Joseph and Aseneth

Historical English source page 18

xiv INTRODUCTION Jacob had a plate tied round the child's neck, with the name of God on it, and turned her out, and the archangel Michael carried her to the house of Poti- pherah.i The difficulty was therefore removed by- making Asenath of Hebrew birth on her mother's side, and new light is thrown on the passage already cited which represents her as resembling the Hebrews rather than the Egyptians, and compares her to Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel, and we see the reason for the close connexion in which Asenath is brought to Simeon and Levi, the two who had avenged Dinah upon the men of Shechem, of whom in the story of Joseph as given in Genesis Simeon plays only a passive part and Levi no part at all.^ M. Batiffol thinks that the passage found in the Syriac and Armenian in which Asenath is made to kiss Jacob " as one who returneth from war to his house after a long time," * refers to the recognition of the relationship, and that some Greek scribe omitted it because in the Christian revision no mean- ing could be attached to it ; but it would be unsafe to depend upon this. On the other hand, I cannot with M. Batiffol regard the visit of Michael as a Christian addition. I have already shown that the passage in which Asenath is told to remove her veil is probably Jewish, and as, according to the story told by Eliezer, Michael brought her to Egypt, ^ Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, Eng. trans, by G. Friedlander, ch. xxxviii. ^ It is worth noting that the prohibition against marrying a strange woman is in the Book of Jubilees (ch. xii.) connected with the story of Simeon and Levi. ^ Ch. xxii.