Texts in Conversation
Joseph and Aseneth describes Aseneth’s name written in the heavenly book of the living, also found in Luke where the disciples' names are written in heaven. Both follow a tradition of divine record keeping from the ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Luke 10:20
New Testament
19 Look, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and on the full force of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names stand written in heaven.” 21 On that same occasion Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will.
Date: 75–85 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Joseph and Aseneth 15:3
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
1 And then she came to the divine supreme commander and stood in front of him, and the angel of the Lord said to her: "Take the head covering off your head now, because today you are a pure virgin, and your head is like a young man's." 2 And Asenath removed it from her head. And again the divine angel said to her: "Take heart, Asenath, pure virgin, for look, the Lord God heard all the words of your confession and your prayer, and he has also seen your humble state and suffering during the seven days of your self-denial, because your tears have formed thick mud on these ashes in front of you. 3 So take heart, Asenath, pure virgin, for look, your name has been written in the book of life and will never be erased; 4 but from today you shall be renewed and refashioned and given new life, and you shall eat the blessed bread of life and drink a cup full of immortality and be anointed with the blessed perfumed oil of incorruptibility. 5 Take heart, Asenath, pure virgin, look, the Lord God has given you to Joseph as his bride today, and he himself shall be your groom forever.
Date: 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Tags:
Search:
Notes and References
"... The longer reconstruction modifies and supplements the statement that Aseneth's name is written in the Book of Life, changing this to the Book of the Living in heaven and specifying that her name was written by the speaker's finger. The tradition of a divine list of names occurs in Exodus 32:32-33, and Jubilees 30:22 (and 36:10) specifically mentions a 'book of life.' Imputing the writing of the book to 'the finger' of the angelic being may relate to Exodus 31.18, where the tablets of stone are written by the finger of God. This motif recurs shortly, at 15.12x, in the longer text only ... (other references include 1 QM 12; Luke 10:20: Revelation 20:12, 15 ... Philonenko's list is more extensive: Isaiah 4:3; Daniel 12:1; 1 Enoch 47:3, 104:1, 108:3) ..."
Ross Shepard Kraemer, When Aseneth Met Joseph: A Late Antique Tale of the Biblical Patriarch and His Egyptian Wife, Reconsidered (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 60.
* 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.
Your Feedback:
User Comments
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,
It's interesting to see all the places where this heavenly book shows up.
It's interesting to see all the places where this heavenly book shows up.