A Syriac Dialogue between Joseph and Benjamin

these will be secondary developments: their secondary character is further indicated by the presence of several lines with seven, rather than six, syllables. Likewise, the alteration of the speaker in stanza 11, breaking the symmetry of the allocation of stanzas, will also be secondary. Abstract: Among the many Syriac poems on the biblical Patriarch Joseph are two Dialogue poems, one between Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife, the other between Joseph and Benjamin. The latter, for which the scenario is the moment when Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers (Gen. 45:1-15), is edited here from late manuscripts belonging to both East and West Syriac tradition, accompanied by an English translation.

Among Rifaat Ebied's splendidly wide-ranging publications is an edition and translation, published 45 years ago, in conjunction with M.J.L. Young, of an otherwise unknown Arabic poem on Joseph and his brethren; 1 thus it seems appropriate to offer this present edition of a Syriac text on a related topic in his honour.
Syriac literature is particularly rich in poems on Joseph. 2 An epic poem in twelve books is attributed either to Ephrem or to Balai, 3 and there are mimre on him by both Narsai and Jacob The Story of Joseph in Arabic Verse (Supplement 3 to the Annual of the Leeds University Oriental Society; Leiden,  1975).The present article was originally to appear some ten ago in a Festschrift dedicated to Rifaat Ebied, but unfortunately the volume never materialized.Here I have taken the opportunity to update some bibliographical references.The full text, with all 12 books, is only to be found in the second edition of P. Bedjan's Histoire complète de Joseph par saint Ephrem (Paris/Leipzig, 1891); his earlier edition (1887) and that by T.J. Lamy, Sancti Ephraem Syri Hymni et Sermones III (Malines, 1889), pp.249-640, contain only the first 10 books. of Serugh. 4Besides these there is a prose narrative falsely attributed to Basil, 5 several anonymous narrative poems, 6 and some dialogue sughyotho.In the last category there are two imperfectly preserved dialogues between Joseph and Potiphar's wife, 7 and one between Joseph and Benjamin, which is republished in a critical edition and translated here. 8ughyotho with dialogues in alternating stanzas, often accompanied by an alphabetic acrostic, are a distinctive feature of Syriac literature, whose ancestry can be traced back to the Ancient Mesopotamia precedence disputes. 9The genre has proved to be astonishingly long lived: the earliest examples go back to the late third millennium BC, while examples in Modern Arabic have been collected from the region of the Gulf, 10   popularity in a variety of different languages -Sumerian, Akkadian, Jewish Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Middle and New Persian, Modern Syriac, Classical and Modern Arabic.
In the majority of Syriac dialogue poems the two speakers are normally biblical characters, 11 and this is the case in the present poem, the biblical starting point being Genesis 45:1-15, where Joseph is alone with his brothers, after they have been summoned back to him, Joseph's special silver cup having been found in Benjamin's baggage, and just before he reveals his true identity. 12No such dialogue between Joseph and Benjamin is hinted at in the biblical text, though Benjamin receives specific mention in Genesis 45:14; the Syriac composers of these poems, however, were adept at picking on dramatic moments in the biblical text and exploring them in an imaginative way, by means of a dialogue.Joseph opens by asking Benjamin why he is so sorrowful, and it emerges that this is not so much because the cup has been found in his baggage, but because he has lost his brother Joseph (stanza 3).Only when Joseph finally asked Benjamin what his brother looked like (stanza 10) does he bring Benjamin to the realization that he is actually speaking with Joseph in person -at which the dialogue briefly pauses and their tearful embrace is described (stanza 14).In the second half of the poem Joseph enquires about their father Jacob, and finally bids Benjamin go and tell Jacob that Joseph is alive after all.Jacob is given some brief words before the poem ends with a doxology.
The sughitho, in the rather rare 6+6 syllable metre, is preserved in comparatively late manuscripts of both the East and the West Syriac traditions.This is unusual for a dialogue sughitho which is almost certainly not ancient enough to predate the fifth-and sixth-century ecclesiastical divisions, for normally the later compositions are transmitted only in a single tradition; thus, for example, the second, and later, of the two extant dialogues between Cain and Abel is only preserved in East Syriac manuscripts.In the case of the present dialogue sughitho, in the absence of any tell-tale terminology, it does not seem possible to say in which of the two traditions the poem originated.
The manuscripts used for the present edition are the following: (a) West Syriac manuscripts: Maybe you will be disclosing to me that his likeness has been seen by you among the slaves? 11.
[Joseph] Recount it to me rightly; reveal the truth and tell me: Whom did Joseph resemble?
(My) boy, reveal and explain to me. 12.
