Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Portrait of Joseph in Chapter 40 of Genesis

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: George.Athas AT moore.edu.au, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Portrait of Joseph in Chapter 40 of Genesis
  • Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2012 22:27:32 -0400 (EDT)



Prof. George Athas:

You wrote: “The imagery of the birds pecking is enough to portend the
baker's death.
It's what birds did to corpses impaled in the open air. You just have to read
the text. Plain and simple. No mystery. No enigma. No chicanery. Just a
simple
story. End of story.”

What could a Baker do to cause Pharaoh to have him impaled, with his corpse
to be pecked at by birds? You write: “No mystery. No enigma.” But
shouldn’t we expect the Biblical text to give us a clue as to what the
Baker’s horrible crime was? If we view XRY in CLY XRY at Genesis 40: 16 as
having the same meaning as XRY at Genesis 14: 6, and if the Baker is being
portrayed as having that dream in Year 13, then we can see that the Baker is
guilty of treason, in contravening Pharaoh’s policy as of Year 12 of cutting
off all relations with the XRY state of Naharim. Joseph readily divines all
of that from the Baker’s dream of CLY XRY.

As I noted in a prior post on this thread, Genesis 27: 46 could be
paraphrased as follows [where XTY effectively = XRY]: “Rebekah said to
Isaac, ‘I loathe my life because of the XRY women. If Jacob marries a local
XRY woman like these [the XRY wives of Jacob’s older twin brother Esau], what
good will life be to me?’” Shouldn’t those harsh words of Rebekah be viewed
as supporting Pharaoh’s controversial decision to cut off all relations with
Egypt’s long-time ally, the XRY state of Naharim, and as agreeing that a
dream of CLY XRY by a top officer of Pharaoh could potentially reflect
actionable treason? Don’t you see chapters 27 and 40 of Genesis,
collectively, as in effect supporting that historical pharaoh’s controversial
new anti-XRY policy?

All of this makes perfect sense on all levels, in particular on the
historical level, if the implied time period in these cases is Year 13.
Otherwise, I cannot agree with your assessment of chapter 40 of Genesis as
being “No mystery. No enigma.” We should rightly expect the Biblical text
to give us a good clue as to the nature of the Baker’s horrible crime.

In my opinion, the key to understanding chapter 40 of Genesis is to view XRY
in CLY XRY at Genesis 40: 16 as having the same meaning as XRY at Genesis 14:
6.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois








Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page