Genesis 45-47 and Letters of Ignatius [Ephesians 19-21]

Genesis 45 - Unable to go on any more with this, Joseph dismisses everyone and reveals himself to his brothers. “He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him, and word of it quickly carried to Pharaoh’s palace” (45:2).

After having put them through the wringer, Joseph now tells them they are not to reproach themselves any more: “It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives . . .  to ensure for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance.  So it was not really you but God who had me come here” (45:5-8).

So he sends the brothers back to Jacob with an invitation to come into Egypt, to the land of Goshen (eastern part of the Nile Delta) where they will be able to survive the five remaining years of famine.

The Pharaoh helps them and welcomes them to his “best land”  (45:18). Pharaoh’s initiative here is part of the Elohist source. Jacob has trouble believing them when they tell him Joseph is still alive and looks forward to being able to see him before he dies.

Genesis 46 – Jacob leaves for Egypt with all his family and everything he owns. At Beersheba, he offers sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. “During the night God spoke to him in a vision. ‘Jacob! Jacob!’ he called. ‘Here I am,’ Jacob replied. ‘I am God, the God of your father,’ the voice said. ‘Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make your family into a great nation. I will go with you down to Egypt, and I will bring you back again. You will die in Egypt, but Joseph will be with you to close your eyes’” (46:2-4).

They travel in wagons the Pharaoh provides, Jacob and all his descendants: the names of all his sons and grandsons are given. “The total number of Jacob’s direct descendants who went with him to Egypt, not counting his sons’ wives, was sixty-six. In addition, Joseph had two sons who were born in Egypt. So altogether, there were seventy members of Jacob’s family in the land of Egypt” (46:26-27).

Joseph and his father are reunited near the region of Goshen. He tells his brothers, “When Pharaoh calls for you and asks you about your occupation, you must tell him, ‘We, your servants, have raised livestock all our lives, as our ancestors have always done.’ When you tell him this, he will let you live here in the region of Goshen, for the Egyptians despise shepherd’” (46:33-34).

Genesis 47 – Joseph tells Pharaoh that his family has arrived. He has five of his brothers with him when Pharaoh inquires about their occupation. They say what Joseph has advised them to say – that they are shepherds; and Pharaoh welcomes them warmly.

Pharaoh asks Jacob his age and Jacob tells him he’s 130 years old. “Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before leaving his court” (47:9) and Pharaoh lets them settle where they want.

The famine continues and finally Egypt too begins to suffer. The supply of grain runs out. Joseph starts an exchange of food for livestock when the money supply runs dry. And then another hard year comes, and people have nothing left to trade. They offer themselves and all their land in return for help.

“So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh . . . As for the people, he made them all slaves, from one end of Egypt to the other. The only land he did not buy was the land belonging to the priests. They received an allotment of food directly from Pharaoh, so they didn’t need to see their land” (47:20-22). Joseph tells everyone he will provide them with seed and food, and they are all happy – at least for the moment. Tenant-farming becomes the norm.

“Meanwhile, the people of Israel settled in the region of Goshen in Egypt. There they acquired property, and they were fruitful, and their population grew rapidly” (47:27).

Jacob lives another 17 years and finally “the time of his death drew near” (47:29).  He calls for his son Joseph and has him promise to bring his body back to where his ancestors are buried, and Joseph swears.

The Epistles of Ignatius [Letter to the Ephesians]

19 –  “Mary’s virginity was hidden from the prince of this word; so was her child-bearing, and so was the death of the Lord. All these three trumpet-tongued secrets were brought to pass in the deep silence of God” (66).  These secrets were made known by the star whose strangeness “left men bewildered” (66). “Everywhere magic crumbled away before it; the spells of sorcery were all broken, and superstition received its death-blow. The age-old empire of evil was overthrown, for God was now appearing in human form to bring in a new order, even life without end” (66).

