Recent research on the so-called Life of Joseph also known as In pulcherrimum Ioseph

Abstract

In pulcherrimum Ioseph (IpJ), a retelling of the life of “the most beautiful Joseph,” appears among the Greek writings of the Syriac Church Father Ephraem and is preserved in at least seven languages: Greek, Latin, Coptic, Armenian, Arabic, Slavonic, and Georgian. Most scholars agree that The Life of Joseph/In pulcherrimum Ioseph was neither written by Ephraem nor in Syriac but was originally written in Greek. Some find, however, a substantial overlap with the Syriac Joseph traditions. A Greek papyrus from the sixth to seventh century provides the earliest material evidence. Beyond the first 120 lines of the Joseph-Christ typology, the retelling of the Joseph story contains no unambiguous Christian features. This article argues that the text is likely a composition of three different parts. After introducing IpJ and its characteristics, I present an overview of manuscripts and editions to illustrate its extraordinary popularity and several Sitz im Leben of this particular Joseph story. Finally, I will return to the question of provenance and place this specific retelling of Gen 37–46 within Jewish and Christian debates on the biblical Joseph.

In pulcherrimum Ioseph (IpJ) (CPG 3938), the Sermon on the Handsome Joseph or Most Beautiful Joseph, or Life of Joseph, as it was called earlier, reached modern times on papyrus, as it was preserved among the Greek writings attributed to the Syrian theologian Ephraem († 373). It was also part of the Armenian Bible and was preserved in Coptic, Latin, Slavonic, Georgian, Arabic, and early modern Greek versions. ¹ I adopt the Latin title In pulcherrimum Ioseph (IpJ) to reduce inevitable confusion with similar Joseph stories from antiquity, Second Temple, and Early Byzantine times. IpJ is preserved in one Greek papyrus, 140 Greek manuscripts, and Latin, Coptic, Serbian, Georgian, and Arabic versions. It has a Sitz im Leben in Orthodox liturgy. Many motifs also appear in various Jewish compositions from before the Common Era to late antiquity as well as in diverse cultural artifacts. Whether IpJ originated as a Jewish story is discussed at the end of this study.

My interest in IpJ arose from its role in the literary history of manuscripts of the Jewish novel Joseph and Aseneth, with which it appears in several biblical and miscellaneous collections. ² In the 1950s, art historians reintroduced IpJ to central European scholarship after rediscovering the Synagogue paintings of Dura Europos. Jeanne and Otto Pächt traced illustrations of IpJ to a proposed Jewish ancestor of Vienna Cotton Genesis (fourth- to fifth-century C.E.). ³ Garry Vikan objected to this thesis, though, because of a “close and consistent physical as well as contextual bond between image and relevant narrative passage” that characterizes three illustrated codices. ⁴ Still, Vikan did not rule out Jewish precursors to the manuscripts’ iconography. ⁵

After an outline of IpJ and its characteristics, I present an overview of the manuscripts and editions to illustrate its extraordinary popularity and several Sitz im Leben of this particular version of the Joseph story. After showing how features and motifs intermingle with those from similar retellings of Gen 37–50, I return to the question of IpJ’s provenance. I discuss whether IpJ may be best described as a Christian adoption of Jewish traditions or as one of the many snapshots in the continual intermingled storytelling among Jews and Christians in late antiquity.

