I have been revisiting the marvelous story in Genesis of Joseph and his brothers -- you know, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? It is an epic tale (12 chapters) that begins with braggy Joseph, the jealous brothers selling Joseph into slavery, then ending decades later with tears of remorse, forgiveness and reconciliation. I'm speaking on the theme of forgiveness in January and this story is truly "gospel" in the Hebrew scriptures.
As it happens, there is a recent RNS piece by Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin about the Midrash, or interpretation of this story out of the ancient Persian Jewish tradition. A poet from the 1300s by the name of Mowlana Shain-i-Shirazi wrote a lengthy re-imagining in which the brothers tell their father Jacob that Joseph has been ripped apart by a wolf. Jacob is highly suspicious of this explanation for Joseph's disappearance. Salkin is not Persian/Iranian in background but he is fascinated by these stories and here is a portion of what he offers:
Everyone knows that story, except the poet goes several steps further. He imagines Jacob’s lament for his son going on for pages upon pages. He imagines that Jacob suspects he was not hearing the whole truth from his sons.
The story of Joseph and the wolf is a lie,
Exceedingly brazen, a patent lie.
No wolf knows anything of Joseph;
the story of my darling sons is just not true.
Can a wolf burst into the midst of a flock,
Leave lambs behind and steal my Joseph?!
We can almost imagine the biblical patriarch interrogating his sons in the manner of Columbo: “There’s just one thing I don’t understand. You return with the entire flock intact and safe — and yet, the wolf goes after a young boy? You sure about that? You think you might want to change your story on that?”
The poet continues, imagining Jacob smells the proverbial rat. He looks at his son’s tattered garment, and he notices some things don’t make sense:
All that you are saying is a complete lie:
If by heaven’s decree Joseph fell captive
Into the clutches of a bloodthirsty wolf,
Where are the marks of the wolf’s claws,
The paw prints, and the traces of his bites?
And if the wolf ate him without his tunic,
Why is it thus drenched in blood?
And if the mad wolf ate him with his tunic on,
Where are the tears of his fangs on it?
How great is this? This Persian version would make for a wonderful illustrated childrens book. I love that we live in a much more pluralistic society when it comes to learning of other religious traditions, including the diversity within various faiths. We need for the world of faith to get bigger rather than smaller. And hey, there just aren't enough wolves in biblical stories. We could use a few more -- move over Three Little Pigs!
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