Who is…
Joseph

also known as: Yosef, Yoseph, Ióséph and Josech

Hebrew: יוֹסֵף —transliteration: Yoseph (occurs 213 times in Scripture) —meaning: he increases; may he add; increaser

Greek: Ἰωσήφ —transliteration: Ióséph (occurs 36 times in Scripture —once as Ἰωσήχ —transliteration: Iōsēch, Luke 3:26)

This is the name of 12 biblical men and a tribe of Israel.

  1. Joseph, the son of Jacob and great-grandson of Abraham

    also known as: Joseph Zaphenath-paneah (Gen. 41:45)

    Joseph was the older of 2 sons of Jacob by Rachel (Genesis 30:23-24). He was born in Haran in northwest Mesopotamia, in what is now Turkey.

    When he was born, Rachel said, “God hath taken away [Hebrew: 'Asaph] my reproach.” “The Lord shall add [Hebrew: yoseph] to me another son” (Genesis 30:24).

    Joseph was a child of probably 6 years of age when his father returned from Haran to Canaan and lived in the old patriarchal town of Hebron.

    “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age,” and he “made him a long garment with sleeves” (Genesis 37:3, Revised King James Version marginal note), i.e., a garment long and full, such as was worn by the children of nobles.

    This seems to be the correct translation of the words. The phrase, however, may also be rendered, “a coat of many pieces,” i.e., a patchwork of many small pieces of diverse colors.

    When he was about 17 years old, Joseph incurred the jealous hatred of his brothers (Genesis 37:4). They “hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.” Their anger was increased when he told them his dreams (Genesis 37:11).

    Jacob, desiring to hear tidings of his sons who had gone to Shechem with their flocks, some 60 miles from Hebron, sent Joseph as his messenger to inquire about them. Joseph found that they had left Shechem for Dothan, so he followed them there.

    As soon as they saw him coming, they began to plot against him, and would have murdered him had not Reuben intervened. They ultimately sold him to a group of Ishmaelite merchants for 20 pieces (shekels) of silver, 10 pieces less than the current value of a slave, for “they cared little what they had for him, if so be they were rid of him.”

    These merchants were going down with a varied assortment of merchandise to the Egyptian market, and there they took Jospeh and ultimately sold him as a slave to Potiphar, an “officer of Pharaoh’s and a captain of the guard” (Genesis 37:36).

    “The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake,” and Potiphar made him overseer over his house.

    At length, a false charge was brought against him by Potiphar’s adulterous wife, he was immediately cast into the state prison (Gen. 39; Gen. 40), where he remained for at least 2 years.

    After awhile, the “chief of the cupbearers” and the “chief of the bakers” of Pharaoh’s household were cast into the same prison (40:2). Each of these new prisoners experienced a dream during the same night. With God’s help, Joseph interpreted each dream for them. His explanation proved to be completely accurate.

    This led to Joseph’s being subsequently remembered by the chief butler when Pharaoh also had strange and disturbing dreams. At his suggestion Joseph was brought from prison to interpret the king’s dreams, because no one else was equal to the task.

    Pharaoh was very pleased with Joseph’s wisdom in interpreting his dreams, and with his wise counsel about what to do about the coming events he predicted. Pharaoh set him over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 41:46), and gave him the name Zaphnath-paaneah.

    He was married to Asenath, the daughter of the pries of On, and thus became a member of the priestly class. Joseph was now about 30 years old.

    As Joseph had interpreted, 7 years of plenty came, during which he stored up great abundance of grain in numerous storage granaries he built for the purpose. These years were followed by 7 years of widespread famine, when people from many distant lands came into Egypt to Joseph to buy grain (Genesis 41:56-57; 47:13-14).

    Thus Joseph gathered up for Pharaoh a great amount of money and other forms of wealth from Egyptians, and from the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought. Eventually, all the cattle and all the land, and even the Egyptians themselves, became the property of Pharaoh.

