t12papocrypha
Testament of Naphtali 7
Jacob receives Naphtali's two dreams and reads them as confirmation that Joseph lives — that Jehovah has not lost count of him among his brothers. The scene turns on a father's grief held alongside faith: Jacob weeps over the living absence of the son he cannot see, and Naphtali burns with the secret of the sale, bound silent by fear of his brothers. The Joseph master type runs beneath every word — the hidden son, the grieving father who discerns by the Spirit, the brothers bound by guilt, and the appointed season when all things must be fulfilled.
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These two dreams I told to my father; and he said to me, These things must be fulfilled in their season, after that Israel hath endured many things. Then my father saith unto me, I believe that Joseph liveth, for I see always that the Lord numbereth him with you. And he said, weeping, Thou livest, Joseph, my child, and I behold thee not, and thou seest not Jacob that begat thee. And he caused us also to weep at these words of his, and I burned in my heart to declare that he had been sold, but I feared my brethren.
