Gen 39 and its Innerbiblical Relations to Genesis and Proverbs

While the history of the reception of the narrative of Joseph and Potiphars wife has been elaborated on in detail in the past, a monograph with a thorough exegesis of this chapter of Genesis is to the present still outstanding. The proposed project intends to close this research gap. It uses a multi-perspectival method to investigate the narrative, which like Gen 38 frequently was seen as an erratic block in a self-contained (if also historically developed) Joseph narrative. Hereby, narratological and rhetorical-discursive approaches to an analysis are used along with the steps prescribed by the historical-critical method. The perspective of gender is of great relevance hermeneutically since the narrative operates with sexual stereotypes that are to be ascertained clearly and also because a massive gender bias frequently lay at the root of its exegesis in the course of the history of research. The first part is devoted to the analysis of Gen 39 using diachronic and synchronic approaches. Two excurses on ancient oriental marriage law and slave law are intended to shed light on the legal realities lying at the root of the text, and against whose background the plot of the narrative must be understood. Here, above all, the problems of sexuality and slavery must be pursued. In the second part, the inner-biblical relationships of Gen 39 to three texts, or text complexes, are investigated: the passages concerning the strange woman in the Book of Proverbs (Prov 2:16-19; 5:1-23; 6:23-35; 7:4-27), the narrative of Tamar and Judah (Gen 38), as well as the so-called abandonment narratives (Gen 12:10-20; 20:1-18; 26:1-11). The investigation of these inner-biblical relationships takes place in two steps. The first consists in the finding, description, and limitation of the thematic tertium comparationis as this results from use of the method. This point of comparison is taken essentially from the history of research, that is, it is here a matter of a thematic parallel that, to be sure, was noticed frequently, but upon which was not reflected extensively until now. In step two, the three text complexes are compared with Gen 39 on the level of form as well as content. The third part deals with the extra-biblical relationships of Gen 39. Here, what must be treated is the Egyptian two brothers tale, to which reference is made repeatedly in the history of research. Identifying further extra-biblical relationships possibly also those to the Hellenistic novel is one of the goals of the foregoing and concomitant literary research. Only the comprehensive consideration of all the results of the individual stages of the work will make possible a complete interpretation of the narrative and, possibly, a dating of the same.

The story of Joseph and Potiphars wife (Genesis 39) differs from its immediate literary context in terms of literary style as well as content. The dissertation1 which was written during the project, could not only prove the common hypothesis that the chapter is most probably a secondary addition to Genesis 37; 40-41 and influenced by wisdom literature, but also brought the completely new research result that it is closely related to Greek comedies from the Hellenistic period. This suggests that Genesis 39 dates from the Ptolemaic period and was written in the context of the Egyptian diaspora. This dating, which is very late for a text of the Hebrew bible, and the linguistic and comparative analysis leading to it, constitute the main outcome of the project. Part I is dedicated to the analysis of Gen 39 and its literary integration into the Joseph story. The stylistic characteristics become apparent, e.g. the formulaic repetitions, the strictly symmetrical composition and the repeated use of sexual innuendo in the form of ambiguous terms. Two excursus dealing with ancient oriental laws for marriage and slavery throw a light on the storys presupposed normative background, which has also been subject of research conducted in the context of a conference about Sexuality and Slavery and the corresponding publication2 that were both part of the project. Part II analysed the innerbiblical relations of Gen 39 to three texts or rather text complexes. It could be shown that the chapter is an abandonment narrative (cf. Gen 12:10-20; 20:1-18; 26:1-11) including a gender role reversal, that Tamar (cf. Gen 38) and Joseph are both victims of injustice in sexual matters by their respective authorities, and that Potiphars wife is indeed a strange woman (cf. Spr 2:16-19; 5:1-23; 6:23-35; 7:4-27), but not a seductress like her counterpart in the book of Proverbs, but is instead depicted as a sexual offender. Part III deals with the extrabiblical relations of Gen 39. After a short overview of the research history concerning the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers, a comparison between the episode in Potiphars house and the Aramaic proverbs of Ahiqar highlights the sapiential character of Gen 39. An extensive analysis of the relations between the chapter and the old as well as the new Greek Comedy (Aristophanes, Menander) and a text by Herondas, which is also comical in nature, suggests that Gen 39 is itself a miniature of a comedy. 1 Feichtinger, Daniela: Josef und die Frau des Potifar. Eine exegetische und literaturvergleichende Untersuchung von Gen 39, Wien: LIT (= exuz), autumn 2018. 2 Fischer, Irmtraud; Feichtinger, Daniela (Hg.): Sexualität und Sklaverei, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag (= AOAT 456), in print, summer 2018.