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In Potiphar's House: The Interpretive Life of a Biblical Text
This is A 186 page hardback with dust jacket authored by James L. Kugel and published by Harper Collins.
286 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 11, 2020
This is probably the best introduction to Midrash out there. The word "Midrash" in Hebrew comes from the word that means "to seek or inquire," and it fittingly describes the long and convoluted tradition of Jewish exegesis of texts, often thought to be "fanciful" due to them taking Biblical stories and stringing them out into all sorts of Biblical "what-if" scenarios. For example, in one story Potiphar's wife has a bunch of Egyptian ladies over for lunch and gives them a bunch of fruits and knives to cut with, and just as they are about to cut their luscious fruits, Potiphar's wife summons Joseph. Dazzled by his appearance, the women all miss and cut themselves and Mrs. Potiphar says, "If you are so dazzled by him that you cut yourselves, imagine what it must be like for me since I behold him every day." It's a fun story and Kugel looks at different versions and makes a plausible, but carefully measured case that the story is a mixture of earlier stories meant to ask a question about the Biblical story: for instance, why does Potiphar's wife talk to the women about Joseph and tell them that Potiphar sent a slave to mock them? Why does the text tell us Joseph was handsome before introducing Potiphar's wife? Kugel argues that the story was playfully answering these kinds of questions.
Obviously, this means that there is a LOT of work that can potentially be done to better understand Jewish exegesis, so this book very much daunted me in a lot of ways. However, the work is very rewarding since in two fascinating instances, the book clearly shows that Jewish exegesis was already at work at the time of Jesus and that Jesus in fact played off this tradition. For instance, there was already a verbal question about Jacob's ladder which John clearly riffed off of, and there were different ways of reading the command to not hate one's brother in Leviticus, some of which limited it to Jews. Dr. Edwards, professor of Hebrew at NSA, told me afterwards that he thinks the scribe asking Jesus about "who is my neighbor?" though definitely trying to justify himself was also asking a genuine exegetical question!
What this means, for me, is that we need to be slow to judge ancient sources, and that as Christians, we should be particularly patient with the way the Old Testament is interpreted in the New Testament. This also means that there's a lot more room for Grammatical-historical interpretation than I thought, since exegesis that seems to be mysterious may actually be exegesis, albeit by a more circuitous route than we thought. This is the one thing I would fault Kugel for (he calls the distinction between exegesis and eisegesis a pseudo-distinction, which would make hay of his own work in trying to know what Rabbinic exegesis was about.) Otherwise, this book helped me grow stronger in my faith and really exposed me to a wide and fascinating and fun world.
Obviously, this means that there is a LOT of work that can potentially be done to better understand Jewish exegesis, so this book very much daunted me in a lot of ways. However, the work is very rewarding since in two fascinating instances, the book clearly shows that Jewish exegesis was already at work at the time of Jesus and that Jesus in fact played off this tradition. For instance, there was already a verbal question about Jacob's ladder which John clearly riffed off of, and there were different ways of reading the command to not hate one's brother in Leviticus, some of which limited it to Jews. Dr. Edwards, professor of Hebrew at NSA, told me afterwards that he thinks the scribe asking Jesus about "who is my neighbor?" though definitely trying to justify himself was also asking a genuine exegetical question!
What this means, for me, is that we need to be slow to judge ancient sources, and that as Christians, we should be particularly patient with the way the Old Testament is interpreted in the New Testament. This also means that there's a lot more room for Grammatical-historical interpretation than I thought, since exegesis that seems to be mysterious may actually be exegesis, albeit by a more circuitous route than we thought. This is the one thing I would fault Kugel for (he calls the distinction between exegesis and eisegesis a pseudo-distinction, which would make hay of his own work in trying to know what Rabbinic exegesis was about.) Otherwise, this book helped me grow stronger in my faith and really exposed me to a wide and fascinating and fun world.
April 2, 2026
It seems to me necessary to note something of reader expectation when attempting to formulate an accurate assessment of a text, particularly of a text intended to inform (as opposed to merely entertain as with much fiction).
My hope in acquiring and reading this book was to learn more about narrative expansion to which I’d been introduced by a podcast telling of the “Assembly of Ladies.”
This work certainly fulfilled that aspiration; and it went well beyond anything I may have anticipated. For example,
Narrative expansions (and / or less complete exegeses) for several biblical texts are introduced and explored (including of course as the book title suggests, the account of Joseph of Egypt in Potiphar’s house). Well chosen samples to enlighten and even entertain.
The author is imo skillful in putting forward a comprehensive potential reconstruction of sources associated with each narrative expansion considered. This I’d not conceived of let alone anticipated. It is highly informative and educational.
At the intersection of the previous observations is delight. It is delightful to me to observe a rich and continual curiosity regarding ancient texts and I suppose yet more so texts which purport to be a record of God’s interactions with humankind. It is inspiring to observe skillful and imaginative interpretation of textual curiosities. Interpretation is foundational to reading any text. It is my observation that meaning, truth, essence, and etc. is perhaps best thereby by experienced.
Imaginative, skillful interpretation. Enumerated and illustrated.
My hope in acquiring and reading this book was to learn more about narrative expansion to which I’d been introduced by a podcast telling of the “Assembly of Ladies.”
This work certainly fulfilled that aspiration; and it went well beyond anything I may have anticipated. For example,
Narrative expansions (and / or less complete exegeses) for several biblical texts are introduced and explored (including of course as the book title suggests, the account of Joseph of Egypt in Potiphar’s house). Well chosen samples to enlighten and even entertain.
The author is imo skillful in putting forward a comprehensive potential reconstruction of sources associated with each narrative expansion considered. This I’d not conceived of let alone anticipated. It is highly informative and educational.
At the intersection of the previous observations is delight. It is delightful to me to observe a rich and continual curiosity regarding ancient texts and I suppose yet more so texts which purport to be a record of God’s interactions with humankind. It is inspiring to observe skillful and imaginative interpretation of textual curiosities. Interpretation is foundational to reading any text. It is my observation that meaning, truth, essence, and etc. is perhaps best thereby by experienced.
Imaginative, skillful interpretation. Enumerated and illustrated.
December 4, 2017
Helpful book, read for my Early Jewish Studies minor. Does a great job defining midrash and positing theories about how it may have come about.
June 27, 2022
This book had a big impact on how i see Torah study. I learned a lot and think if it’s lessons often.
July 5, 2012
Kugel provides a very interesting case study on how later literature develops ideas and themes from a biblical story.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews