[A.]
The Egyptians worshipped Joseph the Hebrew, who was called Serapis, because he supplied them with corn during the years of famine.
Melito of Sardis, Fragment 1. 56
[B.]
For that Serapis of yours was originally one of our own saints called Joseph. ... So Pharaoh set him over all Egypt, that he might secure the provision of grain for it, and thenceforth administer its government. They called him Serapis, from the turban which adorned his head.
Tertullian, Ad Nations, bk. 2, ch. 8
[C.]
In Egypt this Joseph is worshiped and adored; his statue is guarded by a throng of temple wardens, and in memory of old time the misguided people with stubborn enthusiasm still today clings to the liturgy of a cult established in honor of a man most upright and most wise."
Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum 13.2
[D.]
"Serapis signifies Joseph, who was a prince and supplied the whole world with bread, thereby appeasing mankind.
Tractate Avodah Zara, ch. 3
Primary evidence for this last quotation [D.] comes from b. ‘Abod. Zar.42a.
Contextualizing all four quotations is key. Here is the scholarly consensus, carefully and conservatively understanding the matter at hand.
"There are hints in the Mishnah and in some second-century writers, such as Melito of Sardis and Tertullian, of
a Jewish interpretation of Serapis as Joseph."
The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol.13 [1998], p.753. It's a JEWISH, not an "Egyptian", substitution or conflation we're discussing.
[A.] is very problematic. (Melito is anti-semitic, elsewhere.) And there is no historical evidence that anyone worshipped Joseph as a "god" - the correct interpretation is "venerated". (The distinction is important: by crude analogy, Roman Catholics
venerate saints, they don't
worship them as God, etc.) Assuming Melito of Sardis is writing c. AD 175, who were these "Egyptians" who "worshipped Joseph" ... in the past tense? It sounds like hearsay from Melito, a dubious claim which seems garbled.
[B.] Tertullian corrects the the sense, from 'worship' to 'veneration'; the tone is more nearly apocryphal. Biblical myth is introduced as supporting evidence, speculation about the turban is nonsensical (turban=modius??): the information is still clearly garbled, aswego.
[C.] Firmicus Maternus (346 AD) is marginally better, but slanted: in fact, there's a cult of Serapis (embarrassing fact: pagan god. We see what's omitted!), and its statue is venerated by some as Joseph. Even so, this isn't appropriate. According to tradition (prior to the 4th C. AD) "they say" Joseph was considered worthy of divine worship (as a holy saint, probably; substitute divinity, doubtfully) ... but again,
by whom, exactly?
[D.] is oblique, but nothing supports nor implies a charge of "Joseph worship" either. Allegorical association, by contrast, is definitely implied.
So, who were these 150 AD "Egyptians" in fact? Locals (of Jewish descent and affiliation), a heterodox Judeo-Egyptian community that was hidden or rather assimilated, not "Jewish" in the prevailing sense of the word even then: so-called 'Egyptians', instead. They were probably seen as apostates to pious Jews who gravitated to rabbinical Judaism and 'wrote history', they literally disappeared.
I am curious if anyone has examined that book by Isidore Lévy,
Serapis[1913]?
I presume you've all seen:
a)Louis H. Feldman,
Josephus's Interpretation of the Bible [1998], p.349 n.35
b)Rivka Ulmer,
Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash,
Studia Judaica Vol. 23 [2009], p.232, n.265.
I am convinced something is here, syncretistic and conflated, however misunderstood. But there is no archaeological evidence of any 'Joseph cult', nothing existed 'from the time of Pharoah'. It's simple: Egyptians didn't worship Joseph. What's more, Philo or Josephus (among others: Zosimos of Panopolis, etc.) would have mentioned such practice or cult
from Antiquity; again, no there wasn't. Ditto, the heretic lists of Church fathers.
The meaning - something else - seems fairly obvious. As an oneiromancer, Joseph became associated with Serapis, let's say, sometime after c.125 BC. After the pogroms of 38 AD and 115 AD, Judaism in Egypt went underground and assimilated. A Serapis/Joseph syncretism, as a popular movement, probably dates to that period. By 125 AD, his 'cult' (perhaps
following is better) might have included a 'priesthood' (prefer:
theosophical specialists), which/who came to occupy a fairly small number of temples (and localized neighborhoods) where psycho-spiritual healings were practiced. And their entrée was coded by the Jewish myth of Joseph: is that not suggestive, in itself?
Without attacking such apostates by name, Rabbi Juda ben Ilai (c.150 AD in Tiberias Palestine) could rule against Jews handling Serapis/Joseph utensils, by an allegory that was well-known. Why would he need to do so? Boundaries needed to be set, reiterated. Some Jews were too liberal in their affiliations, the same old story...
Logically, Philo's radical allegorists (c. 25 AD) - and any syncretistic Judeo-Egyptian mystery cults - were heretical, anathematized by normative Judaism of the day. But they certainly existed! What did their elders believe; who were their followers? Surely, people they healed at spas, students of syncretistic philosophy, disaffected philosophical Jews and Gentiles curious at the preaching. Their tendency grew, spread across Egypt; Philo's universalist writing is directed at such people, to influence them (back) to his Judaism.
