Resources

Contents

• Texts
• Related Texts
• Discussions of Aseneth
• Art relating to Joseph & Aseneth
• E-Lists and Other Resources

Texts

See the site Bibliography for multiple online texts and versions.

Related Texts

Genesis 41; Genesis 46
The only three references to Aseneth in the Hebrew Bible are found here, in Genesis 41.45, 41.50 and 46.20. This link is to the New International Version in the Bible Gateway.

Josephus: Antiquities 2.6.1 [2.91]
This is the brief passage (based on Gen. 41) in which Josephus mentions Aseneth. This link will take you to Whiston’s translation at the Perseus site. Click on “Version” at the top of the page to view the passage in Greek.

Jami: Joseph and Zuleika
Joseph and Zuleika (c. 1470) by the Persian poet Jami (1414-92) is a romance, in verse, focusing on a certain Zuleika’s love for Joseph (Yusuf). She dreams of Joseph before she has met him, yet marries Potiphar. As in the Biblical narrative, Joseph comes into her service but he flees when she discloses her passion to him. Later, she repents of her idolatry, her youth and beauty is restored and she is betrothed to Joseph. There may be some influence on this story from Aseneth or from the traditions contained in it. The web version, from The Internet Medieval Source Book, is an abridgement of the poem in Charles F. Horne (ed.), The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East (New York: Parke, Austin, & Lipscomb, 1917), Vol. VIII: Medieval Persia, pp. 381-401.

Discussions of Aseneth

Aseneth
The Catholic Encylopaedia entry on Aseneth (the biblical character)

Heather A. Reid, “The Storie of Asneth and its Literary Relations: The Bride of Christ Tradition in Late Medieval England”, PhD dissertation, University of Victoria, 2011

Joseph and Aseneth: a Biblical Romance for Classicists
Anthony Sheppard: a talk that “introduces classicists to an entertaining, if often baffling parablical Greek text”.

Love, Conversion, and Marriage: The Missing Story of Joseph’s Wife, Aseneth
Anthony Sheppard: an article with that provides a broad ranging introduction to and reflection on Joseph and Aseneth from CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly Spring 2023: 52-61 [academia.edu]

Review of Jill Hicks-Keeton, Arguing with Aseneth
Gerben S. Oegema‘s review of Arguing with Aseneth: Gentile Access to Israel’s Living God in Jewish Antiquity
By Jill Hicks-Keeton (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2018), Biblical Archaeology Society, May 18 2020

Review of Ross Kraemer, When Aseneth Met Joseph
Hagith Sivan‘s review of When Aseneth Met Joseph: A Late Antique Tale of the Biblical Patriarch and his Egyptian Wife Reconsidered (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1998-12-02, at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1998/1998-12-02.html

Scripture and Canon in Jewish Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
Some notes provided by Robert Kraft that formed the basis of the article by the same name in Magne Saebo (ed.), Hebrew Bible / Old Testament: The History of its Interpretation, vol. 1: From the Beginnings to the Middle Ages (Until 1300), Part 1: Antiquity (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996), pp. 199-216.

See the site Bibliography for multiple other online resources.

E-Lists and Other Resources

Paleojudaica
By James Davila (University of St Andrews): blog on ancient Judaism and the ancient world, with several posts on Aseneth.

Arbeitshilfen für das Studium der Pseudepigraphen
By Thomas Knittel (University of Leipzig): an excellent German guide to the Pseudepigrapha featuring introductory material, bibliography and links. Particularly useful is the list of NT parallels to Pseudepigraphical texts.

New Testament Gateway: Judaica
By Mark Goodacre: a page from my New Testament Gateway, isolating several important web sites dealing with Judaism in the second temple period and beyond [archived version].

Ancient Narrative
Peer-reviewed open access journal focusing on Greek, Roman, and Jewish novelistic traditions.