When Aseneth Met Joseph

When Aseneth Met Joseph

Author: Ross Shepard Kraemer

Publisher:

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780197592229

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This is a study of an anonymous ancient work, originally composed in Greek, titled Joseph and Aseneth. Although relatively unknown outside of scholarly circles, the story is remarkable because of its focus on a female character.


When Aseneth Met Joseph

When Aseneth Met Joseph

Author: Ross Shepard Kraemer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1998-08-06

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0190492651

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This is the study of an anonymous ancient work, usually called Joseph and Aseneth, which narrates the transformation of the daughter of an Egyptian priest into an acceptable spouse for the biblical Joseph, whose marriage to Aseneth is given brief notice in Genesis. Kraemer takes issue with the scholarly consensus that the tale is a Jewish conversion story composed no later than the early second century C.E. Instead, she dates it to the third or fourth century C.E., and argues that, although no definitive answer is presently possible, it may well be a Christian account. This critique also raises larger issues about the dating and identification of many similar writings, known as pseudepigrapha. Kraemer reads its account of Aseneth's interactions with an angelic double of Joseph in the context of ancient accounts of encounters with powerful divine beings, including the sun god Helios, and of Neoplatonic ideas about the fate of souls. When Aseneth Met Joseph demonstrates the centrality of ideas about gender in the representation of Aseneth and, by extension, offers implications for broader concerns about gender in Late Antiquity.


When Aseneth Met Joseph

When Aseneth Met Joseph

Author: Ross Shepard Kraemer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0190253991

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This is the study of an anonymous ancient work, usually called Joseph and Aseneth, which narrates the transformation of the daughter of an Egyptian priest into an acceptable spouse for the biblical Joseph, whose marriage to Aseneth is given brief notice in Genesis. Kraemer takes issue with the scholarly consensus that the tale is a Jewish conversion story composed no later than the early second century C.E. Instead, she dates it to the third or fourth century C.E., and argues that, although no definitive answer is presently possible, it may well be a Christian account. This critique also raises larger issues about the dating and identification of many similar writings, known as pseudepigrapha. Kraemer reads its account of Aseneth's interactions with an angelic double of Joseph in the context of ancient accounts of encounters with powerful divine beings, including the sun god Helios, and of Neoplatonic ideas about the fate of souls. When Aseneth Met Joseph demonstrates the centrality of ideas about gender in the representation of Aseneth and, by extension, offers implications for broader concerns about gender in Late Antiquity.


Between Athens and Jerusalem

Between Athens and Jerusalem

Author: John J. Collins

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 9780802843722

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First published in 1984, this study is now revised and updated to take into account the best of recent scholarship."--BOOK JACKET.


The End of Ancient Christianity

The End of Ancient Christianity

Author: R. A. Markus

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 9780521339490

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Examines the nature of the changes that transformed the Christian world from the fourth to the end of the sixth century.


The Greatest Mirror

The Greatest Mirror

Author: Andrei A. Orlov

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2017-09-19

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1438466927

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The idea of a heavenly double—an angelic twin of an earthbound human—can be found in Christian, Manichaean, Islamic, and Kabbalistic traditions. Scholars have long traced the lineage of these ideas to Greco-Roman and Iranian sources. In The Greatest Mirror, Andrei A. Orlov shows that heavenly twin imagery drew in large part from early Jewish writings. The Jewish pseudepigrapha—books from the Second Temple period that were attributed to biblical figures but excluded from the Hebrew Bible—contain accounts of heavenly twins in the form of spirits, images, faces, children, mirrors, and angels of the Presence. Orlov provides a comprehensive analysis of these traditions in their full historical and interpretive complexity. He focuses on heavenly alter egos of Enoch, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, and Aseneth in often neglected books, including Animal Apocalypse, Book of the Watchers, 2 Enoch, Ladder of Jacob, and Joseph and Aseneth, some of which are preserved solely in the Slavonic language.


Aseneth's Transformation

Aseneth's Transformation

Author: Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-12-17

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 3110386402

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The story of Joseph and Aseneth is a fascinating expansion of the narrative in Genesis of Joseph in Egypt, and in particular, of his marriage to the daughter of an Egyptian priest. This study examines the portrayal of Aseneth’s transformation in the text, focusing on three perspectives. How did Aseneth’s encounter with Joseph and her subsequent transformation affect various aspects of her identity in the narrative? In what ways do the portrayals of Aseneth, her transformation, and her abode relate to select metaphors and other symbolic features depicted in the Septuagint, the Hebrew Bible, and the Pseudepigrapha? And, how do the ritualized components through which Aseneth’s transformation occurred function in the narrative, and why are they perceived as effective? In order to shed light on these facets of Joseph and Aseneth, the author draws on the contemporary approaches of intersectionality, conceptual blending, intertextual blending, and the cognitive theory of rituals, using these theoretical frameworks to explore and illuminate the complexity of Aseneth’s transformation.


The Greatest Mirror

The Greatest Mirror

Author: Andrei A. Orlov

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2017-09-19

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1438466919

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A wide-ranging analysis of heavenly twin imagery in early Jewish extrabiblical texts. The idea of a heavenly double—an angelic twin of an earthbound human—can be found in Christian, Manichaean, Islamic, and Kabbalistic traditions. Scholars have long traced the lineage of these ideas to Greco-Roman and Iranian sources. In The Greatest Mirror, Andrei A. Orlov shows that heavenly twin imagery drew in large part from early Jewish writings. The Jewish pseudepigrapha—books from the Second Temple period that were attributed to biblical figures but excluded from the Hebrew Bible—contain accounts of heavenly twins in the form of spirits, images, faces, children, mirrors, and angels of the Presence. Orlov provides a comprehensive analysis of these traditions in their full historical and interpretive complexity. He focuses on heavenly alter egos of Enoch, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, and Aseneth in often neglected books, including Animal Apocalypse, Book of the Watchers, 2 Enoch, Ladder of Jacob, and Joseph and Aseneth, some of which are preserved solely in the Slavonic language. “This book is the first complete effort to show how some pseudepigraphical works develop several unique traditions about heavenly counterparts. It is particularly important for many scholars who do not have control of the Slavonic originals of the Ladder of Jacob and 2 Enoch. Orlov also draws on a broad range of unfamiliar sources, including Manichaean and Mandaean materials, which were often neglected by experts who previously investigated the heavenly counterpart imagery.” — Alexander Kulik, coauthor of Biblical Pseudepigrapha in Slavonic Tradition


The Ancient Novel and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative: Fictional Intersections

The Ancient Novel and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative: Fictional Intersections

Author: Marília Futre Pinheiro

Publisher: Barkhuis

Published: 2013-01-06

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 9491431218

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This innovative collection explores the vital role played by fictional narratives in Christian and Jewish self-fashioning in the early Roman imperial period. Employing a diversity of approaches, including cultural studies, feminist, philological, and narratological, expert scholars from six countries offer twelve essays on Christian fictions or fictionalized texts and one essay on Aseneth. All the papers were originally presented at the Fourth International Conference on the Ancient Novel in Lisbon Portugal in 2008. The papers emphasize historical contextualization and comparative methodologies and will appeal to all those interested in early Christianity, the Ancient novel, Roman imperial history, feminist studies, and canonization processes.