The story of Joseph and his family is complex, it is full of conflicts, great stress while at the same time we can see how in the worst of situations forgiveness and hope is always present and living, should we choose to see. But most of all, if we choose to allow God walk along us during all days of our life. After reading the scripture and reflecting upon the Family Joseph, all eight concepts of Bowen’s Family Systems can be seen and applied, however sibling position is an important aspect of this story. As I read the story, I cannot help but see that the reason for Joseph’s inheritance is because Jacob loved Joseph’s mother, Rachel, more than his other wife or other women he laid with. He was in fact, deceived into marrying Leah. Additionally,
Joseph learns from his father, Elias’ faults in both his community leadership and personal life. Joseph is a more powerful leader as well as a family member because of this. At the beginning of the novel, Elias is introduced as the former leader of Waknuk the community they live in. He teaches and inspires Joseph to lead the community, but he is also a good example for Joseph to learn how to alter his leadership styles to be more effective. At the beginning of the novel, there is a jump back in time to explain Joseph's childhood:
Joseph was the first born child of Rachel and because he was born to Jacob in his old age, Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons and made Joseph a richly ornamented robe, therefore Joseph’s brothers hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph also had dreams that indicated that he would reign over his brothers and this caused more hatred toward him. His brothers were jealous of the love that he received from their father and because of his dreams. Consequently, Joseph’s brothers plotted to kill him but instead they sold him to some Ishmaelites that were passing through to Egypt.
Joseph is mentioned here as the husband of Mary, which makes Joseph legally the father of Jesus. It is not the flesh, nor the blood that makes Jesus legally heir and gives Him the right to
Rachael, Joseph's mother wanted a child and was jealous in this case of her sister, unlike Hannah who was envious of her husbands second wive. Rachael told Jacob[her husband] to give her children or she will die.[Gen 30:1] Rachael was Jacob's favorite wife. Rachael even went to far as having a surrogate so that she could have a child with Jacob. In the end God blesses her with a child from Jacob and his name is Joseph, Jacob's favorite son. [Genesis 30:22-24]
Social family model theory sets presumption behaviors on how different family members would react to differently to similar traumatic circumstances. Bowen family system theory is one of the social family model of human behavior asserting that a family is an emotional unit and that members are connected emotionally. Therefore, a social family theory explains why it is easier to single out family members in the society. The connectedness of the family members makes the family to interdependent and change in one's behavior will explain the reaction of the rest of the family (Barrett, 2015). In some countries where there are different clans and cultures, people can be easily identified by their behavior.
Here rests the importance of the genealogies; If Jesus were biological descendant of Joseph, He could not sit in the throne of David, “his father” according to the prophecy in Jeremiah 23.5 “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” (my
Moral Stance. Joseph is considered to be a part of one of the earliest generations of the Jewish people. Faith plays a large part in his life. He also holds a strong value towards family. After years apart from his brothers and father they are able to reunite again in Egypt. Joseph values the ability to be useful. His ability to interpret dreams helps him be useful to the Pharaoh, which then allows him to be useful for the Egyptian people.
While Joseph lived in Egypt, God intervened and gave Joseph the gift of dream interpretation. Joseph interpreted for Pharaoh his dream and Pharaoh made Joseph the ruler over Egypt. At that time, the famine that Joseph had foretold was too severe and it lead the brother of Joseph came down to Egypt to buy food. After many twisted events, ‘Joseph made himself known to his brothers’ (Genesis 45:1) and he confessed in Genesis 45:7 that God brought him into the dreadful life of slavery so that through him God provided a new life by ‘preserve a remnant on earth’ and ‘keep alive many survivors.’
In doing my studies on family/systemic counselling, I found Bowen’s theory intriguing. In my work and everyday life, I witness triangulation on a daily basis, from my own experience, without the awareness from this module, I was often entwined in triangulation. As a trainee therapist I decided to write my paper on Bowenian Therapy in order to gain a better understanding and develop my awareness.
Joseph is mentioned here as the husband of Mary, which makes Joseph legally the father of Jesus. It is not the flesh, nor the blood that makes Jesus legally heir and gives Him the right to
The Catholic tradition of the “brothers and sisters of Jesus” is that they are relatives like cousins but not actual siblings and that their mother was actually a disciple of Jesus, meaning Joseph would have to be divorced for this to work, a rather uncomfortable though in Catholic theology. Acceptance of Bauckham’s proposal from a Catholic perspective all of
The story of Joseph starts well before he was born, and the setting of things that would happen to him later in life really began when his father Jacob met his mother. The Bible tells us that Jacob took to Rachel, Joseph’s mother, immediately. In Genesis 29:10-11 (ESV), it says “Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his
If you don’t know Joseph’s story, Joseph’s father favored him the most out of his other 10 brothers at the time. Joseph was a dream interpreter. After Joseph dreamt about his brothers bowing down to him, they sold Joseph into slavery out of jealousy, and told Joseph’s father he was eaten by animals.
I do not doubt that Joseph didn’t love his family, he just was not very good at showing his love. He missed a big part of his kids growing up, 7 years is a long time. He tried to be
Joseph’s teachers saw how amazing he would be in math. He wanted to join the army, before finding out his passion for math of course. Although Joseph couldn’t join the army do to his father, who had been a “meretailor”. Joseph then tried becoming a priest. Joseph didn’t get to take his vows, mainly because he had fifteen children, three from his very first wife, and the rest from his second. That is pretty crazy from losing both your parents in two years, then having so many children. On top of that Joseph was going in and out of jail, while trying to begin his career. Joseph didn’t not only go through his life without any parents but he also lived through the French revolution. He also tried leaving his job helping the police in a secret