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Revision as of 21:42, 1 October 2006 by Therealmikelvee (talk | contribs) (Revert some more Beit Or.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)According to the Book of Genesis, Asenath (אָסְנַת, Standard Hebrew Asənat, Tiberian Hebrew ʼĀsənạṯ) was an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph son of Jacob to be his wife. The daughter of Potimherah, a priest of On, she bore Joseph two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who each became patriarchs of their own tribes of Israel. Modern scholarship says her name derives from from the Egyptian "holy to Anath"; her name may be phonetically transliterated from the New Kingdom Egyptian hieroglyphs as Ns-Nt, but according to Ahmed Osman, it is transliterated from Iw-s-nut, meaning "Belonging (or holy) to Nut" or Ns-Nt meaning the same.
Genesis records nothing more about Asenath, but her story is elaborated in the apocryphal Joseph and Asenath. There, she is a virgin who rejects several worthy suitors in favor of Joseph, but Joseph will not have a pagan for a wife. She locks herself in a tower and rejects her idolatry in favor of Joseph's god Yahweh, and receives a visit from an angel who accepts her conversion. A ritual involving a honeycomb follows, and Joseph now consents to marry her. She bears him their sons Mannaseh and Ephraim. Pharaoh's son wants Asenath for himself, however, and with the aid of Joseph's brothers Dan and Gad, he conspires to kill her husband. The loyal brother Benjamin interferes, and Pharaoh's son is ultimately slain. Asenath forgives the conspirators, and she and Joseph rule over Egypt for 48 years, after which they pass the crown to Pharaoh's grandson.
According to the Jewish midrashim, Asenath was actually the daughter of Joseph's sister Dinah, conceived in her rape by Sechem.