Philo says {DVC 3.21-22} "Now this class of persons may be met with in many places, ... and there is the greatest number of such men in Egypt, in every one of the districts, or nomi as they are called, and especially around Alexandria; (22) and from all quarters those who are the best of these therapeutae proceed on their pilgrimage..."
Yet there is no other record of that specific group, so named. "The Egyptian Therapeutae" - note that Philo NEVER calls them 'Jewish', either. Why? Were they too marginal or controversial to name accurately? Did most Jews consider them apostates, or were they seen like (most) American Jews today?
Massey (1907) notes: “In the transition from the old Egyptian religion to the new cult of Christianity there was no factor of profounder importance than the worship of Serapis. As the Emperor Hadrian relates, in his well-known letter to Servianus, ‘those who worship Serapis are likewise Christians; even those who style themselves the Bishops of Christ are devoted to Serapis.’ […] Hence, as Diodorus says (I. 25), Serapis was a name given to all persons after their death or in their resurrection.” (See
Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World, Vol.II, p.756).
The (unspeakable, former) Jews worshipping Serapis; and Christians worshipping Serapis! That's some wild conflation too, but a Roman outsider might not accurately appraise the shifting heterodoxical situation in Alexandria c. AD 140. The Roman visitor was confounded because he was ignorant; doctrinal nuances were totally lost on him: his was a superficial observation.
An older connection between the Serapis cult and the Therapeutae (c. 150 BC) is well-established from archaeological evidence (see below*). That cult was syncretistic. Likewise, the later Philonic community (25 AD) on Lake Mareotis was an eclectic fellowship of itinerant healers, philosophers and spiritual tradesmen. Ethnically, however, they were Jews or from mixed marriages/communities of Judeo-Greeks and -Egyptians, plus Gentile sympathetizers, as proselytes/converts: all following an evolving syncretistic Helios/Chariot creed (which Philo alludes to,
DVC3/27; 11/89).
Can we admit them as quasi-Jewish at least, in 25 AD, then 'Egyptianized' by 150 AD? This transition and evolution occurred over five generations. So distant outsider's best report (c.350 AD) of the Joseph/Serapis affiliation is evidence of a marginal/dissident, relic Judaeo-Egyptian tradition then ~300-350 years old.
Surprisingly, Scholem (1941) associates the Therapeutae among the earliest (proto-?) Merkebah mystics, in his oblique discussion of Jewish Gnosticism, pp.13-4:
"In the same way, all Jewish mystics, from the Therapeutae, whose doctrine was described by Philo of Alexandria, to the latest Hasid, are at one in giving a mystical interpretation to the Torah; the Torah is to them a living organism animated by a secret life which streams and pulsates below the crust of its literal meaning."
Therapeutae were formerly GREEK 'devotees of the god' (c.150 BC), with no identification to 'Jewish Joseph' whatsoever; by Philo's time (c.25 AD), however, they were - for his apologia,
DVC - a nebulous class of philosophers and itinerant soul-healers associated in various unnamed (Jewish) lodges and perhaps attending healing temples ("they are called therapeutae and therapeutrides, {from "to heal."} either because they process an art of medicine more excellent than that in general use in cities (for that only heals bodies, but the other heals souls which are under the mastery of terrible and almost incurable diseases..."). IF Philo knew any Joseph/Serapis connection - for at least some of these Therapeutae - he avoids the scandal of its mention. Jews and Greeks alike must have been furious at such religious renegades/interlopers. Philo's defense is all the more extraordinary, but he is careful not to divulge their specific beliefs, or even if they constitute a (alternative) Jewish mystery cult.
*
Philip A. Harland, Dynamics of Identity ... 009], p.75
The so-called Sarapeum correspondence from Memphis in Egypt provides snap-shots of relations among those active within the sanctuaries of the gods Sarapis and Anubis in the second century bce (see UPZ volume 1 for the papyri). Memphis was located on the west bank of the Nile, about 245 km south of Alexandria, or 20 km south of Cairo. Many letters on papyri have survived concerning these closely associated sanctuaries which were on the edge of town, letters that shed light on functionaries and administration, as well as the importance of the “detainees” (κάτοχοι), who were (voluntarily) being “held fast” or “detained” (κατέχω; cf. παρακατέχω) in the service of Sarapis.* Most of the correspondence came into the possession of one Ptolemaios, from Macedonia, who was a “detainee” in the Sarapeum for at least twenty years (from 172–152 bce or beyond). Several of the letters pertain to Ptolemaios’s friends, fellow-devotees, and family, including his actual brothers, Sarapion, Hippalos, and Apollonios (the younger).
* PZ I 8 = PLond I 44, lines 18–19, speaks of a κάτοχος as “one of the therapeutists who are held fast by Sarapis.” Also see IPriene 195 (line 28) and ISmyrna 725 (= CIG 3163) for a similar use of being “held fast” by Sarapis. For groups of “therapeutists” devoted to Serapis and/or Isis see IDelos2077, 2080–81 (second-fi rst cent. bce); SIRIS 318–19 (Kyzikos; first cent. ce); IMagnSip 15 (= SIRIS307; second cent. bce and second cent. ce); IPergamon 338 (= SIRIS 314).