BRAGADAYJAH 123

One of the best known stories of the Bible is the famed coat of many colors that Israel gave to his son Joseph. “Now Israel”’ it is written, “loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a coat of many colors; and when his brethren saw that his father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably with him.” What is more, Joseph dreamed a dream and when he told his brethren about it they hated him even more. So now we ask; what was about this coat and what was in this dream that made his brothers angry, vengeful and jealous? Firstly, the coat Israel gave Joseph was not a coat of many colors as it was mistakenly called, but a coat with long sleeves, or literally with long pieces. The fact is, when the original translators came across the Hebrew text, they did not understand how to interpret it; “A coat with long pieces?” It did not make sense to them; they simply had to find an easier more logical explanation; so they translated it a coat of many colors. But why should a coat of many colors, or long pieces make Joseph’s brothers mad? Because it was a coat with long sleeves; a coat with sleeves all the way down to the writ. But again, why should even such a coat make his brothers jealous? Well there was a good reason. But before explaining why, let us look at the second thing that made them even more angry, the dream. Joseph dreamt a dream and being young and innocent he told his brothers what he had dreamt; and now that made them even more fiercely angry with him? Why again we may ask? The answer is that there was a connection between the coat and the dream; the coat told them something very important to them, and the dream confirmed it; but what that was will have to wait until tomorrow. More