These words ring strangely on my ear. I am not at all sure what he is saying. The note helps a little, and some of the introduction resonates here too. The note says that for early Christians, the visit of the Magi to Christ at his birth, presents the death of pagan magic. But there are also people who think Ignatius was either influenced by some of the thinking of the Gnostics or perhaps was even part of an incipient form of Gnosticism. Like the Gnostics, Ignatius is drawn to the importance of “silence” in Christian thought, “the creative stillness, the silence of God” (68). I would refer you back to the Introduction to Ignatius’ Letters.

20 – Ignatius says that he hopes we will be able to write another letter to them so he can “continue this preliminary account . . . of God’s design for the New Man, Jesus Christ. It is a design which provides for faith in Him and love for Him, and comprehends His Passion and His Resurrection” (66).

They must continue “attending your meetings in a state of grace, united in faith and in Jesus Christ. . . and are ready now to obey your bidhop and clergy with undivided minds and to share in the one common breaking of bread – the medicine of immortality, and the sovereign remedy by which we escape death and live in Jesus Christ for evermore” (66)

21 - He reminds them that he is giving his life on the behalf. Pray “for the church in Syria, from which they are bringing me in chains to Rome. I was the last and least of the faithful there, and yet I have been deemed worthy to set forward the honor of God” (67). 

Genesis 43-44 and Letters of Ignatius [Ephesians 16-18]

Genesis 43 – The famine continues to ravage the land. When the grain from Egypt is gone, Jacob wants them to go back and get more. Judah reminds him what they face there is they go back without Benjamin. This time [in this Yahwist source] it is Judah who takes mature responsibility for seeing to it that Benjamin returns safely. “’I personally guarantee his safety. You may hold me responsible if I don’t bring him back to you’” (43:9).

They go back, and they take gifts and twice the silver they took before—assuming they will be accused of having cheated the Egyptians the first time.

When they get to Egypt, Joseph invites them to eat with him but they are so worried, they cannot stand it.  They confess about having found the money returned to their sacks last time and offer twice the payment for the grain this time. The steward reassures them and sees Simeon released to them.

When they gather later at Joseph’s table, they bow down to him again and he asks after their father.  He is much affected when he sees his full brother and leaves again to cry (43:30).  After regaining control, he returns.  They eat—it is interesting that Egyptians with Joseph have to eat at a separate table. It says the Egyptians “despise[d] Hebrews and refuse[d] to eat with them” (43:32). Joseph fills their plates and gives Benjamin five times more than he gave the others.

Genesis 44 - When the brothers are ready to leave, Joseph orders food to be stuffed into each man’s bag along with the silver they brought; but in Benjamin’s bag he also plants his “personal silver cup” (44:2).  He is going to take one last revenge on them. 

After they leave he orders men after them to accuse them of repaying his kindness with theft.  And when Joseph’s silver cup is found in Benjamin’s bag, they are overcome with distress.  They “tore their clothing in despair” (44:13) and then return to the city. We are reminded of Benjamin’s mother, Rachel’s theft of the household idols from her father Laban’s house in 31:32.

When they return to Joseph, again they prostrate themselves before him a third time: Judah says, importantly, to him “What can we say to my lord?  How can we plead or how try to prove our innocence?  God has uncovered your servants’ guilt” (44:16).  It is Judah who finally addresses the bottom line—that he cannot go back without Benjamin, having given his solemn word and knowing the anguish he father would suffer. In Judah’s response to Joseph, the word “father” is repeated twelve times.

The Epistles of Ignatius [Letter to the Ephesians]

16 – “[S]ubversive doctrines” out there are in some cases “defiling” households [church communities]. “Even in the world, defilement of this kind is punishable with death; how much more when a man’s subversive doctrines defile the God-given Faith for which Jesus Christ was crucified” (65). People who bring these doctrines in are most certainly destined for the “unquenchable fire” and also those who give them “a hearing” (65).