An outline of the story of In pulcherrimum Joseph

The Greek Text has recently been translated into modern Greek, English, and French. ⁶ After an invocation of Israel’s God, a first-person speaker proclaims that the story of “all beautiful [πάγκαλος] Joseph” illustrates Christ’s two comings (1–2Crowell [C]/1–3Crégheur and Poirier [CP] and 1–29Lash [L]/260–261,2Phrantzola [P]). IpJ is framed as a Christian homily or sermon in the present form. The first 800 words contain eleven analogies of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection to the biblical account of Joseph. ⁷ Joseph’s sending for his brothers from the “bosom of Jacob” symbolizes Christ’s incarnation. Joseph’s imprisonment in Egypt is to be compared to Christ’s descent into Hades that brings salvation from sin. Joseph’s reign in Egypt and his triumph symbolize Christ’s eternal reign in heaven. Throughout, Joseph’s brothers as a group stand for “the hostile Jews,” and their treatment of Rachel’s elder son prefigures their alleged role in Jesus’s passion. While not parallel, the typology resembles the Greek and Latin homiletic writings by Hippolytus or Ambrose more closely than the Syriac Joseph-Christ typologies. ⁸ Whether this typology is connected to the following stories has been debated. ⁹ Nonetheless, it “establishes the bias through which the reader receives the rest of the story.” ¹⁰

In general, IpJ follows the story of Genesis in two parts. Part 1 (5–25C/9–40CP/121–594L/265–285P) narrates Gen 37, 39–40, followed by a short thanksgiving from Joseph, who, in prison and temptation, did not abandon God and, therefore, will be adorned with a wreath of victory (25C/35CP/595–600L/285,13–286,2P). Part 2 (26–39C/36–54CP/600–820L/286–300P) presents a somewhat shortened representation of Gen 41:1–46:30. The writing describes itself as “lyrical songs” (τὰ μελικὰ ᾄσματα [IpJ 3C/3CP/28L/261,3P]). Lash identified a syllable meter for line 496 out of the 820 lines in total. Why the metric rhythm stops in the middle of the wife of Potiphar story remains unexplained. Conversely, Trevor Fiske Crowell argues that IpJ “shows no or only sporadic metrical tendency.” ¹¹

One unique feature of this particular account is about twenty lengthy speeches, laments, and prayers, with added emotional qualities, which cover approximately three-eighths of the text. ¹² Most of these monologues and dialogues are in Part 1. Part 2 includes three additional scenes and two monologues. A second unique feature is that no single dream is conveyed; instead, dreaming is mentioned in the storyline only if necessary. ¹³ Selections extant in Greek and Slavonic texts concur with only certain manuscripts. In contrast, the vernacular version in Modern Greek, presented alongside two illustrated manuscripts (Roe 5 and McKell), narrates dreams, at least in part. ¹⁴ What further distinguishes this account from others is that Reuben and Simeon’s specific roles among the brothers in Genesis are ignored; instead, all the brothers appear to be a group. Benjamin and Judah are singled out only at the end, whereas Gen 44:18–37 highlights Simeon instead. ¹⁵

Another characteristic of this particular retelling of the Genesis story is that Joseph’s character shows no ambivalence. On the contrary, he is a child with blossoming virtue who sees the wickedness of his brothers and tells his father. Nonetheless, he is sent to look after his brothers and, while lost, is guided by an angel (in Gen 37:17, man) to find them. ¹⁶ The brothers attack him and throw him into the pit (Gen 37:23–24). Yet in a dramatic scene, Joseph pleads for mercy by reminding his brothers of their father’s suffering (6C/12CP/180–219L/267,2–268,8P). Then, at the bottom of the pit, Joseph turns to his father and God with two extensive prayers (7–8C/13–14CP/220–245L/269,1–11P). ¹⁷ Nonetheless, Joseph is sold to the Ishmaelites (in Gen 37:28); contrary to the twenty pieces of silver in the Bible and other contemporary Joseph accounts, no specific price is mentioned.

Another singular feature of the retelling occurs on the way to Egypt. Passing Rachel’s tomb, Joseph falls upon the memorial and laments his fate to his dead mother (10C/16CP/272–299L/270,14–271,15P). ¹⁸ Fearing that the young lad would want to perform witchcraft on them and doubting that he was indeed a slave, the Ishmaelites begin to question him about his past. Joseph explains his family relations. ¹⁹ Therefore, the Ishmaelite merchants promise him great honor in Egypt (11–13C/17–20CP/300–374L/272,1–274,10P). Meanwhile, the brothers slaughter a goat, stain Joseph’s coat with blood, and present it to Jacob as evidence that the wild animals had killed Joseph. Beyond Genesis, IpJ adds another dramatic scene in which Jacob delivers a long, bitter lament upon seeing Joseph’s coat (15C/22CP/375–429L/274,11–276,14P).

