sister.”
They brought her into his presence, and Potipherah said to her, “Salute
thy brother, who hateth women as thou hatest men.”
And Asenath said, “Hail, blessed of God, who giveth life to all!”
Then Potipherah bade his daughter kiss Joseph, but when she approached
him, he thrust forth his hand and said, “It becomes not the man
worshipping the living God to kiss an outlandish woman whose lips kiss
dumb idols.”
Asenath, hearing these words, fell into great grief and wept. Joseph had
compassion on her, and laid his hand on her head and blessed her, and
Asenath was glad because of his benediction. But she went to her couch
in the tower, and was ill with fear and pain, and she turned with
penitence from her idols, and renounced them, and cast them out of her
window.
Joseph ate and drank, and went his way, promising to return in eight
days. Then Asenath put on a black robe, and closed her door and prayed,
and cast her food to the dogs, and laid her head on the pavement, and
wept seven days.
Then an angel visited her, and gave her honey gathered from the roses of
Paradise; and the honey was so sweet, that when she had tasted it she
could not doubt whence it had come, and she felt herself enlightened by
the true God; and the angel signed the honey with the cross, and the
trace of his finger was blood. Along with faith and hope, charity
enlightened her heart, and she besought of the angel to give of this
honey to the seven maidens who attended on her; and when they had
obtained this favour, they all became like their mistress, servants of
the Most High. Then the angel bade her lay aside her tears and black
garment, and rejoice, for her prayer was heard.
At that moment one of the servants of Potipherah entered, saying,
“Behold, Joseph, the Strength of God, approaches; go ye out to meet
him.”
Now when Joseph had alighted down from his chariot, he came into the
hall; and when he knew that Asenath had cast away her idols, he rejoiced
greatly, and he sought her in marriage of Potipherah, and the Priest of
On made a great supper, and gave his daughter to Joseph, and he called
Joseph the lord of lords, and Asenath he called the daughter of the Most
High.[432]
Footnote 400:
This was Sammael, and he complained to God that Jacob had neglected
the duty of hospitality, therefore he was suffered to afflict him for
a season.
Footnote 401:
Tabari, i. p. 210.
Footnote 402:
Targums, i. p. 287.
Footnote 403:
Tabari, i. p. 211.
Footnote 404:
Targums, i. p. 288. The account of the sale in Yaschar is very long,
and full of details too numerous for insertion here (pp. 1185-8.)
Footnote 405:
Tabari, i. p. 212.
Footnote 406:
Targums, i. 289.
Footnote 407:
Weil, p. 102.
Footnote 408:
Yaschar, tr. Drachs, p. 1192.
Footnote 409:
Tabari, i. pp. 213, 214.
Footnote 410:
Targums, i. 288.
Footnote 411:
Yaschar, pp. 1188-9; Parrascha Wajescheb. This touching incident is
common to Rabbinic and Mussulman traditions. It has been gracefully
versified by Dr. Le Heris, “Sagen aus der Orient;” Mannheim, 1852.
Footnote 412:
His name in Arabic is Aziz.
Footnote 413:
Zuleika is the name in Yaschar; it is that also given her by the
Arabs.
Footnote 414:
Tract. Sota., fol. 36, col. 2. The original account of this final
detail is too absurd and monstrous to be narrated more particularly.
Footnote 415:
Tabari, i. p. 217.
Footnote 416:
Yaschar, p. 1197. Nearly all these incidents in the life of Joseph are
common to Jewish and Mussulman traditions.
Footnote 417:
Tabari, p. 220; Weil, p. 112; both taken from the Rabbinic story in
Yaschar, p. 1195.
Footnote 418:
Weil, p. 113.
Footnote 419:
Targums, i. pp. 296-9; Midrash, fol. 45; Yaschar, p. 1200.
Footnote 420:
Midrash, fol. 45.
Footnote 421:
Weil, p. 116; Tabari, i. c. 44; Gen. xli.; Yaschar, pp. 1202-8.
Footnote 422:
This conclusion of the loves of Zuleika and Joseph completes the
romance, and makes it a most popular subject for poets in the East.
Both Jewish and Mussulman traditions give Zuleika a very different
character from that which Holy Scripture leads one to attribute to
her.
Footnote 423:
Midrash, Jalkut, fol. 46.
Footnote 424:
Ibid.
Footnote 425:
Weil, p. 122.
Footnote 426:
Tabari, i. p. 247; taken from the Rabbinic Yaschar (Sepher Hajaschar),
p. 1226.
Footnote 427:
Midrash, Jalkut, fol. 47; Yaschar, p. 1225; Berescheth Rabba, fol. 84,
col. 4.
