3. Joseph’s youthful beauty, his attempted murder, his resurrection from the pit after three days, and his eventual provision of bread to a starving world link him with the Tammuz myth; a meaning heightened by the he-goat sacrificed on the Day of Atonement, which the midrash explains as a penitential reminder of the he-goat killed by the brothers for blood to stain Joseph’s tunic.
4. The tale has been given ingenious ethical glosses by midrashic commentators. Though the brothers seemed to be wreaking vengeance on Joseph they were, it is said, God’s chosen instruments for securing his power in Egypt. God also stocked the pit with snakes and scorpions to make him scream in terror and attract the Midianites’ notice. His servitude was divinely ordained, so that he should later save Israel from famine; but since the brothers sinned, their descendants were likewise fated to become slaves in Egypt. ‘By your lives,’ God told them, ‘you sold Joseph into slavery, and therefore you will recite the tale of your own Egyptian bondage until the end of time’ (Midrash Tehillim 93). God even arranged that the Ishmaelites should carry perfumed spices instead of their usual malodorous loads of skins, thus making Joseph’s journey pleasant. One midrash adds that God miraculously provided a garment, so as to spare him the disgrace of standing naked in the presence of strangers; another makes God bless Reuben’s attempted liberation of Joseph, by sending the prophet Hosea, a Reubenite, to preach repentance throughout Israel. Joseph’s sins of vanity, tale-bearing and disrespect, are punished with nakedness, suffering and servitude.
5. Jacob’s resolve to punish the wild beast which had devoured Joseph must be understood as piety, not hysteria. Moses ordered the death of any animal that killed a man. A similar English law of Anglo-Saxon origin, known as Deodand and not repealed until 1846, made any beast or object that had caused a man’s death—ox, cart, fallen beam, or whatever else it might be—Crown property. Its value was distributed in the form of alms to the poor, or donations to the Church.
6. ‘Pieces of silver’ were nowhere coined before the seventh century B.C.
54
JOSEPH AND ZULEIKA
(a) Joseph was taken down to Egypt by the Midianites, and sold to Potiphar the eunuch, Pharaoh’s chief victualler who, recognizing Joseph’s talents, soon appointed him household steward, and never regretted the choice.
Potiphar had married, but his wife Zuleika did not consider herself bound by any marital ties: a woman naturally expects children. She tried to seduce Joseph; but he, although by no means insensible of Zuleika’s outstanding beauty, rebuffed her advances, saying: ‘My master, your husband, has set me over his household, denying me nothing except what you ask. It would be robbery, as well as a sin against God, if I succumbed.’
She asked: ‘Since I cannot enjoy my husband’s embraces, nor he mine, how would this be robbery?’ Joseph saw that she had blinded the idol on the wall above her with a sheet. He said: ‘That is well done; but no one blinds the eyes of God, who sees all!’390
(b) Zuleika’s unsatisfied craving preyed on her health. Visiting court-ladies soon inquired: ‘What ails you? Your health is usually so robust.’
‘I will show you the cause,’ Zuleika replied.
She ordered a banquet and called Joseph in to supervise the arrangements. The ladies could not take their eyes off him and, while peeling fruit set before them, all cut themselves.
When Joseph left the hall, Zuleika said: ‘There is blood on the fruit! If you cut your fingers after so short a torment, what do I not suffer day after day?’391
(c) Zuleika wooed Joseph with words and gifts, constantly dressed in new garments, and took every opportunity to allow him brief glimpses of her naked breasts and thighs. She also used love philtres; but God always warned Joseph which cup or dish to avoid. At last she resorted to threats.
‘You shall be cruelly oppressed!’
‘God helps the oppressed,’ Joseph answered.
‘I shall starve you!’
‘God feeds the hungry.’
‘I shall cast you into prison.’
‘God releases the captive.’
‘I shall force you into the dust!’
‘God raises those who are bowed down.’
‘I shall put out your eyes!’
‘God gives sight to the blind.’392
(d) The court-ladies told her: ‘You must break his resistance, one day, when you two are alone. He is a man like any other, and cannot long withstand your charms. Doubtless he already reciprocates your passion.’