In Egypt, Joseph is bought by Potiphar, and IpJ expands on the wife of Potiphar episodes. Joseph experienced extensive and varied temptations by the notorious woman. This part extends six times the length of the biblical account. ²⁰ Potiphar’s wife adorns herself to tempt Joseph, bears her arms and legs, ²¹ and raises her voice, pleading that Joseph may sleep with her. Joseph answers with another prayer to God. ²² Finally, as in Genesis, Joseph leaves his garment in her hand, is falsely accused of adultery, and is arrested (Gen 39:15–18). Without retelling any dreams, Gen 39:19–41:42 is heavily abbreviated. At the nadir of his destiny, when Pharaoh’s attendant had forgotten him, the homily introduces a theological reflection or apostrophe blaming Joseph for seeking help from the Pharaoh’s attendant and not from God. “When the noble ones reside in temptation, you weave a greater wreath of victory for them!” ²³

The second part narrates Gen 41:9–46:30 in abbreviated form. Pharaoh’s attendant remembers Joseph two years later when nobody else can interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. Because he is “a man of wisdom, able to judge the deep things in dreams” (26C/37CP/614L/287,1P), Pharaoh promotes him as a high official commissioned to gather grain all over Egypt. In one of the few additional scenes in this section, Joseph’s former master, Potiphar, hides at home while witnessing Joseph’s sudden rise to power. After confessing her lies and desires, the wife of Potiphar encourages her husband “to get up with joy” because they had become the reason for his glory, and to pay his respect to Joseph. Strikingly, in his dialogue with his wife, Potiphar shows no sign of anger or remorse toward his wife’s intended adultery (27C/28–29CP/626–646L/285,12–289,2P).

After that, the story closely follows Jub. 42–43. In a second addition to Genesis, Jacob laments that he must send Benjamin to Egypt, fearing losing his second son born by his beloved wife Rachel (29–30C/42–44CP/655–675L/290,7–292,15). ²⁴ While Gen 43:33 mentions that Joseph seats his brothers according to their seniority, IpS explains that he seemingly divines their names and ranks from a silver cup (31C/45 CP/205–275L/293,1–294,5P). Already in Genesis, the cup is called a “cup for divination” (Gen 44:5, 15). ²⁵ Naturally, the brothers fear this because they lied earlier. As in Gen 44:4–12, the brothers leave with the grain, and afterward Joseph sends the stewards behind to discover the silver cup in Benjamin’s sack (Gen 44:4–12/Jub. 43.1–9). IpJ adds that the brothers insult and blame Benjamin as the thief born of a thief. ²⁶ Benjamin reacts with wailing and lamentation (32–3C3/48–49CP/738–764L/294,7–296,14P). Brought back to Joseph, Judah, instead of Simeon, steps forward and pleads for mercy. ²⁷ In the last scene, Benjamin convinces Jacob that his son is still alive by showing him Joseph’s gifts. IpJ ends with a general invocation praising God.

