Clothing and Joseph, see details.?

Question

Are Joseph's coat of many colors and the garment he left in the hands of Potiphar's wife symbolizing the same thing or different things? In both cases, the loss of the article of clothing precedes a loss of freedom: being sold into slavery and being incarcerated in the prison.

Answer 1

The coat of many colors only served to make his already very jealous brothers just that much more angry at him and their fathers favoritizm of him.

The loss of his "coat" in the case of Potiphar's wife was probably more like showing his nakedness, as they did not wear pants or underwear. In this case Joseph was fleeing outright temptation.

Although the mention of a coat is made in both stories, there is really no clearcut relevance to tie the two together, as Joseph was already a slave and no real freedom was lost by going to prison. The story does go on to say, that Joseph found favor in the eyes of the prison warden, so he really had just as much "freedom" in prison, and it still set up the events that needed to happen for Joseph to become second in command of Egypt, even though he was still technically a slave. Pharoah granted Joseph many things, including a wife and much power, but he never granted him his freedom and he stayed in Egypt until his death.

Answer 2

There is no correlation between the two. He lost his coat unwillingly at the hands of his brothers and he left his clothing behind to escape Potiphar's wife's lust. The resulting events shaped Joseph's future and that of Egypt as well. God used other peoples sinful nature to ultimately save the Israelites from starvation by putting Joseph in Pharaohs good favor.

Answer 3

Interesting thought. However, the coat of many colors was a coat of honor given to Joseph by his father. It is a coat that was given to the scholarly. It indicated that Abraham saw Joseph as perhaps becoming the spiritual teacher of the family.

Answer 4

I never noticed that...thanks, that's something new to consider.