This article examines the function of epiphany in Joseph and Aseneth. Though central to the narrative, this literary device and theological phenomenon is frequently overlooked or only indirectly included in other studies. This reading argues that the mode of epiphany is central, not only to the plot, but to the main themes and messages of Joseph and Aseneth; epiphany operates as a boundary marker between two groups in Joseph and Aseneth. These two groups are insiders and outsiders, and mortal and (quasi-)divine beings. While epiphanies are used to distinguish between these groups, they also invite the narrative’s heroine, Aseneth, to transcend these boundaries. The story’s numerous epiphanies signpost Aseneth’s transition from a mortal outsider to a quasi-divine insider. Used in this way, the epiphanies build a worldview wherein the divine intercedes directly on behalf of, and grants particular dispensations to certain individuals.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Ahearne-Kroll, Patricia D. Aseneth of Egypt: The Composition of a Jewish Narrative (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2020).
Brooke, George J. “Men and Women as Angels in Joseph and Aseneth.” Journal for the Study of Pseudepigrapha 14 (2005), 159–177.
Burchard, Christoph. “Joseph and Aseneth.” In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth (New York: Doubleday, 1985), 177–247.
Burchard, Christoph. Joseph und Aseneth (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985).
Burkert, Walter. “From Epiphany to Cult Statue: Early Greek Theos.” In What Is a God? Studies in the Nature of Greek Divinity, ed. Burkert and Alan B. Lloyd (London: Duckworth, 2009), 15–54.
Chesnutt, Randall D. “Revelatory Experiences Attributed to Biblical Women in Early Jewish Literature.” In Women Like This: New Perspectives on Jewish Women in the Greco-Roman World, ed. Amy-Jill Levine (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991), 107–125.
Conway, Colleen. “Gender and Divine Relativity in Philo of Alexandria.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 34 (2003), 471–491.
Cousland, J. Robert C. “‘God’s Great Deeds of Deliverance’: Soteriology in 3 Maccabees.” In This World and the World to Come: Soteriology in Early Judaism, ed. Daniel M. Gurtner (London: T&T Clark, 2011), 31–49.
Graf, Fritz. “Epiphany.” Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, ed. Hubert Cancikand Helmuth Schneider (2006). Online.
Hartvigsen, Kirsten M. Aseneth’s Transformation (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018).
Harvey, Graham. The True Israel: Uses of the Names Jew, Hebrew and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature (Leiden: Brill, 1996).
Hicks-Keeton, Jill. Arguing with Aseneth: Gentile Access to Israel’s Living God in Jewish Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Hicks-Keeton, Jill. “Aseneth between Judaism and Christianity: Reframing the Debate.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 49 (2018), 189–222.
Himmelfarb, Martha. Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).
Humphrey, Edith M. “On Bees and Best Guesses: The Problem of Sitz im Leben from Internal Evidence as Illustrated by Joseph and Aseneth.” Currents in Biblical Studies 7 (1999), 223–236.
Humphrey, Edith M. Joseph and Aseneth (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000).
Jovanović, Ljubica. “Aseneth’s Gaze Turns Swords into Dust.” Journal for the Study of Pseudepigrapha 21 (2011), 83–97.
Kraemer, Ross. When Aseneth Met Joseph: A Late Antique Tale of the Biblical Patriarch and His Egyptian Wife, Reconsidered (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Kugel, James. “The Rape of Dinah, Simeon, and Levi’s Revenge.” In Kugel, The Ladder of Jacob (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 36–80.
Lipsett, Barbara. Desiring Conversion: Hermas, Thecla, Aseneth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Mach, Michael. Entwicklungsstadien des jüdischen Engelglaubens in vorrabbinischer Zeit (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992).
Mirguet, Françoise. “And Aseneth Saw Joseph…: Body Language and Emotions in Joseph and Aseneth 6,1.” In La surprise dans la Bible: Hommage à Camille Focant, ed. Geert Van Oyen (Leuven: Peeters, 2012), 403–413.
Montiglio, Silvia. Love and Providence: Recognition in the Ancient Novel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Nisse, Ruth. “‘Your Name Will No Longer Be Aseneth’: Apocrypha, Anti-Martyrdom, and Jewish Conversion in Thirteenth-Century England.” Speculum 81 (2006), 734–753.
