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The Biblical Story of Joseph in Dostoevskii's The Brothers Karamazov

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Richard C. Miller
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The large role which literary allusion plays in The Brothers Karamazov has often been noted by critics. Ralph Matlaw calls the novel “one of the most ‘literary’ books ever written.” Victor Terras more recently has observed that “more than any other novel of Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov is a work ‘written in the margins of other books.’” If scholars took the time to investigate in detail every literary reference in this novel, no doubt the size of current Dostoevskii bibliographies could be doubled within the year, though without contributing substantially to our knowledge of the work. Why then should a lone reference to the biblical story of Joseph merit intensive consideration? The answer concerns both the context and the content of the reference, which is found in the subchapter entitled “Of the Holy Scriptures in the life of Father Zosima.” The bible stories mentioned in this section might be considered as a body in order to illustrate what role the Scriptures have played in the elder's life, and what role they may play in the regeneration of all men. Within this subchapter no fewer than a dozen biblical stories and books are singled out, yet only two are discussed at any length: the Book of Job and the story of Joseph. In the latter case not only is the story paraphrased and quoted (or, better, misquoted) but it is also given a particular and untraditional interpretation by Zosima.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , Winter 1982 , pp. 653 - 665
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1982

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References

1. Ralph E. Matlaw, The Brothers Karamazov: Novelistic Technique (The Hague: Mouton, 1957), p. 5.

2. Victor, Terras, A Karamazov Companion (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981), p. 13 Google Scholar.

3. One need only consult Terras's short survey of literary sources (pp. 13-24) to be convinced of the range of possibilities in this area. If this selective list is not sufficiently overwhelming, one may consult the comprehensive “Slovar’ lichnykh imen u Dostoevskogo,” in Bern, A. L., ed., O Dostoevskom (Prague, 1933), vol. 2Google Scholar.

4. Terras has suggested that Zosima's version of the Joseph story may be influenced by the version in Sto chetyre sviashchennyia istorii Vetkhago i Novago Zavieta, a translation from German and Latin of Bible stories compiled by Johann Hubner, which went through five editions between 1770 and 1795. Aleksei Dostoevskii testifies in his memoirs that he and Fedor learned to read from this book, and that Dostoevskii treasured it even as an adult. Zosima mentions that this book played the same role in his life. Nonetheless a comparison of the two versions of the Joseph story shows that Zosima's is even further from Hubner's than from the Genesis account. Hubner eliminates any doubt of the righteousness of Joseph's treatment of his brothers in Egypt, while Zosima, as we shall see, magnifies such doubt in order to create a tale of the spiritual regeneration of Joseph himself.

5. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (hereafter cited as BK), p. 350/14, p. 266 lines 37-38. I shall give two page references for all quotations from the novel. The first is to the Modern Library edition (New York, 1950), trans. Constance Garnett; the second refers to Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 30 vols. (Leningrad, 1976). All references to PSS are from volume 14 unless otherwise noted.

6. Nahum, Sarna, Understanding Genesis (New York: Schocken Books, 1972), p. 211 Google Scholar.

7. Sarna, p. 223.

8. Speiser, E. A., The Anchor Bible: Genesis (Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday, 1964), p. 335 Google Scholar.

9. Matlaw recognized the valuable contribution which the study of literary allusion in The Brothers Karamazov can make to our understanding of its construction. “An inquiry into the structure of the novel,” he writes, “may well begin with the literary references embodied in it“ (p. 5). He amply demonstrates the validity of his assertion through his investigation of various references to secular literature in the novel.

10. BK, p. 349/p. 266:17. My translation here.

11. This conviction develops at least in part from Zosima's (and Dostoevskii's) acquaintance with Hiibner's Bible stories, which are openly didactic: iavnye voprosy are posed at the bottom of each page, and a set of poleznye nravoucheniia is appended to each story.

12. BK, p. 349/p. 266:8-14.

13. BK, p. 350-51/p. 267:17-21.

14. BK, p. 299/p. 230:22-24.

15. Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. J. H. Hertz, 2nd ed. (London: Soncino, 1969), p. 141.

16. Hertz, p. vii.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid., p. 141.

19. Ibid.

20. BK, p.350/p. 266:35-36.

21. Hubner's redaction of the Joseph story contains no mention at all of Jacob's prophesy. An expanded version of his collection, Dvesti vosem’ sviashchennykh istorii (Moscow, 1793), does include the prophecy; as usual in Hubner's version, any ambiguity is eliminated: “lude skazal, chto on budet Tsarem, i ot pokoleniia ego roditsia obeshchannyi Messiia” (p. 117).

22. BK, p. 348/p. 265:9-11.

23. BK, p. 384-85/p. 290:31-34.

24. BK, p. 385/p. 290:47-291:2.

25. BK, p. 436/p. 328:18-21.

26. BK, p. 16/p. 17:43-47.

27. BK, p. 382-83/p. 289:21-25.

28. Sarna, p. 223.

38. Speiser, p. 335.

38. BK, p. 349/p. 266:21-23.

38. BK, p. 349/p. 266:24-27.

38. His only references to his enslavement come in Genesis 40:15, when he tells Pharaoh's servant that he was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and in Genesis 41:51, when he names his first-born son Manasseh, which means “God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house” [King James].

38. BK, p. 349/p. 266:27-28.

38. BK, p. 349/p. 266:29-30.

38. BK, p. 349 (“he went out to them joyful'Vp. 266:30-31.

38. BK, p. 432/p. 325:31-33.

38. BK, p. 350/p. 266:31.

38. BK, p. 350/p. 266:32-34.

39. Edward, Wasiolek, Dostoevsky: The Major Fiction (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1964), p. 160 Google Scholar.

40. BK, p. 214/p. 164:43-165:3.

41. BK, p. 175/p. 135:37-41. My emphasis.

42. BK, p. 223/p. 172:21-29.

43. BK, p. 920/p. 15, p. 182:13-15.

44. It also figures prominently in Hiibner's version.

45. See Bern, Slovar'lichnykh imen, p. 30.

46. BK, p. 340-41/p. 260:1-5 and 23-28.

47. BK, p. 349/p. 266:23-24.

48. BK, p. 226-27/p. 175:4-7.

49. Matlaw, p. 6