Familial Tension in the Bible -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 15:11:30 04/06/08 Sun
Author: Erin Risch
Subject: Familial Tension in the Bible

What a difference translations make! In my Bible, in Genesis 42:36, Jacob says to his sons, "You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin." When I read that earlier, I thought how much the whole scene reminded me of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Everyone is blaming everyone else for the familial tension. Jacob even seems to have figured out that the brothers ("you") had something to do with Joseph's disappearance.

But when I turned to Alter, it had a different sense: "Me you have bereaved. Joseph is no more and Simeon is not more, and Benjamin you would take!" At least in Alter's translation, Jacob isn't heaping blame upon his sons (regardless of how much they deserve it). He seems instead simply to be bereaved by the nature of the request.

Either way, when Judah takes responsibility for the safety of Benjamin, I couldn't help thinking that that's exactly what we wished to see but never got in Long Day. Judah isn't the oldest (Rueben already failed at his offer; as Alter puts it, when Jacob is devastated by the deaths of son, Rueben foolishly offers his own sons' lives!), and he's probably just as tired of his father's favoritism as anyone else, but he essentially says, "Regardless of blame, culpability, and consequences, I accept responsibility and offer myself for another."

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