Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12202/4569
Title: Emotion, Gender, and Greco-Roman Virtue in Joseph and Aseneth.
Authors: Mermelstein, Ari
0000-0002-3572-9518
Keywords: emotion
Greco-Roman virtue
Joseph
Aseneth
philanthropia
anger
courage
Philo of Alexandria
Hellenism
Issue Date: 2017
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
Citation: Mermelstein, Ari. (2017). Emotion, gender, and Greco-Roman virtue in Joseph and Aseneth. Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellensitic, and Roman Period. 48, 492-513.
Series/Report no.: Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellensitic, and Roman Period.;48
Abstract: Anger, courage, and philanthropia—three important elements of Greco-Roman civic life—figure prominently in the book of Joseph and Aseneth and help us uncover the book’s message. One view within Greco-Roman culture valorized manly anger—at least where appropriate—and manly courage, but, according to Joseph and Aseneth, Jews instead privileged the emotion of pity and the related virtue of philanthropia. The author strategically developed his plot around the experiences of a female convert, whose views on anger, courage, and philanthropia highlight both the distinctiveness and subversiveness of the Jewish position. His message served an important polemical goal, one which highlighted the premium that Jews place on philanthropia and challenged contemporary accusations of Jewish misanthropy.
Description: Scholarly journal article
URI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700631-12340148
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12202/4569
ISSN: 1570-0631
Appears in Collections:Yeshiva College: Faculty Publications

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