Genesis 39

This third series of events in the [~toledowth] of Jacob begins the detail of providential dealings with the Chosen Nation that eventually transferred them all into the land of Egypt. That Joseph is the key figure in a number of these events cannot obscure the truth that it is God's dealing with the nation of Israel, the posterity of Jacob, which is the master theme, as should be expected in the [~toledowth] of Jacob. We may entitle it:

JOSEPH IN THE HOUSE OF POTIPHAR

The speculations of many imaginative critics that the simple, straightforward story here unfolded is a combination of different traditions skillfully woven together by a "redactor" are nothing but imaginative guesses, founded upon no scientific evidence whatever, and absolutely unsupported in any manner by the Hebrew text. Such men, whether willingly or knowingly or not, are merely the instruments of Satan, who has always engaged in efforts to pervert and deny the Word of God.

The above paragraph is especially applicable to the allegation that was made quite generally at the beginning of this century to the effect that, "The story has a striking parallel to the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers."[1] Skinner even made the Egyptian story, "the original"[2] of this account in the Bible. Such allegations are merely fantastic nonsense. That Egyptian yarn is dissimilar in every important particular from the Biblical account in this chapter:

1. Here a man's slave was tempted by his wife; in the yarn, two brothers were the principals.
2. Here Joseph was judged guilty and imprisoned, but in the Egyptian story the wronged brother murdered his wife whom he found to be guilty.
   
3. Here, the woman offered Joseph's coat as evidence against him, but in the tale, the woman stabbed herself over and over, and offered that as evidence. What kind of mind is it that finds such a tragedy as that a "parallel" and "original" of the record here? There is only one point of similarity, namely, in the seductive intentions of the two women; but, in all human history, there is absolutely nothing unusual about that!
   
4. Another difference: in the Two Brothers tale, the tempted is an agricultural worker in the field; in the Biblical narrative, Joseph is the chief steward whose duties required his presence in the house. We are happy to observe that with the passing of years, the critical scholars have just about given up their false position regarding this. "Few recent writers are willing to make one of these dependent upon the other. Seduction, attempted seduction, and false accusations, are age-old human misdeeds. It would have been surprising if there were no parallels."[3] This comment by Payne was written in 1979. Although the chronology of the period is notoriously uncertain, many reputable scholars affirm that the Genesis record existed centuries before the Tale of Two Brothers. We have devoted more space to this than it is worth, but it seems to have been required by fulsome attention given to it by some of the commentators.