4 - New creation in Diaspora Judaism: Joseph and Aseneth

Summary

The theme of death and rebirth, of course, has other symbolic functions: the initiates die to their old life and are reborn to the new. The whole repertoire of ideas concerning pollution and purification is used to mark the gravity of the event and the power of ritual to remake a man – this is straightforward.

Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger

Plot summary

The story of Joseph and Aseneth, a Hellenistic romance of Diaspora Judaism, takes as its point of departure the curious statement of Genesis 41.45: “Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Aseneth, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On to be his wife.” The marriage of a venerated patriarch to the daughter of a pagan priest would have certainly raised a few (Jewish) eyebrows and invited explanation. Such an explanation would be all the more relevant if also employed to address specific concerns within the author's community.

With these twin goals in mind, Joseph and Aseneth tells the story of a beautiful, if high-minded, Egyptian virgin (Aseneth) who spurns the suggestion of her father that she marry Joseph, “the powerful one of God” (4.7), insisting that only Pharaoh's firstborn is her equal. Aseneth's pride is soon turned to shame when Joseph arrives in his golden chariot, royal attire, and angelic splendor (5.1–7). Further humiliation awaits the love-struck Egyptian when Joseph refuses her kiss of greeting and offers her instead a sermon on the inappropriateness of a God-fearing man whose lips bless the living God kissing a “foreign woman” whose lips bless lifeless idols (8.5). Seeing Aseneth's dejection, Joseph prays that God would re-create her by his Spirit and that she might one day be numbered among God's people (8.9).