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SUMMARY:Longing in Egypt: A solution for male infertility in the Joseph st
 ory (Genesis 39) - Dr. Diana Lipton (Theology and Religious Studies\, King
 ’s College\, London)
DTSTART:20081027T170000Z
DTEND:20081027T183000Z
UID:TALK13991@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Zeynep Gurtin-Broadbent
DESCRIPTION:In Exodus 23:26\, God makes a significant promise\, conditiona
 l on Israel’s rejection of Canaanite worship: ‘No woman in your land s
 hall miscarry or be barren’.   Presumably\, Israel failed to keep her pa
 rt of the bargain\; there were barren women in the land\, before Sinai (Sa
 rah) and after (Hannah).  But why did God specify women when he made this 
 promise?  Were there no impotent or infertile men in ancient Israel?  We k
 now about men who had daughters\, but failed to produce a male heir.  Zelo
 phehad had daughters but no sons\, and his daughters negotiated a heredita
 ry holding among their father’s kinsmen (Num. 27:7).  Sheshan gave his d
 aughter to his Egyptian slave\, Jarha\, and her son Attai continued Shesha
 n’s family line (1 Chron. 34-35).  And we know about men who died childl
 ess\, perhaps infertile\, perhaps not.  Ideally\, their brothers married t
 heir wives\, and the first son they had was accounted to their dead brothe
 r’s name (Deut. 26:5-6).  We know\, too\, that levirate marriages such a
 s these sometime failed\, leading women to take more extreme measures to s
 ecure descendants for their dead\, childless husbands (Gen 38:12-19\, Ruth
  4:7-10). But were there options for childless men who did not die?  I rea
 d the story of Joseph's encounter with Potiphar's wife as the exploration 
 of one option: Potiphar the Egyptian eunuch employs Joseph the Hebrew slav
 e to impregnate his wife\, mirroring Sarah's enlisting of Hagar the Egypti
 an slave to provide a child for Abraham (Genesis 16).
LOCATION:CRASSH\, Seminar Room
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