Inerrant Lie #10

Another lie from "God's ineffable, inerrant word":

Moses, in relating the tale of Joseph's being sold as human traffic by his brothers, mentions two families of the children of Abraham's concubine wives (Hagar and Keturah): Ishmael and Midian, respectively.

In Genesis 37:27 (after the sons of Israel had cast Joseph into a pit to secure him while they brainstormed how best to murder him), Judah, pondering the traffic passing their location, comes up with a devious plot to wash his and his brothers' hands of Joseph's blood, saying: "Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh." With Judah’s ‘wonderful counsel’, all his brothers (except Reuben, who was ‘pinching- off a loaf’ elsewhere, and Joseph, who was perhaps following Reuben's lead) were content.

Human trafficking was apparently-- even in those primitive days-- always a tricky business, judging by the convoluted nature of the next verse. But as near as I can make out, Joseph's brothers (likely feigning impoverishment of rope and no knowledge of who Joseph was) pointed him and the aforementioned passing Ishmeelites out to some Midianites, who were also passing by that way; probably suggesting to the Midianites that there was money to be made: 'if only they had rope to pull poor Joe up out of the pit before he died of thirst, starvation, or both.'

My guess is: Joe's bros made no money on the transaction, and are therefore not counted by Moses (who wrote Genesis) as responsible for Joeseph's sale in Egypt; though Moses does credit both of Abe's un- covenanted- though- circumcised, participatory families with the same, in an oddly dissimulating way.

In Genesis 37:36, Moses writes, "And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard." This makes it seem the Ishmeelites were, frankly, uninvolved. Two chapters later, however, Moses changes his story, making it seem the Midianites were uninvolved. "And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither [Genesis 39:1].”

I don't know which of these explanations is the lie. Obviously one of them is, if both aren't. [It was, after all, Joe's brothers who were ultimately responsible.] However Joe got to Egypt, whether compliments of the Midianites or of the Ishmeelites: it was (through the common patriarch Abraham) family business– from ‘sold- out’ to "Sold!"-- that expedited Joseph's sale to the Egyptians. Moses, who-- according to “the Word of God”-- is ‘the accuser of his brethren [John 5:45]’, said so.