SYNOPSIS: Jacob sends a messenger ahead to tell Joseph that he is coming to Goshen, and Joseph meets him there. They hug, weep, and Jacob says: "Now I can die because I have seen you and I know you are alive." Joseph explains to his family that he is going to arrange for them to meet Pharaoh, and when he asks them about their occupation they are to tell him that they are animal herders. That way they can stay in Goshen, because Egyptians don't like to mix with animal herders.
- Text of the passage (in Nawat)
Why is the story interrupted in this way? Speiser's suggestion is (EAS, p. 346): "A record of Jacob's family was deemed necessary on the eve of the sojourn in Egypt, and this seemed to be the best place to give it." And another rationale in terms of narrative technique comes to mind: this may be a very old example of the device still practised in Hollywood today of using a temporary insertion of argumentally "extraneous" material to suggest the passage of time to the audience.
That should mean that if we wish to skip the boring bit (vv. 8-27) we could read as far as v. 7 (...hevi itto mitxráy'ma '[all these] he brought with him to Egypt') and then pick up again at v. 28 (w'et y'huda shalax l'fanaw el yosef... 'He sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph...') and just keep going. The emotional meeting between Joseph and Jacob takes place. Jacob utters his memorable line (v. 30): amúta happá‛am axare r'oti et panékha ki ‛odkha xay. This much has taken all of three verses to narrate.
Then (v. 31) Joseph says to the arrivees something that may have been meant to sound like "just go through customs", but comes out as perhaps not quite so routine a procedure: "I'll go and let Pharaoh know," he says - okay... - "and tell him that my family from Canaan have come to join me." And he goes on to give them a useful tip: "When Pharaoh calls you in for an interview and asks you about your occupation, tell him you are sheep herders and that's what you've always done in your family." Why? "That way," Joseph explains to them (and us), "you'll be able to stay in the Goshen region, because Egyptians don't like mixing with shepherds."
The interview goes fine and Pharaoh will be happy enough to let them stay in Goshen. But as a reader, was there just a weird moment there or wasn't there? Had not Pharaoh himself sent carts (or wagons?) to help Jacob and his people bring all their things to Egypt to settle? Yet at the beginning of the next passage (47:1), wayyavo yosef wayyagged l'far‛o wayyómer avi w'axay... bá'u me'éretz k'ná‛an w'hinnam b'éretz góshen 'Joseph came and reported to Pharaoh saying: "My father and my brothers.. have come from the land of Canaan and are now in the region of Goshen"' as if that was all news to Pharaoh.
The source critics offer a solution: different sources. Not only did the genealogical section originate from a different place than the narrative sections, they suggest, but the narrative sections themselves are no doubt composite in origin, merging two similar but not identical accounts of Jacob's migration.
Speiser proposes that all of vv. 2-27 of this chapter represent insertions from not one but two sources into a narrative from a third source (J, the "Primitive Document"), which would thus have been interrupted after v. 1 and resumed now at v. 28. The insert that starts at v. 2 tells of God's appearance to Jacob at Beersheba. This is followed by the family embarking on their onward journey to Egypt (with Pharaoh's carts or wagons), and then the listing of the sons and grandsons of Jacob. If we skip over all of that then what we are left with is Jacob, at the end of ch. 45, deciding that they will go to Egypt so that he can see Joseph before he dies (45:28), going to Beersheba to offer sacrifices (46:1) and sending Judah ahead to Joseph (46:28, omitting all the other stuff just mentioned), whereupon Joseph comes out to meet them at Goshen, and then arranges for them to be interviewed by Pharaoh. Judah is thus the messenger who mediates with Joseph to arrange for a smooth arrival and reception in Egypt - and Joseph now starts negotiating with Pharaoh and instructing the brothers on what to say.
The way the source critics fit this all together is by assuming that the preceding passage in which, before going back to Canaan, the brothers are told to bring Jacob to Egypt is also a composite section where two accounts of this episode have been combined: in one, Pharaoh invites the brothers to bring Jacob and settle in Egypt (and even sends them wagons!), while in the other, Joseph does so. Therefore there is now, in the present passage, a version where Joseph awaits their arrival but the matter will still need to be broached with Pharaoh, since in this parallel universe he doesn't know yet.
That's one way to look at it. Another is that perhaps Pharaoh had already invited them to Egypt but it was Joseph's idea that they should stay in Goshen specifically, and so he coaches his brothers to give the right answers in the upcoming interview which, according to his caluclations, will prompt Pharaoh to decide to settle them in Goshen.
46:28 l'horot l'fanaw gósh'na
This text is obscure and presumed to be corrupt.
No comments:
Post a Comment