Terminological patterns and Genesis 39

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 2001 by Warning, Wilfried

The Joseph story with its beginning in Genesis 37 is "interrupted" by the episode of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38), and in Gen 39:1 the main thread of the story is reintroduced by recapitulating 37:36, "Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar. . . ," but "here Joseph is the subject of the sentence ... showing he is now to be the focus of interest."1 In order to elaborate on Joseph's role in Genesis 39 effectively it seems best to take seriously the vocabulary employed by its ancient author, the term "author" being understood and used as referring to the persons) responsible for the text before us, the persons) who composed the literary unit we call "Genesis 38," "Genesis 39," or "Genesis," literary entities which did not exist prior to their composition, whatever the prehistory of their individual parts may have been. In order to comprehend the message of each of these three chapters properly and to realize their linguistic and thematic interrelation, the extant Endgestalt, the final shape, should be accepted as sole starting point of any exegetical work.

It is my contention that it will prove profitable to implement the proposal made by R. Rendtorff both consequently and rigorously:

A "reconstruction" of previous stages of the text ... would be very hypothetical in most cases .... Moreover in conscious and categorical deviation from a widely practiced exegetic theory and praxis, the hermeneutic principle applied here is that the understanding of the biblical text in its present form is the preeminent task of exegesis.2

Since "the only fact available to us is the text of the Pentateuch in all its complexity,"3 it is the complex and yet carefully composed Endgestalt that serves as the foundation for this paper. In some recent studies scrutinizing the vocabulary of selected pericopes of the Hebrew Bible, the hermeneutical principle proposed by Rendtorff has been consequently applied. In the course of these scrutinies significant verbal links have been discovered that come to light both in short self-contained passages 4 and on a larger scale, encompassing major parts of Genesis, Leviticus, and even the Pentateuch as a whole.5

Such linguistic links can be demonstrated by tabulating all the words used in a self-contained literary unit, an entity that may consist of a brief passage or even an entire Biblical book. By way of tabulating the total vocabulary of a given passage, the distinct distribution, the relative frequency, and the structural positioning of significant terms and/or phrases will come to the fore.6 Concerning the present study, this implies that (almost) every word used in Genesis 39 has been scrutinized by means of BibleWorks and the concordance. In tabulating the respective positions and counting the frequencies of the vocabulary, several suggestive terms turn out to be of significance as far as the structural outlines are concerned, and it is these distinct structures based on counting a given sentential entity, word or term that have been designated "terminological patterns."7

With regard to such "veiled counting" in the Hebrew Bible we would do well to bear in mind M. Tsevat's admonition:

The literary units to be scrutinized concerning the frequency of characteristic words must be clearly and distinctly recognizable as such, and if possible they should be delimited in the same way in previous research, so that the exegete will not be tempted or be exposed to the reproach that he or she places the caesura in the continuum of the text in such a way that the characteristic term occurs the desired number of times.9

It is, of course, common knowledge that in many eras and diverse cultures people have had a certain predilection for certain numbers carrying symbolic significance. There is no doubt that the symbolic significance of numerals like three, ten, twelve, and their multiples is surpassed by the number "seven" and hence it can rightfully be called the sacred number par excellence. In the process of tabulating the vocabulary of many a passage of the Hebrew Bible, it has come to light that in a variable length list often the seventh position and, in case of a longer list, less often the twelfth are emphasized by means of some special term or phrase. 10 But besides having made use of the symbolic significance of the numbers "seven" (representing completeness and completion) and "twelve,"il Biblical authors have created well-crafted inclusions or envelope structures, outlines in which the first and last positions are similar. 12 Analogous to the envelope structure the designation "open-envelope structure" has been coined for terminological patterns if the second and second-from-last positions resemble each other, 13 and in case the third and third-from-last, fourth and fourthfrom-last, etc. positions are similar or even verbatim, one can speak of an "equidistant structure."14

It is important to understand that terminological patterns can be found in diverse genres of Biblical literature,15 and I dare say that even highfrequency words, technical terms or common words have been used by Biblical writers in creating significant structural outlines. 16 Faced with the fact that in present-day Pentateuchal studies this approach is rarely being used, certain reservations on the part of scholars are understandable. Considering the results that substantiate the methodological appropriateness of this approach, it has been rightly remarked: