![]() I argue that Mark and Joseph and Aseneth are similar in these respects because of their medium and mode of composition. And each has a multiform textual tradition that went unprotected from dramatic revisions by later authors and editors. Both are intertextually echoic, evoking Jewish Scriptures metonymically rather than by direct citation. They are similar in length, and the direction of each narrative dramatically shifts at its midway point. Each employs a similar proportion of active to passive voice verbs, as well as present and imperfect to aorist tenses. They are repetitive with respect to words, clauses, sentences, and pericopes. As to language and style, both are paratactically structured and contain few long, complex periods. Nonetheless, Mark and Joseph and Aseneth exhibit a number of remarkable affinities. Generically, theologically, and concerning content the two texts are quite different. It expands the laconic account of Joseph’s marriage to Aseneth in Genesis 41 into a full-blown love story that promotes the romantic, theological, and ethical incentives of spurning idols and converting to Judaism. The latter is a Hellenistic Jewish narrative influenced by Jewish novellas and Greek romances. It details the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of a wandering Galilean. The former is a product of the nascent Jesus movement and influenced by the Greco-Roman βίοι (“Lives”). Abstract: This study compares two seemingly dissimilar ancient texts, the Gospel of Mark and Joseph and Aseneth. An examination of the complexities involved in dating the composition of literary textsĬontained here is the Abstract, Preface, Table of Contents, and Introduction to my recently defended dissertation at Marquette University.A discussion of the possible lives of Jews in Hellenistic Egypt drawn from the narrative of Aseneth. ![]() ![]() A focus on Hellenistic stories of heroic ancestors.In the end, Ahearne-Kroll concludes that the base storyline preserved in all the copies of this story demonstrates that it was written for Jewish communities living in Hellenistic Egypt. Her thorough analysis of the evidence reveals how Joseph and Aseneth reflects the literary impulse of Greek-speaking Jewish writers to redescribe their identity in Egypt and Judean connections to the land of Egypt, while incorporating Ptolemaic strategies of legitimation of power. After outlining the problems with previous prototypes of the Hellenistic narrative, she proposes a way to talk about the story in its initial setting without ignoring the manuscript evidence. AhearneKroll challenges reliance on reconstructed texts in previous scholarship on the book of Joseph and Aseneth. In Aseneth of Egypt: The Composition of a Jewish Narrative, Patricia D. ![]()
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