to the drinker – that is just non-alcoholic grape juice. The Baker describes his dream to this pre-Christian Freud. He dreamt he had three baskets of bread balanced on his head, and birds were swooping down, eating all the bread in the top basket, ruining bread meant for the Pharaoh. Joseph interprets the dream to mean that in three days the Pharaoh will have the Baker executed both by decapitation and hanging. (I bet that really cheered up the Baker to hear). My interpretation – The baker likes balancing bread acrobatically and enjoys feeding the birds. Sadly, Joseph’s interpretation proves to be right. The Baker is executed, (not sure where the noose goes after the head has been chopped off). The cup-bearer goes off happily to serve the Pharaoh, and though he promised Joseph he would put a good word in for him with the Pharaoh, he forgets. There’s gratitude for you. Arthur Chappell