In the Stick of Joseph, Lechi tells his last born son Yosef, about certain prophecies made by his namesake, Yosef the patriarch. Lechi tells his son:
For Yosef truly testified, saying, A seer shall YHWH my Elohim raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins. Yes, Yosef truly said, Thus says YHWH unto me: A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of your loins, and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of your loins. And unto him will I give mitzvah that he shall do a work for the fruit of your loins, his brothers, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with your fathers. And I will give unto him a mitzvah that he shall do no other work except the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in my eyes, for he shall do my work. And he shall be great like unto Moshe, whom I have said I would raise up unto you to deliver my people, O house of Isra’el. And Moshe will I raise up to deliver your people out of the land of Egypt. But a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of your loins, and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of your loins; and not to the bringing forth my word only, says YHWH, but to the convincing them of my word which shall have already gone forth among them.
(2 Nefi 2:3)
In this prophecy, Yosef the patriarch compares the prophesied future seer to Moshe, the future deliverer who will come to deliver Isra’el out of Egyptian bondage. It is very significant that centuries before his birth, Moshe was known by name to the patriarch Yosef.
While Yosef’s prophecy about Moshe and the deliverance not survived in the Tanak as it has come down to us, it has survived in other ancient Jewish sources—sources that would certainly NOT have been known to Yosef ben Yosef at the time he translated the Stick of Joseph.
For example, we read in Targum Neofiti concerning Joseph’s interpretation of the butler’s dream (Gen. 40:8-16):
The three branches are the three fathers of the world, namely: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. the sons of whose sons are to be enslaved in the slavery of the land of Egypt and are to be delivered by the hands of three faithful leaders: Moses, Aaron and Miriam, who are to be likened to the cluster of grapes.
(Targum Neofiti to Gen. 40:12).
The Talmud says concerning this same dream:
It was taught: R. Eliezer says: ‘The “vine” is the world, the “three branches” are [the patriarchs] Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; “and as it was budding its blossoms shot forth”, these are the matriarchs; “and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes”, these are the tribes.’ Thereupon R. Joshua said to him: ‘Is a man shown [in a dream] what has happened? Surely he is only shown what is to happen! Therefore, I say: The “vine” is the Torah, the “three branches” are Moses, Aaron and Miriam;…’
(b.Hullin 92a)
In Genesis 50:24 we read the following prophecy from Yosef the patriarch:
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
(Gen. 50:24 KJV)
In reference to this passage, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives the following:
Behold you will be enslaved in Egypt, but do not make plans to go out of Egypt until the time that the two deliverers come and say to you, ‘The Lord remembers you.’
Here “the two deliverers” could be understood as Moshe and Aharon, but could also refer separately to Moshe and the Choice Seer prophesied of by Yosef the patriarch.
Yosef ben Yosef could not have been aware of these ancient Jewish sources when he translated the Stick of Joseph. The presence of this ancient Jewish material in the Stick of Joseph is not only an accurate representation of ancient sources, but also yet more evidence that the Stick of Joseph is indeed an ancient Jewish record.
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