Texts in Conversation
In Genesis, Joseph refuses his master’s wife by asking how he could sin against God. Jubilees expands on this, with Joseph saying he recalled Abraham’s teaching about adultery, already following the Torah before it was given at Sinai.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 39:9
Hebrew Bible
8 But he refused, saying to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not give any thought to his household with me here, and everything that he owns he has put into my care. 9 There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?” 10 Even though she continued to speak to Joseph day after day, he did not respond to her invitation to go to bed with her.
Jubilees 39:6
Pseudepigrapha
5 Now Joseph was well-formed and very handsome. The wife of his master looked up, saw Joseph, loved him, and pleaded with him to lie with her. 6 But he did not surrender himself. He remembered the Lord and what his father Jacob would read to him from the words of Abraham — that no one is to commit adultery with a woman who has a husband; that there is a death penalty which has been ordained for him in heaven before the Most High Lord. The sin will be entered regarding him in the eternal books forever before the Lord. 7 Joseph remembered what he had said and refused to lie with her.
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Notes and References
... Joseph, of course, rejects her advances in both books, but in Genesis 39:8-9 he defends his refusal by citing the orders his master gave about his role in the household. There he concludes by saying to her: “He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (verse 9). In Jubilees he refuses to surrender himself to her lusts, not because Potiphar had ruled his wife off limits to Joseph. On the contrary, Joseph, apparently clarifying what Genesis meant by “do this great wickedness, and sin against God,” recalled his religious training and the law he had learned from Jacob. ...
VanderKam, James C.
Jubilees 2: A Commentary on the Book of Jubilees Chapters 22-50
(p. 1009) 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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