Bible Dictionary
JOSEPH, PRAYER OF
The Prayer of Joseph was a lost Old Testament pseudepigraphal work known from quotations by Origen. It exalted the patriarchs, especially Jacob-Israel, and its surviving fragments are insufficient to determine its full purpose.
Definition
The Prayer of Joseph was a lost Old Testament pseudepigraphal work known through quotations by Origen. Its surviving fragments exalt Abraham, Isaac, and especially Jacob-Israel, describing Jacob as preeminent among living creatures and as a minister in God’s presence.
Biblical Usage
The work is not part of the biblical canon. Its fragments use patriarchal language that may have been intended to elevate the patriarchs in a way potentially opposed to Christian claims, though the surviving evidence is insufficient to establish its purpose.
Historical Background
The work was listed among ancient writings with a length of 1,100 lines. It is lost, and only quotations preserved by Origen remain.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>An Old Testament pseudepigraph, number 3 in the Stichometry of Nicephorus (Westcott, Canon of the New Testament(7), 571), with the length given as 1,100 lines, and number 5 in the List of Sixty Books (Westcott, 568). The work is lost, and the only quotations are in Origen (In Joan., ii.25, English in Ante-Nicene Fathers, IX, 341; In Gen., iii.9, 12). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are said to have been created before every work, but Jacob-Israel is the greatest, "the firstborn of every living creature," the "first minister in God's presence," greater than the angel with whom he wrestled. The purport may be anti-Christian, the patriarchs exalted in place of Christ; compare, perhaps, Enoch 71 (but not so in Charles' 1912 text), but Origen's favorable opinion of the book proves that the polemic could not have been very direct.</p><p>LITERATURE.</p><p>GJV, 4th edition, III, 359-60; Dillmann in PRE, 2nd edition, XII, 362; compare Beer in 3rd edition, XVI, 256; Fabricius, Codex pseudep. Vet. Test., I, 761-71.</p><p>Burton Scott Easton</p>