Conversion to Israel's 'Living God'

280 Pages·2014·1.4 MB·English

Rewritten Gentiles: Conversion to Israel’s ‘Living God’ and Jewish Identity in Antiquity
by
Jill Hicks-Keeton
Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University

Date:_______________________
Approved:

___________________________
Joel Marcus, Supervisor

___________________________
Randall Chesnutt

___________________________
Mark Goodacre

___________________________
Anathea Portier-Young

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Religion
in the Graduate School
of Duke University

2014

v
ABSTRACT

Rewritten Gentiles: Conversion to Israel’s ‘Living God’ and Jewish Identity in Antiquity

by
Jill Hicks-Keeton
Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University

Date:_______________________
Approved:

___________________________
Joel Marcus, Supervisor

___________________________
Randall Chesnutt

___________________________
Mark Goodacre

___________________________
Anathea Portier-Young

An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Religion
in the Graduate School
of Duke University

2014

v
Copyright by
Jill Suzanne Hicks-Keeton
2014
Abstract
This dissertation examines the ideological developments and strategies of
boundary formation which accompanied the sociological novelty of gentiles’ becoming
Jews in the Second Temple period. I argue that the phenomenon of gentile conversion
influenced ancient Jews to re-conceive their God as they devised new ways to articulate
the now-permeable boundary between Jew and “other,” between insiders and outsiders.
Shaye Cohen has shown that this boundary became porous as the word “Jew” took on
religious and political meanings in addition to its ethnic connotations. A gentile could
therefore become a Jew. I focus on an ancient Jewish author who thought that gentiles
not only could become Jews, but that they should: that of Joseph of Aseneth. Significant
modifications of biblical traditions about God, Israel, and “the other” were necessary in
order to justify, on ideological grounds, the possibility of gentile access to Jewish
identity and the Jewish community.
One such rewritten tradition is the relationship of both Jew and gentile to the
“living God,” a common epithet in Israel’s scriptures. Numerous Jewish authors from
the Second Temple period, among whom I include the apostle Paul, deployed this
biblical epithet in various ways in order to construct or contest boundaries between
gentiles and the God of Israel. Whereas previous scholars have approached this divine
title exclusively as a theological category, I read it also as a literary device with
discursive power which helps these authors regulate gentile access to Israel’s God and,
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in most cases, to Jewish identity. Joseph and Aseneth develops an innovative theology of
Israel’s “living God” which renders this narrative exceptionally optimistic about the
possibilities of gentile conversion and incorporation into Israel. Aseneth’s tale uses this
epithet in conjunction with other instances of “life” language not only to express
confidence in gentiles’ capability to convert, but also to construct a theological
articulation of God in relationship to repentant gentiles which allows for and anticipates
such conversion. A comparison of the narrative’s “living God” terminology to that of
the book of Jubilees and the apostle Paul sets into relief the radical definition of
Jewishness which Joseph and Aseneth constructs – a definition in which religious practice
eclipses ancestry and under which boundaries between Jew and “other” are permeable.

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Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv
List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. viii
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... ix
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
1. The Living God and Dead Gentiles: Boundary-Drawing in Israel’s Scriptures ............. 15
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 15
The Living God in Previous Scholarship .......................................................................... 16
The Living God in Deuteronomy ....................................................................................... 24
The Living God in Joshua .................................................................................................... 31
The Living God in 1 Samuel/Reigns .................................................................................. 40
The Living God in 2 Kings/4 Reigns .................................................................................. 50
Synthesis and Conclusions .................................................................................................. 58
2. Executing Boundaries: Life, Death, and ‘The Living God’ in Hellenistic Judaism ........ 60
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 60
The Living God in Esther OG ............................................................................................. 61
The Living God in 3 Maccabees.......................................................................................... 72
The Living God in Daniel OG ............................................................................................. 80
The Living God in Daniel TH ............................................................................................. 90
Synthesis and Conclusions: ‘The Living God’ in Hellenistic Judaism ........................ 101
3. Rewritten Gentiles: Israel’s ‘Living God’ in Joseph and Aseneth ..................................... 107
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 107
The Text of Joseph and Aseneth ........................................................................................... 108
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The Living God in Joseph and Aseneth .............................................................................. 111
God as Creator of Life in Joseph and Aseneth ................................................................... 117
New Life, New Family: Aseneth’s Transformed Kinship Ties .................................... 142
New Life, New Name: Aseneth’s Transformed Identity .............................................. 146
The Living God in Distinctive Expressions of Joseph and Aseneth ................................ 147
Life and Death in Part Two of Joseph and Aseneth .......................................................... 153
Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 155
4. ‘The Living God,’ Jewish Identity, and the Provenance of Joseph and Aseneth ............. 157
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 157
Is Aseneth Jewish or Christian? ........................................................................................ 158
Situating Aseneth: Jewish Identity Negotiation in Greco-Roman Egypt ................... 170
Joseph Outside of Hellenistic Judaism in Egypt ............................................................ 188
Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 198
5. Insiders, Outsiders, and ‘Children of the Living God’ in Jubilees and Paul .................. 200
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 200
Jubilees and Aseneth on Israel’s Boundaries ................................................................... 200
Paul and Aseneth on Gentile Incorporation into Israel ................................................ 217
Synthesis and Conclusions ................................................................................................ 239
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 241
Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 252
Biography ................................................................................................................................... 280