Zuleika took their advice. Early next morning, she stole into Joseph’s bedroom and fell upon him suddenly. He awoke, broke loose, and left her lying there. She cried in despair: ‘Has so beautiful a woman ever revealed her consuming love for you? Why so churlish? Why this fear of your master? As Pharaoh lives, no harm will come to you! Only be generous, and cure me of my wretchedness! Must I die, because of your foolish scruples?’393
(e) The annual rise of the Nile was greeted with harps, drums, and dancing; and all Potiphar’s household attended the festivities, except Zuleika who pleaded ill health; Joseph, who busied himself at his accounts; and some porters. When everything was quiet, Zuleika crept into Joseph’s study, caught hold of his garment and ripped it off him, crying: ‘Sweetheart, at last we are alone! Enjoy me without fear!’ Joseph fled, naked. Humiliated beyond endurance, Zuleika screamed for the porters, who came running with weapons in their hands. ‘Your master has appointed this vile Hebrew slave to insult us!’ she panted. ‘He tried to ravish me, but when I cried out, he fled, leaving this garment behind.’
She told Potiphar the same thing on his return, and he angrily confined Joseph in the Royal Prison—God’s punishment on him for not yet having learned to shun the sins of luxurious living and self-adornment, which had again brought trouble with them.
Some say that Potiphar himself doted on Joseph, and felt jealous of Zuleika.394
(f) When the case was tried in a priestly court, the Chief Judge, having listened to both parties, called for Joseph’s garment, which they duly produced. Holding it up, he said: ‘If, as the Lady Zuleika claims, this slave forced himself upon her, but fled when she cried out; and if she then tore off his garment to keep as evidence against him, the rent will be found behind. If, on the contrary, she tore it off him, as he claims, the better to excite his lust, the rent will be found in front.’
All the judges solemnly agreed that the rent was certainly in front; yet, to avoid casting a slur on Zuleika’s name, they returned Joseph to prison for ten more years, while recommending the prison-governor to treat him less severely than his cell-mates.395
***
1. The same story appears in the Greek myths of Biadice and Phrixus, Anteia and Bellerophon, and Phaedra and Hippolytus. In each case, however, the man’s reason for repelling the woman’s advances is a horror of incest. The Biadice and Phrixus story comes from Boeotian Cadmeia where it introduces an imported Canaanite myth (see 34. 5); the other two come from the Gulf of Corinth, where Western Semitic influence was strong (see 39. 1). Further versions are found in Thessaly, and on Tenedos, where the Phoenician god Melkarth was worshipped; but its earliest written record appears in the Egyptian Tale of the Two Brothers, from which have been borrowed the myths of Abraham, Sarah and Pharaoh (see 26), Abraham, Sarah and Abimelech (see 30), and Isaac, Rebekah and Abimelech (see 37).
2. Potiphar’s wife remained nameless, until the Sepher Hayashar called her ‘Zuleika’; in the Testament of Joseph (XII. 1; XIV. 1, etc.), however, she is called ‘the woman of Moph’.
The main midrashic elaboration of the bare Genesis account is reminiscent of Ovid’s record of Phaedra’s sufferings in Heroides IV. 67 ff. No obloquy attaches to Zuleika, because it was her duty to bear children and, if she had succeeded in getting twins from Joseph, might have been praised as highly as Tamar (see 51. 5). But God intended another Egyptian woman to bear Joseph’s sons; and one midrash tells how Zuleika was deceived by the misreading of a horoscope which foretold that he would beget famous of
fspring on a woman of Potiphera’s household—namely Asenath (see 49. h, 9). Joseph’s rejoinders when threatened by Zuleika are all Scriptural quotations.
3. The festival which allowed Zuleika to be alone with Joseph was either ‘The Reception of the Nile’, also called ‘The Night that Isis Weeps’ (June 20th), or the mid-July New Year Festival, celebrating the re-appearance of Sirius, when the river reached its highest flood level in Middle Egypt. ‘The Ship of Rising Waters’ was then ceremoniously launched.
4. Hebrew myth contains several anecdotes meant to sharpen the detective acumen of judges: such as Solomon’s judgement of the two harlots (1 Kings III. 16 ff), and Daniel’s defence of Susanna against the lying elders (Susanna V. 45 ff). The case of Joseph’s torn garment is another such; but a rival midrash turns this legal argument inside out, making the dorsal rent proof of Zuleika’s furious attempts to haul him back for her sexual enjoyment, and the frontal rent proof of her struggles to repel his attack.