    During this period of severe famine Joseph’s brothers also came down to Egypt to buy grain. The history of his dealings with them, and of the manner in which he eventually revealed his identity to them, is one of the most interesting narratives that can be read (Genesis 42-45).

    Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” And they came near. And he said, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. So now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. —Gen. 45:3-5

    Joseph directed his brothers to return and bring Jacob and his family to the land of Egypt, saying, “I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. …do not concern yourselves with your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.”

    As a result, Jacob and his family, numbering 70 souls, together with “all that they had,” went down to Egypt. They were settled in the land of Goshen, where Joseph met his father, and “he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a long time” (Genesis 46:29).

    The excavations of archaeologist Dr. Édouard Naville showed the land of Goshen to be the Wady Tumilat, between Ismailia and Zagazig. In Goshen (Egyptian: Qosem) they had pasture for their flocks, were near the Asiatic frontier of Egypt, and were out of the way of the Egyptian people.

    An inscription speaks of it as a district given up to the wandering shepherds of Asia.

    Jacob at length died, and in fulfilment of a promise which he had exacted, Joseph went up to Canaan to bury his father in “the field of Ephron the Hittite” (Genesis 47:29-31; 50:1-14).

    This was the last recorded act of Joseph, who again returned to Egypt.

    “The ‘Story of the Two Brothers,’ an Egyptian romance written for the son of the Pharaoh of the Oppression, contains an episode very similar to the Biblical account of Joseph's treatment by Potiphar's wife. Potiphar and Potipherah are the Egyptian Pa-tu-pa-Ra, ‘the gift of the sun-god.’ The name given to Joseph, Zaphnath-paaneah, is probably the Egyptian Zaf-nti-pa-ankh, ‘nourisher of the living one,’ i.e., of the Pharaoh. There are many instances in the inscriptions of foreigners in Egypt receiving Egyptian names, and rising to the highest offices of state.”

    By his wife Asenath, Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:50).

    Joseph asked his brothers to promise that when the time came that God would “bring them unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,” they would carry up his bones out of Egypt. He dies at the age of 110 years; and “they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin” (Genesis 50:26).

    This promise was faithfully accomplished by their descendants, long after, when the Exodus came. They carried Joseph’s body about with them during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and eventually buried it in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor (Joshua 24:32; compare Genesis 33:19).

    With the death of Joseph the patriarchal age of the history of Israel came to a close.

    In the Bible, the name Joseph a few different things.

    1. the 2 tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (Deuteronomy 33:13-17)
    2. the kingdom of Israel in Ezek. 37:16; 37:19 and Amos 5:6
    3. the whole covenant people of Israel in Psalm 81:4

    Relatives of Joseph, son of Jacob

    Lineage of Joseph, son of Jacob

    Adam → Seth → Enos → Cainan → Mahalaleel → Jared → Enoch → Methuselah → Lamech → Noah → Shem → Arpachshad → Shelah → Eber → Peleg → Reu → Serug → Nahor → Terah → Abraham → Isaac → Jacob → JOSEPH

    Tribes of Israel

    1. Asher
    2. Benjamin (beloved brother of Joseph)
    3. Dan
    4. Ephraim
    5. Gad
    6. Issachar
    7. Judah
    8. Levi
    9. Manasseh (son of Joseph)
    10. Naphtali
    11. Reuben
    12. Simeon
    13. Zebulun

    More information

  2. Tribe of Joseph

    This consists of the descendants of Joseph.

    Revelation 7:4–8 mentions that people from the 12 tribes of Israel will be sealed by an angel of God. Godly descendants of Joseph through his son Ephraim (and not including those descended from his other son in the Tribe of Manasseh below) will be a unique part of the 144-thousand Israelite evangelists for Christ during The Great Tribulation.

    And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:

    of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed;
    of tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed;
    of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed; [presumably these will be Ephraimites]
    of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.

  3. Joseph, the father of a spy

    His son was sent as a spy by Moses into Canaan (Numbers 13:7).

