Joseph's Tomb (, Qever Yosef; , Qabr Yūsuf) is a funerary monument located in Balata village at the eastern entrance to the valley that separates Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, northwest of Jacob's Well, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus. It has been venerated throughout the ages by Samaritans, for whom it is the second holiest site; by Jews; by Christians; and by Muslims, some of whom view it as the location of a local sheikh, Yusef al-Dwaik.: "venerated by the members of every religious community in Palestine.". or Dawiqat, who died in the 18th century.
The site is near Tell Balata, the site of Shakmu in the Late Bronze Age and later biblical Shechem. One biblical tradition identifies the general area of Shechem as the resting-place of the biblical patriarch Joseph and his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh. Multiple locations over the years have been viewed as the legendary burial place of Joseph. Post-biblical records regarding the location of Joseph's Tomb somewhere around this area date from the beginning of the 4th century CE. The present structure, a small rectangular room with a cenotaph, is the result of an 1868 rebuilding action, and does not contain any architectural elements older than that..: "der Gebäudekomplex über und um ein Kenotaph herum, der heute als Josephsgrab gilt, ist ganz modern und enthält nicht einmal alte Bauelemente." - "... the compound, built over and around a cenotaph, which nowadays is considered to be the tomb of Joseph, is entirely of modern date and doesn't even contain old architectural elements." While some scholars, such as Kenneth Kitchen and James K. Hoffmeier, affirm the essential historicity of the biblical account of Joseph, others, such as Donald B. Redford, argue that the story itself has "no basis in fact"..
There is no archaeological evidence establishing the tomb as Joseph's,: "The problem is that no archaeological evidence specifically makes them historical, so we refer to them as 'relic' sites." and modern scholarship has yet to determine whether or not the present cenotaph is to be identified with the ancient biblical gravesite.: "Whether today's cenotaph and its site are identical with the ancient one can presently not be decided." The lack of Jewish or Christian sources prior to the 5th century that mention the tomb indicates that prior to the 4th century it was a Samaritan site. Samaritan sources tell of struggles between Samaritans and Christians who wished to remove Joseph's bones.
At key points in its long history, a site thought to be Joseph's Tomb in this area witnessed intense sectarian conflict. Samaritans and Christians disputing access and title to the site in the early Byzantine period often engaged in violent clashes.. After Israel captured the West Bank in 1967, Palestinians were prohibited from worship at the shrine and it was gradually turned into a Jewish prayer room. Interreligious friction and conflict from competing Jewish and Muslim claims over the tomb became frequent. Though it fell under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) following the signing of the Oslo Accords, it remained under IDF guard with Muslims prohibited from praying there.: "Of course, the contestation is still two-way, with Palestinians (re)converting or destroying Jewish shrines that come under their control. Thus in Nablus, following the capture of the town in 1967, Jews began to visit a Muslim shrine which, they claimed, was on the site of the Tomb of Joseph; increasingly frequent visits by Jewish settlers after 1975 led to a prohibition of Muslim worship there and, in 1992, the installation of Torah scrolls and the covering of the prayer niche indicating Mecca (Philps 2001). With Israeli withdrawal from Nablus in 1995, clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers who were still guarding the tomb and letting Jews but not Muslims worship there, led finally to a battle that forced the military to withdraw. The Palestinians, again in control of the site, removed all signs of its use as a synagogue and uncovered the prayer niche again. There is no other religious symbol in the now restored building. However, ‘the Palestinians painted the dome Islamic green, but after Israeli protests it reverted to neutral white’(ibid.). A more clear instance of contest, if not exactly tolerance, is hard to find." Hayden quotes: Philps, Alan (2001) The day the dream died’, Telegraph, 3 February, colour supplement.. At the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, just after being handed over to the PNA, it was looted and razed by rioting Palestinians... Following the reoccupation of Nablus during Israel's Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, Jewish groups returned there intermittently.. Between 2009 and 2010 the structure was refurbished, with a new cupola installed, and visits by Jewish worshippers resumed.. Palestinian Authority police killed an Israeli worshipper at the tomb in 2011. The tomb was vandalized by Palestinian rioters in 2015 and again in 2022.
