Bibliography
| Title: Josephus' Portrait of Joseph Secondary Title: RB Volume: 99 Pages: 379-417; 504-528 Type: Journal Article Year: 1992 Abstract: "In his portrait of Joseph Josephus is particularly concerned to answer the anti-Jewish charges that the Jews had not produced any illustrious men and that they were guilty of misantrophy. In numerous extra-biblical additions he depicts Joseph as a Pericles-like statesman and as a Platonic-like philosopher-king. As in his portrayal of other Biblical heroes he expands on Joseph's good birth and handsomeness. In particular, he stresses his wisdom in his interpretation of dreams, so prized by the Greeks. He also expands on Joseph' s courage, temperance (especially his self-control in the confrontation with Potifar's wife and his modesty in his dealings with his brothers), justice (especially the related virtues of honesty, humanity, generosity, and dense of gratitude), and piety (above all, the acknowledgement that God directs all human events, while de-emphasizing the role of God in Joseph' s actual achievements)".
"Flavius Josèphe présente le Joseph de la Genèse comme un homme d' Etat, un roi-philosophe, de bonne extraction et généreux, sage dans l' interpretation des rêves, courageux, modéré, juste et pieux. Ces vertus le rapprochent du monde hellénistique. Le récit biblique est remanié d' une manière philosophique, moralisatrice et dynamique qui le rend accessible au non-juif".
"In anwering such Jew-baiters as Manetho Josephus presents Joseph as the prototype of the Jewish public servant, both loyal to his sovereign and concerned for the welfare of the Egyptian people. He appeals to his non-Jewish audience by recasting the narrative in Stoic-like terms. As the ideal statesman, Joseph, like Thucydides' Pericles, knows how to deal with the fickle multitude. He interprets the Biblical narrative so as to answer the charges that the Jews constituted an economic threat to the Egyptians livelihood, that they were guilty of dual loyalty, and that they were aggressive in proselytism, as well as various difficulties in the Biblical text. Moreover, Josephus improves on the Biblical motivation and adds to the drama, suspense, pathos, and irony so as to make his account more attractive to his readers. Finally, he introduces romantic motifs reminiscent of Homer, Herodotus, Xenophon, and Hellenistic novels".
"Dans la deuxième partie de l' analyse du portrait de Joseph, par Flavius Josèphe, F. montre comment l' ensemble des caractèristiques que Josèphe prête à son héros viserait à répondre aux accusations anti-juives courantes en Egypte: à cette fin Josèphe remedèle le récit biblique d' une manière stoïcienne, élimine les difficultés du texte biblique, amplifie sa dimension dramatique et introduit des thèmes romantiques inspirés des auteurs grecs". Keywords: Antiquities |