Joseph, Judah, and Plot
An Exploration of Narrative Continuity in Genesis 37-50
Summary
This is a landmark new reading of one of the most important passages in the Book of Genesis, and will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in narrative and structure in the Old Testament.
"Drawing helpfully on the narrative theory of Paul Ricoeur, Paul Twiss demonstrates both the coherence of Genesis 37-50 and its theological contribution. His reading consistently illuminates the text, and so contributes not only to our understanding of it but also how awareness of narrative conventions can assist the reading of other Old Testament narratives."
—Dr David G. Firth, Old Testament Tutor, Trinity College Bristol and Research Associate, University of the Free State
"In this compelling study Dr Paul Twiss breaks new ground by exploring how the neglected topic of plot may enrich our comprehension of Genesis 37-50. Highlighting the continuity of the narrative, he reveals how the final section of Genesis centres on the hope of royal deliverer. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to grasp the narrative dynamics of Genesis 37-50."
—Dr T. Desmond Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies, Union Theological College, Belfast
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Series Editor’s Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- These are the Generations of the Joseph Story
- Introduction
- Source Criticism and the Documentary Hypothesis
- The Rise of Literary Criticism
- The Response of Source Criticism
- Conclusion
- Prefiguration, Understanding The Narrative World
- Introduction
- Adam and Abraham
- Humankind as Vice-Regents
- Genesis 3 and the Promise of a Seed
- Abraham and the Hope of a Royal Deliverer
- Righteousness, and the Younger Brother
- Structures and the Ancient Near East
- Conclusion
- Configuration, Reading The Plot
- Introduction
- Genesis 37 and 38: A Tale of Two Brothers
- Chapter 37: The Favored Son is Exiled
- Gen 38: The Aspiring Son Matures
- Plot Contribution
- Genesis 39-41: From the Prison to the Palace
- Gen 39: Anticipatory Blessing in Potiphar’s House
- Gen 40: Testing the Favored Son
- Gen 41: Egypt Is Blessed through the Reign of Joseph
- Plot Contribution
- Genesis 42-45: Providential Journeys
- Gen 42: The First Journey
- Gen 43-45: The Second Journey
- Plot Contribution
- Genesis 46-47: The Patriarch Dwells in Egypt
- Gen 46-47: Jacob’s Descent and Narrative Fears
- Plot Contribution
- Genesis 48-50: An Heir Is Appointed
- Gen 48-49: Jacob’s Blessing and Narrative Hopes
- Gen 50: More Lessons to Learn?
- Plot Contribution
- Conclusion
- Refiguration, Shaping The World of the Reader
- Introduction
- Gen 38 and the Reader’s Confession
- Narrative Perspective and Reader-Character Association
- Judah’s Confession as an Invitation for Reader Evaluation
- Joseph’s Testing, Judah’s Speech and the Reader’s Compassion
- Narrative Gaps and Reader-Character Assimilation
- Judah Confronts the Reader
- Jacob’s Testament and the Reader’s Blessing
- Iconic Augmentation and Reader Affirmation
- Conclusion
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Subject Index
- Index of Scripture
Series Editor’s Preface
More than ever the horizons in biblical literature are being expanded beyond that which is immediately imagined; important new methodological, theological, and hermeneutical directions are being explored, often resulting in significant contributions to the world of biblical scholarship. It is an exciting time for the academy as engagement in biblical studies continues to be heightened.
This series seeks to make available to scholars and institutions, scholarship of a high order, and which will make a significant contribution to the ongoing biblical discourse. This series includes established and innovative directions, covering general and particular areas in biblical study. For every volume considered for this series, we explore the question as to whether the study will push the horizons of biblical scholarship. The answer must be yes for inclusion.
In this volume, based on a revised version of the author’s Ph.D. dissertation, Paul Twiss uses the fundamental framework of Paul Ricoeur’s study Time and Narrative to provide an extensive analysis of the plot and cohesiveness of Genesis 37-50. While there is extensive scholarship on Genesis 37–50, the particular direction that the author undertakes will certainly expand the understanding and interpretation of this section of Genesis into an important and relevant area. The frequently overlooked idea of plot in this section of Genesis has been attended to by Twiss in a compelling manner. That is to say, how is it that plot allows us to read the narrative and understand how the narrator relates the story. Moreover, the author argues for this section of Genesis to be a cohesive whole. Using Paul Ricoeur’s ideas of prefiguration, configuration and refiguration, Tress develops the argument of the role of plot and a persuasive strategy for reading Genesis 37-50. He argues that in reading the Joseph narrative using prefiguration, configuration and refiguration, one is able to discern more fully the many nuances of the plot. The first three chapters employs these three categories from Ricoeur. Twiss argues that in an embracing of plot more fully one is able to come to a better understanding of the unity and cohesion of Genesis 37–50.
This is an important and I believe heuristic work. This scholarly examination will have significant implications for biblical scholarship in general and in particular to the study of Genesis 37-50. As the author has acknowledged, this study is not intended to be the last word regarding the scholarship of Genesis 37–50 but adds to the corpus of literature. The result is a study that is certain to generate ongoing discourse, and will not only further expand the biblical horizon, but will do so in a direction that invites further conversation.
The horizon has been expanded.
Hemchand Gossai
Series Editor
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It would not have been possible to complete this project without the help of many along the way to whom I am indebted. To Dr. T. Desmond Alexander, I am immensely grateful for his willingness to supervise my PhD studies. His patience, attention to detail, and readiness to direct have been a great example to me. He has modeled a level of care and humility as it relates to engagement with the text and the pursuit of academic excellence. The benefit of his mentorship far exceeds the contribution of this book.
To Dr. Nathan Busenitz, I am thankful for his continual encouragement and willingness to accommodate my studies amid the reality of teaching schedules and faculty responsibilities at The Master’s Seminary. Similarly, I am grateful to Dr. Brian Biedebach for continually assuming extra ministry burdens at Grace Community Church, allowing me to prioritize research and writing.
To Dr. Iosif Zhakevich I am indebted. His availability for dialogue, proof-reading, and critique have been an immense help to me as I have sought to strengthen the claims of the book and its argumentation throughout. More recently, I am very grateful to Ben Patton for his willingness to give sacrificially of his time and provide editorial assistance.
To my six children, Isla, Ruairí, Darcey, Eoin, Annie, and Patrick, I am thankful. Their input throughout has been invaluable: most often helping me to keep all things in perspective. And finally to my wife, Laura, I owe the greatest debt. A continual support, she has never grown tired of listening so as to help me think, and never stopped encouraging so as to help me finish. This book is dedicated to her.
ABBREVIATIONS
In addition to the following, all abbreviations in this thesis are taken from: The SBL Handbook of Style. 2nd edition. Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2014.
INTRODUCTION
With the story of Jacob and his sons we find a history of interpretation that is as rich and varied as the color scheme of Joseph’s coat. In part, the many readings of the narrative bear witness to the interpretive trends within Pentateuchal scholarship. From the post-Enlightenment dominance of source-critical methods to the subsequent rise of more literary approaches, and more recently the advent of the neo-Documentary Hypothesis, each era has spoken differently concerning the text of Genesis 37-50.
A common point of interest for students of the narrative, irrespective of their interpretive convictions, is that of cohesion. How ought we understand the constituent parts of this story and how do they relate to one another? What should we make of Genesis 38? How should we read Joseph’s administration of the Egyptians? And of what significance is Jacob’s blessing in chapter 49? These are time-honored questions, asked alongside many more, by those who have sought to understand the narrative about Joseph and his brothers.
A subsequent point of interest that derives from the question of unity is that of plot. How does the drama unfold? Is there a discernable logic to the flow of the narrative? In recent years, scholars have given more attention to these questions, not least because of their usefulness in understanding the manifold complexities of the text. Those who read the narrative from a more literary perspective frequently appeal to the concept of plot to establish lines of continuity that others have dismissed. By contrast, those who approach the narrative with more of a diachronic lens draw attention to its apparent fissures. The plot- structure, they claim, repeatedly collapses.
These differences are particularly interesting not least because they derive from a common point of interest. What is more, they suggest the need for further dialogue. At a methodological level we must consider more fully the concept of plot—what is its nature, its properties, and how does it teach us to read narrative? With regard to the text, we must continue to ponder Jacob and his sons. How does the narrator tell their story? And do the episodes form a cohesive whole? As we grasp more fully the logic of the narrative, there may be yet more to say about the travails of Joseph. My goal in this book is to trace afresh the plot- structure of Genesis 37-50. I offer a reading of the narrative that seeks to wrestle with its complexities and reconcile perceived discontinuities as constituent parts of the story.
My approach to the text has as its foundation the work of Paul Ricœur in Time and Narrative.1 His three-volume treatise remains the most extensive consideration of plot and its relationship to a text. Therein Ricœur seeks to understand how meaning is created within narrative. He proposes that the governing mechanism is that of plot. Ricœur asserts, “By means of the plot, goals, causes, and chance are brought together within the temporal unity of a whole and complete action. It is this synthesis of the heterogeneous that brings narrative close to metaphor. In both cases, the new thing … springs up in language.”2
Ricœur extends this hypothesis further by considering the force exerted by the plot-structure upon the reader. He suggests that when a plot is correctly appropriated, the meaning-effect relationship extends beyond the text into the world. The logic of the narrative has a latent energy that has the ability to refigure the world of the reader, when properly received. “Seeing-as” becomes “being-as” at the ontological level.3
The fundamental claim by which Ricœur makes this argument is simply that language is always oriented beyond itself. He writes, “The complete event is not only that someone speaks and addresses himself to an interlocutor, it is also the speaker’s ambition to bring a new experience to language and share it with someone else. It is this experience, in turn, that has the world for its horizon.”4 Ricœur refers to this as the ontological presupposition of reference.
Details
- Pages
- XX, 142
- Publication Year
- 2025
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781636676197
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781636676203
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781636676180
- DOI
- 10.3726/b21138
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2024 (December)
- Keywords
- Joseph Narrative Genesis Plot Literary Criticism Source Criticism Ricœur Hebrew narrative Old Testament
- Published
- New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford, 2025. XX, 142 pp.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
