“It Was Not You Who Sent Me Here, but God” (Gen 45:8): Moses, Joseph, and the Prophetic Tradition

This article investigates some analogies between the narratives of Moses and Joseph and the prophetic tradition, with particular attention to the theme of commissioning and the role of the Hebrew verb šālaḥ (“to send”). Grounded in the premise that call narratives are decisive for understanding prophecy, the study offers a quick overview of the prophetic vocation and the phenomenon of human resistance to the divine commission. It then presents an analysis of Moses’s call narrative in Exod 3–4 and of Joseph’s discourse in Gen 45:1–8. The Exodus narrative highlights divine initiative and Moses’s resistance, while Joseph’s reinterpretation of his past suffering reconsiders it as part of a divine mission, with his use of šālaḥ interpreting the betrayal of his brothers as providential sending, echoing themes found in the book of Jeremiah. By highlighting these parallels, this work contributes to the understanding of prophetic identity within the Hebrew Scriptures.