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Jubilees expands on Genesis, saying Joseph resisted his master’s wife because Abraham’s teaching warned that adultery brought the death penalty. 4 Maccabees similarly praises Joseph but credits reason mastering desire rather than the Torah.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
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.
4 Maccabees 2:3
Pseudepigrapha
1 And why is it amazing that the desires of the mind for the enjoyment of beauty are rendered powerless? 2 It is for this reason, certainly, that the temperate Joseph is praised, because by mental effort he overcame sexual desire. 3 For when he was young and in his prime for intercourse, by his reason he nullified the frenzy of the passions. 4 Not only is reason proved to rule over the frenzied urge of sexual desire, but also over every desire. 5 Thus the law says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or anything that is your neighbor's."
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Notes and References
... Joseph is his exemplar of self-control. With the mere mention of his name, the author evokes the full story of his remarkable ability to resist the advances of his master’s wife (Genesis 39:7–12), a story that was greatly expanded in Testament of Joseph 2.7–10.4 into a long string of temptations and harassments by the Memphite woman over a seven-year period (extending even into his imprisonment), during which Joseph resisted by fasting and prayer. Joseph’s display of self-control is all the more admirable because he was “young” (νέος). ...
deSilva, David A.
4 Maccabees: Introduction and Commentary on the Greek Text in Codex Sinaiticus
(p. 94) Brill, 2006
* 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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