Глава 40

Joseph in prison with two of Pharaoh's courtiers Gen.40:1. After this, the butler of the king of Egypt and the baker offended their master, the king of Egypt. Heb. text of article 1 does not call the cupbearer and baker the main or commanders, but this increase is with LXX and Glory. in Art. 1 is quite accurate, since below (vv. 2, 7-9) the nobles who offended Pharaoh are more than once called in the Hebrew text - the chief of the butlers and the chief of the bakers. These positions at the eastern royal courts were considered and were very important; the entire power of the eastern despots relied on many courtiers who combined personal service to the tsar with state service. The biblical text does not say what the guilt of Pharaoh’s courtiers was. Bearing in mind the arbitrariness of the eastern despots, who punished their servants even for insignificant offenses, R. Yarhi believed that a fly could have gotten into the cupbearer’s cup; a speck, coal, etc. could have been in the bread served to the pharaoh by the baker. Jonathan's Targum, on the contrary, more likely suggests the suspicion of both nobles of the intention to poison the king; The butler was acquitted of this accusation, but the baker was not. Gen.40:2–4. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, with the chief butler and with the chief baker, and he gave them into custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, in the place where Joseph was imprisoned. The captain of the guard assigned Joseph to them, and he served them. And they remained in custody for some time. The courtiers who had incurred the wrath of Pharaoh were sent by the king, for lack of deliberate state prisons in ancient Egypt (as in the whole East, even in modern times), to a prison at the house of Potiphar, who now has the opportunity to soften the fate of not only these nobles, but also Joseph, who was previously imprisoned here: he assigns him to the nobles for their personal services. The Hebrew janim, days, often means a year (1 Sam. 1:3, 7, 2:19), but here (v. 4) the word probably means an indefinite and perhaps small number of days. Gen.40:5–8. One day, the cupbearer and baker of the king of Egypt, imprisoned in prison, had dreams, each with his own dream, both on the same night, each with a special meaning. And Joseph came to them in the morning and saw them, and behold, they were perplexed. And he asked Pharaoh's officials, who were with him in his master's house under guard, saying: Why do you have sad faces today? They said to him: We have dreamed dreams; and there is no one to interpret them. Joseph said to them: Are not interpretations from God? tell me. These verses form the introduction to the retelling and interpretation of the dreams of both courtiers. In a state of anxiety for their lives, completely dependent on the whim and arbitrariness of the despot-pharaoh, both of his courtiers, without a doubt, expected an indication from above on their fate, perhaps in a dream, since the Egyptians, according to Herodotus (2 books, 83), made fortune-telling and foreknowledge of the future from the deity and considered dreams one of the means of revealing the will of the deity. Midrash (Beresch. r. Par. 88, s. 432), based on the construction of the sentence of Art. 5, says that each nobleman saw his own dream and together the interpretation of the dream of his comrade, which supposedly explains what, according to Art. 16, the baker found that Joseph had well interpreted the cupbearer’s dream. But, not to mention the unnaturalness of such an assumption, Art. directly speaks against it. 8, according to which the interpretation of dreams was not given to any of the nobles of Pharaoh. This has 8 tbsp. the nobles of Pharaoh and Joseph express divergent views on the source of dream interpretation: the former are ready to see it in scientific wisdom and school study, the latter points to God as the only source of all wisdom and enlightenment of man, which inspires them to attribute their subsequent dream interpretation solely to God. Interpretation of the cupbearer's dream Gen.40:9. And the chief butler told Joseph his dream, and said to him: I dreamed, behold, a vine was before me; Herodotus denies the existence and culture of the grapevine in Egypt (2 books, 77) and says that instead of wine, the Egyptians drink beer made from barley. This testimony of Herodotus was one of the reasons for biblical critics to push back the compilation of the book. Genesis, which tells in the chapter under consideration (cf. Num. 20:5; Ps. 77:47, 104:33) about vineyards and grape wine in Egypt, to a later time. But Herodotus’ testimony is very vague, in other places in his history he speaks of the use of grape wine (οῖνος ἀμπελίνος) by priests and during sacrifices (2 books, 37.39), and even, like Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pliny, identifies Osiris with Dionysus-Bacchus (2 books, 42,48,144). This is probably why, in the indicated place, Herodotus speaks only about the comparatively less development of winemaking in Egypt, in comparison with Greece. Even if we were to understand this evidence in a strict sense, then even then the conclusion from the time of Herodotus to the time of Joseph would be untenable: the 13 centuries separating the father of history from the biblical patriarch could significantly change the physiognomy of Egypt (now vineyards in Egypt do not flourish due to the prohibition of wine by Islam). But the science of Egyptology now has indisputable evidence in favor of the Bible and against Herodotus: in the vicinity of Beni-Ghassan, Thebes and the great pyramids, numerous depictions of paintings of both vineyards