Women of Israel - Asenath
- Ntandoyenkosi
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Just a short old article this time around. And again it is about understanding the deep relationship between Egyptians and Hebrews. The giving and the taking that took place there in ancient times and today. The understanding of believing in one Supreme Being, and on the other end of that spectrum believing in hundreds of supreme beings. And at the same time, when looking at opposite ends of beliefs/mindsets - we need not only to talk about great men in our Scriptures but also we should talk more about the great women. They are there. Now women generally don`t get allot of airtime in the Bible. Its mostly the men that do the talking. The way women are mentioned, especially in the Older books in our Bibles, are rather few and far in between. They do not get many conversations. While there are a few that get their honourable mentions, others are merely mentioned as a mere sidenote. Some not mentioned at all. As is the case with Lots wife. She did not even get a name. But we know the sin she immortalised. Looking back to your sin, even after you escaped death, you still will turn back. Just to look. And even though some are remembered more as a literal Pillar of Salt, we still see others mentioned more then once. They have great importance. Mother Eve/Ewa, Sarai/Sarah, Rachel and Leah, Batsheba... Often standing next to great men, perhaps making them seem in size, much smaller. This might be so for those that have a quick look, if you look deeper though, you see their importance is of the sort that they could not be left out. If we did, there would be no stories to tell.
Now we remember Josephs wife, she was indeed identified as an Egyptian. So seemingly here Joseph married outside the Tribes. She would have been a high-born Egyptian woman (perhaps even royalty). She was indeed the wife of Joseph and bore him Manasseh and Ephraim, two of the tribes allotted land in the Bible. Now when studying Asenath, it would be helpful to establish that the Egyptians and the Hebrews did indeed look alike in their physical features. As we have been exploring in the articles on Herodotus. Now people discuss wether she was actually of Hebrew descent or a pure Egyptian woman, we do not know for sure. What we do know is that she likely adopted the Ways of Abraham and what was later called Judaean ways. She, an outsider, made them her own. She took adopted the ways of her husband as her own. This goes to show that people can adopt the ways of the Most High, even though you come from other customs and tenets yourself. People can convert. Here is an Egyptian, converting to become a Hebrew.
Now there are generally two schools of thought when is comes to Asenath. One she was an Egyptians that converted to marry Joseph, as we know. Accepting SoNiNi before marriage and raising her two boys in the ways handed down by Abraham. A devout convert. Maybe so, others say that she was not Egyptian by descent and actually came from Jacobs extended family. There are traditions that say she was born of the daughter of Dinah. And we remember Dinah was raped by Shechem. Left on the wall of Egypt by Jacob. Then later found by Potiphar, raised as an Egyptian, then eventually marrying Joseph. Could be. Sounds very much like how SoNiNi does things. And remember this is the mother of two very important tribes of the Original 12 Tribes of Israel.
Now, Asenaths name comes from, which means belonging to Neith. And Egyptians goddess, mother of the sun god Ra and the crocodile god Sobek. A god of burial rights and protocols. The first mention of Asenath is in Genesis 41,45 and we can find more information on her in The Book of Jubilees. Here we can read that she was given in marriage to Joseph by the Pharaoh, a daughter of Potiphar the high priest of Heliopolis (the City of the Sun). Now we do not know wether this is the very same Potiphar whose wife falsely accuses Joseph of rape while she tried her very best to seduce him. We do not know. So there are two different traditions here. Being the daughter of Dinah, would make Josephs resistant to the sin his wifes mother (may have) been put through. Instead Jseph ends up accused of rape, when indeed it was his wifes mother that was raped. It is interesting how that work, as far as generation sin an familiar spirits. You can also pick up the Apocryphal book, written in Koine Greek, called Joseph and Asenath. We will include a decent translation below by historian Ernest Walter Brooks (1863-1855), so you can read for yourself and determine wether these works are indeed inspired or not.
Now in here we get more details, among their 48 years of reign in Egypt. Also there was a plot allegedly started by Pharaohs son who wanted Asenath, got Dan and Gad in on the plot, but it was all thwarted by Benjamin Josephs younger brother. If we go to our Bibles, we can find them mentioned in 3 separate verses, first in Genesis 41 and last in Genesis 46,20 (Genesis 41,45):
45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.
Five verses on we can read (Genesis 41,50-52):
50 Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. 51 Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” 52 The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”