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Notes on video lecture:
The Symbolic of Joseph's Dreams as Service Not Power
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on February 16, 2016 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
Egyptians, power, slavery, grain, disparity, domination, lack, Bonhoeffer, filled, prison, Nazi, means, pass, privy, correct, shares, God, knee, die, two, Kimhe, mistake, own, magicians, obeisance, Behold, election, Pharaoh
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Joseph is called forward to help                with his dreams
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Pharaoh summons his court                    to discern what they meant
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they were of no help
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the cup holder told Pharaoh of the success he had had with Joseph's interpretations while he was in             
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"A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard, and when we told him he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. And as he interpreted to us, so it came to         ." - Genesis 41:12-13
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Pharaoh therefore had Joseph summoned to the royal court
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"I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it, and I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it." - Genesis 41:15
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Joseph insists that his        talents are of no value
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"It is not in me,        will give Pharaoh a favorable answer." - Genesis 41:16
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God is the only one who can lay open what a dream           
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Joseph's first dream
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"Hear this dream which I have dreamed.             , we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered round it, and bowed down to my sheaf."
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what is striking about this scene is what is missing
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nowhere is God invoked as the source of the dream's meaning
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nowhere in this text does Joseph provide any interpretation
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the only interpretation we are            to in this chapter are the words of the brothers
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"Are you indeed to reign over us and have dominion over us?"
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this lack of interpretation on the part of Joseph contrasts with his interpretations for the Pharaoh
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it can't be the case that their interpretation is going to be the                one
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what do the early dreams of Joseph mean?
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David            (Rabbi in 12-13th centuries)
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the theme of the dream is           
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the means by which Joseph was going to rise to           
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the first time the brothers will see Joseph after he is sold into                is when they come down to buy grain
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the brothers have empty sacks hoping that these sacks will be              by the man they meet
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while Joseph has an upright stack beside him
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he draws from this full sack in order to fill the brothers' empty sacks
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the details almost fit exactly to his dream
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the symbolic is not so much the                    of the brothers, but the over abundance of Joseph's sheaves
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Joseph              with his brothers
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the emphasis is not on power, i.e. what Joseph has and what the brothers         
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but that the brothers have no grain that Joseph is going to provide
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Joseph refuses what John Milton called the "         tribute"
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the dream isn't about power but about service
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he's been sent ahead to Egypt to interpret Pharaoh's dreams
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to provide during these years of famine not only for the                   
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but also for his family
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now he takes the resources of his full and overflowing sack and fills the sacks of his brothers
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we read the first dreams as a symbol of power and                     
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the difficulty of the theological doctrine of chosenness and                 
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the problematic derives from the                    between the frailty of the human ego and mysterious operations of the choosing Diety
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human nature is not constituted so as to facilitate the acceptance of chosenness
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the one chosen is sorely tempted to interpret his special status as a mandate for domination
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such is how Joseph's father and his brothers interpret Joseph's insensitive report of his        dreams
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we, too, as readers are pulled into this improper and incorrect reading
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in the end, we see the               : the tale about the sheaves was not about power, but about service
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yet all major players in story as well as we as readers failed to notice this
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when God chooses someone, he calls them to serve others
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Dietrich                      (1906-1945)
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German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-         dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church
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"When God calls a man, he bids him: come and       ."

Spelling Corrections:

obeisence ⇒ obeisance
Eponymous Ancestors in the Bible
The Story of Jacob and his Sons
The Biblical Motif of First Born Son
The Shepherd Motif
Joseph's Dreams
The Problematic of Chosenness: Samuel and Joseph
Joseph in the Pit: Descent and Ascent
The Three Descents and Ascents of Joseph
Change in the Non-Elect
Joseph's Prison Dreams
The Symbolic of Joseph's Dreams as Service Not Power
Judah Pleads to Joseph for Benjamin
Judah as Most Important Son of Jacob
The Concept of Salvator Mundi
Transition from Israel to Jesus
Elijah and the Restoration of Israel
Preparing for the Restoration
Historical Jesus and the Importance of Criteria
The Historical Jesus and the Criteria of Coherence
Jesus: Who Do You Say I Am?
Chosenness and Responsibility to Love and Service
Discipleship as Service to Others
The Travel Narrative: Humanity's Blindness
Who was Responsible for the Death of Jesus
Rembrandt's Depictions of the Trial of Jesus