ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Tokonaki Fepueli 18, 2023 

The Coat of Many Colors  כתנת פסים

    Ko e Kofu lanu kehekehe

GENESIS 37:3-4

NOW ISRAEL LOVED JOSEPH MORE THAN ANY OTHER OF HIS SONS, BECAUSE HE WAS THE SON OF HIS OLD AGE. AND HE MADE HIM A ROBE OF MANY COLORS.

BUT WHEN HIS BROTHERS SAW THAT THEIR FATHER LOVED HIM MORE THAN ALL HIS BROTHERS, THEY HATED HIM AND COULD NOT SPEAK PEACEFULLY TO HIM.

GENESIS 37:3-4

Pea na‘e ‘ofa lahi ‘a ‘Isileli kia Siosifa ‘i he‘ene fānau kotoa pē, he ko hono foha ia ka kuo motu‘a: pea na‘a ne ngaohi mo‘ona ha kofu pulepule. 4 Pea ‘i he vakai ‘e hono ngaahi tokoua ‘oku pele ‘aki ia ‘e he‘enau tamai ‘iate kinautolu, na‘a nau fehi‘a kiate ia, pea na‘e ‘ikai te nau fa‘a lea ‘ofa ange.

How best to translate k'tonet passim is long-standing question. A k'tonet is a long robe. Passim is less clear. It may be connected to pas ("the palm of the hand or sole of the foot"). If so, it's a long-sleeved tunic reaching down to the feet. Most translations take their cue from the Greek, which rendered it "a multicolored frock." Thus the KJV's "coat of many colors." Although what it was is debated, what it did is indisputable: this article of clothing unrobed the naked hostility of fraternal hatred.

Joseph's story is a wardrobe narrative: his brothers tore this robe off (37:23), Potiphar's wife unrobed him as he fled from her (39:12), he donned new clothes when he left prison (41:14), and Pharaoh finally "clothed him in garments of fine linen" (41:42). God finally got the right clothes on him: the garments of one who would save his people. And therein is foreshadowed the greater Joseph, our Savior and Lord, robed in splendor and majesty, who wraps us in garments of white (Rev. 7:9).

Robe us in righteousness, our God and King, that we may reflect the glory of your name.