View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DukeSpace 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, iv 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. v 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 vi 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 vii 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 ................................................