Joseph’s technicolor dream coat (or something like that)
"Now Israel [Joseph’s dad] loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him." (Genesis 37:3–4)
Every flannel-graph, every VHS tape, every coloring sheet meant to provide a visual aid to the Sunday school retelling of the Joseph story depicted Jacob’s favored son in his trademarked multi-colored bathrobe.
From an early age, this image was seared into my brain.
The Hebrew phrase, however, is a little more ambiguous than I was led to believe.
Most scholars think Joseph’s ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) was probably an ornamented, long-sleeve or ankle-length coat. The adjective passim derives from the Hebrew word pas which can mean the palm of the hand or sole of the foot, perhaps indicating something about the length/cut of the fabric.
Interestingly, the only other time this “ornate” or "ornamented” coat shows up is in a description of how "the virgin princesses were clothed in earlier times" (2 Sam 13:18).
Joseph and princesses wore a ketonet passim.
That detail was not included in my Sunday school curriculum.
As you might imagine, the pairing of these two unlikely characters is highly suggestive for some Bible readers.
Austen Hartke, for example, sees in the Joseph story an example of a man (well, teenager) wearing clothes that would most assuredly not measure up to the standard gender expectation of the day. This is certainly an interesting line of thought, especially for transgender readers of the Bible such as Hartke. (Hartke’s book, Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians, is well worth your time, not only for its insightful readings of the Bible, but for Austen’s powerful testimony.)
On the use of the garment, Robert Alter concludes, a bit more safely (I’d say), it is a “unisex garment." But Alter also characterizes the garment as "a product of ancient haute couture" (which, if you've watched Project Runway, you know means, high end, hand-crafted, designer fashion).
However, we understand the garment — as a more feminine style of clothing or as a product of high fashion in the ANE — it seems to smack against expectations in an ancient patriarchal society.
The only thing we can say for sure is, Joseph's brothers hated him and his coat. It was an outward symbol of their father’s love for Joseph, which even the author acknowledges, far outweighed his love for any of them.