Footnote 428:
Yaschar, p. 1226.
Footnote 429:
This was the shirt given Abraham by Gabriel, to preserve him from the
fire into which Nimrod cast him; it was fragrant with the odours of
Paradise.
Footnote 430:
Koran, Sura xii.; Tabari, i. pp. 250, 251.
Footnote 431:
Yaschar, p. 1227.
Footnote 432:
Vita Asseneth, filiæ Potipharis; a Greek apocryphal book, in
Fabricius, iii. p. 85.
XXIX.
THE TESTAMENTS OF THE TWELVE PATRIARCHS.
The “Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs” is one of the seventy-two
apocryphal books of the Old Testament which were at one time in
circulation, and, according to Epiphanius, it formed one of the
twenty-two canonical books sent by the Jews to Ptolemy, king of
Egypt.[433]
It is a work of Jewish origin, which has been tampered with and
interpolated by Christian copyists. S. Augustine numbers it with the
Apocrypha; he says, “There are the apocryphal books of the Old
Testament: the works falsely attributed to Enoch, the Patriarchs, the
Discourse of Joseph, the Assumption of Moses, the pseudographia of
Abraham, Eldad and Medad, Elias the prophet, the prophet Zephaniah,
Zechariah, Baruch, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Daniel.”
Curiously enough, the Testament of the Patriarchs contains a large
number of alleged quotations from the Book of Enoch, which are not,
however, to be found in that book as we now have it.
This Testament was read by the Jews at the time of Christ’s coming, and
S. Paul seems to have been acquainted with it, for he quotes it,
“_Awake, thou that steepest, and arise from the dead_;”[434] and again
he quotes the Testament of Levi, “_The wrath is come upon them to the
uttermost._”[435] S. Jerome remarks on this, “The Apostle Paul quoted
from the hidden prophets and from those books which are called
Apocrypha,” and he adds, “That he did so in several other places is very
evident.”[436] And Origen says, “It is evident that many examples were
quoted and inserted in the New Testament by the Apostles and the
Evangelists from those Scriptures which we do not read as canonical, but
these passages are found in the apocryphal books, and it is evident that
these passages were extracted from them;” and he gives the reason why
that was lawful to the Apostles which is not lawful to us.
He says, “It may have been, that the Apostles and Evangelists, filled
with the Holy Ghost, may have known what was to be taken from these
writings and what was to be rejected; but for us to presume to do such a
thing would be full of danger, not having the Spirit in the same measure
to guide us.”[437]
Robert Grostête, Bishop of Lincoln, translated the Testament of the
Twelve Patriarchs into Latin, in 1242, according to Matthew Paris.
“Also, in this time, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, a man most skilled in
Latin and Greek, translated accurately the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs from the Greek into Latin; which for many years had been
unknown and concealed, through the jealousy of the Jews, because of the
prophecies concerning our Saviour therein contained. But the Greeks, the
most indefatigable investigators of all writings, being the first who
learnt about this, translated it from Hebrew into Greek, and kept it to
themselves until our own time. For in the time of S. Jerome, or of any
other holy interpreter, it could not in any way whatever come to the
knowledge of the Christians, on account of the scheming malice of the
Jews. Therefore the above-named Bishop, assisted by Master Nicholas, a
Greek, and clerk to the Abbey of S. Albans, translated clearly,
evidently, and word for word, into Latin, that glorious treatise, to the
strengthening of the Christian faith, and to the greater confusion of
the Jews.”[438]
The Testaments were published by Grabe, at Oxford, in 1698, and were
republished by Fabricius in his “Codex Pseudepigraphus Vet. Testamenti,”
at Hamburg, in 1722.[439]
Footnote 433:
Lib. de Mensuris et Ponderibus, § 10.
Footnote 434:
Ephes. v. 14.
Footnote 435:
Thess. ii. 16.
Footnote 436:
Commen. in Eph. loc. cit.
Footnote 437:
Prolog. in fin. Duarum Hom. in Cant. Canticorum.
Footnote 438:
Matt. Paris, Chronicle, ed. Bohn, vol. i. pp. 437, 438.
Footnote 439:
T. i., pp. 496-759.
XXX.
JOB.
Job was the great grandson of Esau. He was the son of Amos, the son of
Zara, the son of Esau, and he had to wife Rahma, daughter of Ephraim,
son of Joseph. Ephraim left two sons who were prophets after him; but
amongst the children of Esau there was no prophet, saving Job.
