Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

Stories

The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, in the book of Genesis, recounts a challenging encounter for Joseph. The story lends itself to further interpretation, and texts from various genres have contributed different motivations for both Joseph and Potiphar's wife.

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Joseph's Loyalty and Integrity

TANAKH

After Joseph's brother’s sold him into slavery, Joseph worked for Potiphar, a prominent Egyptian resident. The book of Genesis recounts the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, demonstrates Joseph’s loyalty and integrity against all odds.

After a time, his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused. He said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master gives no thought to anything in this house, and all that he owns he has placed in my hands. He wields no more authority in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except yourself, since you are his wife. How then could I do this most wicked thing, and sin before God?” And much as she coaxed Joseph day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie beside her, to be with her…

Genesis 39:7-20

Joseph's Moral Struggle

TALMUD

Biblical narratives, including the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, leave a lot open to interpretation. The Babylonian Talmud in tractate Sotah records a debate as to whether or not Joseph intended to have relations with his boss's wife.

The Gemara explains: What is the situation where Joseph sanctified God’s name in private? As it is written: “And it came to pass on a certain day, when he went into the house to do his work” (Genesis 39:11). Rabbi Yoḥanan says: This teaches that both Joseph and Potiphar’s wife stayed in the house, as they intended to perform a matter of sin. With regard to the phrase “when he went into the house to do his work,” Rav and Shmuel engage in a dispute with regard to its meaning…

Sotah 36b:11-16

The Intentions of Potiphar's Wife

COMMENTARY

Biblical interpreters often look to context and nearby text in order to illuminate the text at hand. Hadar Zekenim, a compilation of commentaries from the 12th-13th-century French and German tosafists, uses the story of Tamar from the previous chapter to offer a different interpretation of Potiphar’s wife’s intentions.

And Joseph was taken down: It does not state, "went down," but rather, "was taken down." That is to say, to fulfill the commandment of the Omnipresent, to put the thing into motion and bring down our forefathers to Egypt. And why was the section about Potiphar juxtaposed with the section about Tamar? To tell you that just as Tamar intended the good, so too did the wife of Potiphar intend the good. As she saw, through astrology, that the offspring of Jacob would emerge from her family, but she did not know if [the prediction was about] her or her daughter.

Hadar Zekenim on Torah, Genesis 39:1:1

Potiphar's Reaction

COMMENTARY

A close reading of Potiphar's reaction to his wife's accusations suggests that perhaps he did not believe her story. Isaac Abarbanel, a late-medieval Spanish biblical commentator, offers an interpretation in which Potiphar balances protecting Joseph and appeasing his wife.

Undoubtedly, when Joseph’s master, appreciating that God was ever-present in his mind, did not believe what his wife was saying; for had he done so, he would have had to put him to death. However, he was still troubled by this episode, and accordingly put him in prison – had he not acted in this way, he would have become a laughing-stock, as his wife was (already) saying as much. By remaining silent, he would have provided her with a pretext for being unfaithful to him. This, then, is what Scripture intends to convey by the phrase…

Abarbanel on Torah, Genesis 39:19:1

Judah and Joseph Compared

MIDRASH

The story of Judah and Tamar in the previous chapter recounts a sexual encounter that provides a contrast to Joseph and Potiphar’s wife’s encounter. Simi Peters — in her 21st-century book, Learning to Read Midrash — compares these episodes to learn about Joseph’s fortitude in contrast to Judah's lack thereof.

In contrast to Yehuda, after Yosef has been “brought down to Egypt,” we see him resisting Potiphar’s wife in an act of spiritual and moral greatness. His behavior is all the more impressive given that he is a young man, a slave, and alone in Egypt, without guidance or support. In light of the very real differences between Yehuda’s decline and Yosef’s descent, why does R. Elazar see a connection between them? One possible answer is that R. Elazar wishes us to engage in exactly the exercise we have just completed…

Learning to Read Midrash, Chapter 14; The Meaning of a Chronological Problem; Connecting Yosef and Yehuda 109-110

Potiphar's Wife: Heroine or Foe?

SECOND TEMPLE

Apocryphal stories can offer alternate tellings of biblical stories. The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, a Second-Temple era Jewish work that was not included in the biblical canon, presents a different understanding of Potiphar’s wife’s intentions and Potiphar’s actions.

