Abstract: This article examines the extension of the etiological wordplay on the name Joseph (in terms of the Hebrew verbs ʾāsap and yāsap), recurrent in the canonical text of Genesis, into the JST Genesis 50 text, where Joseph learns about and prophesies of a future “Joseph” who would help gather Israel after they had been “scattered again” by the Lord. This article also analyzes the pairing of the prophetic and seeric roles of Moses and the latter-day “Joseph” at the beginning and ending of JST Genesis and explores the significance of this framing. The importance of Moses and Joseph Smith writing the word of the Lord in order to fulfill their prophetic responsibility to “gather” Israel emerges.

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Over the past few years, several articles exploring potential instances of wordplays related to the name Joseph in the Book of Mormon have appeared in print. For example, initial forays explored Nephi’s exegetical juxtaposition of Isaiah’s prophecies on the basis of the yāsap/ yôsîp-idiom as a wordplay on the name Joseph (compare 2 Nephi 25:17, 21; 29:1 to Isaiah 11:11; 29:14) in anticipation of a future seer named Joseph.1 Subsequent studies have identified Nephi’s adaptation of biblical [Page 108]Joseph-wordplay to draw parallels between his own life and that of Joseph in Egypt (his ancestor),2 the interrelated meanings of the names Joseph and Ephraim,3 Jacob’s use of the yôsip-idiom in Isaiah 11:...