Genesis 40:8: “‘We both had dreams,’ they answered, ‘but there is no one to interpret them.’ Then Joseph said to them, ‘Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.’”
It was early morning in Heliopolis and Potiphera had already left to go to the temple. He was Pharaoh’s head priest and one of his sacred duties was to submit an offering in Ra’s temple while the sun came up.
Ra was revered by kings and commoners alike. The former saw in Ra the patron of their government, the latter understood him to be the benefactor of their crops. Agriculture dominated the life of the river delta residents. They endearingly called their land “kemet”, which means “black earth”. The annual Nile flooding was seen as the retelling of the creation story, which began with a watery chaos. Ptah, the Creator of all things, spoke the word and created dry land. An uncreated heavenly being, Ptah stood out from all other Egyptian gods. Ra was considered his offspring.
Still drowsy, a young woman with chestnut brown hair got up and looked out of the window. From her vantage point she could see the stately panorama of Heliopolis. The oversized obelisks that stretched into the morning sky looked like somber watch towers. Catching the light of the rising sun, the white walls of the temple district turned pink. But the young woman gazed at the scene without taking in the views. Her thoughts were turned inward, still processing a dream that she had the night before. She was Potiphera’s only daughter and her name was Asenath.
In a vision, Asenath had seen herself lying on the ground, in the middle of a sweet smelling meadow. A swarm of bees had arrived out of nowhere landing on her body. Afraid that the bees might sting she had kept perfectly still. Only once, her upper and lower lip had been stung; other than that nothing had happened. Finally the swarm of bees had lifted and flown away. She had been completely covered with honey.
This was actually her second night vision that had to do with honey. The night before, she had dreamt about a heavenly being who had offered her honeycomb to eat.
“I have to tell my father about these unusual visions”, Asenath thought to herself.
Twenty-seven miles from Heliopolis, the sun rose over a dungeon in Memphis where royal servants were held in captivity. Joseph was one of them. In the meantime he had been promoted to Personal Assistant of the chief jailer. Joseph excelled in his new position and soon became the first go-to person in all matters concerning the inmates.
On this very morning Joseph noticed that their most recent additions – Pharaoh’s chief baker and his chief cup bearer – seemed out of sorts. They barely responded to his greeting. Joseph set their breakfast before them and said: “May I ask what is troubling you?”
In response, the chief baker snorted and looked away. It was beneath him to talk to another inmate whom he deemed below his station. The chief cupbearer on the other hand spoke kindly to Joseph and said: “Don’t mind us. We are both consumed with the dreams we had last night. We had strange visions and don’t know how to interpret them. And being here in the dungeon, we have no one to interpret the dreams for us.”
Joseph smiled reassuringly and said: “If a dream comes from God then He is the One who knows its meaning. Why don’t you tell me your dreams?” The cupbearer looked surprised and asked: “Are you a magician?” – “No I am not”, Joseph replied, “I am a Hebrew by birth and was kidnapped and brought to Egypt when I was a youth. And three years ago I was confined to this prison by no fault of my own. But my God has been with me through it all. Maybe He will show me the meaning of your dream.” Smiling at him sympathetically the chief cupbearer said: “I’m sorry that you had so much bad luck.”
The chief baker, who hitherto had feigned disinterest, suddenly became impatient and hissed: “Tell him your dream already!” Shaking his head, the chief cupbearer sighed: “Sorry for our rudeness. We didn’t get too much sleep last night. So here is my dream: I saw a vine grow three branches which at once budded, blossomed and produced fully ripened clusters. I had Pharaoh’s cup in my hand and squeezed the grapes into his cup and served him the wine.” There was a moment of silence. The chief baker was about to make a derisive remark when Joseph opened his mouth and explained the meaning of the dream [Genesis 40:12-14]:
“This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.”
The chief baker was stunned. Who was this guy who could interpret dreams? Seeing that the interpretation was favorable, he hurried to tell his dream too: “In my dream I carried three baskets of baking goods on my head”, he said and added: “Then the birds from heaven came, eating everything out of the basket on my head.”
Joseph nodded and replied: “Your three baskets also mean three days. In three days you will be impaled and the birds will eat away your flesh.”
The chief baker blanched and began to curse Joseph, saying: “You are a fraud! Just because you don’t like me you are predicting my death sentence. Obviously, you gave a better interpretation to my friend who schmoozed up to you. Get out of my sight!”
Three days later Joseph’s interpretation proved right. It was Pharaoh’s birthday and he decided to restore his chief cupbearer to the position he had before while he had his chief baker impaled.
Once the chief cup bearer resumed his services at the royal court he quickly forgot about Joseph. He did not remember him until that fateful day when he would be confronted with another series of strange dreams – this time by the Pharaoh himself.