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In Genesis, Joseph marries the daughter of an Egyptian priest of On, called Heliopolis in the Greek Septuagint translation. Joseph and Aseneth, a Greek story about that marriage, also describes her father Pentephres as a priest of Heliopolis.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Genesis 41:45
Septuagint
44 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; without you no one shall lift up his hand on all the land of Egypt. 45 And Pharaoh called the name of Joseph, Zaphenath-Paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis, as a wife. 46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Joseph and Aseneth 1:4
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
4 And there was a man in that city named Pentephres, who was a priest of Heliopolis and a satrap of Pharaoh, and chief over all Pharaoh's satraps and princes; 5 and this man was very rich and very wise and gentle, and he was also a counselor of Pharaoh, because he was more discerning than all Pharaoh's princes. 6 And he had a virgin daughter, named Asenath, eighteen years old, tall and graceful, and more beautiful to look at than any virgin on the earth.
Date: 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... Within the genre construction of an ancient Greek novel, Aseneth also fully imitates the language and style of the Septuagint. The plot is rooted in the Genesis story about Joseph, and at several points in the narrative, Aseneth repeats particular phrases from Genesis to more securely embed it in the Joseph tradition. Other biblical scenes and paradigms are utilized in the portrayal of Aseneth, her encounter with the angel, and the presentation of events in the latter half of the story (e.g., from Daniel, Judges, Psalms, and 2 Samuel); and particular literary conventions of Septuagint Greek (e.g., kai egeneto and idou) are scattered throughout the narrative. Aseneth also shares similarities of interest with other Second Temple literature. Aseneth’s prayers and rise to greatness are replete with wisdom imagery (compare Wisdom of Solomon), and Aseneth’s embellishment of Joseph’s reign is shared by other Jewish texts from Egypt (e.g., Artapanus and Philo’s Joseph) ...”
Patricia Ahearne-Kroll, “Joseph and Aseneth,” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2013), 2526.
* 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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