#Genesis 46:1-7
Jacob leaves for Egypt
This is another sort of funnel point for the sources in the canonical text. A million different things can happen before and after this, but in every source Jacob and his family have to leave Canaan to settle in Egypt.
Jacob leaves for Egypt
This is another sort of funnel point for the sources in the canonical text. A million different things can happen before and after this, but in every source Jacob and his family have to leave Canaan to settle in Egypt.
Luckily we know one thing about one of the versions of this moment, which is that in J Joseph has sent his brothers back for Jacob. Which means that 46:1, in which Jacob just starts off by himself, ain’t J.
The divine speech Jacob receives (in a night vision) also doesn’t look like the speech you’d make to someone who is accompanied by his sons and who knows that Joseph has sent for him.
Joseph’s brothers do show up for Jacob and put him in the very wagons that Pharaoh had sent for him, just as expected - but canonically they find Jacob in Beersheba, where he has just traveled on his way south by himself, which doesn’t make much sense.
In short, the J story only picks up after the first couple of words of 46:5, and everything before that is E. And, it turns out, everything after it, in 46:6-7, is P.
They took all their livestock and their wealth down to Egypt? That doesn’t sound like people who are suffering so much from a famine, and who are down to their last bits of food. And the language of Jacob bringing all his children is backward - his sons are bringing him in J.
It looks for all the world like in these verses Jacob and his family are simply going to Egypt - not being forced there by famine, not being brought there by Joseph - just going. It’s as if in P *whispers* there is no famine.
And these P verses clearly set us up for the list of Jacob’s offspring that follows, which is decidedly P. As we’ll see tomorrow.
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