Manuscripts

The Greek Text (CPG 3938/BHG 2200a-g) ²⁸ is found in approximately 140 manuscripts written between the ninth and seventeenth centuries. ²⁹ The text was edited twice during the early eighteenth century. In 1709, Edward Thwaites published the texts from the Codex Baroccianus 147 and 192 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. He had already noticed that the Codex Baroccianus 148 differed in almost every line. ³⁰ In 1743, Joseph Salomo Assemani revised Thwaites’s text using Vatican manuscripts and produced a new text that varied considerably with forty-five additions or lacunae. ³¹ In 1998, Konstantios Phrantzola re-edited Assimani’s edition with considerable revisions, unfortunately without text-critical notes beyond the occasional reference to Thwaites. ³² One papyrus from the sixth to the seventh centuries appeared in 1708 from the binding of another codex containing nineteen fragments of seven to ten codex pages (Papyrus Montfaucon TM 59725/LDAB 829). ³³ This text is not identical to one of the printed editions, containing a more extended narration of the Pharaoh’s dreams. ³⁴ Phrantzola’s text was translated by Archimandrite Ephrem Lash, thus identifying a Syrian seven-to-eight-syllabus meter for the first 496 verses of the text. ³⁵ Indeed, the seven to seven isosyllabic lines are characteristic of Ephraem’s Syrian writing. ³⁶ There is still some debate as to whether IpJ may have originated in Syria (see below), but an indication otherwise is its use of the Septuagint, not the Peshitta. ³⁷ Assemani’s text was translated into English by Trevor Fiske Crowell and into French by Eric Crégheur and Paul-Hubert Poirier. ³⁸ Unfortunately, all three recent translations introduced their own verse and paragraph numbers beyond the text edition.

Contrary to its popularity in the Greek world, only one partial translation into Latin survived in Codex Latinus Monacensis (Clm 3516 fol 109v-117v) from the ninth to the tenth centuries. ³⁹ IpJ was prominent in Armenia, however, especially in Armenian Bibles. At least seven of the ten manuscripts known to date are part of Bibles. ⁴⁰ IpJ or On the Seven Vahangs of Joseph, as it is called in the two manuscripts consulted in the first edition, was likely translated from Greek. ⁴¹ The enigmatic book title may be translated as “On Joseph, in seven syllables.” ⁴²

IpJ is even more prevalent in Slavonic-speaking countries. Here, the text is known by 167 manuscripts and is often included in collections of up to 115 writings of the Greek Ephraem, called Paranesis. ⁴³ IpJ appears, however, at the end of this collection with different systems of enumeration and was not always included. In the Slavonic tradition, IpJ can also be part of miscellaneous collections and menologies, either as a reading for the Patriarchs’ Sunday before Christmas or for Monday of Holy Week, two circumstances in which Gen 37–50 is read according to the liturgical calendar of Orthodox churches. ⁴⁴ Homilies like Pseudo-Chrysostom’s Homily about Fasting, and Joseph, and the Priest, and the Prophet David, also popular in the Slavonic-speaking world in medieval times, serve much better Christological intentions by explaining more directly than IpJ the allegedly Christological meanings of every feature of Gen 37–50. ⁴⁵ Moreover, the Slavonic tradition knows many more Joseph texts: The Sermon on Joseph’s Strength, A First Story about the Handsome Joseph, The Story about Joseph and Aseneth, and another story about the Handsome Joseph. Due to its popularity, IpJ likely replaced other traditions. ⁴⁶ Without critical editions, how much these manifold Joseph traditions overlap remains an open question. Field studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries seem to suggest that Joseph became important in interreligious dialogue and competition between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim storytellers and writers of their respective codices. ⁴⁷

