FEB 6

Years after the moment in which Joseph’s brothers sold him to Egypt, we observe as Joseph comes across them for the first time since the incident. Joseph realizes that the brothers do not recognize him and decides to take this opportunity to evaluate whether or not his brothers have changed. He therefore decides to test the integrity of the brothers by purposefully framing one of them by placing silverware among brother Benjamin’s belongings. He then stops the brothers while they are leaving in order to ‘see whether one had stolen the silverware or not’. Joseph uses this opportunity to place one of the brothers under a life threatening situation in order to see how the other brothers would react. The brothers then demonstrate the fact that they had indeed changed, and are loving each other. This test served as enough for Joseph to consider the brothers as ‘changed’. With this, he could finally confront them, and reunite with his family. This relates to his original status as the beloved son because the way in which he reacts to the sight of his brothers is representative of what a beloved person would do. After testing his brothers, we see that Joseph simply forgives them for their past actions and accepts the fact that they have changed over the many years which had past.