Myth #69:

Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors.

The Myth: Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. (Gen. 37:3)

The Reality: The Hebrew text makes no mention of a coat of many colors.

One of the most famous icons in biblical history is the many-colored coat that Jacob gave to his beloved son Joseph. There was even a hit Broadway play about it, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.

A nineteenth century B.C. Egyptian tomb painting depicts a group of Semites wearing what may be just such a garment, a multi-colored tunic, and scholars have suggested that it functioned as a symbol of leadership. However, the Hebrew phrase translated as “coat of many colors”—“kethoneth pac”—does not have that meaning. It means “long-sleeved tunic” or “wide-tunic,” and many modern translations substitute the correct meaning for the traditional “coat of many colors.”

The “coat of many colors” translation comes from the Greek version of Genesis, but we don’t know where the Greek translator got the phrase. Nor does it appear that this coat has anything to do with symbols of leadership.

We have one other reference in the Bible to such a coat. Tamar, daughter of King David, wore it.

And she had a garment of divers colours upon her: for with such robes were the king’s daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her. (2 Sam.13:18)

The phrase “garment of diverse colours” comes from the same Hebrew words used to describe Joseph’s coat. Again, it should actually read “long-sleeved tunic” or “wide tunic.” Here, the function of the coat is to signify that the king’s daughter was a virgin. If we take the term “virgin” in its wider sense of “a young woman,” then by analogy we can assume that Jacob’s gift of the coat signified that Joseph was a young man ready to take a wife .

Throughout the Near East and the Mediterranean, the symbol of leadership was not a multi-colored garment but one that was either all purple or with purple trim. In Jacob’s blessing, Judah had just such a coat:“he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes” (Gen. 49:11).