The Coptic version preserved in two manuscripts has recently been published. The second manuscript only covers the last part of the story. ⁴⁸ The editors, Eric Crégheure and Paul-Hubert Poirier, suspect two independent translations from Greek. Two more Coptic Joseph texts exist: (1) the Legenda Joseph (Clavis Apocryphorum Veteris Testamenti [CAVT] 110), up to now only transliterated ⁴⁹ —likely a Christian sermon for Monday during Holy Week; and (2) The Historia Apocrypha de Joseph (CAVT 111), renamed Narratio Joseph. Anders Klostergaard Petersen and Jan Dochhorn identify the Narratio Joseph/Historia Apocrypha de Joseph as Jewish. ⁵⁰ There are no apparent Christological applications. What strikes me, however, is that this selection partially resembles the storyline of the Syriac History of Joseph (CAVT 113–114). ⁵¹ This text, previously attributed to Basil (of Caesarea), is now included in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha—More Non-Canonical Scriptures. ⁵² In the Coptic fragment, it is ‛ο διάβολος, not an angel, who meets Joseph and shows him the way to his brothers. ⁵³ The dialogue is quite similar, however. Reuben and Judah are in Joseph’s sight and try to comfort and save him, while the sons born to Jacob’s slaves—in the Coptic only Gad—are Joseph’s main enemy. They mock him even when he is locked in the cistern. ⁵⁴ The other features resemble further IpJ. For instance, Joseph humiliates himself before his brothers and begs, “Forgive me my dreams,” a scene that is expanded with Joseph’s extensive pleading and his prayer to Jacob in the pit. ⁵⁵ Georgian and Arabic translations are also well known. ⁵⁶

Joseph among Jews and Christians

IpJ is not the only story of Joseph preserved in Greek that extends beyond the Bible. The CAVT lists under no. 107 the Oratio Joseph, preserved through citations in three of Origen’s commentaries on Biblical Writing. Joseph speaks to the angel Uriel and identifies himself as the incarnation of the angel Israel (cf. Gen 28). ⁵⁷ Whether this text took up also Gen 37 remains an open question; there might have been more than one Προσευχὴ Ἰωσήϕ, but these writings have been lost. ⁵⁸

Additionally, The History of Joseph (CAVT 108) is based on several highly fragmentary papyri. ⁵⁹ Like IpJ, it is a dramatized retelling of Gen 41–43; yet, as far as it may be seen from the fragments, neither text overlaps. The most distinctive element of this Joseph story is the repeated phrase, “Joseph, remembering Jacob.” ⁶⁰

Most Joseph accounts are known from the Syrian and Armenian tradition. Kristian Heal lists twenty-seven Syriac and four Armenian Joseph accounts in homilies, songs, epics, and so on. ⁶¹ One of the two earliest texts for Heal is the Syriac History of Joseph (SHJ), also known as Pseudo-Basil, Historia Joseph filii Jacob, listed under its Arabic and Ethiopic translations (CAVT 113–114). ⁶² For Heal, IpJ originated in Syria in the fifth century and was likely influenced by SHJ because Joseph’s visit to his mother Rachel’s tomb and the return of Potiphar’s wife after Joseph’s promotion by the Pharaoh are only attested in Syriac. ⁶³ SHJ elaborates, however, on these scenes. Potiphar’s wife also writes a letter to Joseph, to which he replies and later honorably invites his former master’s wife to his new home (SHJ 25–27). In SHJ, Jacob, not Joseph, invokes Rachel in his lament (SHJ 12,8–16; cf. IPJ 10C/16CP/273–299L/272,2–15P). While there are indeed some overlapping motifs—both texts feature the man leading Joseph to his brothers as an angel, Joseph’s prayer at the bottom of the pit, Jacob’s extensive mourning and laments in the face of Joseph’s alleged death (SHJ 12,1–32/15C/22CP/375–429L/275,3–276,16), a lament to Rachel, extensive descriptions of Potiphar’s wife attempting to seduce Joseph, and Joseph’s divining from the cup—the texts differ from the original stories in individual ways. ⁶⁴ With Genesis, SHJ emphasizes the role of individual brothers: the sons of the handmaidens are Joseph’s greatest enemies, ⁶⁵ and Reuben and Judah are his defenders (SHJ 1, 5–7, 9, 31). SHJ includes narration of all dreams (2, 19,2011; 21,1–6). ⁶⁶ Beyond the biblical story, the SHJ features Joseph mocked by the hostile brothers, Arab merchants receiving a bill of sale, Jacob’s family attempting to comfort Jacob (SHJ 13,1–12), Potiphar’s wife and Joseph exchanging letters, and she and Potiphar are honorably welcomed into Joseph’s home (SHJ 25–27). Joseph also divines the misdeeds of his brothers (SHJ 45). These observations counter any tracing of direct lines between the two accounts. Comparing IpJ and SHJ demonstrates how flexible and fluid singular motifs can be, moving from one story to another and vice versa.

