Joseph and his Brothers

So many of the stories in the Ancestor Period of Genesis are ripe with family dysfunction, particularly concerning strife among brothers. Much of it can be traced back to the parenting skills of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and the stories' motif of playing favorites. Sarah, primarily, and her husband Abraham favored Isaac over Ishmael; Isaac was partial to his son Esau while his wife Rebekah much preferred Esau's brother Jacob; and following the pattern, Jacob's favorite son was Joseph over his daughters and eleven other sons. The sons grew to hate Joseph, especially after their father gave him a fancy coat which had either long sleeves or many colors, depending on which translation you favor over the others. (There's that pattern again!) Joseph's brothers finally decided to solve the Joseph problem either by killing him, throwing him into a pit, or selling him as a slave to the Ishmaelites. They did throw him into a pit for a while, but thought better of it and finally opted to enslave him for a profit. An irony of the story is that he is sold to the descendants of Ishmael, the first rejected ancestral son to be tossed out into the desert. (Image from PowerPoint: Birth of a Nation; Joseph, Part 1)