Abraham was converted to the
covenant via ritual. It was a bargain to be struck, but his offspring were born
into it, as were Isaac’s offspring, and Jacob’s. The general rule has been that
a wife must be part of the covenant in order to give birth to children who are in
the covenant. Since Asenath is not part of the covenant, they must be brought
in via ritual.
Doubtless Joseph could have
performed this ritual himself. So why did Jacob adopt Joseph’s sons? We come
back to the birthright for this. If there’s a revenge against Joseph’s
brothers, it’s served up vicariously through this adoption.
Joseph is set for life. As governor
of Egypt, he already has more wealth than Jacob. He actually has no need of any
kind of inheritance. While the birthright is often conceived of in terms of
material inheritance, there is also the future to consider. Jacob’s sons will
become the patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. Joseph will not specifically be
named as a tribe patriarch, instead, each of his sons will receive that honor.
Together they constitute the House of Joseph, but they individually receive the
same honor as all of Jacob’s other sons.
In essence, Joseph receives a
double share of the birthright through his sons, as each receives a share on
par with the other brothers (except Reuben, who gets the original birthright
share).
This is a clever way to circumvent
the rules (yet again), but maintains the original intended structure of the
birthright. It’s fascinating to see that with four generations of children, the
youngest receives more benefit than the eldest, and it’s not finished, yet.
Jacob has one more trick to play.