Joseph, Son of Jacob The first son of Rachel (Gen 30:22–24); he was set apart among the sons of Jacob—favored by his father and despised by his brothers (Gen 37:2–4). Joseph is one of the central figures in the narrative of Jacob’s family contained in the final chapters of Genesis (Gen 37–50).

Joseph dies at 110 years old (Gen 50:22–26), after experiencing several cycles of loss and restoration, reconciliation with his brothers, and acceptance of the radical claim that his story was—by no perfection of his own, but by God’s grace and intention—ultimately “good” for Joseph and for others (at least for a time; see Gen 50:20; the use of this deeming word here is sometimes compared to what God spoke over creation; see also Rom 8:28–30; Brueggemann, Genesis, 377).

Joseph may function as a bridge character in the Pentateuch between the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and the exodus figures of Moses and Joshua. Joseph’s deportation from Canaan to Egypt initiates the “evacuation” of the promised land (Beal and Gunn, Reading, 58). According to Brueggemann, the central question in the Joseph narrative is “How does one speak about faith in a context where the older ways are found wanting?” (Brueggemann, Genesis, 289). The narrator of Joseph’s story illustrates a most subtle answer: God’s ways are “so high” they are cloaked in mystery and do not rely on human articulation and striving—in fact, God’s ways are working themselves out in the midst of everyday natural and worldly life. And yet, “the purposes of God demand a human counterpart”; they choose to rely on the human actor (Brueggemann, Genesis, 332).