Theologische Nuggets IV (Genesis 34 - 44:26)

Genesis 39:20

Da nahm ihn Josefs Herr und warf ihn ins Gefängnis, in dem des Königs Gefangene waren. Und er blieb allda im Gefängnis.

Es fällt auf, dass Potiphar in den letzten Versen immer weniger beim Namen genannt wurde, sondern immer Josefs Herr. Der Text scheint mit der Beschreibung der Namen und Titel der Aufbau der Freundschaft der zwei Männer, sowie auch der Bruch dieser aufgrund der Lüge der Frau aufzeigen zu wollen. 

Josef wird also wieder degradiert und landet im Gefängnis. Ähnlich wie in der Grube in der er gelandet war aufgrund seiner Brüder, landet er hier in das nächste Loch. Das Leben Josefs ist gekennzeichnet durch metaphorische aber auch wortwörtliche auf und abs. Vom Lieblingssohn zur Grube wegen einem Kleid. Vom Lieblingsknecht zum Gefängnis wegen einem Kleid. 

Die Tatsache, dass Josef nicht getötet worden ist als Bestrafung, könnte aufzeigen, dass Potiphar seiner Frau nicht ganz glaubte oder ihr eine Mitschuld gab, oder Josef doch sehr gern hatte. Oder, was wahrscheinlich ist, das es schlichtweg nicht in der Macht Potiphars war. 

Perhaps Potiphar was already suspicious of his wife, especially when measured against the record of trust Joseph must have exhibited in the past. Another explanation offered is that the woman herself intervened so as to leave open the possibility of coercing Joseph into compliance during his incarceration (Gen. Rab. 87.10). Ultimately, in both the wilderness pit and in Potiphar's prison, the Lord's presence ("the LORD was with him") delivered the young Hebrew from death.
K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, Bd. 1B of The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 738.

Though prisons seem to have been an inseparable appendage of the palaces, this was not a common jail—it was the receptacle of state criminals; and, therefore, it may be presumed that more than ordinary strictness and vigilance were exercised over the prisoners. In general, however, the Egyptian, like other Oriental prisons, were used solely for the purposes of detention. Accused persons were cast into them until the charges against them could be investigated; and though the jailer was responsible for the appearance of those placed under his custody, yet, provided they were produced when called, he was never interrogated as to the way in which he had kept them.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, und David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 40.

This is the first time in the Scriptures where we read of a prison. The Hebrew word sohar that is here translated prison more precisely means a round tower or fortress. The one in which Joseph was imprisoned appears to have been a part of Potiphar's house—probably a part of the palace, isolated from the residential area, that had been specially constructed to S 75 confine the king's prisoners.

James M. Freeman und Harold J. Chadwick, Manners & customs of the Bible (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 74–75.