{"id":31976,"date":"2016-04-15T17:15:10","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T21:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=31976"},"modified":"2016-04-15T17:15:10","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T21:15:10","slug":"a-generation-which-knew-not-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2016\/04\/15\/a-generation-which-knew-not-joseph\/","title":{"rendered":"A generation which knew not Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When it comes to the biblical story of Joseph<\/a>, I\u2019m with John Calvin. \u201cIt is certain that all contracts which are not formed according to the rule of charity are vicious in the sight of God,\u201d the reformer wrote\u00a0in his commentary on Genesis. Joseph, Calvin concluded, was simply indefensible. He exploited the hungry and enslaved the entire world<\/em> in order to curry favor with a tyrant. He stole everything<\/em> from everyone, enriching his boss and, thus, himself. And so Joseph, Calvin decided, can only be regarded as a warning sign \u2014 as a symbol of what not<\/em> to do and how not<\/em> to be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In terms of results, you won\u2019t find a worse or more despicable villain in all of the Bible. Ahab and Jezebel? Pikers<\/em>. They ruled as monarchs, but never seized all the land and enslaved all the people the way that Joseph enabled Pharaoh to do. And while Jezebel may have favored the priests of Baal, she never entitled them to a separate, privileged status as the only free and propertied people in her kingdom, the way Joseph privileged the priests of the gods of Egypt.<\/p>\n

The only tyrant and villain in the Bible who even begins to compare to Joseph is maybe the Beast of Revelation. But that book depicts this evil, Roman tyrant as a kind of Pharaoh \u2014 which is to say the Beast is based on<\/em> Joseph.<\/p>\n

\"Pyramid\"
\u201cAs for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.\u201d (Photo by Nina Aldin Thune via Wikipedia.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The guy was simply a monster. And it\u2019s baffling that we tend to treat him otherwise \u2014 as though he were an admirable, praiseworthy figure \u2014 just because his brothers treated him badly, and because he was a snazzy dresser.<\/p>\n

As it happens, the story of Joseph was briefly in the news again this week thanks to a cringe-inducing campaign stop by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who encountered a group of Yeshiva students in Brooklyn. As Harold Pollack<\/a> put it, it\u2019s like \u201ca Gentile Curb Your Enthusiasm<\/em> episode.\u201d<\/p>\n