The story of Joseph (Genesis chapters 37-50) includes themes that clearly link to Jesus and the disciples. Joseph had eleven brothers and was a sheep farmer. Jesus uses the term 'sheep' to refer to his followers, and refers to himself as the good shepherd. Joseph told his father how badly his brothers were treating the sheep. He also dreamed that his brothers would eventually bow down to him.

Joseph represents Jesus, and his brothers represent the disciples and people in general. His brothers became jealous of Joseph and they sold him into slavery in Egypt for silver. Jesus was also sold out for silver (both literally by Judas and through the collection of money by priests). Egypt represents modern day society; in Exodus, the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites much like the West oppresses the poor. Since Jesus (represented by Peter) is living in our modern day society (see "Life After Death"), this fulfills the quote in Matthew 2:15: "I called my son out of Egypt."

Joseph worked as a slave for a man called Potiphar, but was falsely accused of rape and sent to prison. While in prison, Joseph interpreted the dreams of two men who had worked for the king of Egypt. One was a wine steward and the other was the chief baker.

The baker had dreamed that he had three baskets of bread on his head, which he was taking to the king. The birds were eating the bread and Joseph said that in three days, his head would be cut off. This sounds like what happened to Paul. There is a link between a baker, Paul and a woman creating heaven (myself) in Matthew 13:33, the parable of the dough (see "Who is Jesus? Who is Paul?" for other links between myself and Paul).

The wine steward told Joseph his dream in Genesis 40:9. He held the king's cup and squeezed juice out of grapes from a grapevine with three branches on it. He then gave the cup to the king. Joseph told the wine steward that he would be restored to his former position in the king's Palace in three days. When used in parables, wine represents spiritual teachings. This parable shows that Jesus will be restored to his rightful position as a teacher with followers.

Both of these dreams appear to relate to the present time (the three days represent 3000 years, but Jesus is resurrected at the start of the third day, 2000 years after his death). People are taught to follow Jesus, so he is restored to his rightful position, whereas Paul's letters are proved to be false teaching.

The king of Egypt had dreams in Genesis 41. Seven thin cows ate seven fat cows and seven thin ears of corn swallowed seven full ears of corn. Joseph interpreted this to mean that there would be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Each seven year period refers to 2000 years (in accordance with other time periods in the book of Daniel – see the letter on "The Time of the End"); they may refer to the same 2000 year period (0 to 2000AD) but from different perspectives. There has been a spiritual famine for modern Christians over the last 2000 years from the Church, but at the same time God has been putting spiritual food into storage, being kept for the present time. In the past, people have stuck to the Pauline form of the Christian religion so rigidly, that for the last 2000 years all the spiritual food has been ineffective.

Joseph was taken out of the prison and interpreted the king's dreams. The king put him in charge of Egypt to prepare for the famine. Similarly, the words of Jesus should soon be at the heart of our modern society and we are facing much worse disasters than the Egyptians were. Joseph was 30 years old when he started serving the king of Egypt (Genesis 41:46), much like Jesus was 30 years old when he started teaching (Luke 3:23), suggesting that Jesus was working for modern Western society.

Joseph's brothers came to buy food from him, but he pretended that he didn't recognise them. He wanted to test them to see if they had changed and repented from selling him into slavery. He put them in prison for three days (perhaps referring to the length of time the disciples have been dead – see "Life After Death") and demanded that the youngest brother be brought to Egypt. The youngest brother was later sent away with a sack of corn containing Joseph's silver cup.

The silver cup may refer to Holy Communion, a ceremony performed by the Church that continues the tradition set up by Jesus in the Last Supper. The purpose of this ceremony is to show that the Church 'takes the wine away from Jesus,' or rather from those that Jesus came to represent.

Mark 14:22-25
"And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God."

Jesus uses the term 'wine' to mean 'true teaching'. Those who Jesus came to represent (the poor and outcasts) were drinking the wine of his teaching while Jesus was alive, but they have not done so since then. The Church has been responsible for this lack of true teaching, so it has taken the wine away from Jesus. The results are poverty, starvation and war.

Joseph's brothers did show Joseph that they had repented, especially Judah, whose name sounds like 'Judas', a reference to Mary Magdalene and Peter. Judah offered to become Joseph's slave in the place of Benjamin, the youngest brother who had become their father's favourite son. Joseph then revealed his identity to his brothers and the family was reunited.

In Genesis 47:13-25, the Egyptians spent all their money, then gave all their livestock, then sold all their fields to the king of Egypt in return for food because the famine was so severe. This reflects the fact that we should give everything of ourselves to solve the problems of poverty in return for the spiritual food that we have received.