Joseph Story, The

Although a number of persons in the Hebrew Bible bear the name Joseph, the most famous and familiar is the eleventh son of the patriarch Jacob. His story (Genesis 37:39-50) is one of the most artfully crafted tales in that book of the Bible; it revolves around favoritism, jealousy or sibling rivalry, betrayal, and the reversal of gender roles and fortune.

CLOTHING AND CHANGE IN STATUS

A social device incorporated into the story is a garment motif that serves as both a social marker and the object associated with a change in status. The entire drama is held together by a series of incidents in which the main character has a portion of his or her clothing removed as a sign of changed status and the creation of a new lower status or, in the end, a spectacular rise to the highest levels of authority. This happens first to Joseph when his brothers strip him of his prized ornamental robe and use it as evidence of his death (Genesis 37:23). Another change of clothing and/or status occurs when Potiphar's wife pulls off Joseph's garment as he struggles to get away from her embrace (Genesis 39:12). Finally, it occurs when his prison clothing is removed and replaced with the fine linen robes of an officer in the employ of the pharaoh (Genesis 41:42).

EXTRABIBLICAL VERSIONS

In addition to the garment theme, the sense of powerlessness and righteous indignation experienced by Joseph in his encounter with Potiphar's wife drew on ancient Near Eastern legends and engendered a large number of extrabiblical elaborations in Jewish traditions, the Quran, and Persian poetry. The earliest of those stories, the "Tale of Two Brothers," comes from ancient Egypt and deals with a domestic dispute that arises between Anubis and his younger brother, Bata. In return for being given a place in the household of Anubis, Bata tended his brother's cattle, plowed his fields, tended his crops, and brought in his harvests. However, because of his powerful body and well-shaped face, Anubis's wife used an occasion when they were alone to try to seduce him. The righteously indignant Bata spurned her, saying, "How can you possibly suggest I commit a crime like this against my brother?" Adultery was considered a form of theft because a husband had exclusive rights to his wife's sexuality. When she subsequently denounces him, Bata is warned by the talking cattle of the danger and is forced to flee from his brother's wrath. They are reconciled only when Anubis's faithless wife dies.

The first century bce Jewish tale of Joseph and Asenath plays off the reference to his marriage in Genesis 41:45 and provides a love story that centers on Joseph's refusal to marry the virgin daughter of the priest of Heliopolis unless she renounces idol worship and converts to Judaism (Noegel and Wheeler 2002). The key to the tale is Joseph's beauty, which serves as the catalyst for change and transformation.

The twelfth Sura of the Quran retells the story of Joseph with some additions derived from Jewish legends (e.g., Joseph is warned away from Potiphar's wife in a dream [Sura 12:24, Sotah 6:2]). Although unnamed in the biblical narrative, she is referred to as Zulaykha in Arabic traditions. As in the biblical account, she falls in love with Joseph and attempts to persuade him to lie with her while she holds him in a locked room. Like Bata, he shows anger at the attempted betrayal of his master; he tries to escape but leaves his robe behind, and Zulaykha denounces him. When confronted by his master, a wise woman in the household settles the dispute over who is telling the truth by noting that Joseph's tunic was torn from the rear, indicating that he was attempting to flee from Zulaykha (Ebied and Young 1975).

In another rendition the tenth-century ce Persian poet Firdusi created an epic poem centered on stories about Joseph that hinges on an episode that occurs after Joseph's phenomenal rise to power in the service of the pharaoh (Levy 1923). Joseph passes a beggar woman in the street who seems to retain some trace of a former high status (a parallel with Joseph's previous condition). When he stops to speak to her, he discovers that she is Zulaykha, who has been reduced to begging after the death of her husband. Joseph takes her in and eventually obtains permission to marry her, thus completing the circle of events that her love for him had begun.

During the fourteenth century ce the Persian poet Hafiz daringly expressed his love for God by using the vehicle of desire for a handsome young man. He did this by utilizing the Joseph story and pointing to Zulaykha's inability to control her emotions. She first attempts to seduce Joseph and then calls for his imprisonment; finally, in a series of complex romantic situations, she obtains him as her husband. The theme that runs throughout these stories is rejection that is responded to with love.

LITERARY SUMMARY

Clearly, Joseph is cast in each of these episodes or poetic adaptations as the exemplar of God-fearing chastity in Islamic tradition as well as the image of manly beauty (Baldick 1981). Thus, the expression a second Joseph has been used to mean a person of extraordinary handsomeness. His is also the beauty that refuses advances and causes sweet torment to a potential lover. One sign of Joseph's effect on women is seen in the reaction of a group of Egyptian women who are introduced to him at a banquet; their subsequent passion for him causes them cut their hands (Sura 12:31; there is a similar Jewish version in Tanhuma Wa-yesheb 5). Sufism transforms this into a metaphor of the soul's longing to be reunited with God.

The various versions contain some common elements: (1) a handsome youth works for another man, (2) the employer's wife is enamored with the young man, (3) realizing that there can be no social or physical intercourse between them, the young man spurns the wife's attempts at seduction, and (4) the young man is falsely accused of attempted rape. In these stories it is the male who is in an endangered and/or weak position and must uphold his honor at the expense of his employment or freedom. This contrasts with the much more common obverse of this situation in 2 Samuel 13, in which it is the female who tries to protect her honor against male aggression.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baldick, Julian. 1981. "Medieval Sūfī Literature in Persian Prose." In History of Persian Literature from the Beginning of the Islamic Period to the Present Day, ed. George Morrison. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Ebied, R. Y., and M. J. L. Young, eds. and trans. 1975. The Story of Joseph in Arabic Verse: The Leeds Arabic Manuscript 347. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Levy, Reuben. 1923. Persian Literature: An Introduction. London: Oxford University Press.

Noegel, Scott B., and Brannon M. Wheeler. 2002. Historical Dictionary of Prophets in Islam and Judaism. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

                                      Victor H. Matthews