Joseph of Genesis as Hellenistic Scientist by Ljubica Jovanović

Abstract

Reviewed by: Joseph of Genesis as Hellenistic Scientist by Ljubica Jovanović Steven J. Schweitzer ljubica jovanović, Joseph of Genesis as Hellenistic Scientist (Hebrew Bible Monographs 48; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2013). Pp. xvii + 327. £75. Jovanović examines the depiction of the biblical figure of Joseph in subsequent interpretative early Jewish traditions that highlight or diminish his role in the use of divination. She challenges, however, a prevalent contemporary view that such divination practices are to be classified as "magic" and so do not fit within modern worldviews. Instead, she argues in her introduction that in the ancient world, and especially in Hellenistic culture, divination should be understood as a form of science (pp. 5-7). She defines divination as "the different methods of discovering the principles of nature and significance of events, with a focus on future ones" (p. 6). Therefore, she claims that terms such as "scholar" and "scientist" are more appropriate labels for a Hellenistic audience, viewed as "professionals with a high social standing," with a preference for the latter (p. 6). From this starting point, J. explores the characterization of Joseph as a Hellenistic scientist in later textual traditions. (The common use of Joseph among early Christians as a representation of Christ is explicitly excluded from this analysis.) In chap. 1, J. provides introductory remarks about the scope of the texts to be investigated before turning to a lengthy discussion of the types of activities that will be considered examples of divination, based on ancient descriptions. J. establishes two major approaches to the Joseph story. The first emphasizes and celebrates Joseph as a model for "scientific inquiry and the role of human senses and reason in accessing universal truths and divine knowledge" while valuing diversity and multiculturalism (p. 11). The second "considers the human senses as false venues to accessing the divine" and is accompanied by "a single ideology, the unification of humanity and intolerance of the foreign and the different" (p. 11). This first approach is represented by Josephus, the Ethiopic Story of Joseph, and several rabbinic Midrashim. The second approach is illustrated by Jubilees, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, and Joseph and Aseneth, all of which emphasize Levi as the exemplar instead of the figure of Joseph. This dichotomy is useful heuristically but seems overly simplistic as it is applied across the range of texts being investigated. Strangely, although J. treats Philo in chap. 5, he is almost completely omitted in her remarks in this chapter about the scope of the project or how he fits into these two approaches. After discussing these two interpretative perspectives, J. shifts to a detailed examination of divination practices in the ancient world centered on her preferred terminology: Revelation by Visual Effects (RVE). Jovanović defines RVE as "communication between the divine and human spheres in symbolic imagery," which includes "shiny surfaces such as a liquid or mirror, and sometimes in the play of shadows reflected from a screen, or in dreams and daily visions," whose source is understood to be "divine energy, sun light or the light of a lamp" (p. 15). This requires an association between vision and light, often [End Page 506] mediated through water or other reflective surfaces, in the ancient world. Specific divination practices are outlined, including hydromancy (water divination), captromancy/catoptromancy (mirror divination), lychnomancy/lecanomancy (lamp divination), and oneiromancy (dream divination). This section is quite extended (pp. 14-70), providing classifications and examples of these practices in various texts from the ancient world, including Mesopotamia, Babylon, Egypt, and Greece. Brief examples from the Hebrew Bible, including the Joseph narrative in Genesis, are included for comparison. The chapter concludes with a brief section outlining these characteristics in the Joseph story and the tendency of previous scholarship to minimize or ignore such connections, privileging the ethics associated with the figure of Joseph over these concerns. In chap. 2, J. examines the depiction of Joseph in the writings of Josephus, stressing the similarities between Josephus's own life and that of the Joseph of Genesis. In doing so, she seems to assume that much of Josephus's autobiographical account is to be accepted, or at least that Josephus himself could reasonably make such links, whether they were...