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Joseph's Two Dreams According to Josephus and Philo

Summary: Gen 37, 1-11 tells of the inauspicious of Joseph's career with the youth's two dreams provoking negative reactions by both his brother and father. This essay offers a close comparative reading of the Genesis passage and two ancient Jewish rewritings of this, i.e. Josephus, Ant. 2.7-17 and Philo, Ios, 1.1-2.9. It concludes with a comparison of the two versions that highlights the similarities (e.g. both accentuate the didactic character of the narrative, attribute positive feautures to the brothers, provide additional motivation for Jacob's favoring of Joseph, and present a more sympathetic image of the letter) and differences (Philo, e.g., follows Genesis in its use of direct address, non-mention of God, reply by the brothers to Joseph's telling them of his dream, and Jacob's negative response to his hearing of Joseph's first dream, while Josephus goes his own way in all these regards) between theme.