{"id":38660,"date":"2014-07-05T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=38660"},"modified":"2015-03-19T22:12:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T05:12:46","slug":"what-was-so-special-about-josephs-coat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2014\/07\/05\/what-was-so-special-about-josephs-coat\/","title":{"rendered":"What was so special about Joseph’s Coat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"coat-of-many-colors-thomas-blackshear\"<\/a>MAN WARNING! THIS POST WILL BE ABOUT CLOTHES…<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This last weekend I went to see the Andrew Lloyd Webber<\/a> musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat<\/a> in San Diego<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was an extremely nostalgic experience for me, since as a child I watched this show countless times at the theatre, as well as performing in it in a summer school production. Naturally, in that production I played the role of Pharaoh, the show’s coolest character by far. I even had my own backup dancers and everything! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In preparation for the trip to see the show, a few days before in Bible Study, we read through the Biblical text of the story found at the end of Genesis, beginning around\u00a0chapter thirty-seven and continuing for about ten chapters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not quite as I remember….<\/h2>\n

As we read through the text and discussed it, I was surprised by\u00a0the description of the coat given to Joseph by his father:<\/p>\n

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe with sleeves<\/span>.<\/em> – Genesis 37:3<\/span><\/p>\n

Huh…I didn’t remember the coat being described like that before. I didn’t ever recall any mention of the sleeves. I always remembered it as matching the description given in the musical, as being\u00a0“a coat of many colours”<\/span>. \u00a0Where did that description come from?<\/p>\n

Lost in translation<\/h2>\n

After a little bit of digging I found that many Bible translations do render this passage a little differently. Back in my Protestant days, I favoured the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible:<\/p>\n

Now Israel\u00a0loved Joseph more than any of his other sons,\u00a0because he had been born to him in his old age;\u00a0and he made an ornate\u00a0robe<\/span><\/em>\u00a0for him<\/em>. – Genesis 37:3 (NIV)<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, that was a little closer, but it wasn’t until I looked at King James Version (KJV) that I found the description for which I was looking:<\/p>\n

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he\u00a0was\u00a0the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of\u00a0many<\/span><\/em>\u00a0colours<\/em><\/span>\u00a0– Genesis 37:3 (KJV)<\/span><\/p>\n

After a little more research, it turned out that the Hebrew phrase being translated here,\u00a0kethoneth passim<\/i><\/span>, is somewhat obscure, being used only one other time<\/a> in the Bible to describe a garment worn by King David’s daughter. It appears that the range of meanings of\u00a0kethoneth passim<\/span>\u00a0<\/i>include:<\/p>\n