And about that time the Memphian woman, the wife of Pentephri, came down in a chariot, with great pomp, because she had heard from her eunuchs concerning me. And she told her husband that the merchant had become rich by means of a young Hebrew, and they say that he had assuredly been stolen out of the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, render justice unto him, and take away the youth to thy house; so shall the God of the Hebrews bless thee, for grace from heaven is upon him. And Pentephris was persuaded by her words, and commanded the merchant to be brought…

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Testament of Joseph the Eleventh Son of Jacob and Rachel 12:1-14:6

Joseph Marries into the Family

COMMENTARY

Rabbinic interpreters often try to identify anonymous characters with other minor biblical figures. Chizkiah ben Manoach, better known as Chizkuni for his mid-13th-century biblical commentary, offers a few possible identities for Joseph’s wife, including that she was the daughter of Potiphar.

ויתן לו את אסנת בת פוטיפרע, “he gave him (as a wife) Ossnat daughter of Potiphera;” according to Rashi, this is the same Potiphar in whose house Joseph had served for a year before his incarceration. If Joseph had married someone of higher rank, he was afraid that his children would be claimed by his former master as slaves, seeing he had owned their father as a slave. When he married his former master’s own daughter, he would be ashamed to say that her children were slaves. A different exegesis: he married her to prove that he had never slept with her mother as claimed…

Chizkuni, Genesis 41:45:2

Joseph's Righteousness and the Red Sea

MIDRASH

In rabbinic interpretation, Joseph’s actions with Potiphar’s wife — or lack thereof — resonate into the future. Midrash Tanchuma, a medieval collection of midrash, connects Joseph's flight from sin with the later parting of the Red Sea.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You fled, therefore be assured: The sea will flee before your coffin, as it is said: The sea saw it and fled (Ps. 114:3).

Midrash Tanchuma, Vayeshev 9:3

The Protective Power of Modesty

MUSAR

Joseph conducted himself in an exemplary fashion, even in the face of enormous temptation. Ma'alot HaMiddot, a medieval Italian ethical work by Rabbi Yechiel Anav, uses Joseph's story to highlight the importance of modesty as a safeguard against sin.

My children, come and I will teach you the virtue of modesty. My children, you should know that the virtue of modesty is from the most important and pedigreed traits. As it one of the three traits that the Holy One, blessed be He, seeks from the Jewish people, as it is stated: And what does the Lord require of you, etc. and to walk modestly with your God (Micah 6:8). And not only that, but it protects a person from the evil eye, and saves him from sins and transgressions. For such do we find with the righteous Joseph, that because he acted modestly, he was saved from his mistress…

Ma'alot HaMiddot, ix; On Modesty and Immorality 1

The Consequences of Vanity

KABBALAH

Is it possible that Joseph bears some responsibility for the mess he found himself in? While examining Joseph's actions, the Zohar, a foundational work of Jewish mysticism, makes just such a suggestion.

R. Eleazar said: ‘The word “after” here alludes to the evil prompter, being the name of a grade, as we have laid down. Joseph exposed himself to his accusations because he used to pay great attention to his personal appearance. That gave the evil prompter an opening to say: “Behold, his father observes mourning for him, and he decks himself out and curls his hair!” Thus the bear was let loose, as it were, and set upon him.’

Zohar, Vayeshev 21:213

Divine Intervention in Joseph's Trial

CHASIDUT

According to Chasidic thought, God tested Joseph in Egypt even as God assisted him in passing this test. The Sefat Emet, Rebbe Yehuda Leib Alter of Ger's Chasidic Torah commentary, uses this episode as a model to uphold when the Jews are exiled throughout history.

That which the Holy One, blessed be He, did not reveal the sale of Joseph to our father Jacob, peace be upon him — even though it was because of an oath, nevertheless, why did He orchestrate it from heaven [like this]? It is possible that it was because it was for his benefit. As if he had known that Joseph was sold to Egypt, a place of licentiousness and impurity, it would have caused him even more distress. For it was a significant thing for the righteous Joseph to retain his holiness in Egypt. So it appears that the Holy One, blessed be He, did everything for the good…

Sefat Emet, Genesis, Vayeshev 6:6

Spiritual Triumph in Egypt

JEWISH THOUGHT

Of Jacob's 12 sons, why was Joseph the brother who went down to Egypt? Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague better known as Maharal, in his 16th-century philosophical interpretation of the Exodus and the Haggadah, Gevurot Hashem asks this question.

And it was specifically Joseph from all of the other brothers, since it was fitting that Joseph would be the king ruling over Egypt. For Egypt is called a donkey [chamor, which is similar to the word, chomer, physical matter], as it is written: whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys (Ezekiel 23:20); and they were flooded in licentiousness, as it is written in the section about sexual immorality, What is done in the land of Egypt, wherein you were settled, you are not to do (Leviticus 18:3)…

Gevurot Hashem 11:4

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