On the last day, he and Asenath gazed into each other’s eyes. There was no fear or sorrow in them, only love.
Notes and References
The page numbers for the notes that appeared in the print version of this title are not in your ebook. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for the relevant passages documented or discussed.
the original Hebrew: The “original” Hebrew? Hmm. The Masoretic text of the Joseph story, the one that has been handed down to us, is an edited version; any bright high-school senior can be taught how to recognize this. Most of it consists of the oldest layer, an unbroken unity without gaps. But into the story the editor of Genesis has inserted two long passages written centuries later and has spliced in many other scenes from various sources. For one reconstruction of a possible original, see my Genesis: A New Translation of the Classic Biblical Stories (New York: HarperCollins, 1996).
As for the “God” character, he does make an appearance in the Tamar story, just long enough to slay Er and Onan (Gen. 38:7–10), but this is not, strictly speaking, part of the Joseph story. There is also a brief, trivial appearance in the addenda to the story, at Gen. 46:2–4.
seventy times seven: Matt. 18:22.
doesn’t show us what forgiveness looks like: In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the son hasn’t committed any direct offenses against his father. (If I hurt myself, there’s nothing for you to forgive.) It’s true that the father welcomes him home with an open heart and accepts him unconditionally, but that’s not the same thing as forgiveness. Nor, in the free-floating story that an editor spliced into the Gospel of John, has
the woman caught in adultery committed any offense against Jesus that would call for his forgiveness.
all hatred driven hence: “A Prayer for my Daughter,” in The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats, vol. 1: The Poems, ed. Richard J. Finneran (New York: Scribner, 1990), 189–90.
entertained angels unawares: Heb. 13:2.
an old Zen poem: “The Mind of Absolute Trust” by Seng-ts’an (?–606), the Third Founding Teacher of Zen. See The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, ed. Stephen Mitchell (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 26–28.
“A god has given us this leisure”: Virgil, Eclogues 1.6.
Rabbi Meïr … Rabbi Shimon: Genesis Rabbah 84:7.
“The words of a talebearer”: Prov. 18:8.
My worst fears have happened: Job 3:25. The Book of Job, trans. Stephen Mitchell (New York: Harper Perennial, 1992), 14.
“The way up and the way down”: Heraclitus, fragment 60 (Diels-Krantz).
Instead of sleep, the remembered pain: Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 179–83 (my translation).
that is how our storyteller: Actually, it was the editor who, with his keen instinct for suspense, spliced the self-contained, independently circulating “Judah and Tamar” into the Joseph story, where it fits brilliantly, though with a few loose ends.
the lovely priestesses: Gilgamesh: A New English Version, trans. Stephen Mitchell (New York: Free Press, 2004), 81.
Rashi: Acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (1040–1105), French commentator on the Bible and Talmud.
“It is better to be cast into a fiery furnace”: Babylonian Talmud, Sot. 10b.
When he makes a mistake: Tao Te Ching, trans. Stephen Mitchell (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 61.
a man loses half his soul: Odyssey, 17.322–23:
Zeus almighty takes half the good out of a man on the day he becomes a slave.
(The Odyssey, trans. Stephen Mitchell [New York: Atria, 2013], 229.)
content with the low places: Tao Te Ching, trans. Stephen Mitchell, 8.
“You shall love the Lord your God”: Deut. 6:5.
that which, when discovered and attained: In the famous first sentence of On the Improvement of the Understanding, Spinoza wrote, “After experience had taught me that all the ordinary events of life are vain and futile, since none of the objects of my fears contained anything that was either good or bad in itself, except insofar as the mind was affected by them, I finally decided to inquire whether there might be some real good that had the power to communicate itself and would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of everything else: whether, in short, there might be anything that, when discovered and attained, would enable me to experience continuous, supreme, and never-ending joy.” (My translation.)
“The whole earth is full of His glory”: Isa. 6:3.
an ancient Chinese Zen master: Hsüeh-feng, 822–908 CE.
“The scientist’s religious feeling”: Albert Einstein, Einstein sagt: Zitate, Einfälle, Gedanken, ed. Alice Calaprice, München: Piper, 2005, 178. (My translation.)
“Happy is the man”: Prov. 3:13.
and then from legend: That is, from the version in Genesis. More than two thousand years later, some medieval Arabic and Persian poets gave her the name Zuleika.
The Maxims of Ptah-hotep: Christian Jacq, The Living Wisdom of Ancient Egypt (New York: Pocket Books, 1999), 127, 76, 107 (translations modified).
the still, small voice: 1 Kings 19:12.
“precious beyond all things”: Prov. 31:10.
I have joined with my wife: Gen. 2:24.
