Assignment 8 – Feb 6

It seems that Joseph plants the silver cup in Benjamin’s bag in order to test his brothers. Benjamin, the youngest of the eleven brothers, does not accompany them to Egypt the first time they come to purchase food, but when they meet with Joseph he demands they bring him or else he will keep another brother, Simeon, held hostage. With Benjamin having taken Joseph’s place as Jacob’s beloved, Jacob’s “surrender of Benjamin to these brothers is tantamount to sacrifice” (Anderson 206) as it somewhat parallels Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, his beloved. When the brothers are reunited, Joseph has the cup planted in Benjamin’s bag so that he can then take Benjamin back in his possession. In Genesis 44, Judah, the brother who suggested selling Joseph, the previous beloved, into slavery, now pleads for Benjamin’s release. Only afterwards does Joseph reveal his true identity to his brothers.

Joseph’s goal here is to restore a spirit of kinship among him and all his brothers that was fragmented after the brothers tried to get rid of him. Only after Judah steps in and pleads for Benjamin’s life out of both a love for Benjamin and a promise he made to his father Jacob to return with Benjamin is that sense of kinship restored. More importantly, this seals the status of the “beloved” son within the family because Judah and the other brothers finally recognize the importance of protecting the beloved son. Much like how Jacob restores his relationship with Esau with the acceptance of himself as the blessed son of Isaac, the same is done here with Joseph and his brothers with Joseph as the beloved son of Jacob.