JOSEPH’S NON-INTERMENT IN PHILO’S DE IOSEPHO 16-27

This paper examines Joseph’s non-interment as the main reason for Jacob’s lack of consolation in Philo’s De Iosepho 16-27, in which his attitude toward bereavement and grief is reflected, to demonstrate the existence of Graeco-Roman consolatory literature grounded in the Stoic worldview alongside that of other philosophical schools in Philo. The biblical concern for proper burial as well as the Roman notion that leaving a corpse unburied had unpleasant repercussions on the fate of the departed soul may be the key to understanding Jacob’s surprising words in De Iosepho 23 “it is not your death which grieves me, but the manner of it”.