.
• Gen 50:1 . . Joseph threw himself upon his father's face and wept over
him and kissed him.
It almost looks like Joseph smothered his dad; but in reality that scene was
probably a bit difficult to put in writing because there's so much emotion. I
think what we're actually looking at there is a one last cheek-to-cheek
farewell with Joseph clutching his father's hand; and I would not have liked
to be in the room when it took place because Joseph was terribly broken up
by his dad's passing.
The word for "wept" is bakah (baw-kaw') and means not just to weep, but to
bemoan; which Webster's defines as: to express deep grief and/or distress.
Deep grief is what people undergo when they experience loss.
If there is one salient characteristic of Jacob's family, I would have to say it
was a lack of affection. Joseph seemed the only one in the entire home who
was truly bonded with his dad. His siblings were somehow detached; and I
think that the multiplicity of their mothers might have something to do with
that.
When I found out that my own dad had two sons besides me by two other
women, it destroyed any notion I had of feeling special in my own home;
especially when the only son my dad was ever really proud of was one that
didn't even live with us; but with whom my dad stayed in contact over the
years without telling me.
• Gen 50:2 . .Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm
his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel.
It is apparently well known that mummification, with all its elaborate ritual,
played a crucial role in Egyptian religion and was bound up with the cult of
Osiris and concepts of the afterlife. Existence after death was taken for
granted by the Egyptians. Central to this notion was the belief in the
importance of the physical preservation of the deceased's body. They took
meticulous care to prevent the putrefaction of the corpse in order to ensure
the right of the dead to immortality.
I seriously doubt Egypt's religion played a role in Joseph's decision to
embalm his dad. His reason was simply one of practicality. The body was to
be transported to Palestine for burial, and if care wasn't taken to preserve it,
poor old Jacob would be in a terrible state of decay by the time they arrived;
and very smelly too.
Joseph's own personal physicians performed the task rather than
professional morticians, thus assuring nobody would come around to defile
Jacob with pagan rituals, garments, and/or enchantments and spiritual
potions. Jacob's life, and afterlife, were fully consecrated to Yhvh; and no
pagan deities were permitted an attempt to claim a share of his future. (cf.
Jude 1:9)
• Gen 50:3 . . It required forty days, for such is the full period of
embalming. The Egyptians mourned him seventy days
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the bewailing wasn't mandatory like that of
North Korea's when Kim Jong Il passed. Citizens of that country are not only
denied the freedom of speech, but they don't even have the freedom of
grief.
There exists no information about embalming procedures from Joseph's era
but there is some available from the fifth century BC and from the late
Hellenistic period. Herodotus (Histories 2.86) reports that bodies were
soaked in niter (potassium nitrate) for seventy days.
Diodorus of Sicily (Histories 1.91) describes a thirty-day dressing of the
corpse with oils and spices and seventy-two days of public mourning for a
king. That practice probably corresponds to the American flag being raised at
half mast for deceased dignitaries and notable personages.
Jacob was afforded royal honors no doubt brought about by Josephs'
influence, and his connections with Egypt's aristocrats; sort of like John F.
Kennedy Jr's burial at sea from the US Navy's Spruance class destroyer USS
Briscoe.
The junior Kennedy never served in the US military, nor in any Federal civil
service capacity whatsoever; ergo: he certainly did not merit burial at sea
from a US Navy vessel; but the Kennedy dynasty is very influential, and well
connected; and has been for a good many years beginning with patriarch
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. That just goes to show that there's undue advantages
to being connected in this world.
Anyway, under his son Joseph's auspices, Jacob's was the most grandiose
funeral of any of Israel's primary patriarchs including Abraham, the
paterfamilias of the entire family.
_
• Gen 50:1 . . Joseph threw himself upon his father's face and wept over
him and kissed him.
It almost looks like Joseph smothered his dad; but in reality that scene was
probably a bit difficult to put in writing because there's so much emotion. I
think what we're actually looking at there is a one last cheek-to-cheek
farewell with Joseph clutching his father's hand; and I would not have liked
to be in the room when it took place because Joseph was terribly broken up
by his dad's passing.
The word for "wept" is bakah (baw-kaw') and means not just to weep, but to
bemoan; which Webster's defines as: to express deep grief and/or distress.
Deep grief is what people undergo when they experience loss.
If there is one salient characteristic of Jacob's family, I would have to say it
was a lack of affection. Joseph seemed the only one in the entire home who
was truly bonded with his dad. His siblings were somehow detached; and I
think that the multiplicity of their mothers might have something to do with
that.
When I found out that my own dad had two sons besides me by two other
women, it destroyed any notion I had of feeling special in my own home;
especially when the only son my dad was ever really proud of was one that
didn't even live with us; but with whom my dad stayed in contact over the
years without telling me.
• Gen 50:2 . .Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm
his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel.
It is apparently well known that mummification, with all its elaborate ritual,
played a crucial role in Egyptian religion and was bound up with the cult of
Osiris and concepts of the afterlife. Existence after death was taken for
granted by the Egyptians. Central to this notion was the belief in the
importance of the physical preservation of the deceased's body. They took
meticulous care to prevent the putrefaction of the corpse in order to ensure
the right of the dead to immortality.
I seriously doubt Egypt's religion played a role in Joseph's decision to
embalm his dad. His reason was simply one of practicality. The body was to
be transported to Palestine for burial, and if care wasn't taken to preserve it,
poor old Jacob would be in a terrible state of decay by the time they arrived;
and very smelly too.
Joseph's own personal physicians performed the task rather than
professional morticians, thus assuring nobody would come around to defile
Jacob with pagan rituals, garments, and/or enchantments and spiritual
potions. Jacob's life, and afterlife, were fully consecrated to Yhvh; and no
pagan deities were permitted an attempt to claim a share of his future. (cf.
Jude 1:9)
• Gen 50:3 . . It required forty days, for such is the full period of
embalming. The Egyptians mourned him seventy days
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the bewailing wasn't mandatory like that of
North Korea's when Kim Jong Il passed. Citizens of that country are not only
denied the freedom of speech, but they don't even have the freedom of
grief.
There exists no information about embalming procedures from Joseph's era
but there is some available from the fifth century BC and from the late
Hellenistic period. Herodotus (Histories 2.86) reports that bodies were
soaked in niter (potassium nitrate) for seventy days.
Diodorus of Sicily (Histories 1.91) describes a thirty-day dressing of the
corpse with oils and spices and seventy-two days of public mourning for a
king. That practice probably corresponds to the American flag being raised at
half mast for deceased dignitaries and notable personages.
Jacob was afforded royal honors no doubt brought about by Josephs'
influence, and his connections with Egypt's aristocrats; sort of like John F.
Kennedy Jr's burial at sea from the US Navy's Spruance class destroyer USS
Briscoe.
The junior Kennedy never served in the US military, nor in any Federal civil
service capacity whatsoever; ergo: he certainly did not merit burial at sea
from a US Navy vessel; but the Kennedy dynasty is very influential, and well
connected; and has been for a good many years beginning with patriarch
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. That just goes to show that there's undue advantages
to being connected in this world.
Anyway, under his son Joseph's auspices, Jacob's was the most grandiose
funeral of any of Israel's primary patriarchs including Abraham, the
paterfamilias of the entire family.
_