17 – The ointment Christ’s head was anointed with was to create a fragrance of “incorruptibility upon His Church” (65). So you must not permit the odor of gross error to “snatch you . . . away from the life that lies before you” (65)

18 – As for me [Ignatius], my spirit is “now all humble devotion to the Cross: the Cross which so greatly offends the unbelievers, but is salvation and eternal life to us” (65-66).

“Jesus Christ our God was conceived by Mary of the seed of David and of the Spirit of God; He was born, and He submitted to baptism, so that by His Passion He might sanctify water [the water of baptism]” (66).

Genesis 39-40 and The Letters of Ignatius [Ephesians 10-12]

Please forgive the long delay in posting. Had to attend a family members funeral mass in Florida over the weekend and had also to be without a computer, but everything should be back to normal now.

Genesis 39 - Returning to the Joseph story (of the Yahwist source—36 and 37 having been Elohist – together with 40, which is yet to come), we see Joseph has been sold to Potiphar, chief steward of the Pharaoh (39:1). 

Everything he touches turns to gold – not literally, but metaphorically.  He ends up in charge of everything.  When Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him, Joseph sees it as a grave threat to the trust placed in him and a great potential wrong (39:8-9).  So he refuses her and she finally accuses him falsely of threatening to violate her and he is thrown into jail.  But there too he rises to the top and ends up being put in charge of “all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison” (39:22).  He simply cannot escape his leadership destiny. The idea that character is destiny is strong here.

Genesis 40 – Joseph is gifted in both having and interpreting dreams – we already know this about him. Now in jail because of the accusations made against him by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph has even there risen to a position of prominence.

When two men in the jail, the “Pharaoh’s cup-bearer and baker” (40:5), come to him with dreams they have had, he interprets the dreams, and his interpretations turn out to be accurate: one of the men - the chief cup-bearer of the Pharaoh – is released and restored to his position. The other man – the chief baker – is put to death.

Nothing changes for Joseph immediately. The cup-bearer does not remember Joseph until a few years go by.

The Epistles of Ignatius
Letter to the Ephesians
10 – As for the rest of mankind, Ignatius tells them they should “pray for them unceasingly” that they might “find their way to God” (64). Let them “learn from you . . . from the way you act” (64). “Meet their animosity with mildness, their high words with humility, and their abuse with your prayers. But stand firm against their errors, and if they grow violent, be gentle instead of wanting to pay them back in their own coin” (64).

“Let us show by our forbearance that we are their brothers, and try to imitate the Lord by seeing which of us can put up with the most ill-usage or privation or contempt – so that in this way none of the devil’s noxious weeds may take root among you, but you may rest in Jesus Christ in all sanctity and discipline of body and soul” (64)

11 –   “The end of all things is near” (64). We must remember that and remain humble. “Apart from Him, nothing else should have any value in your eyes; but in Him, even these chains I wear are a collar of spiritual pearls to me, in which I hope to rise again through the help of your intercessions” (64). He prays that he may always have place in their midst, where Christians “in the power of Jesus Christ have ever been of the self-same mind as the Apostles themselves” (64).

12 – He returns to the reality that he is on his way to Rome and to death. “I am in peril; you are in security. You are the gateway, through which we are escorted by Death into the presence of God. You are initiates of the same mysteries as our saintly and renowned Paul of blessed memory” (64). He has remembered you and recognized you in all of his letters. Important to remember that the only church “fathers” whose letters we have who actually KNEW Paul and the other disciples were Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp. Ignatius is drawing on his personal knowledge of Paul here.

Genesis 38 and The Letters of Ignatius [Ephesians 7-9]

Genesis 38 - Judah marries Shua (a Canaanite) and has three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah. When he grows up, Er is  married to a woman named Tamar but dies with no heir; so Onan is asked to fill his role (with Tamar) and give Er sons, but he dies too after “wasting” his seed in his intercourse with her. The section ends with this – “[T]he Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too” (38:10).

