New Views on the Biblical Joseph

The best known example of early dream interpretation is found in the Bible in the story of Joseph. Joseph was one of a large number of children of Jacob, the third of the Patriarchs, or early ancestors of the Jewish people. In his younger days, Joseph himself had dreams, recounted in the Biblical narrative, that were suggestive of significant changes that would occur in the relationship of Joseph to the rest of his family. This provoked resentment among his brothers, who decided to get rid of him. Stopping short of murder, they put him in a situation that resulted in Joseph's being taken into slavery in Egypt. For a while, Joseph's personal talents and charm led to a rise in his status in servitude, but the “anger of a woman scorned” was turned against him and he was put into prison.

While in prison, he became renowned as a dream interpreter, which in turn led to his being appointed second-in-command in the land of Egypt after he had interpreted dreams of the ruler, Pharaoh, to Pharaoh's satisfaction. After Joseph's elevation to distinction in Egypt, the events foreshadowed in the dreams he had interpreted took place, and one of the consequences of these events was the emigration to Egypt of Joseph and Jacob's family-what was to be the nucleus of the developing Jewish nation.

There are two pairs of dreams interpreted by Joseph. The first pair are two short, similar dreams, dreamed by different people, and their differences led to appropriate different interpretations by Joseph. The third interpretation is of the second pair of dreams, which were dreamed by the same person, in the same night, and were interpreted as being one dream.

Freud made a brief reference to Joseph's dream interpretation in The Interpretation of Dreams, suggesting that it was based on symbolism and dismissing this approach as being inadequate. However, there seems to be evidence that Freud did not have the Hebrew knowledge to explore and understand fully the important sources and reference materia