Joseph and Aseneth and the Jewish temple in Heliopolis

This work analyzes and offers a new interpretation of Joseph and Aseneth, a second-century B.C.E. Jewish novel that recounts the story of Joseph’s marriage with his Heliopolitan wife. The novel’s central scene describes a revelation in which an angel shows Aseneth how a group of bee-priests flees its honey-comb temple and establishes a new temple in Heliopolis. Following a detailed survey of the history of Onias’s temple, Bohak elucidates how narrative elements in the novel suggest a connection between the novel and the temple. Of interest to students of ancient Jewish history and literature, this detailed study of Joseph and Aseneth provides insight into the fate of the Jewish temple in Heliopolis and sheds new light on the Diaspora during the second century B.C.E.