I am Joseph, Your Brother!

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This is a poignant and powerful depiction of the meeting between Joseph and his brother in Genesis, chapter 45 (see History/Story tab). Here we see Joseph embracing his youngest brother Benjamin (Genesis 45:14). A now deceased German priest and artist depicted this touching scene.

This is indeed the perfect gift for that fine young man in your family named Ben or Benjamin!  But also the perfect gift for that special “youngest brother” in any big family!

Pope John XXIII: “I am Joseph, your brother”

“I am Joseph, your brother.” Gen 45:5

There are many stories about the late Pope John XXIII, and some of them are true. Asked once how many people worked in the Vatican, the roly-poly pope answered, “About half of them.” On another occasion, momentous for its significance, Pope John welcomed a visiting delegation of Jewish rabbis by quoting today’s Lectionary reading from Genesis 44-50, introducing himself to his visitors with the words “I am Joseph, your brother.”

The Patriarchal history of ancient Israel ends with the heart-rending story of the sons of Jacob coming down to Egypt during a time of famine to get grain stored by Joseph, who, many years earlier, had been sold into slavery by his brothers, jealous over the favoritism he received from their father. Once in Egypt, Joseph had found favor in the house of Pharaoh because of his gift for interpreting dreams and his administrative skills. Foreseeing the coming famine in a dream, Joseph had directed that huge storage facilities be built to hold surplus grain.

In scenes worthy of great opera, Joseph questions his brothers, who do not recognize him, about their beloved father, still grieving over the supposed death of his missing son. Joseph turns aside to weep, then reveals his identity to the trembling consternation of his brothers: “I am Joseph, your brother.”

The emotional overflow of the biblical moment — a rejected brother who turns out to be a benefactor — was matched by the exegetical complexity and deep grief contained in Pope John’s greeting to his Jewish brothers standing before him in his Vatican private quarters. Leave it to midrashic experts to decode the many layers of meaning in this welcome, but one interpretation might be that the pope saw the tragic separation of Christianity from its Jewish family roots as a temporary trial meant to be resolved. One of the great accomplishments of Vatican II was the declaration Nostra Aetate (“In Our Times”) on the relationship of the church to Judaism and other world religions.

And among the many metaphors and rich analogies to be found in the greeting, Pope John may also have intended the image of himself as a kind of exile living in Egypt awaiting this family restoration and the overcoming of historical and theological protocols that had imprisoned the western church from its full identity, obscured by its very success as skilled administrator of Christendom, but wounded to the soul by the loss of its Jewish self. In Nostra Aetate, St. Paul’s own anguish at the growing rift between Israel and the young church would provide the authoritative basis in Rom 9 for affirming the eternal validity of God’s first covenant with the Jews.

Pope John’s greeting, like his vestigial yarmulke in the form of the papal beanie, was a delicate but enduring bridge that would expand and lengthen to accommodate the critical dialogue between church and synagogue. The truth of this story is a matter of record, but it also lies in retelling it over and over again today as a reminder that what John the dreamer and visionary saw and affirmed over 50 years ago must still be realized.

— Pat Marrin, “I am Joseph, your brother,” National Catholic Reporter (7/9/2009)

Joseph Makes Himself Know to His Brothers (Genesis 45)

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’  “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.” Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him. When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace that Joseph’s brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.’ “You are also directed to tell them, ‘Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. ²⁰ Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.’” So the sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them carts, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he also gave them provisions for their journey. To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. And this is what he sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!” So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

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