Messiah ben Joseph

A Dying Josephite King

Genesis

the promise of a coming one, the Seed of the Woman who will suffer in a conflict to liberate mankind.

1. Good Shepherd of Men

a. Jacob’s Blessing promises Joseph a coming Shepher-Rock from Shaddai (Gen 49.24)

b. It is not directly said that this figure will suffer. But the context, where Joseph is pierced by his brothers’ arrows, suggest that the promised one will follow Joseph’s path of suffering to glory.

c. Prophetic Imagery

Joseph as firstborn

a Fruitful plant

a Pierced Innocent.

A “son of the right hand” Gen 48.14-20

Genesis 35:18 (ESV)

And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.

Moses’s Blessing expands Jacob’s

Servile Firstborn

Amidst Egyptian and Levantine myths of dying and rising bulls, the coming Josephite hero is to be a servile firstborn shor or ox

Destined to sacrificial death

Then all-conquering aurochs or rem

Destined to freedom and sovereignty

The promise is only partially fulfilled in “Joshua”, points further, to a greater Joshua who will fulfil the prophecy entirely.

Judean Prophets

Isaiah “servant of the ETERNAL

rejection, suffering, mortification.

springs from dry ground, like Joseph’s fruitful shoot.

pierced, as Jospeh was pierced by the bowman.

ewe-lamb rachel recalling Joseph’s mother— whose life was poured out for the sins of his people.

Zechariah’s Shepherd King

sold for pieces of silver

lamented as a firstborn

pierced

whereupon his death opens a fountain to cleanse the house of David and Jerusalemites who pierced him

Micah’s moshel from Bethlehem Efratah

Habakkuk’s prayer for a renewal of the time when a mashiach of the ETERNAL made the sun stand still shows a hope for a second Joshua maschiach

Jeremiah — speaks of the restoration of the exiled tribes of Joseph under a Judahite king

Depicts King Josiah, a descendant of David, as a Joseph’s fruitful tree.

Book of Psalms

Psalm 1:1–2 Opens with one is the second Joseph, a fruitful tree upon a spring, and a second Joshua, meditating on Torah night and day to succeed in all he does.

Psalm 60-108 Between these Psalms is the nucleus of Josephite language and imagery.

Psalm 80 and Psalm 92 depict a messianic figure with Josephite images and symbols

Josephite vine

Ephraimite man of the right hand (Psalm 80.2, 8, 16-17)

A resurgent king, likened to Joseph’s fruitful tree and triumphant aurochs (Psalm 92.10)

Psalm 105-106 Eulogizes Joseph as Israel’s suffering savior before the exodus, and presents him as a type of one to precede a greater exodus yet to come.

Ps 1-2 When read as a pair, the result is a king in whom Josephite and Judahite messianic imagery are conflated. The same thing appears in Ps 89 and in

Ps 81 in the middle of the Joseph core, spells the name of Joseph as Yehoseph

Joseph merged with the Tetragrammaton

and perhaps with Judah (Ps 81.5)

Judah king descends to Sheol in Ps 88 and Ps 89

anticipating Joseph’s imprisonment spoken of in Ps 105 then

reappears triumphant in Ps 110, the man of the right hand Ps 110.1 to conquer the nations.

Compiled and put in outline form from:

Mitchell, David C. Messiah ben Joseph. 2nd ed., Campbell Publisher, 2023, pp. 245-247.