Scriptural Savant

Joseph and Asenath 20

Related ancient text — scholarly reference

Extra-canonical text — not LDS scripture and not in the KJV Apocrypha. Provided as scholarly reference for parallel literature of the Second Temple period and the early Christian era. Read with discernment; the Apostle Jude quotes 1 Enoch and Paul knew this material, but inclusion here is for study, not doctrine.

1And, when they had clasped one another round for a long time and intertwined the chains of their hands, Asenath said to Joseph: "Come hither, lord, and enter our house, for that on my part I have prepared our house and a great dinner." And she took hold of his right hand and led him into her house and seated him on the chair of Pentephres her father; and she brought water to wash his feet. And Joseph said: "Let one of the virgins come and wash my feet." And Asenath said to him: "Nay, lord, for that henceforth thou art my lord and I am thine handmaid. And wherefore seekest thou this, that another virgin should wash thy feet? for that thy feet are my feet, and thine hands mine hands, and thy soul my soul, and another shall not wash thy feet." And she constrained him and washed his feet. Then Joseph took hold of her right hand and kissed her tenderly and Asenath kissed his head tenderly, and thereupon he seated her at his right hand. Her father and mother and all her kindred then came from the possession of their inheritance, and they saw her sitting with Joseph and clad in a wedding garment. And they marvelled at her beauty and rejoiced and glorified God who quickeneth the dead. And after these things they ate and drank; and, all having made cheer, Pentephres said to Joseph: "Tomorrow I will call all the princes and satraps of all the land of Egypt, and will make a wedding for you, and thou shalt take my daughter Asenath to wife." But Joseph said: "I go tomorrow to Pharaoh the king, for that he himself is my father and appointed me ruler over all this land, and I will speak to him concerning Asenath, and he will give her to me to wife." And Pentephres said to him: "Go in peace."

Public-domain text (R.H. Charles 1913 and equivalents). These works are not canonical, but several were widely read in antiquity and one (1 Enoch) is quoted by name in Jude 1:14–15. Useful for understanding the doctrinal landscape from which the apostles and earliest saints taught.