NOTES for Gen 39:1-23
The story of the testing of a human being repeats the same pattern as at the very beginning of Genesis, only here it takes place no longer on a universal human scale, where Adam represents all humanity, but on the personal level. The analogy between the events is emphasized even by the similarity of details: God places Joseph in paradisiacal conditions, gives into his hands everything his soul desires, and immediately the temptation arises to lay claim to what does not belong to him. His defense before Potiphar's wife coincides with Eve's answer to the serpent's proposal: everything is permitted to him except her, so how can he sin against God and his master? And then a miracle happens: the test can be passed successfully precisely on the level of an individual person. Because of this victory Joseph finds himself in the ambiguous position of a person who has done something unusual: he ends up in prison, but even there God arranges his life in the best possible way. Sacred history continues to develop within the framework of this adventure novel, only now its movement will not go from failure to failure, as in the first chapters of the Bible, but from victory to victory, behind each of which stands God's design and a concrete human decision.