The Famine in the Land Was Severe: Environmentally Induced Involuntary Migration and the Joseph Narrative

Abstract

Abstract:Although a number of issues related to involuntary migration feature in the Joseph narrative, the most prominent is the effect of environmental factors on migration. The protagonist Joseph is captured by his brothers, trafficked into Egypt, and imprisoned. Subsequently, Joseph rises to a position of immense power because he is able to interpret Pharaoh's dreams as pertaining to a famine. The denouement of the Joseph narrative unfolds as this famine drives along the plot. It is only when Joseph's brothers become environmentally induced involuntary migrants to Egypt that the opportunity arises for them to reconcile with Joseph. Indeed, the famine even enables the final scheme by which Joseph gets his brother Benjamin and father Jacob to Egypt. In this article, recent research on how climate change and environmental factors impact migration decisions, how environmentally induced migrant communities determine where to migrate, and how such communities do and do not integrate with the host populations in their new settings is employed to analyze Genesis 37–47, with particular focus on chapters 41–47. Fresh interpretations of problematic passages emerge from this reading strategy. Finally, the argument explores what this approach suggests about the provenance of the Joseph material.