Figuring Resurrection: Joseph as a Death and Resurrection Figure in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism, by Jeffrey Pulse. Lexham, 2021, ix + 309 pages, $29.95, paper.

Today’s biblical studies academic guild largely downplays the presence of resurrection hope in the Hebrew Bible (OT), considering it a later development in Israel’s history. Jeffrey Pulse’s Figuring Resurrection: Joseph as a Death and Resurrection Figure in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism challenges this consensus by arguing that Genesis 37–50 in its final form contains various “dying and rising” motifs, such that “Joseph may properly be understood as a death-and-resurrection figure. Such a view carries with it the implication that scholars might need to change their focus somewhat, not only with regard to Joseph, but also with respect to understanding Hebrew thinking on the afterlife more generally” (279–80). Pulse, professor of exegetical theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, goes so far as to state that “Israel always had a basic understanding of the afterlife and a sense of the resurrection of the dead, which the attentive reader of the Joseph narratives could discern” (259, cf. 7).

This assumes a strong unity in the text with a consistent theological message (3, 5, 61). Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University, C. M. Carmichael, once observed that source critics are “like alchemists who attempt to make gold out of disparate elements without suspecting that they stand beside a gold mine.”[1] Pulse sees a gold mine in these texts and argues, “Biblical motifs (themes) provide evidence of a unified theology present within each page of the text” (51). Pulse’s perspective is not completely novel; he utilizes aspects of Jon Levenson’s Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (Yale University Press, 1995). Levenson suggested that “the story of Joseph in Genesis 37–50 is not only the longest and most intricate exemplar of the narrative of the death and resurrection of the beloved son, but also the most explicit” (Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son, 65).

The layout of Figuring Resurrection may lead readers to love it or hate it; the book has three main chapters, chapters 3–5, wherein each Pulse covers the same biblical material from different angles. Chapter 3, “The Masoretic Text of the Joseph Narratives,” is lengthy (pages 65–146) and goes through each chapter of Genesis 38–50 sequentially. This chapter provides an overview of each chapter, touching on motifs that link them together. Chapter 4, “Joseph and His Character: Perceived Problems and Difficulties,” goes through the same material from a moral standpoint, evaluating the mixed and flawed heroics of these chapters. In chapter 5, Pulse particularly draws attention to twelve manifestations of a “death-and-resurrection motif” in the fourteen chapters under examination (164–5). He examines each in turn, arguing that “they intersect with and build on one another” (165).

While I do not find this layout the most helpful, it sets the work apart from a commentary, and the author’s engagement with the text propels the book forward. Pulse makes a compelling case for textual unity throughout his analysis of the Joseph chapters. Genesis 37, for example, figures death and resurrection through Joseph being literally thrown into a pit and then brought up again (78). This chapter also features the OT’s first use of the word sheol (79, שְׁאוֹל). Despite Genesis 38’s seeming change of subject, Pulse points out various similarities between Judah and Joseph, even suggesting that “the Joseph narratives appear to be the tale of two brothers” (83, 81). Citing Levenson’s observation in Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life (Yale Univiversity Press, 2006), that a barren womb having a child is like a tomb being opened, Pulse sees Tamar’s pregnancy as fitting that pattern (173).

Among the unifying motifs present in these chapters is the garment motif, which harkens back to Gen. 3:7, and the provision of a garment (Gen. 3:21) requiring “the shedding of blood” (53). Garments link Genesis 37 to 38, for “in Genesis 37, Joseph’s garment was used to deceive his father, and now a garment is used to deceive one of the deceivers” (86; see Gen. 38:14). Further, a garment is used by Potiphar’s wife to “reinforce her lie” in Genesis 39 (92). Pulse also highlights the irony of deception throughout these chapters of “Israel being tricked time and time again—by his sons and now by Joseph—when one considers the deeds of his younger years” (109). Figuring Resurrection fits well in Lexham’s Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology series, as Pulse provides a miniature biblical theology of the clothing motif throughout Scripture (53–56; 192–194).