Job was more patient than any other prophet; therefore it is said of him
in the Koran, “Certainly we have found this excellent servant
patient.”[440]
The Rabbis say that Job, Jethro, and Balaam were King Pharaoh’s three
councillors, and they were also his chief magicians. They, by their
enchantments, drew a line round the land of Egypt, so that no slave
could escape out of it; for when he came to the line, he was held back
and could not overleap it. But when the Israelites broke away and
disregarded the enchanted line, Job, Jethro, and Balaam gave up their
witchcrafts, and turned to the service of the living God.[441]
Job lived in Bashan, which lies between Damascus and Ramla, and there he
reigned as a prince. Job had five hundred yoke of oxen, and to every
yoke there was a she-ass to carry the instruments of husbandry. He had
also a thousand flocks of sheep, and a thousand sheep in each flock. He
had ten children, seven sons and three daughters; all were grown
up.[442]
In the “Testament of Job,”[443] we read that this great man, illumined
by the Divine light, comprehended that the idols which his people adored
were no gods, and that there was but one only true God, the Creator and
Preserver of all things. There was near his house an idol which
attracted great worship. He prayed the Lord to show him whether this
idol were a demon or not; and he promised, in that case, to destroy it
and purify the place; and this he was able to do, being a sovereign.
God sent him an angel, who illumined him, and strengthened him in his
resolution. So he destroyed the idol, and abolished its worship. But
this act drew upon him the wrath of Satan. The angel had foreseen the
disasters which would befall Job if he resolved to strive against the
Evil One, and he had warned Job what to expect; but Job answered that,
being convinced of the truth, he was ready to suffer for it.
Satan presented himself at the door of Job’s house. He had taken upon
him the form of a pilgrim, and he said to the portress, “I desire to see
the faithful servant of the Most High.”
Now Job, who had received the gift of prophecy, knew that this was the
Evil One, and he refused to see him, saying to the gate-keeper when she
brought the message, “Tell him that I am occupied, and that I cannot
receive him.”
Satan retired, but he returned soon after, disguised as a beggar, and he
said to the portress, “Go and ask Job to give me a morsel of bread.”
“Tell him,” replied Job, “that I will not give him of the bread I eat,
because I will not have anything in common with him. But offer him this
burnt crust, that he may not say I sent him empty away.”
The servant, not venturing to give the burnt crust, because she was not
aware who the beggar was, offered him some good bread. But Satan, who
knew what Job had commanded, thrust it away, saying, “Begone, bad
servant, and bring me the bread you were told to give me.”
The portress replied: “You say well, I am a bad servant, for I have not
done that which I was commanded to do. Here is the crust my master
ordered me to give you. He will not have anything in common with you;
no! not even the bread he eats; but he sends you this, that it may not
be said of him that he dismissed thee empty from his door without an
alms.”
Satan took the charred crust, and bade the servant tell Job that he
would soon render to him such measure as he had dealt to him.[444]
Then Satan ascended to God, and desired permission to afflict and prove
Job. And when leave was given him, he descended to earth, and breathed
such a hot blast, that all the cattle, and sheep, and servants of Job
were burnt up. Then Satan took the form of a slave, and ran and told the
prophet. Job answered, “_The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord!_”
Then Satan went and shook the earth under the house where the sons and
daughters of Job were assembled, and the house fell and destroyed them
all.
Satan immediately hastened in the disguise of a servant to Job, and told
him what had taken place. He said, “O Job! God has shaken down the house
about your children, and they are dead. Had you seen their bleeding
faces and broken limbs, and their brains bespattering the stones, and
had heard their piercing cries, you would have been heart-broken.”
Job wept, and lifted his eyes to God; and he knew who addressed him, and
he said, “Satan! it is thou who comest to tempt me and to cast doubt
into my heart, and mistrust in the wisdom and goodness of God; get thee
hence.”
Satan then blew a hot breath up the nose of Job, and poisoned all his
blood. His body became scarlet next day, and the day after was covered
with ulcers from head to foot; there was no whole place in him, except
the head, the tongue, the eyes, and the heart; for over these portions
God had not given Satan power.
All Job’s friends deserted him and fled; Rahma,[445] his wife, alone
remained, and she spent on him the rest of his possessions, but he was
not cured of his disease. And this was why all his possessions
went—Satan stole them away; and thus in a short time he was reduced to
penury, and Rahma went from house to house begging alms for his support.
Satan saw that he could not triumph so long as the wife remained with
her husband; she was a comfort and joy to him, and he cared not for
possessions, or children, or health, so long as his wife was at his
side; therefore, he sought occasion to separate them. One day, as Rahma
was carrying food to Job, Satan presented himself before her in the form
of an old man, and asked her, “O Rahma! art thou not the daughter of
Ephraim, the son of Joseph?” She replied, “I am.”
