Bibliography
| Title: The Figure of Joseph in Post-biblical Jewish Literature Secondary Title: AGJU 16 Type: Book Year: 1992 Abstract: "Stresses the difference between the Greek and Hebrew characterisations. Based on a doctoral dissertation supervised by G. Vermes and submitted to the University of Oxford in 1989, this study of the figure of Joseph focuses on the hermeneutics of the ancient interpretations of the biblical story. After a fourteen-page introduction to past research and to methodology, it examines the Joseph story in Genesis 37-50 and then investigates its expositions by Philo, Josephus, and Genesis Rabbah, respectively. Particular attention is given to how the figuer of Joseph functions in the different intellectual environments and how it is used for the individual purposes of each exegete. The appendix treats the figure of Joseph in the Targum [§ 33-962]".
"This book is 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 thought world of the interpreter, it examines the particular way in which each exegete construes the biblical outline of Joseph' s character. Paying special attention to the literary nature of the sources, 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 this 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 significantly derive respectively from the Greek and Hebrew cultural realm. Consequently, their figures of Joseph fulfil distinctly different purposes, ranging from an idealisation of Joseph as a Hellenistic politician to autobiographical apologetics and religious instruction. Readership: students and specialists in the field of Midrash, Early Bible Interpretation and Second Temple Period". Keywords: Interpretation of the Bible in Ancient Judaism |