Heal’s tradition competes with two alternative views. Heinrich Näf argues that IpJ was indeed written by Ephraem the Syrian. For Näf, IpJ was the source of Pseudo-Basil’s SHJ and later of Nasrai’s 808 twelve-syllable lines poem On Joseph. ⁶⁷ In contrast, Robert R. Phenix doubts that IpJ was translated in Syria. Moreover, for him, the oldest layer of the manifold Syriac Joseph stories is a Greek Jewish narrative transmitted into Syria as the Vorlage of an epic poem in twelve memres with over 10,007-syllable lines attributed to Balai. ⁶⁸ Therefore, Phenix and Poirier propose a hypothetical Hellenistic-Jewish haggadic source as the Vorlage or the source of our text. ⁶⁹

In my view, Trevor Fiske Crowell has recently argued convincingly that the Greek writings attributed to Ephraem differ in their theological and exegetical approach from Ephraem’s Syriac homilies and biblical commentaries. IpJ most likely originated in Greek in a Greek-speaking context. What resembles other Syriac writings, however, is the interest in dramatic recreation that draws the audience into the story, sometimes even making them laugh. Whoever listens to IpJ encounters humanized biblical figures. Even as a captive, Joseph can make his new masters, the Ishmaelites, pause on their way to Egypt to lament at his mother’s grave, “an act misinterpreted by the fearful Ishmaelites as necromancy.” ⁷⁰ According to Crowell, this ēthopoiia (ἠθοποιΐα), or invention of character speech at decisive moments, distinguishes our story from the genre of the rewritten Bible. ⁷¹

The 212 writings attributed to the Greek Ephraem are not the only contexts in which IpJ appears. ⁷² In addition to the Armenian Bibles and at least seven Greek codices, IpJ is followed by the novel Joseph and Aseneth that originated most likely in Jewish quarters. ⁷³ Many consider IpJ not so much a theological tractate or homily of Ephraem but instead as a biblical book or story. Näf and Poirier gathered several parallels from the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the midrash compilations Genesis Rabbah, Tanhuma, and Sefer ha Jasher, as well as from Targumim. ⁷⁴ One midrash identifies the man leading Joseph to his brother as an angel (Gen Rab. 84:14), and the text describes three angels alluding to Joseph’s prayer in the pit (Gen Rab. 91:8). Additional parallels include the Ishmaelites asking Joseph about his identity (T. Jos. 11.2–3), expansion of attacks on the wife of Potiphar and Joseph’s chastity (T. Jos.), blaming Joseph for reminding the attendant to remember him (Gen Rab. 89:2 and Targumim to Gen 40:23), expounding on Jacob’s anxiety about Benjamin, having Joseph seemingly divine from the silver cup (Gen Rab. 92:2), and calling Benjamin a thief from a thieving mother (Gen Rab. 92:8). Joseph’s lament at Rachel’s tomb is narrated also in Sefer ha Jasher. Here, however, Rachel comforts her son out of her grave. Yet, the traditions are late. Genesis Rabbah, dated between 300 and 500, Midrash Tanhuma up to the ninth century, and Sefer ha Jasher in the eleventh or twelfth centuries are contemporaneous or later writings, and the provenance of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs is debated. ⁷⁵ Parallels can be detected in Jewish writings that are pre-Christian. Most striking is the corresponding storyline of the second part of IpJ (IpJ 26–38C/36–55CP/600–820L/286,2–300P) and Jub. 42–43. Both texts exchange Simeon for Judah, the speaker of the brother’s final request for mercy. Like IpJ, Jub. 39–40 passes over all dreams. While Jub. 42–43 is not preserved among the twenty-one fragments of the Book of Jubilees among the Scrolls, more texts from the Qumran library and Masada prove the subject’s popularity. Joseph’s name appears twenty-seven times in the Dead Sea Scrolls. ⁷⁶ 4Q372 includes a prayer in which Joseph’s story is remembered: “And in all this Joseph [was given] into the hand of foreigners, who were devouring his strength and breaking all his bones until the end for him. And he cried out [and aloud] he called to the mighty God to save him from their hand, and he said: ‘My father and my God, do not abandon me in the hands of gentiles [. . .] do me justice, so that the poor and afflicted do not perish.’” (4Q372, 16–17). ⁷⁷ This prayer from the pit transforms Joseph into an archetype of Israel. ⁷⁸ 4Q474, called “Rachel and Joseph,” seems to be Rachel’s speech, perhaps from a dramatized version of Gen 37:3–4. 4Q539, frag. 2–3, which includes the sale of Joseph and Jacob’s grief in the face of his loss. ⁷⁹ Another fragmentary work, Joseph Apocryphon from Masada, includes Joseph appearing before Pharaoh (Mas. 1045–1375). ⁸⁰ The popularity of dramatized Joseph accounts from the Qumran library suggests that many features, motifs, and scenes of IpJ have originated in Second Temple Judaism.

