Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Joseph and Aseneth
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love ancient stories, early retellings that fill the gaps in Genesis, and tales of conversion and mystical imagery.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Joseph and Aseneth is an ancient tale that takes a single verse of Genesis and grows it into a short novel. Genesis says that Pharaoh gave Joseph a wife, Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest of On. It says no more. This story asks who she was, how an Egyptian priest's daughter could marry a son of Jacob, and what she had to leave behind.
The author is unknown. The story survives in Greek, with early translations into Syriac, Armenian, Latin and other languages, and the manuscripts differ in wording and length. Scholars usually place it somewhere between the first century before Christ and the second century after, and many think it was written in Egypt. They disagree on whether the author was Jewish or a Christian working with Jewish material. Here the longer Greek form is meant. You will meet a proud young woman, a vision of a heavenly visitor, a honeycomb, a wedding and a plot against a marriage. Let us begin where Aseneth begins, high in her tower.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A proud girl shut in a towerFree
- 2Joseph comes, and pride meets its match
- 3Joseph refuses her kiss
- 4Seven days of ashes and repentance
- 5The man from heaven and the honeycomb
- 6A wedding, and a plot begins
- 7What the story is about and how it works
Punkt 1 von 7
A proud girl shut in a tower
The story opens in the seven years of plenty that Joseph has foretold for Egypt. Aseneth is the daughter of Pentephres, a priest of Heliopolis, the city of the sun. She is eighteen years old, tall and beautiful, and her fame has spread through the land.
Her father's house is rich and walled, and in it stands a high tower. Aseneth lives on the top floor with seven virgins who were born on the same night as she was and who serve her. One chamber holds her wardrobe and her gold, and another is full of the gods of Egypt. She prays to these idols and feeds them from her own table every day.
Suitors come from every side. Princes and nobles ask for her, and Pharaoh's firstborn son wants her above all. Aseneth despises them all. She will not even look at a man, and she answers every offer with scorn and pride.
Her parents are troubled by this but cannot move her. The author is setting up a heroine who is lovely and also closed in on herself, guarded by walls and by her own opinion of herself. Everything that follows is the breaking of that closed world, and it begins with a visitor at the gate.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
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Questions about Joseph and Aseneth
What is Joseph and Aseneth about?
It tells how Aseneth, the proud daughter of an Egyptian priest, falls for Joseph, gives up her idols, receives a vision of a heavenly visitor, marries Joseph and then faces a plot by Pharaoh's son.
Is Joseph and Aseneth in the Bible?
No. Genesis names Asenath as Joseph's wife in one verse, but this story is a later ancient work. It is not part of the Hebrew scriptures or most Christian canons, though some communities have valued it.
When was Joseph and Aseneth written?
Scholars usually date it between the first century before Christ and the second century after. It was probably written in Greek, perhaps in Egypt, but the exact date and author are unknown.
Who was Aseneth in the story?
She is an eighteen year old Egyptian, daughter of the priest Pentephres of Heliopolis. She lives in a tower, scorns all suitors, then converts and becomes Joseph's wife and the mother of Manasseh and Ephraim.
What is the honeycomb in Joseph and Aseneth?
The honeycomb is given to Aseneth by a heavenly visitor. It is described as food of life, and eating it marks her new identity. Scholars link it to temple, mystical and later sacramental imagery.