5. Although one midrash explains the apparent anomaly of a married eunuch by saying that God had castrated him to punish an attempt on Joseph’s virtue, this is unnecessary—Pharaoh’s chief victualler needed a wife for social reasons. Such sterile unions were permitted at Rome in Juvenal’s day: ducitur uxorem spado tener.
6. Potiphar was probably Pharaoh’s Chief Executioner, not his Chief Victualler (see 55. 1).
55
JOSEPH IN PRISON
(a) God watched over Joseph in the Royal Prison, where the Governor soon thought fit to appoint him his deputy. Thus, when Pharaoh’s Chief Butler and Chief Baker were also confined there, they came under Joseph’s supervision. What charges had been brought against these two is unknown. Some say that a fly was found in the royal wine-cup, and lumps of alum in a loaf set upon the royal table. Others, that both were accused of complicity in an attempt to ravish Pharaoh’s daughter.
One night, at all events, they dreamed dreams that haunted them throughout the next morning, and complained to Joseph: ‘Alas, sir, that we have no soothsayer here who can interpret them!’
‘Am I not a servant of the One God,’ Joseph asked, ‘to whom such interpretations belong?’
The Chief Butler then said: ‘I dreamed of a three-branched vine. Its branches budded, blossoms burst out and formed grape clusters, the fruit grew ripe. Pharaoh’s cup was in my right hand. I pressed the grape into it with my left, and gave him to drink.’
Joseph readily interpreted the dream: ‘Each branch is a day. In three days’ time Pharaoh will forgive your fault and let you bear his royal wine-cup as before. When this comes to pass, pray remember me, and bring my case to Pharaoh’s attention. I am of noble blood, but abducted by Ishmaelites from the land of my fathers, sold into slavery, and now imprisoned on a false charge.’
‘I shall do so without fail,’ promised the Chief Butler.
The Chief Baker, greatly reassured by what he heard, said: ‘In my dream I was carrying three bread-baskets upon my head: the topmost held all manner of cakes and confectionary for Pharaoh’s table. Suddenly a flock of birds swooped down and ate them all.’
Joseph announced: ‘In three days’ time, Pharaoh will behead you and hang your body upon a tree for the kites to eat.’
Three days later, Pharaoh celebrated his birthday with a palace banquet, which he made the occasion of restoring his Chief Butler to favour and beheading his Chief Baker. However, the Chief Butler quite forgot what he had promised Joseph.396
(b) After three months, Zuleika visited Joseph, saying: ‘How long must I keep you in prison? Be my lover, and I will set you free at once.’
Joseph answered: ‘I have sworn before God never to be your lover!’ Zuleika then threatened Joseph with torture, and heavy fetters; but could not move him. It is said, though, that God lengthened Joseph’s prison term by two more years: because he had twice asked the Chief Butler, not Himself, to secure his release.397
***
1. Zuleika’s love for Joseph is a Judaean addition, evidently supplied to explain a mistaken reading of ‘in prison’. The older Ephraimite account presents Joseph’s master Potiphar as the Royal Prison governor, who placed the Butler and Baker under Joseph’s charge. Joseph was ‘in prison’ merely as a warder.
2. Some midrashic commentators considered Joseph’s interpretations of these dreams too ephemeral, and therefore suggested more edifying ones that Joseph had discreetly kept to himself. Thus the vinestock represented the world; its three branches, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; its blossom, the patriarchs’ wives; its ripe grapes, the twelve tribes. Or the vinestock represented the Law; its three branches, Moses, Aaron and Miriam; its blossom, the Assembly of Israel; and its grapes, the righteous souls of each generation. Or the vinestock represented Israel; its three branches, the three chief festivals; its budding, Israel’s tribal increase in Goshen; its blossom, her redemption from bondage; and its grapes, the Exodus that would make Pharaoh’s pursuing army stagger as if drunken. Similarly, the Chief Baker’s three baskets represented the three kingdoms of Babylon, Media and Greece, which were to oppress Israel (see 28. 5); while the topmost basket (read as a fourth, not the third) stood for Rome, whose riches and luxuries would be destroyed by angels in the Messiah’s Days.
3. The twelfth-century Midrash Hagadol, compiled in Yemen, states that the bird which ate from the Chief Baker’s baskets symbolized the Messiah who would annihilate the kingdoms oppressing Israel. This symbol is elaborated by the mediaeval Kabbalists. In a Description of the Garden of Eden, dating perhaps from the eleventh century, and also in the Zohar, the Inner Hall or Paradise where the Messiah dwells is named ‘The Bird’s Nest’.
