t12papocrypha
Testament of Joseph 8
Joseph's sustained prayer through the night, his flight from Potiphar's wife, his false accusation, and his imprisonment repeat the master-type arc precisely: the righteous servant is stripped, accused, and cast into the pit by those he refused to betray. His singing praises in fetters — glad voice in the abode of darkness — maps the hidden season of preparation that precedes every appointed raising. The Egyptian woman's illness at the sound of his praise names the pattern: the power of the Holy Order operates even in the prison, and the darkness cannot extinguish it.
1
I declare unto you, my children, that it was about the sixth hour when she departed from me; and I knelt before the Lord all that day, and continued all the night; and about dawn I rose up weeping, and praying for a release from the Egyptian.
2
At last, then, she laid hold of my garments, forcibly dragging me to have connection with her.
3
When, therefore, I saw that in her madness she was forcibly holding my garments, I fled away naked.
4
And she falsely accused me to her husband, and the Egyptian cast me into the prison in his house; and on the morrow, having scourged me, the Egyptian sent me into the prison in his house.
5
When, therefore, I was in fetters, the Egyptian woman fell sick from her vexation, and listened to me how I sang praises unto the Lord while I was in the abode of darkness, and with glad voice rejoiced and glorified my God only because by a pretext I had been rid of the Egyptian woman.
