Throughout Genesis we see brothers competing for the favor in the eyes of their father or God. Starting with Cane and Abel, and then Joseph and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers. The recurrence of brotherly discord in the Genesis implicates that the feelings of jealously and anger between siblings are normal and to be expected. In the Joseph story there are more feelings at play. First the brothers want to kill Joseph, but then Ruben tells them not to shed blood and instead to abandon him. It is hard to tell why Ruben "saves" his brother, but it seems as if he wants to give Joseph a chance at survival, or he just doesn't want to be his brother's killer. However, he agrees to Judah's idea to sell him to the Ishmaelites. The relationship between the brothers is also a struggle for power. By winning their father's favor they assure themselves a better inheritance. Joseph is one of the younger brothers, but his father favors him. This upsets the older brothers, and then when Joseph has dreams that symbolize his rise to power over his brothers, they are furious. These problems exist, to some extent, in every modern family, the characters in Genesis, however, do not lend a very good example of how to handle family disputes.

Potiphar's wife is another example, along with Sarah and Rebeka of a powerful, cunning woman in Genesis. She tries to persuade Joseph to sleep with her, but he refuses. One day he is alone with Potiphar's wife and she grabs him and tries to bring him to bed with her, but he runs away. His robe falls off into her hands. As soon as she realizes that she could get in trouble for having his clothes, she calls to the men of the house and essentially says that Joseph tried to rape her. She remains in control of the situation through the whole story. She manipulates her husband and by doing so sends Joseph to jail. Although, the women of Genesis are powerful, they are not kind. They are usually manipulating men to get their way, Rebeka tricks her husband, Sarah forces Abraham to send his son away, and Potiphar's wife sends Joseph to jail.