The Joseph narratives are unique, even in Genesis, through the literary device of “doubling,” repetition (e.g. of dreams) (144). Here “Joseph is portrayed as a death-and-resurrection figure,” for “the life of Joseph, with all its ups and downs, is an account interwoven with example after example of death and resurrection” (144–145). Of course, this does not mean Joseph is a flawless character; he is portrayed as a spy bringing a bad report to his father (148; see Gen. 37:2). This will be echoed as he calls them spies in Egypt (149; see Gen. 42:9, 14, 16, 30–31, 34). Pulse explains, “Jacob is guilty of playing favorites and spoiling his son Joseph, and the result appears to be an arrogant attitude on the part of Joseph” (150). Further, Pulse follows Harvard professor James Kugel,[2] at least so far as to leave open the question about Joseph’s motives in going back to Potiphar’s house in Gen. 39:11 (154–155). Pulse also follows Targum Pseudo Jonathan and asserts that Joseph’s words to the cupbearer in 40:14 display self-reliance, “an attempt to orchestrate his own release from prison” (156, 183). Then there is Joseph’s assimilation into Egyptian life, including his marriage to “the daughter of a pagan priest,” Egyptian name, and references to a “cup of divination,” all of which may have led to his father’s arm crossing blessing in Genesis 48 (157–158, 102–103; see Gen. 41:45, 44:4–5, 15; 48:14). Genesis is not equivocal about deception’s dire consequences, Joseph tests and tests his brothers, even making them swear to bring his bones to Canaan: “There is no climate of trust in this family” (161). Yet, I would note, Joseph’s character has improved by the end of the narrative to the point where, as will later be echoed in Daniel, another figure associated with resurrection hope, he can be called “a man in whom is the spirit of God” (see 100).

The weight of Pulse’s argument falls on Chapter 5, wherein he notes twelve resurrection motifs:

separation and reunion . . . three-day/three-stage separation and restoration . . . the barren womb and the opening of the womb . . . being cast into a pit/Sheol and being raised up/lifted up . . . going down to Egypt and up to Canaan/the promised land . . . slavery and freedom . . . thrown into prison and released from prison, famine and deliverance (drought and rain/dew) . . . seeds/planting and growth/fertility/fruitfulness . . . going down into the water/being drowned and being brought up out of the water/new life . . . exile and return from exile [and] . . . stripped and clothed (garment motif). (165)

Readers may find some of these more compelling than others, and at times I felt the argument could be improved by more “showing the work.” The treatment of each motif is uneven, perhaps following the density of presence in the biblical text, with, for example, the “going down into the water” section only straddling two pages. But Figuring Resurrection’s argument is cumulative, and together these motifs lend significant weight to Pulse’s claim that “Joseph was chosen to portray the early Hebrew understanding of the afterlife” without explicit statements of resurrection hope (195).

Though they feel like appendices, Figuring Resurrection concludes with five more chapters that address the text of the Septuagint, Targum Onqelos, and how the Joseph stories were later used and interpreted. Kugel noted the revived popularity of Joseph’s story during the Second Temple Period (254–55), and Pulse argues that “Joseph became a focal point for renewed theological reflection on the theme of new life springing forth out of the old; of a glorious revival of things that had seemed to be finished, dead beyond recall” (260).

Although Figuring Resurrection has its weaknesses, such as an overreliance on Levenson’s work and more than a few underdeveloped points, I recommend this work as a helpful exegetical and biblical-theological study of Gen. 38–50. Pulse has furthered the conversation about resurrection motifs in the Joseph narratives, argued for the unity of the text, and bolstered arguments for resurrection themes in Genesis. However, I suspect more thorough argumentation will be needed to make scholars rethink their stance on ancient resurrection hope.

Endnotes

[1] C. M. Carmichael, The Sacrificial Laws of Leviticus and the Joseph Story (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 7.

[2] James Kugel, In Potiphar's House: The Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts (Harvard University Press, 1994).

Andrew J. Miller is an Orthodox Presbyterian minister and serves as regional home missionary for the Presbytery of Central Pennsylvania. Ordained Servant Online, December, 2025