Men and Women as Angels in Joseph and Aseneth

Abstract

This article compares the understanding of angels in the sectarian scrolls from Qumran with the angelomorphism of Joseph and Aseneth. The sectarian Qumran scrolls are used as a comparator with Joseph and Aseneth because they are all clearly Jewish and predate the fall of the Temple in 70 CE. For the Qumran texts the views of D. Dimant (1996), B. Frennesson (1999) and C.H.T. Fletcher-Louis (2002) stress the communion of the community with the angels and even the possibility of human angelomorphism. When set alongside the angelic transformations of Joseph, Aseneth and Jacob as described in Joseph and Aseneth, it is possible to argue that this dominant feature of the narrative, especially Aseneth’s ‘conversion’, helps to date the text to a similar time as the sectarian scrolls over against the fourth-century CE date argued for by R.S. Kraemer, who misrepresents as an adjuration Aseneth’s prayer leading to her conversion.

Recent Scholarship on Joseph and Aseneth (1988-2013)

“…9–13. The appearance of the heavenly double of Joseph is not at all expected (Nickelsburg 2005: 337; Ahearne-Kroll 2005: 156-58; Brooke 2005: 174). Even if Joseph in Jos.…”

“…But while seeking parallels in late antique contexts she overlooks biblical parallels, as well as those from other Jewish exegetical traditions (Standhartinger 2000: 488-89; cf. Brooke 2005: 172-76; Tromp 1999). Not all of the parallels in the history of religion are equally persuasive.…”

“…Asen. 22.3-7B) has received attention (Fletcher-Louis 1997: 161-73; 2002: 29-31; Brooke 2005). Like the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jos.…”

“…seems to formulate its ‘angelomorphic anthropology’ in ‘a strongly priestly, partly Zadokite, movement disenchanted with the current Jerusalem establishment’ (Fletcher-Louis 2002: 30-31). Brooke collected evidence from the sectarian and non-sectarian texts of Qumran that stress a communion of the community with the angels, and human angelomorphism (2005: 159-65). Whitfield (2013: 173-82) adds the motif of Levi as a priest in the divine council in the Armenian Testament of Levi and Jos.…”

Aseneth's Gastronomical Vision: Mystical Theophagy and the New Creation in Joseph and Aseneth

“…The earliest manuscript attestation is a Syriac work from the sixth century CE. Scholars propose a date from as late as the third to fifth century CE (Kraemer 1998b; 1994; Nir 2012) to as early as the second century BCE (Battifol 1889–90: 30–35; Philonenko 1968: 109; Weimar 1973; West 1974; Burchard 1985: 187–88; 2005; Sänger 1985; Chesnutt 1995: 76–91; Barclay 1996: 204–16; Bohak 1996; Brooke 2005; Collins 2005). Though Rivka Nir's recent argument for a third/fourth-century Christian provenance is certainly convincing on many counts, I still tend to see Jos.…”