X-Dreamers · Lab sheet

Joseph's Robe

What did the “coat of many colours” look like? The lab weighs the Hebrew wording, the ancient translations and Bronze Age textiles one claim at a time, and shows how sure we can be of each.

Scan to open the lab

Three reconstructions of Joseph's robe side by side: decorated, a garment of rank, and strips

Two Hebrew words behind “the coat of many colours”

Key facts

Genesis calls it a ketonet passim. A ketonet is a tunic; passim appears only in this phrase, in Genesis 37 and 2 Samuel 13.
The Hebrew never states its colours, length or decoration.
The Greek Septuagint called it a many-coloured tunic; the King James Version followed with “coat of many colours” and the Chinese Union Version with cǎiyī, a “coloured robe”.
King David's daughters wore the same garment (2 Samuel 13:18), which points to dress of high rank.
Semitic visitors to Egypt around 1890 BC were painted at Beni Hasan in patterned, many-coloured garments.
In class: read Genesis 37 aloud and follow the robe: given, stripped, dipped in blood, shown to Jacob.

Key verses

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Genesis 37:3–4 · King James Version

And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.
Genesis 37:32 · King James Version

And she had a garment of divers colours upon her: for with such robes were the king’s daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her.
2 Samuel 13:18 · King James Version

Talk about it

What did the robe say about Joseph's place in the family, and why did it make his brothers hate him?
Jacob was deceived with a garment, as he once deceived his own father with Esau's clothes. What do you make of that?
When we don't know what something looked like, how should we picture it honestly?

How sure can we be?

The Bible says

Jacob made the robe because he loved Joseph more than his other sons (Genesis 37:3).
The brothers stripped it from him and dipped it in goat's blood (Genesis 37:23, 31).

Our reconstruction

That it was a garment of rank is strongly supported by 2 Samuel 13:18.
Dyes of red, blue, yellow and purple were in use in the Levant in that age.

Still debated

Three readings are plausible: a long tunic with sleeves (reaching wrists and ankles), a many-coloured tunic, or a decorated one.
That it looked like the Beni Hasan garments is only a guess.