The Hellenistic period witnesses the expansion of ancient science encompassing many diverse schools of thought. Similarly, multiple interpretations of biblical texts thrived, promoting the simultaneous continuation of diverse interpretive traditions. This work aims to show that the popularity of the image of a Hellenistic scientist nourished a flourishing contemporaneous Hellenistic literature on Joseph, wherein an image of Joseph was constructed by associating his divinatory practices and dream interpretations with the professional activities of Hellenistic scientists.
After an introductory chapter that establishes perimeters for this study, analyses are presented of relevant elements in the works of Josephus and Philo, The Ethiopic Story of Joseph, Rabbinic midrashim, Jubilees, The Testaments of 12 Patriarchs, and Joseph and Aseneth. They show that Josephs specialty was the science of vision or ancient optics. Josephs dream interpretations and divinations through a cup are said to belong to the same scientific phenomena. Given that the literary genre has social and cultural dimension, this study proposes a new category of cultural adaptation at a distinct period in Jewish history, with oneiromancy and lecanomancy belonging to the genre we might call revelation by visual effects. In the process, the still accepted scholarly division of dreams between symbolic and message dreams is shown to be artificial. My research indicates that those texts that supported Josephs holistic scientific approach generally selected him as the chosen brother through whom the divine secrets and mysteries of the world were transmitted to future Hebrew and Jewish generations.
The popularity of Joseph and the boom in the literature about him were due to the existence of a sufficient number of Hellenistic Jews who held that their creative integration into Hellenistic culture could be successful and indeed sharpen their own identity as Jews.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-12062007-204341 |
| Date | 06 June 2008 |
| Creators | Jovanovic, Ljubica |
| Contributors | Jack M. Sasson, Amy-Jill Levine, Annalisa Azzoni, Douglas A. Knight, Kathy L. Gaca |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-12062007-204341/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0181 seconds