Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dora Smith" <villandra AT austin.rr.com>]

Robert:

What do you make of the fact that the people in the drawings are wearing
coats of many colors?
Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
villandra AT austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Heard" <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Coat of sleeves, or many colors?


> Ben, Dora, et al.,
>
> It seems to me that the drawings Ben mentions below would actually cut
> in favor of the "long-sleeved tunic" reading, because Joseph's coat is
> supposed to be _atypical_. If you take the drawing as indicating that
> colored dress was _typical_ for Semites, then there is nothing special
> about Joseph's coat. But if the normal Semitic working attire is a
> sleeveless tunic with a short skirt, and Jacob gives Joseph a
> long-sleeved tunic with a long skirt (going to the PS of his hands and
> his feet), then giving the coat is like exempting Joseph from work
> (because you couldn't do the manual labor as well tangled up in those
> sleeves). Thus Joseph being at home later in the chapter while his
> brothers were shepherding the flocks. There's nothing definitive about
> this, but I think things tend to tip this direction.
>
> Ben Crick wrote:
>
>
> >On Sun  7 Aug 2005 (16:49:07), villandra AT austin.rr.com wrote:
> >> The lessons for this Sunday included the story of the sale of Joseph
> >> into slavery by his brothers.
> >>
> >> MInister said that the "coat of many colors" is a translation error and
> >> it was actually a "coat with sleeves".
> >>
> >> I understood that the coat of many colors was a typical Canaanite
> >> garment.
> >> Which actually was it?
> >
> > According to Genesis 37:3, Jacob gave Joseph a "coat of many colours"
> > K:ToNeT PaSSiYM as a mark of special favour. The same phrase denotes a
> > royal robe in 2 Samuel 13:18. Some commentators prefer to translate
> this
> > "a long robe with sleeves"; but WF Albright, in /The Archaeology of
> > Palestine/, Pelican Books, 1949, p 209, shows a reproduction of the
> > Beni Hassan Tomb painting, circa 1890 BC. A 20" frieze depicts a group
> > of Semitic itinerant tinkers (men, women and children) visiting Egypt
> > with their goats and donkeys (compare Genesis 43:24). They are carrying
> > weapons for protection, a lyre for entertainment, and the tools of
> their
> > trade. Most are dressed in longer or shorter *sleeveless* "coats of
> many
> > colours", whereas the Egyptians in the picture have short white kilts.
> >
> > HTH
> > Ben
> >--
> > Revd Ben Crick, BA CF                                       ZFC Hf
> > <ben.crick AT NOSPAM.argonet.co.uk>
> > 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
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> >
> >
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> -------------------------------
> --
> R. Christopher Heard
> Assistant Professor of Religion
> Pepperdine University
> Malibu, CA 90263-4352
> http://www.heardworld.com
> http://www.iTanakh.org
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