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List of Tables
Table 1: Jos. Asen. Bu/Ph 8:5a Text and Translation ..................................................... 105
Table 2: Jos. Asen. Bu/Ph 8:5b Text and Translation ..................................................... 114
Table 3: Jos. Asen. Bu 2:11/Ph 2:19 Text ....................................................................... 120
Table 4: Jos. Asen. Bu 2:11/Ph 2:19 Translation ............................................................ 121
Table 5: Jos. Asen. Bu 8:3/Ph 8:2 Text and Translation ................................................. 122
Table 6: Jos. Asen. Bu 8:9a/Ph 8:10a Text and Translation ........................................... 123
Table 7: Jos. Asen. Bu 8:9b/Ph 8:10b-11 Text ............................................................... 125
Table 8: Jos. Asen. Bu 8:9b/Ph 8:10b-11 Translation .................................................... 126
Table 9: Jos. Asen. Bu/Ph 9:5 Text and Translation ....................................................... 127
Table 10: Jos. Asen. Bu 12:1-2/Ph 12:2-3 Text and Translation .................................... 129
Table 11: Jos. Asen. Bu 12:2 Text and Translation ........................................................ 131
Table 12: Jos. Asen. Bu 16:14/Ph 16:8 Text ................................................................... 134
Table 13: Jos. Asen. Bu 16:14/Ph 16:8 Translation ........................................................ 134
Table 14: Jos. Asen. Bu 16:16 Text and Translation ...................................................... 135

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Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to all of the people who helped make this project possible.
My advisor, Joel Marcus, has provided invaluable guidance, relentless support, and
detailed feedback at every step. Engaging with him on paper and in person has been
one of the great pleasures of writing this dissertation. I still marvel at my good fortune
many years ago to have taken Joel’s Pseudepigrapha class, in which I originally
conceived this project, and at my great luck to have developed it under his supervision.
It is difficult to express the depth of my admiration for him as a scholar, a teacher, and a
person.
I am likewise thankful to the other members of my committee. Randy Chesnutt,
whose scholarly work on Joseph and Aseneth I hold in highest esteem, was extremely
generous to agree to take part. He sent careful comments on each chapter all the way
from California, and the dissertation is better for it. I have also benefited greatly from
the incisive feedback of Mark Goodacre, whose combination of creativity, rigor, and
enthusiasm I so often envy. I am grateful to Thea Portier-Young not only for her
guidance on this project and feedback on its contents, but also for shaping, and
sharpening, my scholarly imagination. She has been a source of inspiration for me for
many years. It has been an immense privilege to work with, and learn from, each of
these scholars.
Friends and colleagues whom I know through the Duke Graduate Program in
Religion also offered useful feedback on various sections of the dissertation along the
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way: Hans Arneson, Nathan Eubank, T. J. Lang, and Matt Thiessen. I particularly
appreciate Matt’s swift replies to many, many brainstorming emails. Lori Baron and
Tommy and Mary Grimm regularly hosted me in their homes when I traveled to
Durham. Thank you, dear friends, for the warm bed, cold beer, and rich conversation.
My family has supported me and my work in countless ways. I thank my
parents, John and Jan Hicks, for first introducing me to biblical literature, for cultivating
my curiosity, and for encouraging me always. I have been fortunate to live near my
parents-in-law, Dale and Mary Keeton, while completing this project. I am thankful for
their companionship (and their chili!), and I appreciate more than I can say the hours
upon hours that ‘MeeMee’ spent playing with my son so that I could write. Luke was
born while this dissertation was in progress; his arrival brought new joy to my life and
renewed motivation to my work. He never once refused to “proof-read” together.
Above all, I am grateful to my husband Bart, whose love, encouragement,
patience, and support have known no bounds. His daily sacrifices made it possible for
me to complete this dissertation. His endurance is nothing short of miraculous. His
insight, advice, and wit brought needed levity to this lengthy process and at the same
time made me a better, and more imaginative, thinker and writer. Bart, thank you for
believing in me, and for everything you have given.

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