Tale Of Two Brothers Analysis

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The Old Testament contains many parallels to the various cultures of the Ancient Near East. Even though there were so many parallels, the Israelites still regarded themselves as being unique in the world. This is because the Israelites were monotheistic, only following one God. All the other surrounding nations were polytheistic, so this aspect did make Israel unique. However, there were many similarities between Israel and its neighbors that make it appear as though the Israelites were not as unique as they considered themselves to be. That is why I believe that Israel was only partially unique. One example of a similarity between the Old Testament and other texts from that time is the story of Potiphar’s wife and Joseph. The story states that Potiphar’s wife was trying to seduce Joseph because she found him attractive. Joseph resisted her attempts, which eventually ended in Potiphar’s wife fabricating a story about Joseph which caused his imprisonment. According to Sarna and Petramalo, the Egyptian story, “Tale of Two Brothers,” contains many parallels to this one. Sarna states that the…show more content…
He came from the land of Ur, a completely different culture from the one that Israel would become. Therefore, he was familiar with the rules and customs of that area and likely would have passed it on to his children. In Genesis 17, God gave Abraham new legal instructions, but according to Rodríguez, “this new legal material did not totally reject every aspect of the legal traditions known by Abram. Otherwise it would have been almost impossible for Abram to interact with people outside his household” (Rodríguez, 2001, p. 55). The nation of Israel would not be able to interact with any other nations for things such as trade if they did not share at least some ideals. Therefore, the similarities between Israel and the nations around it can be traced back to

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