Texts in Conversation
In Genesis 42, Joseph bluntly accuses his brothers of spying out the land’s weak points. Jubilees reshapes this into a question about the paths of the land and lets the brothers stay silent, keeping them from incriminating themselves.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 42:9
Hebrew Bible
8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 Then Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see if our land is vulnerable!” 10 But they exclaimed, “No, my lord! Your servants have come to buy grain for food! 11 We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men! Your servants are not spies.”
Jubilees 42:5
Pseudepigrapha
4 Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt, so he sent his ten sons to get food for him in Egypt. But he did not send Benjamin. They arrived with those who were going there. 5 Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him. He spoke with them, asked them questions, and said to them: ‘Are you not spies? You have come to investigate the paths of the land.’ He then imprisoned them. 6 Afterwards he released them, detaining only Simeon, and sent his nine brothers away.
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Notes and References
... Jubilees truncates the paragraph. The writer reports that Joseph spoke with and questioned them, but the only quoted words are Joseph's accusation in Genesis 42:9, the first part of which reads as a question: Genesis 42:9 “You are spies; you have come to see nakedness of the land!” Jubilees 42:5 “Are you not spies? You have come to investigate the paths of the land.” So, the brothers, who say nothing in Jubilees, do not divulge too much about their family—although in verse 8 the narrator discloses that they had told him their father and youngest brother were alive. ...
VanderKam, James C.
Jubilees 2: A Commentary on the Book of Jubilees Chapters 22-50
(p. 1062) Fortress Press, 2018
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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