Then said the Evil Angel, “In what condition do I see thee?” She
answered, “My husband Job has fallen into poverty, and I serve him.”
He said, “Do not serve him, for when thou touchest him, the poison of
his disease passes into thy veins.”
She replied, “He is my husband, and I must attend on him as long as I
live, in health or sickness.”
Then Satan retired, despairing of seducing her from her duty. Rahma told
Job all that had been said to her.
The prophet said, “O woman! he whom you have seen is Satan, and he
desired to separate us. Do not speak to him again when he addresses
you.”
Some time after, the Evil One presented himself before the faithful wife
under the form of a beautiful youth; and said to her, “What woman art
thou, who art so radiant in beauty?” She answered, “I am the wife of a
poor man, named Job.”
He said, “O woman! what hast thou, with thy wondrous beauty, to do with
a poor sick husband? Go, be divorced from thy husband, and marry me. I
have great possessions, and I will treat thee as a queen.”
She answered, “I am the wife of a prophet; I desire nothing higher.”
Then Satan withdrew, despairing of seducing her from her duty. Rahma
told Job all that had been said to her.
Job said, “O woman! did I not tell thee to speak with him no more; why
hast thou disobeyed my voice? That was Satan, and he sought to separate
us. Do not speak to him again when he addresses thee.”
Some time after, the Evil One presented himself before the faithful
wife, under the form of an angel; and said to her, “O woman, daughter of
a prophet! I am an angel sent from God with a message to thee.”
She said, “What message?”
He said, “Behold the Most High is wroth with Job, for he renders no
thanks for all the good things He gave to him; therefore hath the Lord
rejected him from being a prophet, and he shall fall from worse to
worse, till he is cast into the flames of hell; we, the angels of God,
curse him, and do thou, daughter of a prophet, avoid him, lest thou come
into the same condemnation.”
When Rahma heard these words, she wept, and said, “After so many
afflictions, shall the name of Job be taken from the number of the
prophets? And after so many sufferings shall he perish everlastingly?”
Then she went to Job and told him all that had been said to her.
Job was greatly angered when she told him the tenor of the words, and he
cried out, “Have I not warned thee these two times not to speak with
him, who is the author of my affliction? Wait till I am well, and I will
give thee a hundred strokes with a rod.”[446]
But the story is told differently by others. It is said that the third
time Satan appeared as a baker, and Rahma wanted bread, but had nought
to pay. Then said the pretended baker, “Thou hast locks of very
beautiful hair; cut off thy hair and give it to me, and thou shalt take
the largest of my loaves.”
Then she cut off three locks and gave them to him.
And when Job saw that she had done this, he was filled with fury, and he
swore that when he was well he would beat her for having cut off her
hair.[447]
Thus Satan triumphed in making Job to sin by swearing, and threatening
to ill-treat a true and good woman.
Next the Evil One went as an angel, and announced to all the people of
the land that he came from God to declare to them that Job was no more
reckoned among the prophets; and that they were not to trust his words
and believe his doctrine, but were to return to the worship of those
gods he had blasphemed and cast out.
Soon after, Job heard his three friends, Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar,
converse together, and repeat what had been told them by Satan; and the
thought that he was supposed to be rejected by God from among His
prophets, was so distressing to him, that he cried out, “Truly, O God!
evil has befallen me; but Thou art the most merciful of those who show
mercy.”[448] That is, the words of men are cruel, but Thou, O God, wilt
deliver me out of all my evils.
Job was sick for seven years, and all that while his wife ministered to
him.
But the mediæval commentators draw a very different picture of this
wife, relying on the words of Scripture which make her tempt Job to
“_curse God and die_.” They say that her tongue was one of the plagues
of Job. That he bore patiently the loss of his cattle, of his children,
and of his health, was indeed wonderful; but that he also endured the
nagging of his wife with equanimity,—that was the most wonderful of all.
Then God looked on Job and had compassion upon him, and he said to him,
“Strike the earth with thy foot.”[449] Job stamped, and from the
dung-heap on which he had been seated a clear stream of water issued,
the sweetest that there is, and the water continued to flow. Then God
said to Job, “Wash in this water.”
Rahma, the wife of Job, poured the water upon his head and over his
body, and he washed himself. All the sores that were on his flesh
disappeared, and he was healed; there was not a scar left, and he
appeared more beautiful than before he was afflicted.
Then God said to Job, “Drink of the water.”
