Who is…
Joseph

Hebrew: יוֹסֵף —transliteration: Yoseph (occurs 213 times in Scripture) —meaning: he increases; he increases; remover or increaser; may he add

Greek: Ἰωσήφ —transliteration: Ióséph (occurs 36 times in Scripture —once as Ἰωσήχ —transliteration: Iōsēch, Luke 3:26)

also known as: Yosef, Yoseph, Ióséph and Josech

This is the name of 12 biblical men.

  1. Joseph, the great grandson of Abraham

    also known as: Joseph Zaphenath-paneah (Gen. 41:45)

    He was the elder of 2 sons of Jacob by Rachel (Genesis 30:23-24).

    When he was born, Rachel said, “God hath taken away [Hebrew: 'Asaph] my reproach.” “The Lord shall add [Hebrew: yoseph] to me another son” (Genesis 30:24).

    He was a child of probably 6 years of age when his father returned from Haran to Canaan and took up his residence in the old patriarchal town of Hebron. “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age,” and he “made him a long garment with sleeves” (Genesis 37:3, Revised King James Version marginal note), i.e., a garment long and full, such as was worn by the children of nobles. This seems to be the correct rendering of the words. The phrase, however, may also be rendered, “a coat of many pieces,” i.e., a patchwork of many small pieces of diverse colors.

    When he was about 17 years old Joseph incurred the jealous hatred of his brothers (Genesis 37:4). They “hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.” Their anger was increased when he told them his dreams (Genesis 37:11).

    Jacob desiring to hear tidings of his sons, who had gone to Shechem with their flocks, some 60 miles from Hebron, sent Joseph as his messenger to make inquiry regarding them. Joseph found that they had left Shechem for Dothan, so he followed them there.

    As soon as they saw him coming, they began to plot against him, and would have killed him had not Reuben interposed. They ultimately sold him to a company of Ishmaelite merchants for 20 pieces (shekels) of silver, 10 pieces less than the current value of a slave, for “they cared little what they had for him, if so be they were rid of him.”

    These merchants were going down with a varied assortment of merchandise to the Egyptian market, and thither they conveyed him, and ultimately sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an “officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard” (Genesis 37:36).

    “The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake,” and Potiphar made him overseer over his house.

    At length, a false charge having been brought against him by Potiphar’s adulterous wife, he was at once cast into the state prison (Gen. 39; Gen. 40), where he remained for at least two years.

    After a while the “chief of the cupbearers” and the “chief of the bakers” of Pharaoh's household were cast into the same prison (40:2). Each of these new prisoners dreamed a dream in the same night, which Joseph interpreted, the event occurring as he had said.

    This led to Joseph's being remembered subsequently by the chief butler when Pharaoh also dreamed. At his suggestion Joseph was brought from prison to interpret the king's dreams. Pharaoh was well pleased with Joseph's wisdom in interpreting his dreams, and with his counsel with reference to the events then predicted; and he set him over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 41:46), and gave him the name of Zaphnath-paaneah. He was married to Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On, and thus became a member of the priestly class. Joseph was now about thirty years of age.

    As Joseph had interpreted, 7 years of plenty came, during which he stored up great abundance of corn in granaries built for the purpose. These years were followed by 7 years of widespread famine, when “all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn” (Genesis 41:56-57; 47:13-14).

    Thus “Joseph gathered up all the money that was in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought.” Afterward, all the cattle and all the land, and at last the Egyptians themselves, became the property of Pharaoh.

    During this period of famine Joseph's brothers also came down to Egypt to buy corn. The history of his dealings with them, and of the manner in which he at length made himself known to them, is one of the most interesting narratives that can be read (Genesis 42-45). Joseph directed his brethren to return and bring Jacob and his family to the land of Egypt, saying, “I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land is yours.”

    Accordingly Jacob and his family, to the number of threescore and ten souls, together with “all that they had,” went down to Egypt. They were settled in the land of Goshen, where Joseph met his father, and “fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while” (Genesis 46:29).

    The excavations of Dr. Naville have shown the land of Goshen to be the Wady Tumilat, between Ismailia and Zagazig. In Goshen (Egyptian Qosem) they had pasture for their flocks, were near the Asiatic frontier of Egypt, and were out of the way of the Egyptian people. An inscription speaks of it as a district given up to the wandering shepherds of Asia.

    Jacob at length died, and in fulfilment of a promise which he had exacted, Joseph went up to Canaan to bury his father in “the field of Ephron the Hittite” (Genesis 47:29-31; 50:1-14). This was the last recorded act of Joseph, who again returned to Egypt.

    “The ‘Story of the Two Brothers,’ an Egyptian romance written for the son of the Pharaoh of the Oppression, contains an episode very similar to the Biblical account of Joseph's treatment by Potiphar's wife. Potiphar and Potipherah are the Egyptian Pa-tu-pa-Ra, ‘the gift of the sun-god.’ The name given to Joseph, Zaphnath-paaneah, is probably the Egyptian Zaf-nti-pa-ankh, ‘nourisher of the living one,’ i.e., of the Pharaoh. There are many instances in the inscriptions of foreigners in Egypt receiving Egyptian names, and rising to the highest offices of state.”

    By his wife Asenath, Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:50). Joseph having obtained a promise from his brethren that when the time should come that God would “bring them unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,” they would carry up his bones out of Egypt, at length died, at the age of 110 years; and “they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin” (Genesis 50:26). This promise was faithfully observed. Their descendants, long after, when the Exodus came, carried the body about with them during their forty years' wanderings, and at length buried it in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor (Joshua 24:32; compare Genesis 33:19). With the death of Joseph the patriarchal age of the history of Israel came to a close.

