Late last night I was folding a basket of laundry and channel surfing to watch something as I went along. I came upon a movie I don't know the name of because it had already started, but it was a whizzer. It was a biblical movie about Joseph--you know the Joseph who had the coat of many colors.

Joseph's father Jacob, also called Israel, had 12 sons by concubines and wives. (There's more sex in the Bible than a Henry Miller novel.) Joseph was the most beloved of the sons because he was the youngest, born in Jacob's old age. Jacob had a coat of many colors made for Joseph, and his brothers were jealous. It didn't help that Joseph had a couple of dreams wherein his brothers were bowing down to him.

So while all the brothers were out herding sheep, they plotted to kill Joseph, and threw him into a hole. They took the coat and smeared it with blood and told their father wild animals had killed him. Jacob was inconsolable. What the brothers had really done was sell Joseph into slavery to some passing merchants. He was sold in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah's house. (Potiphar was played by Ben Kingsley, the only actor I recognized.)

Potiphar's wife pestered Joseph to sleep with her, but he had scruples and wouldn't betray his master. But she lied and said he had attacked her, and he was sent to prison. Joseph's intelligence soon had him running the prison and he met two of Pharoah's servants who were incarcerated. They both had dreams they couldn't understand--Joseph correctly interpreted the dreams.

Pretty soon the Pharoah was troubled by dreams that none of his soothsayers could interpret. Seven hungry cows rose up and devoured seven fat cows. Seven scraggly ears of corn grew teeth and ate seven fat ears of corn. Finally the servant remembered Joseph, and he was called in to interpret the dreams. He said seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of drought and starvation. Measures should be taken right away to store grain in preparation for the seven bad years.

Joseph was elevated to the Pharoah's right hand man and when the starving time began, Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to buy grain. He recognized them; and as he had dreamed, they bowed down to him, not knowing who he was. He finally revealed himself to them and he had a chance to see his father Jacob again. (There were also other sexual encounters in this story, but I left them out to get to the gist of this saga.) What a great story.

susil