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Legends of Joseph in Old and Middle English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2021

Frederic E. Faverty
Frederic E. Faverty*
Affiliation:
Western Reserve University
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Extract

The account of Joseph in Genesis makes no mention of his precocity as a boy and deals but briefly with the beauty of his person. Indeed, it is not until he has become a man that he is described at all: Potiphar's wife cast her eyes upon him for “Joseph was a goodly person, and well favored.” But at a very early date commentators felt that this was altogether inadequate. A body of Hebrew and Mohammedan legend about Joseph's boyhood soon developed: he was credited with an almost preternatural beauty and wisdom, a beauty and wisdom befitting one who was the favorite of Yahweh.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , March 1928 , pp. 79 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1928

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Footnotes

*

For the general plan of this article and for invaluable criticism throughout I am indebted to the late Professor O. F. Emerson.

References

1 L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, tr. by H. Szold, II, 15; S. Baring-Gould, Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 228.

2 S. Baring-Gould, op. cit., p. 228.

3 Ginzberg, op. cit., II, 19.

4 S. Baring-Gould, op. cit., p. 232.

5 Iacob and Iosep, ed. A. S. Napier, 1916, vv. 145-156.

6 The O.E. Elene, Phœnix and Physiologus, ed. A. S. Cook, p. 75, Panther, vv. 19-30.

7 Flavii Iosephi Hebraei, Opera Omnia, Tomus I, Franciscus Oberthür, Book II, Chap. II.

8 Historia Scholastica, Liber Genesis, Cap. LXXXVI, Migne Patr. Lat. 198

9 Ed. R. Morris, EETS, v. 1910 f.

10 EETS, Orig. Ser. 57, vv. 4044 ff. (Göttingen MS).

11 Ginzberg, op. cit., II, 7.

12 SATF, ed. Baron James de Rothschild, II, vv. 16606 ff.

13 Ginzberg, op. cit., II, 5.

14 King Alfred's Orosius, ed. H. Sweet, (I) iv.

15 Orosius, ed. Sweet, (I) viii.

16 Ginzberg, op. cit., II, 18.

17 Historia Scholastica, Liber Genesis, Cap. LXXXVII.

18 The Works of Flavius Josephus, W. Whiston, p. 44, note.

19 Ginzberg, op. cit., II, 23; Cf. also S. Baring-Gould, Patriarchs and Prophets, Chap. XXVIII.

20 Flavii Iosephi Hebraei Opera Omnia, Tomus I, Franciscus Oberthür. Lib. II, Cap. III, 1.

21 Iacob and Iosep, ed. Napier, vv. 175 ff.

22 Hist. Schol., Lib. Genesis, Cap. LXXXVII.

23 Ed. EETS, vv. 1979-1988.

24 EETS, Or. Ser. 57, vv. 4225 ff

25 In the Septuagint: and in the Vulgate: eunuchus Pharaonis.

26 Migne 34, p. 585: Quaestionum in Heptateuchum, CXXXV.

27 Ginzberg, op. cit., II, 43. It will be noted that even in these early accounts the names Potiphar and Poti-phera are confused.

28 S. Bruno Ast. accepts the legend in volume I, Expositio in Genesim: Dicitur antem Putiphar iste ad nefarios usus emisse Joseph, quia pulcher erat et decora facie; propter quod, exsiccatis testiculis, divino judicio sic eunuchatur; deinde vero sacerdos Heliopoleos constitutus, cujus filiam Joseph postea duxit uxorem. (Migne 164, p. 122.)

Rabanus Maurus explains Potiphar's impotence in much the same fashion:

Ubi quaeritur quomodo potea uxorem habere dicatur. Tradunt enim Hebraei, emptum ab hoc Joseph, ob nimian pulchritudinem in turpe ministerium, et a Domino virilibus ejus arefactis, postea dectum esse, juxta morem hierophantarum, in pontificatum Heliopoleos, et hujus filiam ease Aseneth, quam postea Joseph uxorem acceperit (Migne 107; Comment. in Genesim Lib. III, Cap. XXVII.)

29 Migne Patr. Lai. 198, col. 1126, Liber Genesis, Cap. LXXXVIII. The Hist. Schol. was also the direct source of the corresponding passage in Higden's Polichronicon.

