As has happened several times before, this latest incarnation of the BIBLE series featured new versions of the stories of "Jacob" and "Joseph".
One very noticeable difference, while the story of "Jacob" has been told in this series multiple times, THIS year was the first time they included the later reconcilliation between Jacob and his brother Esau, who he had so terribly robbed and cheated earlier. I would have thought that was the most important part of the story!
Similarly, in the story of "Joseph", the new version added something that was not brought up before, that Joseph's brothers did NOT sell him to the Ishmaelites, but rather, while they were argueing about what to do, some Midianites came along, grabbed him, and THEY sold him to the Ishmaelites. Then when the brothers went back to look in the hole, Joseph was gone. I admit, I haven't read The Bible in depth, but this almost seems like a way "out", to show that, yes, while they wanted to kill him, or at least, sell him into slavery ("Let us do him no harm"-- ARE THEY KIDDING???), they didn't... because someone else came along and did it behind their backs.
However, there seems to be some confusion. It says (and I quote), "Midianite merchants sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites". But, later in the same installment, it also says, "Meanwhile The Midianites had sold Joseph in Egypt to Pontiphar, the Captain of the Guard in Pharaoh's Court." Well, WAIT a minute! How could the Midianites do this, when they had already sold him to the Ishmaelites? Is this a slip-up? Wasn't the writer paying attention to his own work?
I know that Al Stenzel passed away in 1979, but this sort of thing makes me wonder if he didn't retire from the series a few years earlier. (Or, if perhaps he should have.)
And further...in the entire run of this series, it's notable they never once mention that Abraham had 2 sons, not 1. Impatient, and apparently not trusting The Lord, his wife urged him to have a baby with her Egyptian servant girl, Hagar. But after Ishmael was born, Sarah finally got pregnant with Isaac. And to prevent conflict, Ishmael and his mother were tossed out into the desert to fend for themselves! While it would be poetic justice to have Isaac's youngest grandson in the hands of his disenfranchised relatives, it doesn't seem like enough time has gone by for the story to be so casually referring to "an Ishmaelite caravan". (Unless of course, it consisted of all the Ishmaelites there are in the entire world at that time.)
Story by (??) / Art by (??)
BOYS' LIFE / January 1976
Copyright (C) BOY'S LIFE Magazine
Restorations by Henry Kujawa
Read the Bob LeRose page at Wikipedia
Read about the history of Johnstone & Cushing at the Hogan's Alley site
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