Seder 34: Gen 37:20 in the Parable of the Tenants

 Jacob's undiguised favoritism toward Joseph and Joseph's grandiose-sounding dreams led Joseph's brothers to resent him (Gen 37:4-11).  The extent of that resentment was surprising.  At one point Joseph was sent by his father to see how his brothers were doing.  It was a long walk---over 60 miles---from Hebron to Dothan where the brothers were tending the flocks.  But it seems to have been God's will that Joseph find his brothers, since God apparently put someone in Joseph's path to point him in their direction (vv 15-17).

His brothers, at a higher altitude, saw Joseph coming from a distance, and they began to vent their bitterness toward him.  "Come now, let us kill him," they declared (v 20).  

The Septuagint translation of these words from Gen 37:20 appears in Jesus' parable of the tenants (Matt 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-11; Luke 20:9-19).  The owner of a vineyard sends a series of representatives to the tenants of the vineyard, and the tenants treat them badly.  When the owner sends his son, the tenants echo Joseph's brothers, saying, "Come, let us kill him"  (Mark 12:7).  

Scriptural allusions in the parable help make clear that the wicked tenants in the parable stand for leaders of Israel who had persecuted the prophets in earlier times and in Jesus' day sought to kill Jesus himself.  The actions of these leaders are compared to those of Joseph's brothers.  

An ample quantity of scriptural allusion is one thing that sets the canonical gospels apart from other early writings about Jesus.  The Gospel of Thomas also includes a version of this parable (in saying 65), but with all scriptural allusion stripped away.  The result ia a cryptic saying rather than a powerful parable.  (This point is made by Richard Hays in his book Reading Backwards:  Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness, Baylor University Press, 2014.

Sadly, the parable of the tenants has been misused by some to draw anti-semitic conclusions.  But Jesus was only referring to Jewish leaders who sought to kill him, not to all Jews or Jewish leaders.