Josef

He was not lacking in self-confidence, this seventeen-year-old who dreamed of the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him: loved by his father, hated by his brothers; betrayed and sold into Egypt, yet already on the rise again; esteemed by Potiphar, his master, intensely desired and plunged into misfortune by his mistress; a penniless man from Canaan, elevated to the highest honors by the Pharaoh; a man whom fortune did not abandon even in adversity. The book explores the literary biography of Joseph in the Bible of Israel. It raises the question of how the lives of Joseph and his brothers relate to history, which author we owe this masterpiece of Hebrew narrative art to, and for which readers it was written. A dedicated chapter exemplarily traces the impact of Joseph's story in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as in art.