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Joseph the Dream Interpreter By David Epstein June 25, 2001
We witness the first examples of Joseph’s dream interpretation abilities
in Chapter 39. The setting is the Pharaoh’s prison where Joseph was imprisoned.
The Pharaoh’s disgraced officers had dreams that were troubling to them.
They are ‘sad’ because there is nobody to interpret their dreams. Oh, the
poor saps!
Joseph replies in verse 8, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” This
is a profound response. Nevertheless, Joseph listens to their dreams and gives
his interpretation. Two possible viewpoints emerge with respect to his response:
Let’s return to the dreams! The chief butler (one of the officers) has
a dream where he sees a vine with three branches. They blossomed with clusters
of grapes. The butler takes the grapes and presses them into Pharaoh’s cup,
then gives the cup to the Pharaoh. Joseph then gives his interpretation:
the three branches represent three separate days. Within three days, the
Pharaoh will restore the butler to his former office. The butler will give
the Pharaoh his cup.
In verses 14-15, Joseph pleads with the butler to put in a kind word to
the Pharaoh for him. He desperately wants to get out of prison. This is a
natural response; yet notice that Joseph did not withhold the dream interpretation
until he received an assurance from the butler that he would persuade the
Pharaoh to release him from incarceration. This shows yet another dimension
of his innate virtuosity.
The dream interpretation itself is pretty astute. Notice the butler doesn’t
differentiate between the three branches. If he did, then perhaps it could
have been interpreted as three separate pathways to choose from. Joseph
is very perceptive to instead focus upon the ‘blossoming’ aspect of the
dream
. The three branches are taken as a totality (
this type of insightfulness is at the core of problem solving)
. It is the offspring of those branches, the grapes, which represent his
return to his former prestige.
The chief baker also had a dream. He dreamt that there were three baskets
of white bread stacked atop his head. The top basket contained baked food
for the Pharaoh, but birds ate from it. Once again, Joseph is not tempted
by a popular interpretation, for one could easily visualize the three-stacked
baskets as a representation of some type of hierarchy, with the highest
element being a "source of nourishment".
Instead, Joseph again insightfully considers the three elements - the baskets
- as a totality, the passage of three days! He insists
that the dream represents the baker’s death. The Pharaoh will hang him
from a tree and the birds shall eat his flesh!
In verses 22-23 of Chapter 40, we see that Joseph’s dream interpretations
are in fact prophecies. In three days, the butler is restored back to his
office of chief butler, and the baker is hanged. The only aspect of this
story that wasn’t realized is the butler’s neglect, for he did not remember
to advocate for Joseph’s release. This implies that Joseph has the ability
to predict other people’s fates as they appear in their own dreams, but
not about his own fate as he actually verbalized it in reality.
The setting then shifts to the bank of a river where the Pharaoh has a
dream involving the number seven. First, he dreams of seven kine (cows?)
that came out of the river. Seven other kine emerged from the river. Even
though they were “ill-favored”, they devoured the well-favored & fat
kine. The Pharaoh had a second dream where he dreamt that seven ears of
good corn grew on a stalk. Seven thin ears sprung up as well, from the Eastern
winds, and devoured the good ears of corn. When the Pharaoh awoke, he summoned
all of the magicians of Egypt, but none could interpret his dreams.
Well, the chief butler who neglected to return the favor to Joseph comes
to the ‘rescue’. He tells the Pharaoh about Joseph’s clairvoyance. At that
point, he summons Joseph to appear before him. The Pharaoh tells him that
he’s heard of his abilities, but Joseph claims that he is merely the vehicle
for God’s voice. (Chapter 41, verse 16: And Joseph answered Pharaoh: “It
is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”). So the Pharaoh
explains his dreams to Joseph.
Joseph replies that the two dreams are really one. He claims that it’s
a declaration of God’s plan for the Pharaoh. The seven good kine and ears
represent seven years of plentitude. The seven bad kine and ears that subsequently
emerged also represent seven years, but seven years of famine. Here again,
the dream entities symbolize the passage of time. Joseph explains that the
same dream occurs twice as a sign to the Pharaoh that the plentitude will
never be realized because the famine will be very severe. He encourages the
Pharaoh to send out a wise man throughout the land of Egypt, appoint overseers
of the land, collect food grown & harvested during the seven good years
(about a fifth of the food), and store it in the cities for use during the
seven years of famine.
The Pharaoh took Joseph’s words to heart. In fact, he made Joseph the overseer!
He gives him a “signet ring”, clothed him in fine linen, and placed
a gold chain around his neck. Then he sends him off in a chariot, gives
him the name Zaphenathpaneah, and hand picks a wife for him.
I vaguely remember reading about a similar practice of the Egyptians. Apparently,
they stored some of the food harvested from the fields for times when the
banks of the Nile overflowed and flooded the plains. If so, then Joseph’s
“dream interpretation” could have been stolen from an actual Egyptian practice.
In fact, all of Joseph’s interpretations could easily have been superimposed
folklore to present a different picture of reality. What if the story of
Joseph is told by a third party with a vested interest to amplify Joseph’s
abilities? That would be very easy to perform, particularly after the fact.
Hence, it would factually be nothing more that the recording of historical
realities with the alleged “dream interpretations” grafted onto the story.
Nevertheless, without any evidence to support this hypothesis, it is mere
cynical speculation. I’ll stay clear of that for now.
I’ll conclude this piece with a nod to Joseph the prognosticator, for indeed
he did predict the famine that was to come to Egypt. And indeed he did collect
food throughout the land to store for that “rainy famine day”! I’ll leave
it for another day to discuss the dynamics of that seven-year period.
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