Aseneth Succumbs to Joseph’s Charm

When Pharaoh promoted Joseph to the second most powerful position in all of Egypt, he “gave him Aseneth daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife” (Genesis 41:45), which in the biblical text appears to be an intermarriage. This tantalizing reference was enough to inspire an anonymous Hellenistic Jew living in Egypt in the centuries around the turn of the millennium to write a narrative about their relationship, in the style of a novella. Joseph and Aseneth is a literary rendering of Aseneth’s developing love for Joseph and for the God of Israel, which ultimately leads her to convert. The novella engages with complex questions about religious and cultural identity and the permeability of Israelite and Egyptian boundaries. For the full text of Joseph’s blessing of Aseneth, see “Joseph Blesses Aseneth”; for Aseneth’s prayer of confession and thanksgiving at the end of the novella, see “Aseneth’s Prayer of Confession.”