Conclusion

I have shown that Pseudo-Ephraem In pulcherrimum Joseph is more than an early Byzantine anonymous patristic writing that presents another Christological interpretation of Gen 37–46. In contrast, its astonishing popularity in Greek, Armenian, and Slavonic-speaking areas points to manifold cultural contexts and several functions, or Sitz im Leben of this specific Joseph account. Armenians and some Greeks read it as part of their Bible or at least as a dramatized biblical account. For others, it belongs to the works and sermons of famous Syrian theologians. Many from the Orthodox tradition heard the narrative on the Sunday before Christmas or the Monday of Holy Week. Yet, what strikes modern readers are the many narrative features and motifs that IpJ shares with Jewish texts. They appear both in contemporary midrashim and in earlier Greco-Roman works and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Indeed, at least the second part of the story (IpJ 26–89C/36–55CP/601–816L/286,2–300,5P) follows quite closely the narrative line of Jub. 42–43. Another feature connecting IpJ and the book of Jubilees is the omission of all dreams (Jub. 39–40). The account of Potiphar’s wife shares many motifs with the Testament of Joseph, while vestiges of speeches and laments are also known from Joseph Apocrypha of Qumran and Masada. Whether these parallels point to a Jewish source, as Poirier and Phenix argue, ⁸¹ or, as Heal put it, “grew out of continual retelling of the story of Joseph,” remains an open question. ⁸² The manifold versions of Genesis in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim quarters are intertextually connected in various ways. By including more than twenty speeches and laments, IpJ is indeed a dramatic and sometimes humorous recreation of the biblical account. In a vibrant atmosphere or oral recounting of this seemingly popular story, scenes and motifs move quickly from one story to another and from orality to writing (as well from writing to orality).

What cannot be overlooked in IpJ is the 800 words of Joseph-Christ typology at the beginning, establishing an anti-Jewish bias. It is followed by a story that praises Joseph as a hero of justice and virtue without any ambivalence and a story that represents Joseph’s brothers, identified by typology as “the Jews,” at most places as a group without more specific characterization. This element invites us to read the story through a Christian supersessionist lens. Because these narrative features match the tendencies of the initial Joseph-Christ typology, it is likely that the final redaction, if not already the fabric of this Genesis account, took place in Christian quarters that identified themselves as separate from their Jewish neighbors. Whether all 140 Greek, 127 Slavonic, and many Armenian manuscripts include the same typology and all of the aforementioned narrative details in the same manner, however, remains an open question, at least as long as we await a critical edition of this popular account in its many versions.