The figure of Joseph in post-Biblical Jewish literature

Description:

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. --From publisher's description

subjects: Bible,  Biography,  Criticism, interpretation,  Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish,  History and criticism,  Midrash rabbah,  Patriarchs (Bible),  Post-biblical literature,  Frühjudentum,  Et la biographie de Joseph, fils de Jacob,  Biographies,  Critique, interprétation,  Josefserzählung,  Midrasch,  Histoire et critique,  Antiquitates Judaicae,  Interpretation,  Critique, interprétation, etc. juives,  Patriarches (Bible),  In post-biblical literature,  De Josepho,  Joodse literatuur,  Joseph (son of jacob),  Jewish literature, history and criticism,  The biography of Joseph, son of Jacob,  Contributions in the biography of Joseph, son of Jacob

People: Flavius Josephus,  Joseph (Son of Jacob),  Philo of Alexandria