Early traditions
Biblical source and early religious traditions The Torah provides four details regarding the traditions surrounding Joseph's remains. The account in Genesis relates that, before his death, he had his brothers swear they would carry his bones out of Egypt to Canaan.. He is then said to have been embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.. In Exodus, we are told that Moses fulfilled the pledge by taking Joseph's bones with him when he left Egypt. In Joshua, Joseph's bones are said to have been brought from Egypt by the Children of Israel notes a variant tradition, recorded in the so-called “small Genesis” (Jubilees, 46:7) which states however that the Israelites brought out from Egypt the bones of Jacob's sons, except those of Joseph. and interred in Shechem.The bones of Joseph, which the Children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, were buried in Shechem in a parcel of land Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver (qeśîṭâ). .See also
The Bible does not identify a specific site in Shechem where his bones were laid to rest.. The Genesis Rabba, a Jewish text written c. 400–450 CE, states that a burial site in Shechem is one of three for which the nations of the world cannot ridicule Israel and say "you have stolen them," it having been purchased by Jacob.: "Rav Yudan bar Simeon said, 'This is one of three passages on the basis of which the nations of the world cannot ridicule Israel, saying "You have stolen property". The others being the cave at Machpelah (Hebron) and the site of the Temple (Jerusalem). Genesis Rabba 79.7. The rabbis also suggest that Joseph instructed his brothers to bury him in Shechem since it was from there he was taken and sold into slavery. Other Jewish sources have him buried either in Safed, or, according to an aggadic tradition, have him interred at Hebron according to his own wishes. The ambiguity is reflected in Islamic tradition which points to Nablus as being the authentic site, though some early Islamic geographers identified the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron as housing his tomb.: "The tomb of Joseph is in the plot of ground lying outside Solomon's enclosure (the Haram). It stands opposite the tomb of Jacob and is near that of his forefathers Abraham and Isaac. Now Ibrahim ibn Ahmad al Khalanji states that he was requested by one of (the Caliph) Al Muktadir's women, Al ’Ajûz by name, who was sojourning at the Holy City, to proceed to the place where, according to the tradition, Joseph was buried, and having discovered the sepulchre, to erect over it a building. So Al Khalanji set forth with workmen, and they found the place where, according to tradition, Joseph was buried, namely outside the enclosure (of Solomon), and opposite the tomb of Jacob, and they bought the field from its owner, and began to lay it bare. In the very place indicated by the tradition they came on a huge rock, and this, by order of Al Khalanji, was broken into. They tore off a portion, 'and,' says Al Khalanji, 'I being with the workmen in the trench when they raised up the fragment, lo! Here lay (the body of) Joseph – peace be upon him! – beautiful and glorious to look on, as he is always represented to have been. Now, first there arose from the place an odour of musk. I caused the workmen to set it down into its place against the fragment of rock, to be as it has been before.' 'And afterwards,' Mujir ad Din continues, 'they built over this place the Dome which can be seen there to this day, in proof that the tradition is a true one, and that the Patriarch is buried beneath.' The general site is called Al Qala’ah (The Castle)." The Qur'an itself does not mention details of Joseph's burial. Ali of Herat (1119), Yaqut (1229) and Ibn Battuta (1369) all conserve both the Nablus and Hebron traditions. Later Muslim chroniclers also mention a third site purporting to be the authentic tomb, near Beit Ijza. The Hebron tradition is also reflected in some medieval Christian sources, such as the account by Srewulf (CE 1102) who says that "the bones of Joseph were buried more humbly than the rest, as it were at the extremity of the castle"..
Modern scholarship on the narrative of Joseph's bones Though the traditional biblical date for the narrative of Joseph's life and death places him in Egypt in the middle of the Twelfth Dynasty, roughly contemporaneous to the Hyksos invasion of Egypt, contemporary scholarship no longer accepts such a remote dating. The figure of Joseph itself is often taken to be a "personification of a tribe", rather than an historic person.: Joseph' ist ein personifizierter Stamm."
According to the Bible, Joseph was embalmed and buried in a coffin in Egypt, after having his people swear to carry his bones away.Genesis, 50:24–26. Later midrash identify his first entombment in a royal mausoleum, or as cast into the Nile. Moses is said to have gathered the bones and taken them with him during the Exodus from Egypt,Exodus, 13:19. using magic to raise the coffin,. a tradition repeated by Josephus, who specifies that they were buried in Canaan at that time.Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 2:200–201: "At length his brethren died, after they had lived happily in Egypt. Now the posterity and sons of these men after some time carried their bodies, and buried them at Hebron. But as to the bones of Joseph, they carried them into the land of Canaan afterwards, when the Hebrews went out of Egypt" (tr. William Whiston). τελευτῶσι δ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ ζήσαντες εὐδαιμόνως ἐπὶ τῆς Αἰγύπτου. καὶ τούτων μὲν τὰ σώματα κομίσαντες μετὰ χρόνον οἱ ἀπόγονοι καὶ οἱ παῖδες ἔθαψαν ἐν Νεβρῶνι*, τὰ δὲ Ἰωσήπου ὀστᾶ ὕστερον, ὅτε μετανέστησαν ἐκ τῆς Αἰγύπτου οἱ Ἑβραῖοι, εἰς τὴν Χαναναίαν ἐκόμισαν• (2.200–201). ἐν Νεβρῶνι 'in Nebron' is written in the best manuscripts (R= Paris Codex Regius Parisinus, and O = Codex Oxoniensis (Bodleianus), miscell. graec. 186, collectively known as RO), and is the reading defended by Josephus's editor Benedikt Niese. This is often emended to ἐν Χεβρῶνι (in Χεβρῶν/Hebron), the reading conserved by inferior manuscripts which are influenced by the Septuagint. Regarding his burial in Canaan, from Joshua it is evident that the portion Joseph received was an allotment near Shechem, not the town itself..