Orlov, Andrei A. “Unveiling the Face: The Heavenly Counterpart Traditions in Joseph and Aseneth.” In The Embroidered Bible: Studies in Biblical Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Honour of Michael E. Stone, ed. Lorenzo diTommaso, Matthias Henze, and William Adler (Leiden: Brill, 2018), 771–808.
Petridou, Georgia. Divine Epiphany in Greek Literature and Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
Philonenko, Marc. Joseph et Aséneth: Introduction, texte critique, traduction et notes (Leiden: Brill, 1968).
Platt, Verity. Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Portier-Young, Anathea E. “Sweet Mercy Metropolis: Interpreting Aseneth’s Honeycomb.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 14 (2005), 133–157.
Savran, George W. “Theophany as Type Scene.” Prooftexts 23 (2003), 119–149.
Savran, George W. Encountering the Divine: Theophany in Biblical Narrative (London: T&T Clark, 2005).
Segal, Michael. “Rewriting the Story of Dinah and Shechem: The Literary Development of Jubilees 30.” In The Hebrew Bible in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. Nóra Dávid, Armin Lange, Kristin De Troyer, and Shani Tzoref (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), 337–356.
Segal, Robert. “The Blurry Line Between Human and Gods.” Numen 60 (2013), 39–53.
Standhartinger, Angela. “‘Um zu sehen die Töchter des Landes’: Die Perspektive Dinas in der jüdisch-hellenistischen Diskussion um Gen 34.” In Religious Propaganda and Missionary Competition in the New Testament World: Essays Honoring Dieter Georgi, ed. Lukas Bormann, Kelly Del Tredici, and Angela Standhartinger (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 89–116.
Standhartinger, Angela. Das Frauenbild im Judentum der hellenistischen Zeit: Ein Beitrag anhand von Joseph und Aseneth (Leiden: Brill, 1995).
Standhartinger, Angela. “Intersections of Gender, Status, Ethnos and Religion in Joseph and Aseneth.” In Early Jewish Writings, ed. Eileen Schuller and Marie-Theres Wacker (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017), 69–87.
Turkeltaub, Daniel. The Gods’ Radiance Manifest: An Examination of the Narrative Pattern Underlying the Homeric Divine Epiphany Scenes, Dissertation (Cornell University, 2003).
Versnel, Henk S. Coping with the Gods. Wayward Readings in Greek Theology (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
Wanke, J. “῾Εβραῖος.” In Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Horst Balzand Gerhard Schneider. 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990–1993), 1:369–370.
Warren, Meredith J.C. “A Robe Like Lightning: Clothing Changes and Identification in Joseph and Aseneth.” In Dressing Judeans and Christians in Antiquity, ed. Kristi Upson-Saia, Carly Daniel-Hughes, and Alicia J. Batten (London: Ashgate, 2014), 137–153.
Warren, Meredith J.C. Food and Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Literature (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019).
Werman, Cana. “‘Jubilees 30’: Building a Paradigm for the Ban on Intermarriage.” The Harvard Theological Review 90 (1997), 1–22.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 361 | 129 | 31 |
Full Text Views | 52 | 7 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 156 | 23 | 2 |
This article examines the function of epiphany in Joseph and Aseneth. Though central to the narrative, this literary device and theological phenomenon is frequently overlooked or only indirectly included in other studies. This reading argues that the mode of epiphany is central, not only to the plot, but to the main themes and messages of Joseph and Aseneth; epiphany operates as a boundary marker between two groups in Joseph and Aseneth. These two groups are insiders and outsiders, and mortal and (quasi-)divine beings. While epiphanies are used to distinguish between these groups, they also invite the narrative’s heroine, Aseneth, to transcend these boundaries. The story’s numerous epiphanies signpost Aseneth’s transition from a mortal outsider to a quasi-divine insider. Used in this way, the epiphanies build a worldview wherein the divine intercedes directly on behalf of, and grants particular dispensations to certain individuals.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 361 | 129 | 31 |
Full Text Views | 52 | 7 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 156 | 23 | 2 |