and winemaking were found on monuments. Both undoubtedly go back to before Joseph. Gen.40:10–13. there are three branches on the vine; it developed, color appeared on it, berries grew and ripened on it; and Pharaoh's cup is in my hand; I took the berries, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said to him: This is its interpretation: three branches are three days; in three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and bring you back to your place, Having listened to the cupbearer’s vivid and visual depiction of a dream (verses 10–11), in which he was the executor of his office, Joseph gives an interpretation of the dream (12–13): after 3 days, Pharaoh will “raise up the head” of the cupbearer, that is, remembering his merits and finding him innocent, he will restore him to his former dignity (cf. 2 Kings 25:27). Gen.40:14–15. and remember me when it is good for you, and do me a good deed, and mention me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house, for I am stolen from the land of the Hebrews; and also here he did nothing to throw me into prison. To his interpretation, in the truth of which Joseph is obviously completely convinced, Joseph adds a request to the cupbearer - upon his release, to remind Pharaoh and facilitate his release from prison, and, briefly and in general terms, conveying his story, Joseph says that just as he was sold (“stolen” - the act of Joseph’s brothers was robbery) from the “land of the Jews” (the territory occupied by the descendants of Abraham in Canaan) innocently, so Egypt ended up in prison without any crime. The butler's oblivion of this request of Joseph (v. 23) was his last ordeal. Interpretation of a baker's dream Gen.40:16–17. The chief baker saw that he had interpreted it well, and said to Joseph: I also dreamed: behold, on my head were three lattice baskets; in the upper basket was all the food of Pharaoh, the baker's wares, and the birds [of the air] pecked it out of the basket on my head. Having heard what was favorable for a comrade (heb. tob here - happy, favorable, inaccurately LXX: ὀρθῶς, Vulg.: prudenter; slav.: “directly” - the baker could not be convinced of the correctness of the interpretation, which could not yet be verified by anything), the baker tells Joseph his dream, which also has similarities with the cupbearer’s dream - carrying out official duties, number 3 (“lattice baskets,” v. 16; this is most likely how the Hebrew should be rendered sallejchori, and not “bread baskets,” as in the LXX, Vulg. and other translations). Carrying baskets on the head is completely in the spirit of ancient Egyptian everyday customs: according to Herodotus (2 books, 38), Egyptian men carry weights on their heads, women – on their shoulders. Gen.40:18–19. And Joseph answered and said [to him], “This is the interpretation of it: three baskets are three days; After three days Pharaoh will take off your head and hang you on a tree, and the birds [of heaven] will eat your flesh from you. In his interpretation of the second dream, Joseph draws attention to the fact that the baker, in carrying out his official duty, encountered an obstacle, damage from birds, and, at the inspiration of God, interprets the last dream in an unfavorable sense: after 3 days, Pharaoh will behead (in Hebrew “he will lift up his head,” as in v. 13, but in the exact opposite sense) this nobleman and the birds will devour his very corpse. Fulfillment of Joseph's interpretation of dreams Gen.40:20–22. On the third day, Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and remembered the chief cupbearer and the chief baker among his servants; and he returned the chief cupbearer to his former place, and he put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, and he hanged the chief baker [on a tree], as Joseph interpreted to them. Ancient kings and other noble people always celebrated their birthdays with feasts and so on; Herodotus (1 book, 133) testifies to this about the Persian kings; Wed Gospel story about Herod (Matthew 14:6–7). The Egyptian kings' birthday was also the day of declaring amnesty for various criminals; in this case, remembering both imprisoned nobles, Pharaoh gives amnesty, restoration to his former dignity, only to the cupbearer, according to Joseph’s explanation of his dream (v. 21); the baker, according to the opposite explanation of Joseph, was executed (this execution coincided with the Pharaoh’s birthday coincided by chance and was not a permanent fixture of that day). Gen.40:23. And the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Psychologically, it is quite understandable for the noble and now quite happy nobleman to forget the poor slave Joseph, his services and requests. In this circumstance, the Talmudists saw divine punishment for Joseph for his sin of relying on man, instead of relying on God alone, and referred to Ps. 39:5. But the true higher pragmatism of the story of Joseph is undoubtedly better understood by St. John Chrysostom, saying: “Joseph had to wait (2 years) for a favorable time in order to emerge from prison with glory. If the cupbearer, having remembered him before Pharaoh’s dreams, had freed him from prison with his intercession, then his virtue would perhaps have remained unknown to many. And now the prudent and wise Lord, like a skilled artist, knowing how long the gold should remain in the fire and when it needs to be taken out of there, allows the cupbearer to forget about Joseph for two years, so that the time has come for Pharaoh’s dream, and at the demand of the very need, the righteous man becomes known throughout the entire kingdom of Pharaoh” (Demon. 63, p. 675). You might be interested in: