Africa and the Bible: Corrective Lenses—Critical Essays

By Gene Rice, Cain Hope Felder and Jonathan Rice

Africa and the Bible is a collection of essays about the African influence on and presence in the Old Testament, written over Gene Rice's more than fifty years of scholarly service at Howard University School of Divinity. They focus on characters with African heritage such as Ebed-melech and Jehudi in Jeremiah, and the prophet Zephaniah himself, as well as dealing with texts that have been misinterpreted to the detriment of African-Americans such as the story of the curse of Canaan, in which Ham and all his dark-skinned descendants are the ones viewed as cursed. One article provides evidence that the original worshippers of YHWH may have been from the land of Kush! One of Rice's earliest articles deals with the story of Joseph and relates it to Jim Crow; Rice finds in the story a model for racial reconciliation that is still relevant today. With a foreword by his colleague of many years, Cain Hope Felder, Professor of New Testament at Howard University School of Divinity, now retired, and a preface by Jonathan Rice, Gene Rice's son, the book is a treasure-trove of carefully researched, thought-provoking articles, and a perfect supplement to be used alongside a Hebrew Bible textbook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Nov 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532658679

Gene Rice

Gene Rice was Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at the Howard University School of Religion for over fifty years until his retirement. He is the author of 1 Kings: Nations Under God.

Book preview

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Joseph and Jim Crow

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Of all the personalities in the Bible, Joseph is surely one of the noblest and most admirable. Envied and hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, betrayed by Potiphar’s wife and forgotten by Pharaoh’s butler, Joseph does not despair in adversity, nor become bitter, nor lose faith in God. Suddenly precipitated into a position of great authority and made a member of the Egyptian court, Joseph does not become vain, nor vengeful, nor ashamed of the foreign origin of his family and their humble circumstances. Apart from Jesus, Joseph stands alone in the Bible as one whose character is virtually above reproach.

The excellence of Joseph’s character is matched by the excellence of the Joseph story as literature. Unlike the Abraham and Jacob narratives, which are garlands of short, terse, individual stories often of no more than ten verses, the Joseph story is a single, organic composition with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is developed in sufficient length and detail (Gen 37–50), in fact, that it may properly be called a short story. The contents of the story fall naturally into four acts: I. The conflict between Joseph and his brothers (ch. 37); II. Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt (chs. 39–41); III. The reunion and reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers (chs. 42–45); IV. Jacob’s reunion with his son, his death in peace, and the death of Joseph after a full and rich life (chs. 46–50). The conflict between the brothers, the motif of robe and of dream, the reversal of the brothers’ intention, and the recognition scene between Joseph and his brothers are treated with a mastery that places the Joseph story among the best examples of prose literature in the Bible—and in world literature.

Yet for all the admirable qualities of Joseph’s character and for all the excellence of the Joseph story as literature, the story is not concerned primarily to praise Joseph nor to demonstrate the ability to tell a story well. Two powerful themes run through the Joseph story that transcend the interest in Joseph’s personality and character, and it is for the sake of embodying these themes that the story has been so admirably shaped. It is in these two themes that the Joseph story becomes transparent to the Word of God and it is to the understanding of these themes and their relevance for today that this study is directed.

I. Conflict

The first of these great themes is that of brotherhood. This theme is struck at the very outset of the story. The action begins with the development of a conflict between Joseph and his brothers. The conflict grows out of Jacob’s great love for Joseph, the child of his old age and the offspring of his favorite wife, Rachel, and a sense of destiny on the part of Joseph that, to the minds of his brothers, smacks of delusions of grandeur. The smoldering resentment of the brothers comes to a head when Jacob gives Joseph a princely robe and Joseph tells his brothers of dreams that suggest they will become subservient to him. Maddened with jealousy, the brothers plan to kill Joseph. Their chance comes when Joseph is sent by his father to see how his brothers are getting along with the flocks. But the intervention of Reuben and Judah and the fortuitous appearance of a caravan conspire to avert actual murder and instead Joseph is taken to Egypt and sold to a certain Potiphar. The brothers dip Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood and take it to their father who draws the inevitable conclusion that Joseph is the victim of a wild beast and is plunged into inconsolable grief.

At this point we do not know how the subject of brotherhood is to be treated. We are simply made to witness—without any interpretative help from the story itself—the violent disruption of a family. One comes to the end of chapter 37 with the picture of Jacob scalded with grief, of Joseph’s brothers hardened with hatred, and of the young Joseph suddenly wrenched from father and home, degraded to the status of a slave, and placed at the mercy of a strange and alien world, and one silently wonders how such a breach can ever be made whole again.

II. Betrayal

With chapter 39 the setting abruptly shifts to Egypt and as we become absorbed in the vicissitudes of Joseph, the sorrowing Jacob and the hardened brothers gradually fade from the horizon of our thoughts and our attention focuses exclusively on Joseph. Sold to Potiphar, Joseph quickly proves himself an able and dependable man and soon becomes the trusted overseer of his master’s affairs.

Joseph’s very winsomeness and attractiveness, however, lead to his downfall. Potiphar’s wife has an eye for a handsome man and she is not fussy about the sanctity of her marriage. Contemporary authors could learn much from the manner in which the relationship between Joseph and Potiphar’s wife is treated. There is no dallying with or sentimentalizing of the rousing emotions of Potiphar’s wife and no compromising of the moral issue. To be sure, the episode is narrated with candid realism, but it is a healthy realism that exposes the affair for what it really is. There is no suggestion that Potiphar’s wife is neglected by her husband, or that Joseph secretly loves her. As her actions after the showdown with Joseph reveal, her feeling for him is something less than love. Ironically it is Joseph’s robe, clutched as Joseph frees himself from her, that is used in evidence against him. The fact that Potiphar has Joseph imprisoned rather than put to death, as was normally the penalty in such a case, suggests how deep was his regard for Joseph even in his outrage—and perhaps also that he knew more about his wife than he pretended.

