ABSTRACT
Joseph and Aseneth is a pseudepigraphic Hellenistic romance novel that elaborates on the biblical character of Joseph and his wife Aseneth. An expansion of Genesis 41: 45, the text describes how Aseneth is transformed into a radiant bride t for Joseph, and is thereby associated with his God.1 Previous studies may have overstepped the limits of what Joseph and Aseneth is willing to tell us about religious identity; rather than treat the novel as a description (or prescription!) of religious initiation, I propose to view it as a reection of the complex interactions of Judean and “pagan” modes of religious experience.2 Aseneth’s transformation associates her with the divine realm through several methods, one of which, I argue, is her clothing, a culturally anticipated identity marker for both Judeans and “pagans.”