30 Rolls Series 41, vol. 2, p 306.

31 A curious explanation of Potiphar's impotence is given in Le Mistére du Vial Testament (vv. 19815 f.). Potiphar's wife has fallen in love with Joseph, and, since he will not comply with her demands, she has him thrown into prison. Later her evil designs are brought to light and public shame falls upon her and her husband. Potiphar censures her roundly, saying that he will have nothing more to do with her; that he will become a eunuch and enter the ranks of the priests:

Jamais, par lea haulx Dieux j'en jure,

N'auray de toy athouchement.

Femme de faulx entandement,

Tu es plaine de toute ordure,

Donnée au vice de luxure;

J'ay par toy failly lourdement.

Et, pour monstrer certainement

Que jamais ne te toucheray,

Les genitoires me feray

Oster, de nature vasseaulx;

Prince des Enuches seray

Ou du ranc des sacerdotaulx.

32 Professor Maurice Bloomfield in his paper, “Joseph and Potiphar in Hindu Fiction” (Transactions Am. Philo. Assn., LIV (1923), 141-167), by showing how widespread this motif is in Hindu stories, suggests that it came originally from India. Certainly the Seven Sages, in which the Potiphar's wife motif supplies the center for the collection of stories, is of Oriental origin.—EDITOR.

33 Tertullian, I, Ad Nations, Lib. II, 8.

34 Iacob and Ioseph, ed. Napier, v. 195 ff

35 The Scottish Text Society, The Original Chronicle of Andrew Wyntoun. Vol. 2 Book 2, w. 334 ff.

36 The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry, EETS, Or. Ser. 33, p. 76.

37 Tome III, vv. 18805 ff.

38 Ginzberg, op. cit., II, 53.

39 Opera Omnia, Lib. II, Cap. IV, 3; Historia Scholasticaca, Lib. Genesis,Cap.XC

40 Ed. H. N. MacCracken. JEGPh IX. 226-264.

41 Jewish Encyclopedia, under Asemath. Dr. K. Kaufman gives an excellent summary of the story.

42 Extracts from this fragment have been printed by P. Meyer in Romania, XXXVI, 188 ff.

43 Mandeville's Travels, ed. P. Hamelius, EETS, Or. Ser. 153, p. 34.

44 Early English Homilies, ed. R. D-N. Warner, EETS, Or. Ser. 152, p. 7.

45 M. Gaster, the latest writer on divination (Jewish), Encyclopædic of Religion and Ethics, Vol. IV, p. 807.

46 The Old English Heptateuch, ed. S. J. Crawford, EETS, 160, Gen. XLIV: 15.

47 Petrus Comestor, Migne 198. Liber Genesis, Cap. XCV.

48 Even in so recent a work as The Pulpit Commentary (ed. Rev. Canon H. D. M. Spence and Rev. J. S. Exell), however, an attempt is made to lessen the evil implications of Joseph's speech:

Divination by cups was practised by the ancient Egyptians. But no reason to suppose that Joseph actually used this art. It would have been inconsistent with his habitual faithfulness to God, and with the ascription to him alone of the power to reveal secrets. He was now acting a part (p. 49).

49 S. Augustinus. Migne 34. Quaest in Heptateuchum CXXXV; S. Hieronymus. Migne 23, p. 1049; Joannes Zonaras. Migne P.G. 134, I, p. 78; Angelomus. Migne 215, Comm. in Gn. CXV; Rabanus Maurus. Migne 107, Comm. in Gn. CVII.

50 The O. E. Heptateuch, EETS 160, Gen. XLI: 45.

51 Historia Scholastica (Migne Patrol. 198), Gen. Cap. xcii.

52 I quote the following statement from the article of R. S. Poole in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of the Bible (sub Zaphnath-paaneah): “Various forms of this name, all traceable to the Heb. or LXX original, occur in the works of the Early Jewish and Christien writers, chiefly Josephus, from different MSS and editions of whose Ant. (11.6.1) no less than eleven forms have been collected, following both originals, some variations being very corrupt” Poole gives a full account of the history of the word. Francis Llewellyn Griffith, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, translates the word as “Said God, he liveth.”

53 Handlyng Synne, ed. F. J. Furnivall, EETS 119, vv. 428-446.

54 Mod. L. Notes, XIV (1899), 166-67.

55 “Bar-Hebraeus SchoIien,” Zft. der deutschen Morgenl. Gesellshaft, XXIV (1870), especially pp. 537-540