Texts in Conversation
In Genesis 50, Joseph asks that his bones be carried out of Egypt to the promised land. Sirach praises Joseph by describing how even his bones were cared for, drawing on that dying request and its fulfillment.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 50:25
Hebrew Bible
24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to you and lead you up from this land to the land he swore on oath to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 25 Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He said, “God will surely come to you. Then you must carry my bones up from this place.” 26 So Joseph died at the age of 110. After they embalmed him, his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 49:15
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
14 No man was created upon the earth like Enoch, for he was taken up from the earth. 15 Nor was there a man born like Joseph, a leader of his kindred, a supporter of the people. Even his bones were cared for. 16 Shem and Seth were honored among men, but above every living thing in the creation was Adam.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... It is difficult not to believe that Ben Sira’s selection of this particular incident in Joseph’s story was calculated and deliberate; for in the Genesis account, Joseph’s bones and his death are directly related to the drama of Israel’s redemption from Egypt through use of this verbal stem meaning “visit”. Genesis says nothing about Joseph’s bones or body being visited; rather, God will visit the Israelites, to bring them out of slavery and give them the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now Ben Sira had treated of these patriarchs at some length (Manuscript B 44:19-23), but very specifically in terms of the covenant that God had granted them, a covenant involving blessing, progeny, and inheritance. By speaking of Joseph in the way that he does, Ben Sira contrives to prove that the covenant oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was in very truth preserved intact and honored by the Almighty, in that Joseph’s corpse, conveyed out of Egypt to the land of Israel, “was visited” in other words, visited by God. ...
C. T. Robert Hayward, “Multum in Parvo: Ben Sira’s Portrayal of the Patriarch Joseph,” in Intertextual Studies in Ben Sira and Tobit: Essays in Honor of Alexander A. Di Lella, O.F.M., ed. Jeremy Corley and Vincent Skemp, CBQMS 38 (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2005), 190.
* 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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