Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 9/16/2004

Question
I'm writing a story about Joseph and his coloured coat and need answers to the following questions if possible...

How old were his older brothers, and Benjamin when Joseph was sold?

How long would it have taken to get to Egypt?

How old was Joseph when the 7-yrs bumper crops started?

I have looked in parts of the Bible myself and cannot find any answers so I presume there isn't any.  If there is please help me.

Cheers
Jess

Answer
September 16, 2004
Allexperts.com question

I'm writing a story about Joseph and his colored coat and need answers to
the following questions if possible...

How old were his older brothers, and Benjamin when Joseph was sold?

How long would it have taken to get to Egypt?

How old was Joseph when the 7-yrs bumper crops started?

I have looked in parts of the Bible myself and cannot find any answers so
I presume there isn't any. If there is please help me.

Cheers
Jess

Dear Jess,

You are right. The Bible doesn't give their ages. But we can make some calculations and thus have an educated guess as to their ages. We can't, of course, be exact.

Jacob lived 7 years with Laban before he was married to both Leah and Rachel at the same time—a week apart. (Gen 29:21-28) He then served Laban another 13 years. During this time all of his children were born except for Benjamin. Joseph was the youngest in the group, evidently born soon before Jacob left Haran.

Although it's difficult to say, it would appear that Joseph was 17 or 18 at the time he was sold as a slave. We don't know how long he served Potiphar, but it was long enough for Potiphar to make him steward of his house. He wouldn't give such a responsibility to a teenager, so we could presume that he was at least in his early 20s. He spent at least 3 or 4 years in jail before interpreting the dreams of the baker and the king's steward, as it would have taken some time for the warden to learn of Joseph's honesty, etc.

Again, we don't know how long it was until the Pharaoh's dream and the butler's remembrance of Joseph. I suppose that, all things taken together, Joseph was in his late 20s or early 30's when he was made governor of Egypt.

I hope that this is of help. If you have any further questions on this or other Biblical subjects, please contact me directly. It will save you the clumsiness of going through Allexperts.com.

Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
petty@hyperusa.com

Check it out: www.PettyPress.com contains the complete text of 14 books, 32 Bible lessons, over 100 Bible questions answered, articles, stories, poems . . . . things I've written over the past 40 years. Lots of good Christian reading. All free.
Tell a friend!