M³ Doing the Right Thing Sucks

            As I said, Joseph is moral to a fault, so he rebukes Mrs. Poitphar’s advances. She, however, is not moral in this regard. After more advances and even grabbing onto his clothes to the point that he had to leave them behind just to shake her off, she takes things to the next step.

M³ Culturally Acceptable Practices?

            We pick back up with Joseph. He’s a slave, which is a surprisingly common fate in the ancient world. Not selling people is a surprisingly recent idea, once that most of the world held as perfectly acceptable for many thousands of years. But I digress.

            We’re not sure of how much time passed before Joseph was resold to Potiphar. Probably just the time it took to get to Egypt, which could be anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few years (hold the Moses lost in the desert jokes until we get there).

M³ Mouthy Little Brother

            Why did Joseph deserve his beating? Not once, but twice he tells them about dreams he has where he’s going to rule over them. Older siblings really have no patience with the youngest mouthing off like that. I know, I was on the receiving end of some beatings for being mouthy. Not mouthing off like Joseph, but I still got beat. The mouthing off is just gasoline on the fire of the coat, too.

M³ Jacob, The Next Generation

            Okay, getting back to it, Jacob has 12 kids at the time of Joseph’s birth. And Joseph is, well, I guess a typical snot-nosed youngest brother. Yes, I get to say this because I, too, am the youngest.

            Unlike with Isaac and Jacob, Jacob dotes on the youngest. He is the favorite. So much so that Jacob gives him a coat of many colors. Now, in our modern view, we’re unimpressed because we can tie-dye many colors in a single shirt with easy. Dying clothing in ancient times, though, was not only time-consuming, but very expensive. This is a symbol of wealth and favoritism is ever there was one.