The Coat Of Many Colors

The Coat of Many Colors: An Exposition of Genesis 37:1-28

“The Coat of Many Colors” has become proverbial. Andrew Lloyd Weber made a musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” is loosely based on the life of Joseph. Dolly Parton made a song about the patchwork coat her poor mother made for her to keep her warm in the winter. Her classmates mocked her for it, but Dolly was proud of it. She called it her “Coat of Many Colors.” It is heartwarming to see that Dolly rose from such poverty to being a superstar. But this is Dolly’s story and not Joseph’s. I have all appreciation for Dolly in providing books for all the schoolchildren of her native Sevier County, Tennessee free of charge. As far as Lloyd Weber is concerned, his work is strictly a musical for entertainment purposes which distorts the life of Joseph. What we need to do is to go to the Bible to understand the significance of the coat.

When we look at the Lectionary text this week from Genesis 37, we notice that they cut off verses 5-11 from the story. This, too is a distortion. When we read the entire text, we realize that Coat of Many Colors is not meant to be the focus of the story. It is only a symbol that points to a greater reality, just like baptism points to the greater reality that one is a Christian. So what we need to do is to see what the sign represents.

The text says that Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob because he was the first son of his most beloved wife Rachel who had died in childbirth with Benjamin. He was actually the 11th son of Jacob. In the society of the day, the firstborn was to receive the double honor and blessing. This son was Rueben. Rueben had disgraced his father by lying with his father’s concubine (wife). But it was a long way down to Joseph. By giving him the coat of many colors, Jacob was marking Joseph out as the heir of the patriarchal blessing, a blessing which Jacob had tricked Isaac and Esau into giving to him. We see Jacob’s importance of the children ranked in Genesis 32 when in the face of Esau, he put the children of the concubines first in line to face the wrath of Esau, then the children of Leah, his first wife, then Joseph and Rachel. Such an arrangement was bound to cause much distress in the family. And it did.

The text says that the sons of the concubines were working out in the field and were doing wrong. We don’t know what wrong they were doing, but Joseph felt bound to report this to Jacob his father. Joseph was held in high esteem, whereas the sons of the concubines were of low value to Jacob. So it was more than the fact that Joseph snitched on them. This would have been bad enough. They were even more enraged by the evident fact that their father played favorites.

In the section left out by the Lectionary, we get additional information which is equally important in explaining the rage of Joseph’s brothers. Joseph had two dreams. Dreams were seen as omens from God, and it shall prove out in this story to be true. Not only was Joseph favored by Jacob. Now he seemed to be in Yahweh’s favor as well. The two dreams emphasize the certainty of what was going to happen. They were prophetic. We notice here that Pharaoh had two dreams with one common thread. In the first dream, eleven sheaves of wheat bowed before the sheaf of Joseph. In the second dream, Jacob and Leah were included in doing obeisance before Joseph. Since when does a father bow before his sun. This would be seen as utterly shocking in that day, and does not sound good even today. Leah would also bow. This obviously enraged Leah’s children and added their rage to the sons of the concubine. It is to be noted that Jacob, who was surprised, did not seem to be enraged, even though he should have been the most offended of all. It says that he observed the saying. He saw the hand of Yahweh in this.

The eleven brothers who felt personally felt offended, and were offended also by what they thought was the dishonoring of their father and their mothers. Benjamin, who was numbered among the eleven and was actually Joseph’s only full brother was probably too young to have much of a role in the plot. There is an irony here when we compare this to Jesus’ disciples. He had twelve disciples, and one was a traitor. Jacob had twelve sons, and eleven were traitors. When we look at the word “traitor” it comes from the word “trader.” Jesus would be traded to the Jews for thirty pieces of silver, and Joseph would be traded to the Ishmaelites, the kin of Jacob, for twenty pieces of silver and sold to Potiphar in Egypt.