The Dramatization of Bible Stories: An experiment in the religious education of children — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Dramatization of Bible Stories: An experiment in the religious education of children
John Stuart Mill · en
Now of all the twelve sons Jacob loved Joseph, a lad of
seventeen years, the best. Joseph was next to the youngest
and often stayed with his father while the older brothers
went away. Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors and
showed him often that he was the favorite. This made the
older brothers very jealous of Joseph, and they began to
dislike him.
Once Joseph dreamed a dream, which he told to his brothers,
and it made them hate him all the more. He said to them,
"Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: Behold,
we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf
arose, and stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood
round about and bowed down to my sheaf." Then his brothers
said to him, "Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou
have power over us?"
Then Joseph dreamed yet another dream, and he told it again
to his father and brothers, and said, "Behold, the sun and
moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me." And his father
said unto him, "What is this dream that thou hast dreamed?
Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow
down ourselves to thee?" And the brothers remembered what
their father had said, and they wished that harm might come
to Joseph.
It happened soon after this that Jacob sent his ten older
sons with the flocks to Shechem, a place some distance away
where there was good grass. Now the brothers were gone for
so long a time that their father became anxious and decided
to send Joseph after them. He said to Joseph, "Do not thy
brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Go, I pray thee, see
whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the
flocks; and bring me word again." So Joseph took money and
food in his bag, and his staff in his hand, and went out to
find his brothers.
At Shechem there were no brothers to be seen. Joseph was
wondering what he should do next, when he saw a man coming
toward him over the field. "What seekest thou?" said the
man. And Joseph answered, "I seek my brethren; tell me, I
pray thee, where they feed their flocks." "They have
departed from here," said the man, "and have gone to
Dothan." Then Joseph went after his brothers and found them
at Dothan.