Genesis - Part 2

Joseph is a huge character in the Genesis narrative. His story covers twelve chapters. Fairly significant, if you ask me. And many know the story of Joseph, most famously told in the musical “Joseph and the Technical Dreamcoat,” of how he was given a multicolored coat because he was Jacob’s favorite son; of how he was sold by his brothers into slavery and, after further mistreatment, is raised to second-in-command in Egypt.

However, what most intrigued me was the fact that “Israel [Jacob] loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age” (37:3). This phrase “because he was the son of his old age” didn’t only apply to Joseph though. Benjamin, Joseph’s younger brother, was also born in Jacob’s old age, even older age than Joseph since Benjamin was the younger. So this makes me wonder, why does Jacob seem to ignore Benjamin, at least until Joseph disappears? There is nothing really different between the boys. Both are the son of Jacob’s favorite wife; both were born in Jacob’s old age. What is it then that would cause their father to favor Joseph over Benjamin?

In my judgment, I think it boils down to Joseph was the elder. He was Rachel’s first born, the first to come from the wife for whom Jacob had worked fourteen years. Also, in a sense, Benjamin stole Rachel from Jacob since she died giving him life. I know if I were Jacob, I could, potentially, hold a sort of grudge against the son for whom my wife died. Thus, if Jacob were to have the same kind of reasoning, he would prefer Joseph to Benjamin. Poor brother, both of them.