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Joseph vs Potipher's wife

Classik

Classik

Member
Someone asked, how did Joseph know that sleeping with this woman would be a sin?
Was there a book or a law?
 
Classik said:
Someone asked, how did Joseph know that sleeping with this woman would be a sin?
Was there a book or a law?
Click to expand...
Since we read of different ones spoken to by God there need be no written law for them to know. Didn’t Adam and Eve know right and wrong having taken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; that very ministration of death later written in tables of stone. 2 Co 3:7.

Without Aaronic law, Abel knew the proper sacrifice pleasing to the LORD. Gen 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

Do you suppose that Adam and Eve realized that they were clothed by God when they realized they were naked before Him? Now they had the blood of promise covering their sin.

Heb 9:1 Then verily the first covenant (Gen 6:18) had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
Heb 9:18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
 
There are many themes running in the background of Genesis.

One of them is that the patriarchs followed the Law without it being codified because of Abraham being God's friend...

The "Seed of the Woman" had been promised to several people. Jacob being one of them. As Jacob was the grandchild of Abraham the legend of Abraham's relationship with God would have been known
 
Classik said:
Someone asked, how did Joseph know that sleeping with this woman would be a sin?
Was there a book or a law?
Click to expand...
Before Joseph, in Genesis 20:3 it says, "But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, you are but a dead man, for the woman that you have taken; for she is a man's wife."

God told Cain, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it." Genesis 4:7 NIV
People before the law were still certainly guilty of wrongdoing and God held them to that. God cursed Cain to be a wanderer for killing Abel.
 
This was a real conundrum for Joseph.
Potiphars wife was going to be pretty. But Joseph's seed was special. So he wished to reserve it for his wife's alone (unlike Judah or Reuben).

Potiphar would have lost his position with a pregnant wife made pregnant by another. But likely there was a reason potiphar wasn't giving her a child. But he also likely married her for another reason. (Politics suck)

Egyptian morality was odd. There's no Egyptian word for virgin. They never needed it because they didn't have any.
 
JohnDB said:
There are many themes running in the background of Genesis.

One of them is that the patriarchs followed the Law without it being codified because of Abraham being God's friend...
Click to expand...

The notion that anyone"followed the law" before there was the Law is illogical. One cannot follow what does not exist.

However, it is also unreasonable to assume that, because the Law had not yet been written, that the ancient society in which the patriarchs lived did not have both unwritten codes of conduct and written laws. The code of Hammurabi predates the Law of Moses by at least 500 years.

It is reasonable to assume that, besides the potentiality of getting one killed, laying with the bosses wife would be considered a "no-no" in that society.


The "Seed of the Woman" had been promised to several people. Jacob being one of them. As Jacob was the grandchild of Abraham the legend of Abraham's relationship with God would have been known
Click to expand...

The "seed of woman" is Jesus. He was promised to the entire world.

my 2 kopecks
iakov the fool
 
Classik said:
Someone asked, how did Joseph know that sleeping with this woman would be a sin?
Was there a book or a law?
Click to expand...
Genesis 39:2-12 New International Version (NIV)

2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

The story picks up in the book of Zechariah
Clean Garments for the High Priest / Zechariah 3:1-5 NIV

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan[a] standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”

5 Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.

Notice who was standing to the right of Joshua...Satan! Heaven had to intervene for Joshua because he was being resisted by Satan.

The battle is a spiritual battle!
 
reba said:
first law ?
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Click to expand...

Followed by: Gen 2:17 (the rest of the sentence) “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

But those can hardly be seen as a code of laws.

And, no, eating from "that" tree was not punishable by death. God said, "you will die" not "I will kill you." It's more like the commandment, "Don't eat the yellow snow.":)

iakov the fool
 
Jim Parker said:
The notion that anyone"followed the law" before there was the Law is illogical. One cannot follow what does not exist.

However, it is also unreasonable to assume that, because the Law had not yet been written, that the ancient society in which the patriarchs lived did not have both unwritten codes of conduct and written laws. The code of Hammurabi predates the Law of Moses by at least 500 years.

It is reasonable to assume that, besides the potentiality of getting one killed, laying with the bosses wife would be considered a "no-no" in that society.




The "seed of woman" is Jesus. He was promised to the entire world.

my 2 kopecks
iakov the fool
Click to expand...
It is illogical but is God logical? And Rom 2:1-15 indicates he knew the Law before it was written. We misname this as "our" moral good.
 
Jim Parker said:
Followed by: Gen 2:17 (the rest of the sentence) “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

But those can hardly be seen as a code of laws.

And, no, eating from "that" tree was not punishable by death. God said, "you will die" not "I will kill you." It's more like the commandment, "Don't eat the yellow snow.":)

iakov the fool
Click to expand...
Sorry Jim, God made all the fruit legal except the fruit of one tree and He made that illegal, laws.
 
reba said:
really comparing God's Word to yellow snow? really ?
Click to expand...

Don't eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do something bad will happen; you'll die.
Don't eat the yellow snow. If you do, something bad will happen, but you probably won't die. :)
 
th1b.taylor said:
Sorry Jim, God made all the fruit legal except the fruit of one tree and He made that illegal, laws.
Click to expand...

God made no fruit legal or illegal. You are inserting a concept into the text that isn't there.
There is nothing in Genesis 2 to even suggest that God made anything "legal" or "illegal."
God told Adam he could eat the fruit of any tree except that one.
God warned Adam that eating the fruit of that one tree would cause death.
God did not say that it was "illegal" to eat that fruit and that "under the law" the penalty for eating it was death.
God warned Adam, "you will die."
He did not say, "Eat that fruit and I'll kill you as a penalty for breaking my fruit law."

iakov the fool
 
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