I got a request from Dex to post in absentia here for him this week:
[QUOTE=C K Dexter Haven]
The chapter starts with an echo of the last sentence of Ch 37, a reminder that Joseph is enslaved in Egypt. The word “taken down” has several implications:
from the hill country of Canaan to the flat Nile basin
south to Egypt
from freedom to slavery
Potiphar is mentioned by the NIT (both here and at Gen 37:36) as “one of Pharaoh’s officials and captain of the guard.” I think that’s faulty translation. Better is “chief steward” rather than “captain of the guard.” The title is ambiguous; possibly “cook” or “butcher,” but related to food not to warfare. That’s important – everyone and everything in this story is related to food.
In verse 2, we learn that the Lord is with Joseph in his exile and suffering. This is the first mention of God in Joseph’s story. God is “with” Joseph, where the other patriarchs (and Enoch in Gen 5:24 and Noah in 6:9) “walked with God.” Joseph is the only major character who never speaks with God.
He becomes a household slave who achieves success by outstanding service. He “stayed in the house” rather than working in the fields, and is appointed household administrator. He is successful (blessed by the Lord) like his father in Gen 30:27, bringing financial success to his master. He’s good-looking like his mother (the phrase in Gen 39:6 is the same that describes Rachel in 29:17); no other male in the bible is described as physically attractive.
Verse 7 begins with “After a while.” The literal translation is “After these events.” The phrase alerts us to a moral test: the same phrase at Gen 22:1 is a prelude to the binding of Isaac. Joseph started as a self-indulgent spoiled brat, became a slave, then a trusted household administrator. Now he is to be tested: what is the REAL Joseph.
Mrs Potiphar “took notice” (NIT) of Joseph. A more literal translation is that she “cast her eyes” upon him, implying lust; remember that he’s described as good-looking. She says, “Lie with me!” – no foreplay, no preliminary, she’s used to having her commands obeyed. Joseph rejects her, day after day. Here’s another change in Joseph. The narcissistic younger Joseph, with the household in his control would have, ah, disported with her. But he has matured enough to understand that screwing around with the boss’s wife is wicked (not to say impolitic.)
On the critical day, she makes direct advances and he tries to get the heck out. As he’s fleeing, Mrs Potiphar grabs his cloak; he escapes by taking it off and leaving it behind.
She calls in the other household servants and utters the first recorded anti-Semitic statement: “Look, this Hebrew has been brought to make sport of us!” She alleges that Joseph attacked her, that “he left his cloak beside me” (rather than that she pulled it off),s implying he willingly undressed. She says screamed, but we know she didn’t (since she was the aggressor.) This is important: evidence of rape in Deut 22:25ff is the woman screaming and resisting. If she didn’t scream, it implied consent. The servants to whom she tells the story were outside, so wouldn’t have heard her anyway, and take her word for it (presumably they are jealous of Joseph – a foreigner – who has some authority over them.)
Note the echoes of former events:
· Joseph, back in Gen 37:2, told “bad reports” about his brothers, and now he’s being undone by a bad report about him.
· An article of clothing is again taken from him. He lost his ornate robe when his brothers threw him in the pit. Getting or losing clothing is a recurring motif, symbolizing rise and fall, as we’ll see later.
Because Potiphar was a courtier, Joseph is put into jail with the royal prisoners.
Why wasn’t he executed? We know that Potiphar liked him. Speculation is that Potiphar didn’t entirely believe his wife’s version. The text repeats the words “she told him this story,” and repeats her accusation. Sarna suggests this implies “a profusion of words is needed on the part of the wife to overcome her husband’s reluctance to accept her story.”
We can also assume that Joseph did not sit silently by while Mrs P lied, although his protests are not mentioned. Similarly, we are not told that he protested when his brothers threw him in the pit, although we’ll learn later that he did.
Wrongfully imprisoned, Joseph is now at the low point of his career (the story has cycles of rising and falling). He repeats his success in Potiphar’s household, and becomes an administrator for the chief jailor. God is with him, and he’s maturing. Stay tuned.
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