6. Literary Studies and History of Interpretation

Abstract

The Joseph story has been a subject of considerable controversy in recent scholarship. Did it originate in the northern kingdom or is it a diaspora novella? When and how did it take on its function as a bridge between the patriarchal and exodus narratives? In this clear and compact study, A. argues that the Joseph story originated in the time of the Omrides and climaxed in Joseph’s revelation of himself to his brothers (Gen. 37; 39.1; 40–47). A revised version was produced at the beginning of the 8th century, perhaps in the reign of Jeroboam II, which extended the story to include the death of Jacob and Joseph’s second assurance to his brothers (Gen. 50). At some point before the fall of the northern kingdom it was attached to the Jacob cycle. The story was then exposed to further smaller revisions as it was transmitted in Judahite cycles and incorporated into the patriarchal cycle, the priestly Triteuch, the Hexateuch and the Pentateuch. A. is particularly attentive to the thematic perspectives of the different versions of the story that he discerns, and the way that political claims of the earlier versions were developed in different directions as the book became an expression of diaspora existence. As we have come to expect from A., the weighing of previous scholarship is exemplary, and the examination of historical, exegetical and redactional problems is full of insight. natHan MacdonaLd