script it counts to god righteousness that he repays

#Script it counts to god righteousness that he repays series

It deviates from the biblical Joseph story in significant ways, and addresses Aseneth’s worship of foreign gods within a larger narrative that has light-hearted moments reminiscent of ancient Greek novels, in which the male and female protagonists fall in love, undergo a series of trials that threaten their union, and emotionally respond to the highs and lows of their plights. The story was written in Greek, and most scholars date the composition to ca. Ninety-one manuscripts of Aseneth (the Greek form of Asenath), sometimes called Joseph and Aseneth, dating from the 6th to the 17th centuries C.E., preserve all or part of the narrative. Potiphar said to his slaves: “This girl is the daughter of important people, bring her to my home and get a nurse.” And since he brought her up, she is referred to as his daughter…Ĭenturies earlier, Greek speaking Jews handled the problem of Asenath’s Egyptian identity in a very different way. He said to his lads “Bring me the child.” He saw the plate and the incidents. That day, Potiphar went out for a stroll with his lads, and as they got to the wall, they heard the sound of a crying newborn. When Dinah gave birth to Asenath, he put the plate on her neck and set her down by the wall of Egypt. Įxtending this exegetical tradition, Midrash Aggadah (12 th cent.) fills in the details about how Asenath reaches Egypt and is adopted into Potiphar’s house (Gen 41:45): והלא בת דינה היתה ושמענו כשבא יעקב אבינו משכם כתב על טס של זהב כל מה שאירע להם עם (חמור בן שכם) וכשילדה דינה את אסנת נתן הטס על צוארה והשליכה בחומת מצרים But wasn’t she Dinah’s daughter? We have heard that when Jacob our father came from Shechem, he wrote out on a golden plate everything that happened to them with. Later Jewish writers, unlike the biblical author, were troubled by this as the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen 41:50–52), two future tribes of Israel, Asenath and her allegiance needed clarification. Thus Joseph emerged in charge of the land of Egypt.”Īs a daughter of an Egyptian priest, Asenath would have worshiped Egyptian deities, not Joseph’s God. and (Pharaoh) gave him for a wife Asenath daughter of Poti-phera, Priest of On. When Pharaoh appoints Joseph as viceroy, he also gives him Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest, as a wife: בראשית מא :מב.

Script it counts to god righteousness that he repays