Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Because of Their Virtue

Abraham lives in a time in which the righteous are sacrificed on altars for refusing to cooperate with the state religion.  This is exactly the sort of circumstance in which the visionary men write pseudonymous history.

The righteous in question are identified as "virgins," which may mean priestesses,  "daughters of Zion."      This echoes the reforms of Josiah.

"Potiphar's Hill" is a curious name.  It suggests a corrupted woman, a vengeful ruler, and a priestly innocent who flees leaving his clothing behind.

3 comments:

  1. Potiphar's Hill only implies those connotations if one assumes that the text was composed after the episode of Joseph in Egypt. Taken together with your wording earlier this week -- "the man writing under the name Abraham" -- can I assume that you're unconvinced as to the historical factuality of the text?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am totally convinced that this is an ancient text. I don't think it was written by Abraham, though. I think it's pseudonymous history written later.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So, a revealed pseudopigraphic but ancient text... Interesting.

    ReplyDelete