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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 11:44:30 -0500
From: "G. Bloomquist" <gbloomquist@home.com>
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To: Classics <classics@u.washington.edu>
CC: Edith Humphrey <ehumphre@CCS.CARLETON.CA>
Subject: Aseneth
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Forwarded on behalf of my colleague, Prof. Edith Humphrey

Dear Classics list:

Jean Alveres recently wrote regarding the apocryphon normally entitled
_Joseph and Aseneth_  (but very recently shortened by many to simply
_Aseneth_):

<The name is usually spelled Asenath. If you go to
<http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/novelform.html
<(the wonderful search engine for the Ancient Novel Bibliography set up
<for the Petronian Society Home page by Ross Scaife)

<these works are listed:

<Burchard, C. Untersuchungen zur Joseph und Asenath. (Tnbingen 1965)

<Pervo, R. "Joseph and Asenath and the Greek Novel." In G. MacRae (ed.)
<Society of Biblical Literature SeminarPapers 1976 (Missoula Mont.:
<Scholars Press 1976.) 171-81.
<Society of Biblical Literature SeminarPapers 1976 (Missoula Mont.:
<Scholars Press 1976.) 171-81.

<Philonenko, M. Joseph et Asenath (Leyden 1968)

<West, S. "Joseph and Asenath: A Neglected Greek Romance." CQ n.s. 14
<(1974) 70-81.

<There is also more bibliograpy in L. M. Wills  The Jewish Novel in the
<Ancient World (Cornell 1995)

In fact, although the Hebrew spelling is transliterated as Asenath (from

the brief reference in Masoretic Text Genesis 41:45, 50) and this
spelling
persists in later Jewish legend (e.g. Genesis Rabbah, Numbers Rabbah),
the
apocryphon itself uses Aseneth (LXX spelling) and it is in fact
as Aseneth that she is normally known.  In the seventies the Biblical
spelling persisted.  So then, West (strangely) used the Hebrew spelling,

although he was speaking of a "Greek romance", as did Pervo in his
earliest work.  The Greek form of the name has in fact been a first name

in some European cultures for several centuries, and indeed,
all the other writers cited above (Burchard, Philonenko and now Pervo)
spell the name Aseneth. Virtually everyone now uses the Greek
spelling, conforming to the apocryphon, unless they are treating the
Hebrew tradition in particular.

Excellent resources (with different perspectives) on this work are now
to
be found in:

Chesnutt, Randall, -From Death to Life; Conversion in Joseph and
Aseneth_,
JSPSupp 16 Sheffield, 1995

Ross S. Kraemer, When Joseph Met Aseneth; A late Antique tale of  the
Biblical Patriarch and His Egyptian Wife, Reconsidered, Oxford, 1998
and

Gideon Bohak, -Joseph and Aseneth and the Jewish Temple in Helipolis,
SBL
Early Judaism and Its literature#10, 1996.

Finally:
A bit of shameless advertising (sorry!)-- Sheffield Academic Press will
be
publishing a short guide to Aseneth in its Guide to the Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha Series, probably this fall, by me.  This may be of
interest
to those who want a current state-of-research resource, with annotated
biblography -- plus a literary/rhetorical reading of  Aseneth.

For those who haven't read the apocryphon itself, you must --it is quite

delightful, especially in its longer version (see Burchard's text
produced
in Denis' Concordance, or his ET in Charlesworth, The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha, volume 2)

Happy reading!

Edith M. Humphrey
Augustine College, Ottawa
--
 L.G.Bloomquist


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