    • About SPIES in the Bible

  4. Joseph, a Levite

    He was a son of Asaph, head of the first division of sacred musicians (1 Chronicles 25:2, 9)

  5. Joseph, a Levite and the head of a family of priests

    He was of the family of Shebeniah (Nehemiah 12:14).

  6. Joseph, a Jew with a pagan wife

    This Joseph was a Jew who had a heathen wife after the Exile (Ezra 10:42). This was forbidden by God for His chosen people.

  7. Joseph, legal father of Jesus Christ by adoption

    More information

  8. Joseph, a brother of Jesus Christ

    also known as: Joses

    Presumably, he was named after his father Joseph, the adoptive-father of Jesus the Christ.

    He is also called “Joses” in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55.

  9. Joseph, a son of Judah/Juda in the royal line of David

    He was the father of Semei (Semein) (Luke 3:26 KJV / Luke 3:26 NASB) and appears in the genealogy of Christ through His mother Mary.

    Mary, the mother of Jesus → Heli → Matthat → Levi → Melchi → Janna → Joseph → Mattathiah (Mattathias) → Amos → Nahum → Esli → Naggai → Maath → Mattathiah (Mattathias) → Semei → Joseph (Yosef/Josech) → Judah (Juda) → Joannas (Joanna) → Rhesa → Zerubbabel → Shealtiel → Neri → Melchi → Addi → Cosam → Elmodam → Er → Jose → Eliezer → Jorim → Matthat → Levi → Simeon → Judah → Joseph → Jonan → Eliakim → Melea → Menan (Menna) → Mattathah → Nathan → KING DAVID

  10. Joseph, a man descended from Zerubbabel in the royal line of David

    He is also named in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:24).

    Mary ← Heli ← Matthat ← Levi ← Melchi ← Janna (Jannai) ← Joseph ← Mattathiah (Mattathias) ← Amos ← Nahum ← Esli ← Naggai ← Maath ← Mattathiah (Mattathias) ← Semei ← Joseph (Yosef/Josech) ← Judah (Juda, Joda) ← Joannas (Joanna) ← Rhesa ← Zerubbabel ← Shealtiel ← Neri ← Melchi ← Addi ← Cosam ← Elmodam ← Er ← Jose (Joshua, Jesus) ← Eliezer ← Jorim ← Matthat ← Levi ← Simeon ← Judah ← Joseph ← Jonan ← Eliakim ← Melea ← Menan (Menna) ← Mattathah ← Nathan ← KING DAVID

  11. Joseph of Arimathea

    He was a converted Jew and native of Arimathea

    Arimathea is probably the Ramah of the Old Testament (1 Sam. 1:19, a man of wealth, and a member of the Sanhedrim (Matthew 27:57; Luke 23:50), an “honorable counsellor, who waited for the kingdom of God.”

    As soon as he heard the tidings of Christ’s death, he “went in boldly” (literally “having summoned courage, he went”) “unto Pilate, and requested the body of Jesus.”

    Pilate having ascertained from the centurion that the death had really taken place, granted Joseph’s request, who immediately, having purchased fine linen (Mark 15:46), proceeded to Golgotha to take the body down from the cross.

    There, assisted by Nicodemus, he took down the body and wrapped it in the fine linen, sprinkling it with the myrrh and aloes which Nicodemus had brought (John 19:39), and then conveyed the body to the new tomb hewn by Joseph himself out of a rock in his garden hard by.

    There they laid it, in the presence of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Joses, and other women, and rolled a great stone to the entrance, and departed (Luke 23:53, 55).

    This was done in haste, “for the Sabbath was drawing on” (compare Isaiah 53:9).

  12. The Joseph that was called Barsabas

    also known as: Barsabas, Barsabbas and Justus

    So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias. —Acts 1:23 NASB

    He was one of those who accompanied the Apostles all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them (Acts 1:21), and was one of the candidates to take the place of Judas Iscariot.

  13. Joseph, a Jewish Christian

    also known as: Barnabas and Joses

    Joseph was his given name (Acts 4:36).

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Article Version: January 28, 2025