Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/211

173 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

173

abridged Latin translation embodied in Vincent of Beauvais'

"

Speculum Historiale," published in full by P.

cli.

cxviii.-cxxiv.,

was first Batiffol, after four manuscripts, in his"Studia Patristica," Paris, 188990, with a valuable introduction. fragment had previously appeared in Pabricius, " Codex PseudepigraphicusVeterisTestamenti," ii. 85-102. Syriac translation of the sixth century, discovered by Asaemani (see Wright, " Syriac Literature, " in " Encyc. Brit." xxii. 855 etseg)., is published in Land's " Anecdota Syriaca," iii. 18-46, and rendered into Latin by Oppenheim, " Fabula Josephi et Asenathse Apocrypha," Berlin, 1886. An Armenian translation it

A

A

appeared in "Revue Polyhistoire, " 1885, 200-206, 1886, pp. 25-34, and in the " Armenian Collection of Apocrypha of the Old Testament," Venice, 1896. On the Slavonic version, see Bonwetsch, in Harnack, "Gesch. d. Altchristl. Literatur," i. 915;

and

on the Ethiopic

version, Dillman, in Herzog-Plitt, "Real-Encyklopadie," 2d ed., xii. 366. Neither the rabbinical nor the patristic literature has preserved

any trace of the story. The book consists of two parts. The first, which is the larger, and which has given it the name of

Model of a Proselyte,

"Prayer or Confession of Asenath," presents Asenath as a model of a Jewish proselyte in the light of Hellenistic

propaganda. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar (Pentephres), priest of" Heliopolis (On), a rich man and chief counselor of Pharaoh, far surpassed the Egyptian maidens in beauty; for she was "tall like Sarah, handsome like Rebekah, and fair like Rachel," and the fame of her beauty filled the land. Reared in great luxury but in entire seclusion, a worshiper of idols, she thinks only of marrying Pharaoh's son; and when her father proposes to her that she become the wife of Joseph, "the mighty man of God," who honored him with a visit, she proudly refuses because he has been a slave and owes his release from prison only to his skill in interpreting dreams. But on seeing Joseph's beauty when sitting alone at table (compare Gen. xliii. 32, reversed in the spirit of Dan. i. 5), she falls in love with him, as do all the Egyptian women (compare Yalk. and Targ. Yer. on Gen. xlix. 22 Koran, sura

eat of the bread of His life, drink of the cup of His blessing, and join her to the number of His people

He had chosen before the Creation of the universe, so that she may partake of the bliss prepared for His chosen ones in the life everlasting. Asenath returns to her rooms, and with bitter tears, repenting of her idolatrous practises, spends eight days in fasting and penance

putting on sackcloth, strewing ashes the floor strewn with ashes, and foregoing sleep at night. She takes her costly robes and jewelry and throws them down on the street, in order that the poor may sell them for their needs destroys all her idols of silver, gold, and precious stones in accordance with rabbinical law (see

'Abodah Zarah for their use

"

It is not befitting a pious man who blesses the living God lips, who eats the blessed bread of lite, drinks of the blessed cup of immortality, and anoints himself with the oil of ineorruption, to kiss a foreign woman who blesses dead and dumb idols with her lips, eating the bread of death from their table, drinking of their libations from the cup of treachery, and anointing herself with the ointment of perdition. In fact, a pious man kisses besides his mother and his sister only his own wife nor does a pious woman kiss a strange man for this is an abomination before the Lord God."

When



Asenath bursts into

tears,

Joseph compas-

sionately lays bis hand upon her head, praying that the God of his father Israel, the Creator of the Universe, who calleth men from darkness to light, from error to truth, and from death to life (compare Philo, "De Poenitentia," i. and ii. "De Nobilitate," vi.), may renew her with His holy spirit that she may

434-44),

and

casts

them

to the

needy

while all the edible things prepared for her gods she throws to the dogs. Being Asenath's well-nigh exhausted from fasting and Penitence, weeping, she at first feels utterly for;

saken, having brought the hatred of her parents and kinsmen upon herself by despising their gods yet she lacks the courage to pray with polluted lips to "the jealous God of Joseph, the God who hates idolaters." Finally, the thought that He is also a merciful and compassionate God, the Father of the orphaned, the comfort of the broken-hearted, and the helper of the persecuted, fortifies her to offer a supplication, echoing the deepest longing of a Godseeking soul, full of saintly humility and contrition. The prayer, which is a long one, shows indisputable elements of Essene lore. Asenath begins with an address to God as " Creator of the The Universe, who fastened the foundationPrayer, stones of the earth upon the abyss so that they do not sink who spoke and all things were made; and whose word is the life of all creatures." She then makes a confession of her sins in words familiar to the Jew acquainted with the ancient liturgy



"

Have pity on me, O Lord for I have greatly sinned, transand done evil. Knowingly and unknowingly, I have

gressed,

sinned by worshiping idols and by polluting my lips by their sacrificial meal. I am not worthy to open my mouth to speak to Thee, O Lord— I, the wretched daughter of Potiphar, once so proud and haughty."



with his



upon her head, lying on

Still

xii. 30).

Joseph, on learning from Asenath 's father that she is a pure-minded woman who has never seen a man before, gladly receives her like a sister, but refuses to kiss her, saying

Ascoli

Asenath

"

more

characteristic is her petition

take refuge with Thee, O Lord. As the little child flees in fear to the father, and the father takes it to his bosom, so do Thou stretch forth Thy hands as a loving father and save me from the enemy who pursues me as a lion, from Satan, the father of the Egyptian gods, who desires to devour me because I have despised his children,- the Egyptian gods. Deliver me from his hands, lest he c»st me into the Are lest the monster of the deep [leviathan] eac me up, and I perish forever. Save me for my father and mother deny me, and I have no hope nor refuge but Thy mercy, O Lover of men, Helper of the broken-hearted There is no father so good and sweet as Thou, O Lord. All the houses my father gives me as possessions are for a time and perishable but the houses of Thy possession, O Lord, are indestructible and last forever." I





!



On the morning of the eighth day an angel appears to her resembling Joseph, but with a face like lightning, and with eyes like beams of fire, the capHe tells her tain of the host of the Lord (Michael). to wash, and to exchange her garments of mourning for garments of beauty for as a pure virgin she needs no veil and then announces to her that "from that day on she should be reborn, while eating the blessed bread of life, and drinking the cup filled with

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