[Benjamin] Joseph has no resemblance either among kings or among slaves.There is one person to whom I would liken him, but I am afraid to tell you.
13. [Benjamin] My lord king, he resembles you, and his face is like your face; the scent that comes to me from you is like the scent of my brother Jacob.
14. Weeping befell between them and they began to embrace one another.They were asking each other all that had happened to them. 15.
[Joseph] What is the old man Jacob doing?(My) boy, reveal to me the truth: ever since I departed from him; (my) boy, reveal to me and tell me. 16.
[Benjamin] His eyes flow with tears, his white hairs are soiled with ashes; he has made sackcloth his clothing ever since he heard that you were dead, Joseph. 17.
[Benjamin] His mouth solemnly swears by God without ceasing that he will never be comforted until he sees Joseph. 18.
[Benjamin] (When) he is thirsty, it is his tears that he drinks, when he is hungry, it is ashes that he consumes; and he swears that 'I will not reject the light of my eyes, Joseph'. 19.
[Joseph] Arise, (my) boy, and go and take my garments to the old man Jacob; show him my likeness and tell him that Joseph is alive.20.He had breathed the scent of the dead, (but now) the old man Jacob said, '(It is) the scent of a dead man who has come alive; (my) boy, reveal to me the truth.
The 6+6 syllable metre is rather rarely used in sughyotho, and perhaps for this reason a number of corruptions have crept into the text, since there was probably an unconscious tendency to slip into the more usual syllabic metres, with 7 or 8 syllables.Thus in 3a all the West Syriac witnesses have added mar(y), presumably influenced by verses 7 and 9, but going against the metre; it is significant that the substituted stanzas 19-21, and parts of 11 and 19, in K=T are in the 7 syllable metre.The same thing can be observed in 14c, where the two West Syriac manuscripts have added hwaw, making a seven-syllable line (this has been remedied in K=T by altering la-ḥdade at the end of the line to ḥad l-ḥad).The transmitted text of 16b has 8 syllables; possibly the verb of 16a originally did service for 16b as well, and mpalplan is a secondary addition, providing a smoother sense.In 18c, although the participle is always written out as three syllables (masle 'na), resulting in a seven-syllable line, it must originally be have been meant to be read as the abbreviated form maslen.17 21c as it stands has seven syllables; possibly 'al is a case of dittography, before 'laymuteh, and should be deleted in; alternatively one might suppress leh -but in neither case is there manuscript support.In 22ab the West Syriac text is preferable: aba is simply treated as a monosyllable, 'ba, as happens occasionally in Jacob of Serugh's mimre; this has not been recognized in the East Syriac recension, which has rewritten the lines. 18A more intractable problem is raised in 22d: B's neshtapʻun b-'aminu has the right number of syllables but lacks a subject; M2's neshtapʻun raḥmaw(hy) b-'aminu provides the expected subject but is too long, with eight syllables; possibly the solution is to be found in the East Syriac raḥmaw(hy) nehwon b-'aminu, if nehwon was treated as a monosyllable, nhwon, or the last word was treated as a dissyllable, b-'minu; on the other hand, perhaps the poet simply left the reader to supply the obvious subject.
In 5 the East Syriac tradition has evidently misunderstood the form of the verb in 5c, reading it as 2 sing.imperative, rather than 3 pl.perfect; this has produced the rather forced irony of Joseph telling Benjamin 'Reject Joseph for the ten other brothers you have'.Though the precise nuance intended in 10cd is not entirely clear, the West Syriac reading in 10d seems much preferable.
Otherwise, in the cases where the Eastern and Western Syriac traditions divide (notably 2a, 2d, 9a, 18b, 21c) it is not clear which has preserved the original reading.In several cases C has introduced corruptions of its own (e.g.9a, 17a, 20a).
There is no indication what the manuscript basis for Mor Julius' editions was.On a few occasions there are minor agreements with the East Syriac manuscripts, and the combination indicates that B and M2 are probably secondary there.On the other hand, the lack of any support for the much more striking divergences in stanzas 11, 14, 18-22 strongly suggests that these will be secondary developments: their secondary character is further indicated by the presence of several lines with seven, rather than six, syllables.Likewise, the alteration of the speaker in stanza 11, breaking the symmetry of the allocation of stanzas, will also be secondary.
Abstract: Among the many Syriac poems on the biblical Patriarch Joseph are two Dialogue poems, one between Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, the other between Joseph and Benjamin.The latter, for which the scenario is the moment when Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers (Gen.45:1-15), is edited here from late manuscripts belonging to both East and West Syriac tradition, accompanied by an English translation.