Maren Niehoff

The Figure of Joseph in Post-biblical Jewish Literature (Arbeiten Zur Geschichte Des Antiken Judentums Und Des Urchristentums, No 16) Maren Niehoff

A comparative study in the hermeneutics of the ancient interpretations of the biblical Joseph story. Assuming that every interpretation results from a creative encounter between the ultimately open text of Scripture and the specific world of thought of the interpreter, it examines the particular way in which each exegetic construes the biblical outline of Joseph's character. Paying special attention to the literary nature of the source, the study begins with an analysis of the narrative methods and the hermeneutic potential of the biblical story, and then proceeds to the inter-testamental evidence. The central concern of the study is to compare the different interpretations of the philosopher Philo, the historian Josephus and the Midrash Genesis Rabbah. These sources do not only range over a considerable amount of time, but significanly derive from respectively Greek and Hebrew culture. Consequently, their representations of Joseph fulful distinctively different purposes, ranging from an idealization of Joseph as a Hellenistic politician to autobiographical apologetics and religious instruction.