In Jewish sources The
Sefer haYashar adds more lurid details to Potiphar's wife's character. She tried to seduce Joseph with fine garments, delicious viands and amorous words but when these attempts failed, she resorted to threats. Joseph resisted every temptation and this caused the wife to feel sick. One day, she saw her friends cutting themselves with knives whilst they peeled oranges due to Joseph's appearance. The wife told them that she suffered like them because she was forced to see Joseph every day. Other Jewish traditions say that the wife tried to kill her husband so she could keep Joseph to herself. Joseph reprimanded her for making him complicit in attempted adultery and murder. But the wife told him that she and her people would accept Joseph's religion if he yielded. Again, Joseph told her that Yahweh does not desire "unchaste worshippers" and after the wife invited him in a bedroom filled with idols, he told her that he feared Yahweh, who "saw all things". They also state that the wife attempted to seduce Joseph during a religious festival at the
Nile River and that everyone knew Joseph's innocence, including the wife's eleven month old child and
Asenath, who was the first to inform Potiphar. But Potiphar imprisoned Joseph to save his wife from public humiliation. Even after Joseph's freedom, the wife forced Joseph to look at her by putting an iron spear beneath his chin. Once more, Joseph resisted.
Rashi comments that the wife of Potiphar saw through astrology that she would have children through Joseph. The astrological calculations however were slightly off. Asenath, her daughter (by adoption, in some accounts) became the wife of Joseph and therefore the wife of Potiphar begot grandchildren (not children) through Joseph.
In Islamic sources ; painting on tiles of Mo'avin-Almamalik
tekyeh,
Kermanshah Muslim scriptural commentators (Mufassirun) have regarded Zuleikha as a sinner and villainess with the exceptions of the Muslim
mystic poets
Rumi,
Hafiz and Jami. For Rumi, Zuleikha's obsession with Joseph is a symptom and manifestation of the soul's great
deep longing for
God. For this, he insists, it is true of any person's deep love for another.
Scholarly criticism Scholars such as
Meir Sternberg (1985) characterise the woman's repetitive behaviour towards Joseph as
sexual assault. McKinlay (1995) noted that Potiphar's wife is treated as an object in his master's possession (Gen 39:8–9), and the reason Joseph refuses is not because he doesn't find her attractive, but because it would violate his master's trust and be a sin against the God
Yahweh. == See also ==