extant before 1529) and amounted to over 200 in number. His magnum opus was ’T Wonder Boeck (n.d. 1542, divided into two parts; 1551, handsomely reprinted, divided into four parts; both editions anonymous). Its chief claim to recognition is its use, in the latter part, of the phrase Restitutio Christi, which apparently suggested to Servetus his title Christianismi Restitutio (1553). In the 1st edition is a figure of the “new man,” signed with the author’s monogram, and probably drawn as a likeness of himself; it fairly corresponds with the alleged portrait, engraved in 1607, reproduced in the appendix to A. Ross’s Pansebeia (1655), and idealized by P. Burckhardt in 1900. Another work, Verklaringe der Scheppenissen (1553) treats mystically the book of Genesis, a favourite theme with Boehme, Swedenborg and others. His remaining writings exhibit all that easy dribble of triumphant muddiness which disciples take as depth. His wife died on the 22nd of August, and his own death followed on the 25th of August 1556. He was buried, with all religious honours, in the church of St Leonard, Basel. Three years later, Nicolas Blesdijk, who had married his eldest daughter Jannecke (Susanna), but had lost confidence in Jorisz some time before his death, denounced the dead man to the authorities of Basel. An investigation was begun in March 1559, and as the result of a conviction for heresy the exhumed body of Jorisz was burned, together with his portrait, on the 13th of May 1559. Blesdijk’s Historia (not printed till 1642) accuses Jorisz of having plures uxores. Of this there is no confirmation. Theoretically Jorisz regarded polygamy as lawful; there is no proof that his theory affected his own practice.
The first attempt at a true account of Jorisz was by Gottfried Arnold, in his anonymous Historia (1713), pursued with much fuller material in his Kirchen und Ketzer Historie (best ed. 1740–1742). See also F. Nippold, in Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie (1863, 1864, 1868); A. van der Linde, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1881); P. Burckhardt, Basler Biographien (1900); Hegler, in Hauck’s Realencyklopädie (1901), and the bibliography by A. van der Linde, 1867, supplemented by E. Weller, 1869. (A. Go.*)
JORTIN, JOHN (1698–1770), English theologian, the son of a
Protestant refugee from Brittany, was born in London on the
23rd of October 1698. He went to Charterhouse School, and in
1715 became a pensioner of Jesus College, Cambridge, where his
reputation as a Greek scholar led to his being selected to translate
certain passages from Eustathius for the notes to Pope’s Homer.
In 1722 he published a small volume of Latin verse entitled Lusus
poetici. Having taken orders in 1724, he was in 1726 presented
by his college to the vicarage of Swavesey in Cambridgeshire,
which he resigned in 1730 to become preacher at a chapel-of-ease
in New Street, London. In 1731, along with some friends, he
began a publication entitled Miscellaneous Observations on Authors
Ancient and Modern, which appeared at intervals during two
years. He was Boyle lecturer in 1749. Shortly after becoming
chaplain to the bishop of London in 1762 he was appointed to
a prebendal stall of St Paul’s and to the vicarage of Kensington,
and in 1764 he was made archdeacon of London. He died
at Kensington on the 5th of September 1770.
The principal works of Jortin are: Discussions Concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion (1746); Remarks on Ecclesiastical History (3 vols. 1751–2–4); Life of Erasmus (2 vols. 1750, 1760) founded on the Life by Jean Le Clerc; and Tracts Philological Critical and Miscellaneous (1790). A collection of his Various Works appeared in 1805–1810. All his writings display wide learning and acuteness. He writes on theological subjects with the detachment of a thoughtful layman, and is witty without being flippant. See John Disney’s Life of Jortin (1792).
JOSEPH, in the Old Testament, the son of the patriarch Jacob
by Rachel; the name of a tribe of Israel. Two explanations
of the name are given by the Biblical narrator (Gen. xxx. 23 [E],
24 [J]); a third, “He (God) increases,” seems preferable. Unlike
the other “sons” of Jacob, Joseph is usually reckoned as two
tribes (viz. his “sons” Ephraim and Manasseh), and closely associated
with it is the small tribe of Benjamin (q.v.), which lay
immediately to the south. These three constituted the “sons”
of Rachel (the ewe), and with the “sons” of Leah (the
antelope?) are thus on a higher level than the “sons” of
Jacob’s concubines. The “house of Joseph” and its offshoots
occupied the centre of Palestine from the plain of Esdraelon to
the mountain country of Benjamin, with dependencies in Bashan
and northern Gilead (see Manasseh). Practically it comprised
the northern kingdom, and the name is used in this sense in
2 Sam. xix. 20; Amos v. 6; vi. 6 (note the prominence of
Joseph in the blessings of Jacob and Moses, Gen. xlix., Deut.
