Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

The Greek spelling here is Φωτιμάρ , in the later chapters Πετεφρίς ( Πεντεφρῆς , Cd. Oxon.). The former is more like the Hebrew, the latter really the LXX. spelling, Πετεφρῆς . We may perhaps see herein a trace of a double authorship in the Test. Joseph .

Cf. Gen. xxxix. 1 , LXX., and Josephus ( Antiq ., ii. 4. 1), who calls Potiphar μαγείρων ὁ βασιλεύς . The view of the Eng. ver. is most probably correct, though we find טבָּח used in the sense of cook in 1 Sam. ix. 23 .

[ Matt. vi. 6 . He veils the quotation by a fiction, as to authorship, to support the plan of his work.]

[ Dan. i. 15 .]

This repetition of a clause seems like the slip of a copyist. The Ox. ms . reads, εἰς τὴν εἱρκτὴν τοῦ Φαραώ

[To this section Lardner takes exception, as unbecoming to the gravity of Joseph.]

Another account is given in the Targ. Ps. Jon . of Gen. xli. 45 , “And he gave him to wife Asenath, whom Dinah bare to Shechem: and the wife of Potipherah prince of Tanes brought up.”

This wearing of a linen garment would seem to imply a connection with the priestly tribe. St. Luke ( i. 36 ) indeed calls the Virgin the kinswoman of Elisabeth. On this tendency to associate the old sacerdotal tribe with the new royalty of Messiah, cf., e.g., Protevangel. Jacobi , cc. 6, 7, 9; Augustine, contra Faustum , xxiii. 4; Epiphanius, Hær ., lxxviii. 13. [See Reuben , sec. 6, p. 10, supra .]

Isa. i. 8; xxiv. 20 .

Cf. Test. Simeon 8, and Jubilees 46. The account of Joseph’s burial in the Targ. Ps. Jon . on Gen. l. 26 is: “And Joseph died, a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and placed him in a coffin, and sank him in the middle of the Nile of Egypt.“

Cf. Gen. xlviii. 7 , LXX.