Joseph does not reveal himself to
his brothers. In fact, he goes out of his way to make sure that the brothers
think he is 100% Egyptian. First, having lived there for at least 10 years, his
complexion is probably more like that of an Egyptian. There’s probably not much
change there, just a darkening of skin color, but, culturally, Joseph is very
Egyptian right now.
As the governor, he’s going to be
in Egyptian clothing and likely adopted Egyptian mannerisms both to make it
easier to do his job and because he’s been surrounded by it for so long. Included
in those mannerisms is likely the adoption of makeup. Makeup was not limited to
Egyptian women at that time, so Joseph would appear very different than his
brothers remember, and they remember an annoying kid, not the governor of
Egypt.
Adding on to the ruse, Joseph is
using an interpreter to speak to his brothers. Yes, he fully understands what
they’re saying to him, but they believe he only speaks Egyptian. Interestingly,
this is really the first time an interpreter is mentioned in the Bible. It’s
the first tangible evidence of a consequence to the Babel story told so long
ago. With all of the other journeys to different places and different lands,
there’s been no mention of any variation in language. Abraham even traveled to
Egypt himself, but there was no mention of language at the time.
Does this mean that Babel didn’t
have an effect until now? No. Not at all. In fact, languages were probably
different from town to town. Probably not radically different, but it doesn’t
take much to tell Brooklyn from Queens. This is is one of those things that is
not mentioned until there’s a reason to mention it, something that the ancient
Hebrews understood implicitly. Of course, people in different lands spoke
different languages, why would it be anything different?
This story actually needs to
mention it because readers would probably assume that Joseph would speak to his
brothers without an interpreter. He obviously speaks their language, so why
would he need one? The story needs to tell us that this is part of Joseph’s
plan to remain unknown to his brothers.
Joseph has obviously invested a lot
into this disguise, and it was necessary to go into this before we get into the
dastardly, villainous, soap opera plot he will unleash upon his brothers.