56
JOSEPH BECOMES VICEROY
(a) Two years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, out of which stepped seven plump, sleek cows and began grazing on the papyrus reed. Seven lean, wretched-looking cows followed after a while but, instead of grazing, ravenously devoured their sisters—horns, hooves and all. Pharaoh awoke in horror. Falling asleep again, he dreamed of seven plump ears of corn that grew from a single stalk; but another seven ears growing near by, empty of grain and withered by the East Wind, swallowed them down.
At day break, Pharaoh sent for his soothsayers and recounted the dreams. None of their interpretations satisfied him. They said: ‘The seven sleek cows indicate that you will beget seven beautiful daughters; the lean ones, that they will all die of a wasting ailment. The seven plump ears of corn indicate that you will conquer seven nations; the withered, that they will afterwards rebel.’398
(b) Observing Pharaoh’s distress, Merod, the Chief Butler, suddenly remembered Joseph. He had not, indeed, been ungrateful: Joseph’s case constantly troubled him, and he would tie knots in his kerchief as a reminder; but always forgot what they meant when he entered Pharaoh’s presence. God thus delayed matters until the time should be ripe. Merod now told Pharaoh how accurately Joseph interpreted dreams, and pleaded for his release. Pharaoh thereupon summoned Joseph, who was at once shaved, dressed in decent garments, and brought into the Royal Council Chamber.
Pharaoh said: ‘I am told that you interpret dreams.’
Joseph answered: ‘Not I, but the Living God who speaks through me! He will set Pharaoh’s mind at rest.’
Pharaoh told his dreams, adding that after the lean cows had swallowed the sleek, they looked as hungry as ever.
‘God has sent Pharaoh two dreams with the same meaning,’ said Joseph. ‘The seven sleek cows and the seven plump ears of corn stand for years; likewise the lean cows and the empty ears. Seven years of plenty must be followed by seven years of famine so severe that the time of plenty will be quite forgotten. Pharaoh’s second dream reinforces the first, and advises instant action. God herewith counsels Pharaoh to choose a trustworthy Viceroy, capable of providing against the evil days ahead; he must instruct his officers to buy up one fifth of the country’s grain and pulses during the seven plentiful years. Let this surplus be stored under Pharaoh’s seal in the Royal Gra
naries, one at each provincial city, as a reserve against the years of famine.’399
(c) The whole Court was convinced that Joseph had spoken the truth, and Pharaoh asked: ‘Where can I find another man who will thus follow the dictates of the Living God?’ Since no answer came, Pharaoh turned to Joseph and said: ‘Inasmuch as God has revealed these things to you, we need look no farther. I appoint you my Viceroy over all Egypt, and whatever orders you give to the people, they shall also be mine. I reserve no more than my Pharaonic dignity, which is superior to yours.’
So saying, Pharaoh took the seal ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s, presented him with a royal linen apron, and hung a golden chain around his neck. He then pronounced: ‘I name you Zaphenath-Paneah’—which means Through him the Living God speaks—‘and no man in my dominions shall dare lift a hand or move a foot without your leave!’ Pharaoh also lent Joseph a conveyance second in splendour only to his own chariot of state. The people hailed him as ‘Abrech’, and he ruled over all Egypt, though still in his thirtieth year. Joseph’s officers now bought up surplus grain and pulses, and stored them in the provincial granaries.400
(d) Then, because Joseph would accept no praise, but gave God the credit for whatever he had spoken or done wisely, and because he looked modestly down when young Egyptian women admired his beauty, God rewarded him with long life, prosperity, and a peculiar gift enjoyed by his descendants: immunity from the evil eye.401
(e) By Pharaoh’s favour, Joseph married Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. She bore him two sons, the first of whom he named ‘Manasseh’, saying ‘God has made me forget my sufferings and my exile!’; and the second ‘Ephraim’, saying ‘God has made me fruitful, despite affliction!’402
(f) According to some, however, Asenath was the bastard daughter of his sister Dinah, adopted by Zuleika and Potiphar, whom they identify with Potiphera. Asenath, they explain, accused Zuleika to Potiphar of having lied; whereupon Potiphar gave her in marriage to Joseph, by way of admission that he had done no wrong.