Hi all. This was an excellent episode, of what is already a powerful podcast. Like your guest, Phillip Ullman, I have long sensed that the answer to our current political, social, financial problems can be found in the first five books of the Bible. It was so helpful here to have some of my vague (but nonetheless strong) thoughts articulated so well by both guest and hosts.
The only part of the conversation I balked at was where the Pharaoh is blamed for the way the grain distribution became so corrupt. That didn't align with my memory of the story. I had to go back and read several versions of Genesis 41, and what I consistently read was that Pharaoh accepts Joseph’s proposal of overseers to store grain away, and gives Joseph the authority to carry out the plan. Pharaoh delegates, with trust, asking (of course) that he gets a decent share of everything. Joseph is thus acting alone, and with full authority of the empire. By the time we get to chapter 47, we find that Joseph has become a ruthless tyrant, and in chapter 50 we read that even his brothers (supposedly forgiven) are terrified of him.
“When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies and our lands: Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.” (KJV 47:18-19)
"And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him." (KJV 50:15)
What we miss when (to protect the purity of Israel) we seek to place the blame with the Egyptians is the opportunity to own the devil within—to recognise that each one of us is subject to wrong action, prey to the temptation of money and power. Joseph, the perfect son, God's chosen one, is human like the rest of us. When temptation presents he behaves wrongly, ultimately becoming a despot. Indeed it could be said that Joseph sets up the very conditions that allowed his own people to be enslaved generations later.
In Mark's gospel, the writer makes it very clear that the disciples are all flawed, all caught up in the system of power, so much that they cannot see the truth even though they claim to be following it. Mark makes it clear that the disciples are us, the readers. It's quite blatant. I think in the story of Joseph we have an early (and subtler) prototype for this flawed human. But we must not deny, or seek to blame the other. When we do that we become part of the system that I think we'd like to overcome.
Hi all. This was an excellent episode, of what is already a powerful podcast. Like your guest, Phillip Ullman, I have long sensed that the answer to our current political, social, financial problems can be found in the first five books of the Bible. It was so helpful here to have some of my vague (but nonetheless strong) thoughts articulated so well by both guest and hosts.
The only part of the conversation I balked at was where the Pharaoh is blamed for the way the grain distribution became so corrupt. That didn't align with my memory of the story. I had to go back and read several versions of Genesis 41, and what I consistently read was that Pharaoh accepts Joseph’s proposal of overseers to store grain away, and gives Joseph the authority to carry out the plan. Pharaoh delegates, with trust, asking (of course) that he gets a decent share of everything. Joseph is thus acting alone, and with full authority of the empire. By the time we get to chapter 47, we find that Joseph has become a ruthless tyrant, and in chapter 50 we read that even his brothers (supposedly forgiven) are terrified of him.
“When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies and our lands: Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.” (KJV 47:18-19)
"And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him." (KJV 50:15)
What we miss when (to protect the purity of Israel) we seek to place the blame with the Egyptians is the opportunity to own the devil within—to recognise that each one of us is subject to wrong action, prey to the temptation of money and power. Joseph, the perfect son, God's chosen one, is human like the rest of us. When temptation presents he behaves wrongly, ultimately becoming a despot. Indeed it could be said that Joseph sets up the very conditions that allowed his own people to be enslaved generations later.
In Mark's gospel, the writer makes it very clear that the disciples are all flawed, all caught up in the system of power, so much that they cannot see the truth even though they claim to be following it. Mark makes it clear that the disciples are us, the readers. It's quite blatant. I think in the story of Joseph we have an early (and subtler) prototype for this flawed human. But we must not deny, or seek to blame the other. When we do that we become part of the system that I think we'd like to overcome.
My own take on the two passages above are here: https://tobiasmayer.uk/kjv365/reflection?18 and here: https://tobiasmayer.uk/kjv365/reflection?20