When Aseneth Met Joseph A Late Antique Tale of the Biblical Patriarch and His Egyptian Wife, Reconsidered

This is a study of an anonymous ancient work, originally composed in Greek, titled Joseph and Aseneth. Although relatively unknown outside of scholarly circles, the story is remarkable because of its focus on a female character and its lack of overt misogyny and has traditionally been viewed as an early second-century C.E. conversion story of Jewish provenance. Kraemer offers conclusions that differ with previous findings in questions of date, provenance, identity, geographic origin and textual relationships as well as in matters of interpretation. She also explores the story's implications within the context of late antique constructs of and concerns about gender.

Ross Shepard Kraemer is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Brown University.