“You appear on the horizon”: “Hymn to the Sun” by Pharaoh Amen-hotep IV, a.k.a. Akhenaton (fourteenth century BCE), in Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals, ed. Stephen Mitchell (Berkeley, Calif.: Frog, Ltd., 1996), 3–4 (slightly revised). This hymn was the inspiration for the great Hebrew Psalm 104.
Moshe ben Nachman: 1194–1270. Known in Hebrew by the acronym Ramban and among Christians as Nachmanides.
Fifth Commandment: Exod. 20:12; Deut. 5:16.
“You must not fool yourself”: Richard Feynman, California Institute of Technology commencement address, 1974.
both in and out of the game: Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself,” in Poetry and Prose (New York: The Library of America, 1982), 30.
“I have discovered … that all human misery”: Blaise Pascal, Pensées, Number 139 (Brunschvicg edition, 1914).
the peace that passes all understanding: Phil. 4:7.
Acknowledgments
My thanks to John Tarrant and Carol Williams, who made insightful suggestions about an early version of this book, and to Paul Auster, whose comments helped improve a late version.
Linda Loewenthal, my agent, opened my eyes to a new way of framing the story, gave the manuscript her meticulous attention, suggested unthought-of possibilities, and stretched me beyond my apparent limits. I am more grateful to her than I can say.
I am also deeply grateful to my editor, Joel Fotinos, for his enthusiastic support. Thanks are also due to the staff at St. Martin’s Press, especially to Sona Vogel, my meticulous copyeditor.
Books by Stephen Mitchell
Poetry and Fiction
The Frog Prince • Meetings with the Archangel • Parables and Portraits
Nonfiction
Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness • A Mind at Home with Itself (with Byron Katie) • A Thousand Names for Joy (with Byron Katie) • Loving What Is (with Byron Katie) • The Gospel According to Jesus
Translations and Adaptations
Beowulf • The Odyssey • The Iliad • Duino Elegies & The Sonnets to Orpheus • The Second Book of the Tao • Gilgamesh • Bhagavad Gita • Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda • Genesis • Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke • A Book of Psalms • The Selected Poetry of Dan Pagis • Tao Te Ching • The Book of Job • The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai (with Chana Bloch) • The Sonnets to Orpheus • The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke • Letters to a Young Poet • The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge • The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke • Selected Poems of T. Carmi and Dan Pagis
Edited by Stephen Mitchell
Question Your Thinking, Change the World: Quotations from Byron Katie • The Essence of Wisdom • Bestiary: An Anthology of P
oems about Animals • Song of Myself • Into the Garden: A Wedding Anthology (with Robert Hass) • The Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose • The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry • Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn
For Children
The Ugly Duckling • Iron Hans • Genies, Meanies, and Magic Rings • The Tinderbox • The Wishing Bone and Other Poems • The Nightingale • Jesus: What He Really Said and Did • The Creation
Praise for Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness
“Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness is a beautiful ‘retelling’ of one of the most profound and moving passages in the Bible. Stephen Mitchell has fashioned a deceptively simple version of the story of Joseph and his brothers, and given it back to the world in luminous prose. A unique and special kind of masterpiece.”
—John Banville, winner of the Booker Prize for The Sea
“Stephen Mitchell is a tireless curator of wisdom, whose life’s work is nothing less than the study of human transformation. With Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness, Mitchell has reached back in time to one of our oldest stories of grace and brought its lessons forward to us. The heart cannot help but be moved and healed by the treasure to be found in these pages.”
—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love and Big Magic
“Stephen Mitchell’s vividly imagined narrative breathes interior life into the classic Joseph story, and offers the reader a generous and much needed gift—an incisive and moving account of the spiritual power of forgiveness.”
—Elaine Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels
“Stephen Mitchell’s Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness is a rich and meaningful chronicle-cum-midrash.”
—Cynthia Ozick, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Nabokov Award
“Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness is a sparkling, joyous retelling of a story that seems endlessly opaque and hard to comprehend in the Bible. Stephen Mitchell has made the story wondrous, and a page-turner that takes us into a new, mysterious world, as palpable as the one we live in today.”
—Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest
“How do you honestly and deeply ‘interpret’ a dream? By dreaming it onward. How do you honestly and deeply read a story from the Bible? By telling it onward, again and again, with a reverent imagination. Stephen Mitchell has beautifully reimagined the Biblical story of Joseph with an enhanced retelling in exquisite language and with subtle insight. You won’t find a more moving, inspiring, and enlightening book on the Bible.”
—Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and Ageless Soul
“Joseph and the Way of Forgiveness is a timeless narrative that will transform your mind as it engages your imagination. It’s a delight to read, a wonder for the heart, and an inspiration.”
—Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., author of Aware—The Science and Practice of Presence
“A lyrical and vivid retelling of the biblical tale, with powerful lessons for those of us living in a fractious age.”
—Rabbi David Wolpe, author of David: The Divided Heart
“It is not just Tolstoy who saw the biblical tale of Joseph and his brothers as ‘the most beautiful story in the world.’ It is also the Qur’an, which narrates it in full, while introducing it as ‘the most beautiful of narrations.’ In this elegant book, Stephen Mitchell takes that beauty to new heights, while also elucidating the moral wisdom behind it. He presents not just an enchanting prose, but also an uplifting spirit.”
—Mustafa Akyol, author of The Islamic Jesus
About the Author
Stephen Mitchell was born in Brooklyn, educated at Amherst, the Sorbonne, and Yale, and de-educated through intensive Zen training. His many books include the bestselling Tao Te Ching, Gilgamesh, The Gospel According to Jesus, The Book of Job, The Second Book of the Tao, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Bhagavad Gita, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Beowulf. He is also the coauthor of three of his wife Byron Katie’s bestselling books. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
DEDICATION
FOREWORD
PROLOGUE
I: The Favorite Son
Why Jacob Loved Joseph Best
Hebron
In Jacob’s Tent
Being Beautiful
Favorites
The Ten Brothers
Tattletale
In the Greater Scheme of Things
The Coat of Many Colors
On Edge
The First Dream
Later
The Second Dream
Not Happy
The Last Straw
Murder
The Errand
“Here Comes the Dreamer”
In the Pit
Learning Humility
Celebration
A Gradual Letting Go
Caravan
The Ishmaelites
Beyond Comfort
Leah
II: Judah and Tamar
In Lieu of a Digression on Digressions
Judah Departs
Tamar
Sheepshearing
A Desperate Plan
The Pledge
Behind the Bushes
Where Is the Harlot?
The First Trimester
Denouement
III: In Potiphar’s Palace
Sinai Journal
Arrival in Egypt
Sold
Potiphar
Joseph’s Ascent
The Golden Touch
The Great Commandment
Pity
A Brief Chapter of Transition
Better Not
Potiphar’s Wife
Temptation
A Clear No
“Rape!”
The Story Unravels
The Insubstantiality of Should
Dreams, Again
The Butler’s Dream
The Baker’s Dream
A Broken Promise
In Prison
IV: Viceroy of All Egypt
Pharaoh’s Dreams
Indecipherable
The Dream Interpreters Deliver Their Conclusions
The Summons
“Not I”
Just One Meaning
The Man
In Charge
God’s Little Joke
Asenath
Life with Asenath
In-Laws
Potiphar Again, and His Wife
Why Joseph Sent No News Home
Faith
Famine
V: Joseph Reveals Himself
In Canaan
The Brothers Travel to Egypt
Equanimity
They Bow Down Before Joseph
More Harsh Words
“Let It Be Simeon”
In the Cells
Tears of Joy
An Unwelcome Surprise
Jacob’s Response
“Take Him, If You Must”
Gifts
With the Steward
Benjamin
The Banquet
The Silver Cup
Found!
How? Who? Why?
Judah Reflects
“I Am Joseph”
Stupefied
VI: The Way of Forgiveness
No Blame
A New Beginning
Pharaoh Gives His Consent
Back to Canaan
Still Alive
The Secret
To Goshen
Compassion
/>
Epilogue
NOTES AND REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BOOKS BY STEPHEN MITCHELL
PRAISE FOR JOSEPH AND THE WAY OF FORGIVENESS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
First published in the United States by St. Martin’s Essentials, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group
JOSEPH AND THE WAY OF FORGIVENESS. Copyright © 2019 by Stephen Mitchell. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 120 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10271.
www.stmartins.com
Brief portions of this book are based on my translation, Genesis (HarperCollins, 1996). One paragraph in the chapter “Learning Humility” first appeared, in slightly different form, in A Mind at Home with Itself by Byron Katie (HarperOne, 2017). In the description of Joseph’s palace in the chapter “Life with Asenath,” I have pilfered some phrases from www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/malkatapalace.html. My version of the “Hymn to the Sun” in the chapter “In-Laws” first appeared, in slightly different form, in Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals (Frog, Ltd., 1996).
Lines from The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats, Volume I: The Poems, Revised by W. B. Yeats, edited by Richard J. Finneran. Copyright © 1924 by The Macmillan Company, renewed 1952 by Bertha Georgie Yeats. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Young Jin Lim
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request
ISBN 978-1-250-23752-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-23753-8 (ebook)
eISBN 9781250237538
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First Edition: September 2019
* (Yahweh) is a name for the “God” character, often translated into English as “the Lord.”
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