Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

Potiphar, an Egyptian who was chief cook to King Pharaoh, bought Joseph from the merchants who sold him. He held him in the highest honor: he had him taught the learning fit for a free man, allowed him better food than was given to slaves, and put him in charge of his household. Joseph enjoyed these advantages, but for all this change in his condition he did not abandon the virtue he had before. He showed that good sense can master the hardships of life in those who truly have it, and in whom it is not merely fitted to a passing time of prosperity. [a]

His master’s wife fell in love with him, both for the beauty of his body and for his skill in managing affairs. She supposed that if she let him know it, she could easily persuade him to come and sleep with her, and that he would count it a piece of good fortune to be asked by his mistress — thinking of the slavery he was in, and not of his character, which had stayed the same though his condition had changed. So she made her craving known and spoke to him about sleeping with her. But he rejected her pleas. He did not think it consistent with religion to yield to her so far as to do what would insult and injure the man who had bought him and done him such great honor. On the contrary, he urged her to master that passion, and set before her the impossibility of getting what she wanted, thinking her desire might be conquered if she had no hope of success. As for himself, he said, he would endure anything at all before he would be persuaded to it; for although a slave like him ought to do nothing against his mistress’s wishes, he might well be excused when the refusal concerned commands of this kind only. But this resistance from Joseph, which she had not expected, made her love for him still more violent; and gripped hard as she was by this wicked passion, she resolved to get her way by a second attempt.

So when a public festival was coming, at which it was the custom for women to attend the public celebration, she told her husband she was sick, contriving an opportunity for privacy and leisure so that she might plead with Joseph again. When she had gotten her opportunity, she pressed him with more insistent words than before. It would have been good for him, she said, to have yielded to her first request and not to have refused her, both out of the respect he owed to the rank of the woman asking him, and because of the strength of her passion, which forced her, though she was his mistress, to stoop beneath her dignity. But now, by taking wiser counsel, he could wipe away the charge of his earlier folly. Perhaps he had been waiting for her to ask again — and she had now asked, and more earnestly than before, for she had pretended to be sick for this very reason and had preferred his company to the festival and its celebration. Or perhaps he had resisted her earlier words because he did not believe she could be serious. Either way, by asking again like this she now gave him full assurance that she did not mean in the least to trick him. [c]

She assured him that if he gave in to her desire, he could count on keeping the advantages he already had, and if he submitted to her, he would have still greater ones. But he must expect her revenge and hatred if he rejected her wishes and preferred a reputation for chastity to his mistress. He would gain nothing by acting that way, for she would then become his accuser and would falsely tell her husband that he had made an attempt on her virtue; and Potiphar would listen to her word rather than his, however true his might be.

The woman said this with tears in her eyes. Yet pity did not move Joseph from his chastity, nor did fear force him to give in. He resisted her pleas and did not yield to her threats. He chose to suffer unjustly, and to endure the harshest treatment, rather than keep his present advantages by doing what his own conscience knew would justly deserve death. He reminded her that she was a married woman and ought to sleep with her husband only, and asked her to let these considerations weigh more with her than the brief pleasure of satisfying a craving, which would bring her regret afterward and cause her trouble, and yet could not undo the wrong that had been done. He also pointed out the fear she would live in of being caught, and that the benefit of keeping it secret was uncertain and would last only as long as the wrong stayed unknown, whereas she could enjoy her husband’s company without any danger. And he told her that in her husband’s company she could have great confidence from a good conscience, before God and before men. Indeed, she would act more like his mistress, and use her authority over him better, if she kept her chastity than if they were both ashamed of the wrong they had done; and it is far better to rely on a life well lived, and known to be so, than on the hope of keeping evil deeds hidden. [d]

Joseph said this and more, trying to restrain the woman’s violent passion and to bring her feelings within the bounds of reason. But she grew more uncontrollable and insistent, and since she despaired of persuading him, she laid hands on him and meant to force him. But Joseph got away from her fury, leaving his garment with her — for she had hold of him by it, and he let it go — and leaped out of her room. Then she was terrified that he would reveal her lewdness to her husband, and deeply stung by the insult he had given her. So she decided to strike first and accuse Joseph falsely to Potiphar, and in that way take revenge on him for his pride and his contempt of her; she thought it both a wise thing in itself and fitting for a woman to forestall his accusation this way. Accordingly she sat in sorrow and disorder, putting on a show of grief and anger so cunningly that her sorrow, which was really for being cheated of her craving, would seem to be over an attack on her virtue. So when her husband came home, troubled at the sight of her, and asked what was the cause of her distress, she began to accuse Joseph:

“Husband, may you not live another day if you do not punish the wicked slave who has wanted to defile your bed! He never kept in mind who he was when he came into our house, so as to behave modestly, nor has he remembered the favors he received from your generosity — and a man must be ungrateful indeed if he does not conduct himself in every way as pleases us. This man, I say, secretly plotted to violate your wife, and at festival time, watching for when you would be away. So it is clear now that his modesty, as it seemed before, came only from the restraint he was under out of fear of you, and that he was not really of a good character. This came from his being raised to an honor beyond what he deserved or hoped for. He concluded that since he was thought fit to be trusted with your property and the management of your household, and was put above your oldest servants, he might be allowed to touch your wife as well.”

When she had finished speaking, she showed him the garment, as though Joseph had left it with her when he tried to force her. Potiphar could not disbelieve what his wife’s tears showed, what his wife said, and what he saw with his own eyes. Led astray by his love for his wife, he did not set about examining the truth. Taking it for granted that his wife was a virtuous woman, and condemning Joseph as a wicked man, he threw him into the prison for criminals. And he thought still more highly of his wife, and bore witness that she was a woman of fitting modesty and chastity.