Aseneth’s Epiphanies

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Rivkah Gillian Glass
Keyword(s):  
Literary Device ◽  
Joseph And Aseneth

Abstract 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.

Genesis Remix

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Hicks-Keeton
Keyword(s):  
Subsequent Transformation ◽  
The People ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Joseph And Aseneth

The divine title “(the) living God” in Joseph and Aseneth is used in conjunction with the narrative’s other language and imagery of “life” and “living” to construct a totalizing paradigm of life-versus-death that initially excludes Aseneth but ultimately, because of her shift in cultic loyalty and subsequent transformation by God, embraces her. Chapter 2 presents manuscript evidence in order to show that each of the earliest families of witnesses to Joseph and Aseneth employs creation language and imagery from Genesis 1–2 LXX to represent Aseneth’s transformation as a re-creation by the life-giving, creator God. Aseneth’s story draws on the inaugural Genesis creation narratives as it constructs an ideology of Israel’s “living God” which allows for, and even hopes for, gentile inclusion in the people of this God.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Hicks-Keeton
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Joseph And Aseneth ◽  
Literary Phenomenon ◽  
Minor Character

The Introduction claims that the ancient romance Joseph and Aseneth moves a minor character in Genesis from obscurity to renown, weaving a new story whose main purpose was to intervene in ancient Jewish debates surrounding gentile access to Israel’s God. Aseneth’s story is a tale of the heroine’s transformation from exclusion to inclusion. It is simultaneously a transformative tale. For Second Temple-period thinkers, the epic of the Jewish people recounted in scriptural texts was a story that invited interpretation, interruption, and even intervention. Joseph and Aseneth participates in a broader literary phenomenon in Jewish antiquity wherein authors took up figures from Israel’s mythic past and crafted new stories as a means of explaining their own present and of envisioning collective futures. By incorporating a gentile woman and magnifying Aseneth’s role in Jewish history, Joseph and Aseneth changes the story. Aseneth’s ultimate inclusion makes possible the inclusion of others originally excluded.

scholarly journals Complexes of Emotions in Joseph and Aseneth

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-155
Author(s):  
Tyler Smith
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Emotional Aspect ◽  
Complex Emotions ◽  
Jewish Text ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Literature ◽  
Joseph And Aseneth ◽  
Greek Novel

The ancient Greek novel introduced to the history of literature a new topos: the “complex of emotions.” This became a staple of storytelling and remains widely in use across a variety of genres to the present day. The Hellenistic Jewish text Joseph and Aseneth employs this topos in at least three passages, where it draws attention to the cognitive-emotional aspect of the heroine’s conversion. This is interesting for what it contributes to our understanding of the genre of Aseneth, but it also has social-historical implications. In particular, it supports the idea that Aseneth reflects concerns about Gentile partners in Jewish-Gentile marriages, that Gentile partners might convert out of expedience or that they might be less than fully committed to abandoning “idolatrous” attachments. The representations of deep, grievous, and complex emotions in Aseneth’s transformational turn from idolatry to monolatry, then, might play a psychagogic role for the Gentile reader interested in marrying a Jewish person.

scholarly journals Pathographies and Epiphanies: Communicating about Illness

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Nesby
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Medical Staff ◽  
Severe Illness ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
Religious Person ◽  
Romantic Era ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Patient Stories

Abstract Epiphany is a literary device bringing forth an experience of sudden wisdom or insight and is particularly applied to literature from the romantic era. However, epiphanies are also present within contemporary autobiographical patient stories (pathographies) expressing something that is difficult and perhaps otherwise left unspoken. Kristian Gidlund’s pathography I kroppen min. Resan mot livets slut och alltings början (2013) deals with the author’s experience of having severe cancer. Gidlund was a non-religious person but at the end of his life, his blogposts included epiphanies or visionary moments regarding his afterlife. In this article the author shows how the use of epiphanies can be a subtle means of expressing thoughts and feelings when facing severe illness. Knowing how to identify and interpret epiphanies in pathographies can improve the abilities of relatives and medical staff to communicate with patients about existential matters and emotional distress. KAKA I would like to thank Rachael Reynolds and Paul Farmer for their most conscientious proofreading, and Dr. Christopher Oscarson for the accurate translation of the quotes from Kristian Gidlund’s book.

scholarly journals Lurking Lions and Hidden Herds: Concealed Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 492
Author(s):  
Scott B. Noegel ◽  
Corinna E. Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Domesticated Animals ◽  
Divine Wisdom ◽  
Hidden Knowledge ◽  
Literary Device

This article presents evidence for a previously unrecognized literary device in the Book of Proverbs, in which texts that cluster references to animals also contain additional paronomastic allusions to animals. This device accords with the proverbs’ instruction to search for hidden knowledge, and resonates with their emphasis on the study of wild animals as a source of divine wisdom. The device also appears in psalms and prophecies, where it generally entails references to domesticated animals; here, the function appears to be rhetorical or performative. These groupings of concealed allusions to animals also add to the growing number of examples of the textual device of clustering.

Jewish Novellas in a Greek and Roman Age: Fiction and Identity

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Wills
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Broad Category ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Roman Age ◽  
Joseph And Aseneth

AbstractAlthough Jewish novellas (Esther, Daniel, Tobit, Judith, and Joseph and Aseneth) have received more attention recently as a distinct genre within ancient Jewish literature, their relation to Greek and Roman novels is still debated. This article argues that, although some of the Jewish novellas arise earlier, they should be considered part of the same broad category of novelistic literature. The rich research on the cultural context of Greek and Roman novels applies to the Jewish as well. But a further question is also explored: if the Jewish texts were originally considered fictional, how did they come to be considered biblical and historical? Two suggestions are proposed: the protagonists of the narratives first came to be revered as heroes of the faith aside from the texts, and the rise of “biblical history” required the use of Esther and Daniel to fill in the gaps in the chronology.

Naaman’s Healing and Gehazi’s Affliction: The Magical Background of 2 Kgs 5

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 540-555
Author(s):  
Isabel Cranz
Keyword(s):  
Content Type ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Land Of Israel

Abstract Scholars tend to view the healing of Naaman and the subsequent affliction of Gehazi in 2 Kgs 5 as polemic against magic and non-Israelite ideas about disease and healing. However, in analyzing the motif of צרעת as literary device it can be demonstrated that 2 Kgs 5 is not opposed to magic. My paper will show instead how the consultation between the Aramean and the Israelite kings, the depiction of Naaman’s healing, as well as the circumstances of Gehazi’s affliction draw from generic ideas about magic to bring into sharper focus the power of the prophet and the presence of Yahweh in the land of Israel.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document