    The Pharaoh of Joseph's elevation was probably Apepi, or Apopis, the last of the Hyksos kings. Some, however, think that Joseph came to Egypt in the reign of Thothmes III (see PHARAOH), long after the expulsion of the Hyksos.

    The name Joseph denotes the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh in Deuteronomy 33:13-17; the kingdom of Israel in Ezek. 37:16; 37:19; Amos 5:6; and the whole covenant people of Israel in Psalm 81:4.

    Relatives of Joseph, son of Jacob

    Lineage of Joseph, son of Jacob

    AdamSethEnosCainanMahalaleelJaredEnochMethuselahLamechNoahShem → Arpachshad → ShelahEberPelegReuSerugNahorTerahAbrahamIsaac → Jacob → JOSEPH

    Tribes of Israel

    1. Asher
    2. Benjamin (beloved brother of Joseph)
    3. Dan
    4. Ephraim
    5. Gad
    6. Issachar
    7. Judah
    8. Levi
    9. Manasseh (son of Joseph)
    10. Naphtali
    11. Reuben
    12. Simeon
    13. Zebulun

    ALSO SEE

  2. Tribe of Joseph

    This consists of the descendants of Joseph.

    Revelation 7:4–8 mentions that people from the 12 tribes of Israel will be sealed by an angel of God. Godly descendants of Joseph through his son Ephraim (and not including those descended from his other son in the Tribe of Manasseh below) will be a unique part of the 144-thousand Israelite evangelists for Christ during The Great Tribulation.

    And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:

    of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed;
    of tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed; [presumably these will be Ephraimites]
    of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.

  3. Joseph, the father of a spy

    His son was sent as a spy by Moses into Canaan (Numbers 13:7).

    • About SPIES in the Bible
  4. Joseph, a Levite

    He was a son of Asaph, head of the first division of sacred musicians (1 Chronicles 25:2, 9)

  5. Joseph, a Levite and the head of a family of priests

    He was of the family of Shebeniah (Nehemiah 12:14).

  6. Joseph, a Jew with a pagan wife

    This Joseph was a Jew who had a heathen wife after the Exile (Ezra 10:42).

  7. Joseph, legal father of Jesus Christ by adoption

    More information

  8. Joseph, a brother of Jesus Christ

    Presumably, he was named after his father Joseph, the adoptive-father of Jesus the Christ (above).

    He is also called “Joses” in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55.

  9. Joseph, a son of Judah/Juda in the royal line of David

    He was the father of Semei (Semein) (Luke 3:26 KJV / Luke 3:26 NASB) and appears in the genealogy of Christ through His mother Mary.

    Mary, the mother of JesusHeliMatthatLeviMelchiJannaJosephMattathiah (Mattathias)AmosNahum → Esli → Naggai → MaathMattathiah (Mattathias) → Semei → Joseph (Yosef/Josech)Judah (Juda)Joannas (Joanna)RhesaZerubbabelShealtielNeriMelchiAddiCosamElmodamEr → Jose → Eliezer → Jorim → MatthatLeviSimeonJudahJoseph → Jonan → EliakimMelea → Menan (Menna) → Mattathah → NathanKING DAVID

  10. Joseph, a man descended from Zerubbabel in the royal line of David

    He is also named in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:24).

    MaryHeliMatthatLeviMelchiJanna (Jannai)JosephMattathiah (Mattathias)AmosNahum ← Esli ← Naggai ← MaathMattathiah (Mattathias)SemeiJoseph (Yosef/Josech)Judah (Juda, Joda) ← Joannas (Joanna)RhesaZerubbabelShealtielNeriMelchiAddiCosamElmodamErJose (Joshua, Jesus)Eliezer ← Jorim ← MatthatLeviSimeonJudahJoseph ← Jonan ← EliakimMelea ← Menan (Menna) ← Mattathah ← NathanKING DAVID

  11. Joseph, a converted Jew and native of Arimathea

    Arimathea is probably the Ramah of the Old Testament (1 Sam. 1:19, a man of wealth, and a member of the Sanhedrim (Matthew 27:57; Luke 23:50), an “honorable counsellor, who waited for the kingdom of God.” As soon as he heard the tidings of Christ's death, he “went in boldly” (literally “having summoned courage, he went”) “unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.”

    Pilate having ascertained from the centurion that the death had really taken place, granted Joseph's request, who immediately, having purchased fine linen (Mark 15:46), proceeded to Golgotha to take the body down from the cross.

    There, assisted by Nicodemus, he took down the body and wrapped it in the fine linen, sprinkling it with the myrrh and aloes which Nicodemus had brought (John 19:39), and then conveyed the body to the new tomb hewn by Joseph himself out of a rock in his garden hard by. There they laid it, in the presence of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Joses, and other women, and rolled a great stone to the entrance, and departed (Luke 23:53, 55).

    This was done in haste, “for the Sabbath was drawing on” (compare Isaiah 53:9).

  12. The Joseph that was called Barsabas

    Acts 1:23

    He is also called Justus. He was one of those who “companied with the apostles all the time that the Lord Jesus went out and in among them” (Acts 1:21), and was one of the candidates to take the place of Judas Iscariot.

  13. Joseph, a Jewish Christian

    This man was named Barnabas. Joseph was his given name (Acts 4:36).

    He was also known as Joses.

Article Version: July 17, 2021