Even in prison, however, the ability of Joseph is recognized by the keeper of the jail and Joseph is placed in a supervisory capacity over the other prisoners. In the course of time Pharaoh’s butler and baker are placed in this prison and come under Joseph’s care. He in turn makes a profound impression on them by correctly interpreting, to the good fortune of the butler and to the misfortune of the baker, two especially perplexing and troubling dreams they dreamed—and one is reminded that Joseph also was a dreamer in his youth. But upon being released, the butler, who had promised Joseph to speak to Pharaoh for the purpose of securing his release, promptly forgot Joseph and Joseph is again betrayed. This is the nadir of the Joseph story. The hope of ever seeing his family and his homeland again seems utterly impossible. At this point his childhood dreams of eminence must have seemed a mockery. Psalm 105:19 refers to this period of Joseph’s life as one in which God tested him. That Joseph bore the test well and was strengthened as a result of it is indicated by the manner in which he conducts himself throughout the rest of his career.

III. The Turning Point

The turning point of the Joseph story comes some two years after Pharaoh’s butler was released from prison and it is occasioned by a famine. The famine is anticipated by Pharaoh himself in two portentous dreams (dreams always come in pairs in the Joseph story), which his wise men and magicians are unable to interpret. Then Pharaoh’s butler belatedly remembered Joseph and spoke of him to Pharaoh. Hastily called before Pharaoh, Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams as referring to a coming famine of seven years duration and moreover recommends some prudent measures to cope with it. Pharaoh was so impressed that he both believed Joseph and appointed him to a position of authority second only to himself that he might take the action he had recommended. As a part of his equipment for his office, Joseph is provided with a robe of fine linen—and one is reminded of the robe soaked in blood and the one clutched in passion-turned-to-hatred. The famine came as Joseph said it would and, as it had been the occasion of Joseph’s elevation from prison to prime minister, so it was also the occasion of Joseph’s meeting his brothers again. For the famine prevailed also in the land of Canaan and led Joseph’s brothers to seek grain in Egypt.

IV. Reconciliation and Reunion

Chapter 42 tells of the first encounter of Joseph with his brothers. It is an encounter that takes place without reconciliation and reunion. Joseph, who has grown to full manhood since he last saw his brothers, is not recognized by his brothers but he recognizes them. Yet Joseph chooses not to reveal himself to his brothers. As a matter of fact, Joseph treats his brothers harshly. He charges them with being spies, throws them in jail for three days and when he releases them, keeps one as a hostage who can be reclaimed only if they return and bring their youngest brother, Benjamin. Why does Joseph behave this way? Is he merely playing with his brothers and tormenting them so as to take vengeance on them? No; Joseph feels that there are certain conditions that must be met before genuine reconciliation and reunion can take place, and he acts the way he does in order to bring these conditions about. And a careful examination of the story at this point discloses that Joseph goes about this brilliantly and profoundly.

Quickly composing himself after his initial surprise, Joseph asks his brothers, in a harsh voice, where they are from, and upon hearing that they are from Canaan, charges them with being spies. The implication of his charge is that there is something suspicious about ten adult men coming to Egypt to purchase grain. Sensing the thrust of Joseph’s charge, the brothers affirm that they have come only to buy grain and that they are all the sons of one man—brothers—and not a band of spies. Thus very skillfully Joseph focuses the attention of the brothers upon their common sonship in the family of Jacob.

Having gained this opening, Joseph seeks to focus the thoughts of his brothers still more sharply by scoffing at their claim and by reiterating his charge that they are spies. This leads the brothers to define more precisely their family relationship. They explain that originally there were twelve, that one of their number is at home with their father, and one is no longer among them—and another strategic opening is gained. (One wonders how long it has been since the thought of Joseph has crossed the minds of the brothers.) Joseph now brings the thoughts of his brothers to the focus he had intended all along by propounding a test allegedly of their veracity. If they are telling the truth, let them return home and bring this other brother back with them. Then Joseph will know that they are indeed brothers and eleven in number. But one of them must be left behind as a hostage. This also will test whether they are brothers or not, for if they are really brothers they will demonstrate this by returning for him.

Prior to stating these terms, Joseph had kept his brothers in jail for three days. This experience, with all its uncertainty together with having to leave a hostage behind, leads to a breakthrough in the spirits of the brothers at the point so carefully prepared for by Joseph. Upon hearing Joseph’s terms, the brothers say to one another, In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us and we would not listen; therefore is this distress come upon us (42:21). At long last the ghost of Joseph returns to haunt his brothers and the first step toward reconciliation and reunion has been taken. Before there can be genuine reconciliation and reunion the brothers must become aware of the suffering inflicted upon their brother by their crime.

But Joseph does not seek only to make his brothers aware of what had happened in the past. He seeks also to place before them a decision in the present. By requiring them to leave their brother, Simeon,

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in prison in Egypt, they are once again confronted with a choice to be made about brotherhood. They must now decide whether or not they will violate their brotherhood with Simeon by abandoning him in Egypt. The decision was not easy—as decisions like this never are—for Benjamin, the child of Jacob’s sorrow and of the mother of Joseph, had somewhat taken the place of Joseph in the old man’s life, and the brothers knew that their father would be most reluctant to consent to Benjamin’s being taken to Egypt. Jacob’s fear for Benjamin’s safety had prevented him from accompanying his brothers to Egypt in the first place. To make the choice still more difficult and real, Joseph gives the brothers an excuse to rationalize not returning to Egypt. He secretly returns the money they had paid for the grain they had purchased. If they return to Egypt, they must do so knowing that they will be charged with stealing government