Then all the worms that were in the inside of Job died, and he was quite
whole. Now this took place in Bashan, and the fountain remains to this
day, and is called Qarya-Aïyub, and the city near which it is,
Aïrs-Aïyub. “I have seen the city of the fountain,” says the Persian
translator of Tabari: “every person who goes there, affected by internal
or external maladies, and washes and drinks of that water, is healed of
his disease.”[450]
Then God said to Job, “Fulfil thy vow, and take in thine hand a bundle
of rods.”[451] But the rods God told him to take were light sticks; and
he took a hundred of these, and bound them together and smote Rahma with
them, and he did not hurt her. By this action of Job, the Mussulman
doctors support their advice to those who have taken rash oaths to clear
themselves by a subterfuge. Thus, if a man has sworn he will not enter
his house again, he is recommended to allow himself to be bound hand and
foot and be carried into his home. Or, if he has sworn to recite the
whole Koran, it will be sufficient for him to say the word “Koran,” and
listen to the imaum reading before the assembly.
Then God restored to Job double all that he had lost; and Job lived,
after he was recovered of his disease, twenty years, and he died at the
age of ninety-three.
The worms which had devoured the body of the prophet, God turned into
silk-worms; and the flies which had bitten him and tormented his sores,
converted He into honey-bees; and before this there were neither
silk-worms nor honey-bees on the earth. Also the rain and the snow which
fell within his possessions, were grains of gold and pearl.
Isidore of Seville places the fountain which cured Job in Idumæa. He
says, it is clear during three months of the year, troubled during the
next three, then for three months it is green, and for the last three,
it is red.
In the “Testament of Job,” we read some details concerning his death,
written by his brother Nahor.
After three days of sickness, Job, lying on his bed, saw the angels come
to receive his soul. After having divided his substance between his
seven sons (for, after his troubles, he became the father of seven sons
and three daughters), he gave his daughters three mantles of inestimable
price, which he had received from heaven. To the eldest, Hemera
(Jemima), he gave his harp; to the second, Cassia (Keziah), he handed
his censer; to the third, Keren-happuch, he remitted his tambourine: and
as he sang his last hymn to the Most High on his death-bed, Hemera and
Keren-happuch accompanied him with harp and timbrel, and Cassia cast up
fumes of sweet incense. Thus they greeted the messengers of heaven who
came for the soul of Job.
Footnote 440:
Koran, Sura xxxviii. v. 43-4. Job in Arabic is Aïub.
Footnote 441:
Eisenmenger, ii. p. 439.
Footnote 442:
Tabari, i. p. 256.
Footnote 443:
Maï (Angelus), Test. Job; Romæ, 1839.
Footnote 444:
Maï (Angelus), Test. Job; Romæ, 1839.
Footnote 445:
In the “Testament of Job” she is called Sitis.
Footnote 446:
Tabari, i. c. lxvi; Abulfeda, pp. 27-29.
Footnote 447:
Testament of Job.
Footnote 448:
Koran, Sura xxi. v. 83.
Footnote 449:
Koran, Sura xxxviii. v. 41.
Footnote 450:
Tabari, i. p. 263.
Footnote 451:
Koran, Sura xxxviii. v. 43.
XXXI.
JETHRO.
As has already been related, Jethro formed one of the council of Pharaoh
till he found that his incantations had no effect on the Israelites. He
escaped from Egypt before Job; for he had found in the palace of the
king the staff of Joseph which had been cut from the Tree of Life, and
therewith he hied him into the land of Midian, along with his daughter
Zipporah.
According to Mussulman tradition, Jethro, whom the Arabs call Schohair
or Schohaib, was a great prophet; and he was sent by God to the
Midianites to call them to repentance and the rejection of polytheism.
Jethro was old and nearly blind. He preached to the people, and exhorted
them with many words and for a long season, but all his words were in
vain; the Midianites would not be converted, and at length they openly
accused him of being a false prophet, and denied that God had sent him.
Therefore God gave over this nation to destruction. He sent a fiery
breath upon the land, and the people could not bear the great heat, and
retired into the fields, where there was shadow; for God sent a cloud to
hide the face of the sun, and it cast a blot of shade upon the fields.
But there were old men and women and little children, and the sick who
could not leave the city and take refuge in the shade.
Slowly the cloud came down from heaven, like the lid of a saucepan, and
covered all the Midianites that were in the field, and the cloud was of
fire, and they fried “as fish fry in an oven.” Then the angel Gabriel,
gave a great shout, and all that were in the city, saving Jethro and his
family, died of fright when they heard his cry.
Then Jethro lived in the land of Midian till Moses came to him out of
Egypt.[452]
Footnote 452:
Tabari, i. c. lxvii; Abulfeda, p. 31.
XXXII.
MOSES.[453]
1. ISRAEL IN EGYPT.