Asenath from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Joseph and Asenath

Asenath ( /ˈæsɨnæθ/; Hebrew: אָסְנַת, Modern Asənat Tiberian ʼĀsənạṯ) or Asenith (in modern times sometimes transliterated as Osnat) is a figure in the Book of Genesis (41:45.50; 46,20), an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph son of Jacob to be his wife. The daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On, she bore Joseph two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who became the patriarchs of the Israelite tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim.

Modern scholarship says her name derives from the Egyptian "holy to Anath", and that her name may be phonetically transliterated from the New Kingdom Egyptian hieroglyphs as Ns-Nt.^{[citation needed]}

In Hellenistic texts[link]

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. Bees cover her and sting her lips to remove the false prayers to the pagan gods of her past. 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.

Rabbinical literature[link]

The Midrash Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer records a view that Asenath was actually the daughter of Joseph's sister Dinah, conceived in her rape by Shechem.^[1] Some of the circumstantial textual evidence supporting this view is laid out in an article by John Pratt.

The name Asenath today[link]

"Asenath" or "Osnat" (Hebrew: אָסְנַת, Modern Asənat Tiberian ʼĀsənạṯ) is a commonly used female first name in present-day Israel. Asenath is also the name of a character in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep."

Notes[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joseph and Asenath

External links[link]

• Text of Joseph and Asenath

Sandrine Piau (b. 5 June 1965 in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France) is an opera soprano. Trained as a harpist, she studied voice at the Collège Lamartine and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique du Paris.

She is best known for her roles in Baroque opera, having worked with William Christie at the Festival international d'Art Lyrique at Aix-en-Provence. She has since collaborated with many of the leading European conductors of the Baroque revival, including Marc Minkowski, Philippe Herreweghe, Paul McCreesh, Alan Curtis, Christophe Rousset, René Jacobs, and Fabio Biondi. She took part in the project of Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir to record the complete vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

She was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2006 by the French government.

Recordings[link]

• Les Indes galantes by Rameau conducted by William Christie (1992) Harmonia Mundi
• Castor & Pollux by Rameau conducted by William Christie (1993) Harmonia Mundi
• Messiah by Handel, conducted by William Christie (1994) Harmonia Mundi
• Les Fêtes de Paphos by Mondonville conducted by Christophe Rousset (1997) Polygram
• King Arthur by Purcell conducted by William Christie (1995) Erato
• Rodrigo by Handel, conducted by Alan Curtis (1999) EMI
• Motets by Couperin conducted by Christophe Rousset (1999) EMI
• Serse by Handel, conducted by William Christie (2004) Virgin Classics
• Aci, Galatea e Polifemo by Handel, conducted by Emmanuelle Haim (2004) Virgin Classics
• J. S. Bach: Cantatas, Vol. 15-22 by Bach, conducted by Ton Koopman (2005) Challenge Classics
• Les Illuminations by Britten, conducted by Thomas Zehetmair (2009) NMC

Recitals:

• Mozart: Opera Arias by Mozart, conducted by Gottfried von der Goltz (2002) Astrée
• Sandrine Piau - Handel Opera Seria by Handel, conducted by Christophe Rousset (2005) Naïve
• Vivaldi Edition: Arie d'Opera by Vivaldi, conducted by Federico Sardelli (2005) Naïve
• "Évocation" Songs by Chausson, Strauss, Debussy, Zemlinsky, Koechlin, with Susan Manoff, piano (2007) Naïve
• "Le Triomphe de L'amour", conducted by Jérôme Correas (2012) Naïve

Other:

• Mitridate by Mozart, conducted by Christophe Rousset (1999) Decca
• Mélodies by Debussy (2003) Naïve
• La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein by Offenbach, conducted by Marc Minkowski (2005) Virgin Classics
• The Seven Last Words of Christ by Haydn, conducted by Laurence Equilbey (2006) Naïve

External links[link]

• Radio France bio
• Barnes and Noble profile

See also[link]

• Patricia Petibon
• Mireille Delunsch
• Gaëlle Méchaly
• Natalie Dessay
• Véronique Gens
• Isabelle Poulenard
• Guillemette Laurens
• Noémi Rime

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