Joseph in Genesis and the Quran - Intro

I have been fascinated by the account of Joseph in Sura 12 of The Holy Quran ever since I read it as a 20 year old. There are a few details in the Quran that are not found in the account from Genesis that I think have the potential to provide profound insight. This is my attempt to create a harmony of the two accounts and to add my own commentary along the way. As the Quran says,

“Verily, in Yusuf (Joseph) and his brethren, there were Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) for those who ask.”
Quran 12:7

I agree that there is much to learn from a deeper study into the life of Joseph. It is interesting to me how the two accounts compare, contrast, and complement each other. As a Christian I believe there is much to learn by doing this. I hope a Muslim reader will find value from it as well.

I want to preface all of this by saying I am NOT an expert in Islam or the Quran. I am also making no judgement on the Quran or on the account of Joseph found in the Quran. Although my beliefs explicitly hold the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly, for the sake of this exercise I will attempt to put both accounts on equal ground and assume both are true. Where there are irreconcilable differences between them, I will point them out, but not draw any conclusions which is correct. Any mistakes I make or misunderstandings I have about Islam or the Quran that could cause offense come from my lack of knowledge and not from any ill intent. I welcome any further knowledge that will correct me.

A few other notes:

I have two different English translations of the Quran in my possession. One is by A. Yusuf Ali and first published in 1934. It has extensive commentary which has helped me immensely. The other is subtitled as a “new translation” by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem and was first published in 2004 and is honestly just easier to read. I have found studying from both to be insightful, especially where word choices are different. For this exercise I am using The Noble Quran found online at https://www.noblequran.com/translation/index.html. The Noble Quran does a good job of showing the Arabic words with multiple English possibilities. I have no idea if certain translations/transliterations are more highly regarded than others. For Genesis I am using the King James Version of the Bible, completed in 1611.

For simplicity, I will just being using the word “God” in my comments. Although I know scholars are not in full agreement, I understand the etymology of Allah is al- (meaning “the”) and ilāh (meaning “deity, god”), leading an English translation of Allah to be “the diety” or “the God”. Also the fact that the Arabic Allah and the Hebrew Elohim (translated to English as “God” from the Hebrew Bible) are considered cognates of each other, my personal opinion is that they are the same name in different languages. Since I speak English, I will use the word I know, which is “God”.

I will be following the order of verses found in Genesis as the base. This is partly from my greater familiarity with Genesis, but also, there are more verses in Genesis so the correlation is a bit easier to line up.

I am dividing the harmony into five parts:

I hope the exercise is fruitful and is of some worth beyond my own curiosities. And I hope my commentary isn’t grossly errant. Some will be statements of fact as far I as I can tell they are true, others are beliefs that come from my Faith, and others will be purely opinion and speculation. I am also very open to further facts and insights, especially from perspectives other than my own.

David Mitchell

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