Joseph the Tattletale?
Joseph is often described as a snotty little upstart, a gossip and tattletale who brings an evil report about his brothers back to his father. I think that misses the whole tone of the story. Joseph is the “foreman” of his brothers (at the age of 17!), a younger son elevated above his brothers. He is, as one of my students put it, “chief shepherd.”
If Joseph is a tattletale, we also miss just how crude and violent his brothers were. Think about their track record: They envy their father’s favorite, intend to kill him, sell him into slavery, and then lie to their father for years about it. This is not merely a sin against Joseph but a horrible sin against their father. Reuben, we discover later, sleeps with his father’s concubine, and Simeon and Levi slaughter the peaceable, circumcised people of Shechem.
This is a violent, deceptive, cruel bunch. Yet commentators spend their time criticizing Joseph ?
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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