To me this is really good proof that the writers of the biblical narrative are not just writing “from the Spirit of God” but from their own particular culture and time. This practice of a widow marrying her deceased husband’s brother was a “Levirate” custom – the term comes from the Latin word levir (“husband’s brother”). The custom is still apparently still practiced in the world today in places where secure passage of land from generation to generation of a patriarchal clan is important. In Hebrew history, the practice was mandated by Deuteronomy 25:5-6. There were other parts of the law that prohibited a man from marrying his brother’s wife (Leviticus 18:16).

Judah wants Tamar to “remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry” her (38:11). A sentence is added to the text here indicating that Judah didn’ t REALLY intend to marry his last surviving son to Tamar. His failure to go ahead with the custom will be the engine behind what happens later in the story.

When the time comes (and goes) that Shelah is old enough to be married to Tamar, she plots to bring havoc down on Judah. She pretends to be a cult prostitute and sits herself by the road; when Judah comes along one day, she conceals her identity and convinces him to have intercourse with her, and this time, she does get impregnated.

When Judah learns that Tamar has “acted like a prostitute” and become pregnant, he sets out to have her burned (38:24). But she communicates that it was he who made her pregnant and because she has proof, Judah acknowledges that she is “more righteous than [he] is” (38:26). He should have gone ahead with the last marriage she was entitled to, but he had not.

Tamar gives birth to twins: Perez and Zerah and the story of their birth also is given is some detail. “While she was in labor, one of the babies reached out his hand. The midwife grabbed it and tied a scarlet string around the child’s wrist, announcing, ‘This one came out first.’ But then he pulled back his hand, and out came his brother! ‘What!’ the midwife exclaimed. ‘How did you break out first?’ So he was named Perez. Then the baby with the scarlet string on his wrist was born, and he was named Zerah” (38:28-30). 

The reason the story is important is because Perez is part of the genealogy of King David.  Tamar is one of three women mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy too (Matt 1).  Also Judah’s repentance to Tamar is part of his rehabilitation.

The Epistles of Ignatius

7 – But “there are some people who persistently bandy the Name about with the grossest hypocrisy, besides behaving in a number of other ways that do no credit to God. You must keep away from these men as you would from a pack of savage animals; they are rabid curs who snap at people unawares, and you need to be on your guard against their bites, because they are by no means easy to heal” (63).

“There is only one Physician – Very Flesh, yet Spirit too; Uncreated, and yet born; God-and-Man in One agreed, Very-Life-in-Death indeed, Fruit of God and Mary’s seed; at once impassible and torn by pain and suffering here below: Jesus Christ, whom as our Lord we know” (63). A note here indicates that this passage’s rhythmic qualities may have been part of an early Christian hymn.

8 – “So long as there are no deep-seated differences among you, of a kind that could do serious harm, your manner of life is just as God would have it. . . .with you, even what you do in the flesh is spiritual, for your actions are all done in Jesus Christ” (63).

9 – He does worry, however, for he’s heard that men have visited them from elsewhere and that the teaching of these men is “pernicious” (63). But they did not open their ears to what it was these men taught. He describes their deafness to the pernicious teachings as a great thing:

“Deaf as stones you were: yes, stones for the Father’s Temple, stones trimmed ready for God to build with, hoisted up by the derrick of Jesus Christ (the Cross) with the Holy Spirit for a cable; your faith being the winch that draws you to God, up the ramp of love” (63). Great imagery in this man’s writing – first the “symphony of minds” he discussed earlier and now the Holy Spirit as a “cable” and faith the “winch that draws you to God, up the ramp of love.” 

They are all pilgrims carrying “sacred treasures on your shoulders” and you are “arrayed in the festal garments of the commandments of Jesus Christ” (64). Here, the editor notes that Ignatius is referring to and co-opting an image that would have been very familiar to Ephesians of that time.  Pagan worshippers used to parade in such fancy garments along the streets carrying statues of the god and “precious objects” from the temple of Artemis (67). Now the precious objects carried must be “your God and your shrine and your Christ” and the “sacred treasures” of Jesus’ words that we carry in our hearts (63-64). Ignatius says he joins them in their “jubilations” (64).