Texts in Conversation
Joseph and Aseneth uses the same imagery as Daniel 10, describing a shining figure with fiery eyes and gleaming limbs. The scene describes divine power and the “extramission theory” of vision, where sight was the result of light coming out of the eyes.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Daniel 10:6
Hebrew Bible
5 I looked up and saw a man clothed in linen; around his waist was a belt made of gold from Ufaz. 6 His body resembled yellow jasper, and his face had an appearance like lightning. His eyes were like blazing torches; his arms and feet had the gleam of polished bronze. His voice thundered forth like the sound of a large crowd. 7 Only I, Daniel, saw the vision; the men who were with me did not see it. On the contrary, they were overcome with fright and ran away to hide.
Date: 200–101 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Joseph and Aseneth 14:9
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
7 And he said: "I am the supreme commander of the Lord God and commander of the whole army of the Most High: stand up and stand on your feet, so that I may speak my words to you." 8 And she lifted up her face and saw, and look, a man like Joseph in every way, with a robe, a wreath, and a royal staff, 9 except that his face was like lightning, and his eyes like the light of the sun, and the hair of his head like the flame of a burning torch, and his hands and his feet like iron glowing from the fire, for what seemed like sparks came from both his hands and his feet. 10 Seeing these things Asenath was afraid and fell on her face, unable even to stand on her feet, for she became greatly afraid and all her limbs trembled.
Date: 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In the Pseudepigrapha the figure of a chief angel, who possessed at least part of God's glory, became of great importance in the period leading up to the advent of Christianity. Whilst the status of Joseph in Joseph and Aseneth, or the Logos in Philo’s work, is still unclear, probably deliberately so, the chief angels in the Pseudepigrapha are clearly angelic and clearly vice-regents of God. There are three texts worth examining in this context ... In Joseph and Aseneth we meet an unnamed figure; according to Burchard this is Michael. This angel is like a man, but his face is like lightning and eyes like sunshine, his hair is like fire, his hands and feet shoot forth sparks and are like iron shining forth from fire (like the molten bronze in Apocalypse of Zephaniah) (14:9-10). He also carries a staff like the angel Yahoel in the Apocalypse of Abraham (14:9). The unnamed angel is described as 'chief of the house of the Lord and commander of the whole host of the Most High' (14:8) ..."
Norman Ricklefs, “An Angelic Community: The Significance of Beliefs about Angels in the First Four Centuries of Christianity” (PhD diss., Macquarie University, 2002), 105–106.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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