Even more noteworthy is the weaving together of the J (southern Yahwist source) and E (the northern Elohist source) strands of the Joseph story, in which the two diverge markedly. Note that the southern source prefers Judah and the northern source prefers Reuben, the first-born, in the leadership role: In brief, Joseph was hated by his brothers, who one day sold him and/or put him into a well and faked his death. Joseph ends up in Egypt and works his way up from slave to valued advisor to Prime Minister for the Pharaoh. His brothers come to Egypt during a famine and are brought before him. They do not recognize him. He accuses them of being spies and demands that they bring his father and youngest brother back. When they return, he reveals his identity and is reunified with his family. They stay in Egypt. The father Jacob (Israel) dies, is embalmed and buried in Canaan. Joseph dies, is embalmed and buried in Egypt. The family stays in Egypt until the Exodus. There are numerous inconsistencies in the story, which are outlined below, along with a rebuttal to the claim of inconsistency according to the mediaeval Jewish scholar Rashi.

	in “J” (Genesis)	in “E” (Genesis)
Who saves Joseph?	Judah (37:26)	Reuben (37:21)
Joseph is	sold to Ishmaelites (37:25,27)	found by Midianites (37:28)
brought to Egypt by	Ishmaelites (37:28)	Midianites (37:36)
brothers’ bags opened	at the inn (42:9)	at home (42:35)
surety for Benjamin	Judah (43:3)	Reuben (42:37)

Rebuttal: Reuben advised not shedding Joseph’s blood but rather to throw him into the pit with the idea perhaps of rescuing Joseph later. After Joseph was thrown into the pit, Judah suggested that Joseph could be saved by selling him to the caravan of traders.

Ishmaelites vs Midianites: Rashi says this indicates that Joseph was sold several times. First sold to the Ishmaelites who sold him to Midianites who then sold him to the Egyptians.

Bag opened in camp vs at home: One of the brothers opens his bag at the inn and discovers the money (It is inferred that this is Levi). Later back home the other brothers also find money in their own bags. Why didn’t all the brothers open their sacks? Double sided sacks, money at the bottom of all sacks except that of Levi, who was most guilty for sale of Joseph. Evidently Joseph wanted only one tranche of money to be discovered which would not have brought them back to Egypt immediately professing innocence. Rather he wanted them to discover the money only after they reached home. ~~~~~~~