xxxiii.). Originally, however, “Joseph” was more restricted,
possibly to the immediate neighbourhood of Shechem, its
later extension being parallel to the development of the name
Jacob. The dramatic story of the tribal ancestor is recounted
in Gen. xxxvii.–l. (see Genesis). Joseph, the younger and
envied son, is seized by his brothers at Dothan north of Shechem,
and is sold to a party of Ishmaelites or Midianites, who carry him
down to Egypt. After various vicissitudes he gains the favour
of the king of Egypt by the interpretation of a dream, and obtains
a high place in the kingdom.[1] Forced by a famine his brothers
come to buy food, and in the incidents that follow Joseph shows
his preference for his young brother Benjamin (cf. the tribal
data above). His father Jacob is invited to come to Goshen,
where a settlement is provided for the family and their flocks.
This is followed many years later by the exodus, the conquest
of Palestine, and the burial of Joseph’s body in the grave at
Shechem which his father had bought.
The history of Joseph in Egypt displays some familiarity with the circumstances and usages of that country; see Driver (Hastings’s D.B.) and Cheyne (Ency. Bib., col. 2589 seq.); although Abrech (xli. 43), possibly the Egyptian ib rk (Crum, in Hastings’s D.B., i. 665), has been otherwise connected with the Assyrian abarakku (a high officer). An interesting parallel to the story of Joseph in Gen. xxxix. is found in the Egyptian tale of The Two Brothers (Petrie, Eg. Tales, 2nd series, p. 36 seq., 1895), which dates from about 1500 B.C., but the differences are not inconsiderable compared with the points of resemblance, and the tale has features which are almost universal (Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed., vol. iii. 351 seq.). On the theory that the historical elements of Joseph’s history refer to an official (Yanhamu) of the time of Amenophis III. and IV., see Cheyne, op. cit., and Hibbert Journal, October 1903. That the present form of the narrative has been influenced by current mythological lore is not improbable; on this question see (with caution) Winckler, Gesch. Israels, ii. 67–77 (1900); A. Jeremias, Alte Test., pp. 383 sqq. (1906). It may be added that the Egyptian names in the story of Joseph are characteristic of the XXII. and subsequent dynasties. See, also Meyer and Luther, Die Israeliten (1906), Index, s.v. (S. A. C.)
JOSEPH, in the New Testament, the husband of Mary, the
mother of Jesus. He is represented as a descendant of the
house of David, and his genealogy appears in two divergent
forms in Matt. i. 1–17 and Luke iii. 23–38. The latter is probably
much more complete and accurate in details. The former,
obviously artificial in structure (notice 3 × 14 generations), traces
the Davidic descent through kings, and is governed by an apologetic
purpose. Of Joseph’s personal history practically nothing
is recorded in the Bible. The facts concerning him common to
the two birth-narratives (Matt. i.–ii.; Luke i.–ii.) are: (a) that
he was a descendant of David, (b) that Mary was already
betrothed to him when she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost, and (c) that he lived at Nazareth after the birth of
Christ; but these facts are handled differently in each case. It
is noticeable that, in Matthew, Joseph is prominent (e.g. he
receives an annunciation from an angel), while in Luke’s narrative
he is completely subordinated. Bp Gore (The Incarnation,
Bampton lecture for 1891, p. 78) points out that Matthew
narrates everything from Joseph’s side, Luke from Mary’s,
and infers that the narrative of the former may ultimately be
based on Joseph’s account, that of the latter on Mary’s. The
narratives seem to have been current (in a poetical form)
among the early Jewish-Christian community of Palestine. At
Nazareth Joseph followed the trade of a carpenter (Matt. xiii.
55). It is probable that he had died before the public ministry
of Christ; for no mention is made of him in passages relating
to this period where the mother and brethren of Jesus are
- ↑ Joseph’s marriage with the daughter of the priest of On might show that the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were believed to be half-Egyptian by descent, but it is notoriously difficult to determine how much is of ethnological value and how much belongs to romance (viz. that of the individual Joseph).
