The Heavenly Counterpart Traditions in Joseph and Aseneth

Joseph’s Heavenly Double

Early materials associated with another crucial exemplar of the Jewish tradition, the patriarch Joseph, also contain conceptual developments pertaining to the idea of a heavenly counterpart. While we already closely explored the Doppelgänger motifs in one pseudepigraphon associated with the name of this patriarch, namely, the Prayer of Joseph, it is time to draw our attention to another account that deals with the patriarch’s story, the text known to us as Joseph and Aseneth,¹ an account in which the heavenly counterpart imagery possibly reached its most advanced development in the Jewish pseudepigrapha.²

In recent years this pseudepigraphon has received substantial attention from scholars. One important feature of the text which sets it apart from other early Jewish visionary accounts is that the recipient of the revelation and subsequent metamorphosis is a female seer – Aseneth, who is depicted in the pseudepigraphon as a daughter of an Egyptian priest, who becomes the wife of the Jewish patriarch Joseph. In this expansion on the terse biblical story,³ Aseneth undergoes a conversion and metamorphosis which turns her from a former idolater into a being who will be fed on the heavenly bread of life.

Aseneth’s transformation comes to the fore in chapters 14-18 of the pseudepigraphon, which depict her encounter with an angelic visitor, portrayed in the text as Joseph’s heavenly double. Joseph and Aseneth 14:2-10 reveals the following depiction of Aseneth’s heavenly guest:

And Aseneth kept looking, and behold, close to the morning star, the heaven was torn apart and great and unutterable light appeared. And Aseneth saw (it) and fell on (her) face on the ashes. And a man came to her from heaven and stood by Aseneth’s head. And he called her and said, “Aseneth, Aseneth.” And she said, “Who is he that calls me, because the door of my chamber is closed, and the tower is high, and how then did he come into my chamber?” And the man called her a second time and said, “Aseneth, Aseneth.” And she said, “Behold, (here) I (am), Lord. Who are you, tell me.” And the man said, “I am the chief of the house of the Lord and commander of the whole host of the Most High. Rise and stand on your feet, and I will tell you what I have to say.” And Aseneth raised her head and saw, and behold, (there was) a man in every respect similar to Joseph, by the robe and the crown and the royal staff, except that his face was like lightning, and his eyes like sunshine, and the hairs of his head like a flame of fire of a burning torch, and hands and feet like iron shining forth from a fire, and sparks shot forth from his hands and feet.⁴

One can see that in contrast to other accounts, explored previously in our study, where the discernment of the heavenly counterpart imagery sometimes required substantial exegetical efforts, in Joseph and Aseneth the tradition of the celestial alter ego is transparent as the heavenly visitor is said to be in the likeness of Joseph. Moreover, the mysterious guest is not merely Joseph’s heavenly correlative, but his celestial double.⁵ Some features and attributes of Joseph’s Doppelgänger deserve our close attention. The first detail that catches the eye is that the appearance of the heavenly figure, who is defined in the story as Anthropos,⁶ coincides with the appearance of “great and unutterable light (φῶς μέγα καὶ ἀνεκλάλητον).”⁷ It is possible that the light here is yet another description for the heavenly visitor who is later portrayed with a face “like lightning” and eyes “like sunshine.”

Such a designation recalls Moses’ vision in the Exagoge where the prophet’s heavenly counterpart is also labeled as φως.⁸ As has been already noted in our study, the term φως was often used in Jewish theophanic traditions to designate the glorious manifestations of the deity as well as his anthropomorphic human “icons,” who radiate the luminosity of their newly acquired celestial bodies. These traditions often play on the ambiguity of the term which, depending on the accent, can designate either “a man” (φώς) or “light” (φῶς), pointing to both the luminous and the anthropomorphic nature of the divine or angelic manifestations.⁹ In this respect it is noteworthy that all major protagonists of the story: the Anthropos, Aseneth, and Joseph will be portrayed as luminous entities.

Reflecting on the titles and functions of the heavenly man, scholars have noted similarities to the earthly Joseph’s offices and roles. As one remembers, our text defines the angelic figure as commander in chief of the heavenly armies. Celia Deutsch notices that this position corresponds to the office which “earthly” Joseph is holding in Pharaoh’s court.¹⁰ The wardrobe and the insignia of Joseph’s heavenly counterpart also mirror “earthly” Joseph’s accouterment.¹¹ Thus, the text tells that the celestial man has “the robe and the crown and the royal staff” like Joseph. These peculiar attributes are important since they evoke the memory of the heavenly counterpart found in the Exagoge where the heavenly double transfers a luminous robe, crown, and scepter to the human seer. In is noteworthy that in chapter 18 of Joseph and Aseneth the female seer also receives exactly the same set of the Doppelgänger’s raiment¹² – the luminous robe, the golden crown, and the scepter.¹³

Dale Allison brings attention to some other important parallels between Joseph’s angelic double and earthly Joseph by noting that “each character is in charge of his master’s kingdom (4:7; 14:8; 15:12; 21:21). Each bears the title archon (1:3; 4:7; 14:8; 15:12; 20:9; 21:21). Each appears as a great heavenly light (6:2; 14:2). Each rides a chariot and initially arrives from the east (5:4; 6:1; 17:7). Each, when he appears, causes Aseneth to tremble with fear (6:1; 14:11).”¹⁴

It is apparent that the celestial figure accommodates features of several mediatorial figures already explored in our study. Thus, it has been previously noted that in the portrayal of Joseph’s Doppelgänger one can detect the influence of the Adamic currents, and possibly the tradition of the protoplast’s image, a trend prominent in previously explored accounts of heavenly counterparts. In relation to this Kraemer notes that “the designation of the angelic double of Joseph as Anthropos may point, then, to his association with the primal Adam, who is himself the Image of the Divine and thus probably closely associated, if not to be identified, with the Name-Bearing Angel.”¹⁵

The symbolism of sun and fire used in the description of the heavenly visitor’s appearance evokes also the memory of Enochic mediatorial currents,¹⁶ and more specifically, the angelological developments found in 2 Enoch. Kraemer reflects on these angelological parallels bringing to our attention the descriptions of Enoch’s angelic visitors in 2 Enoch 1:5.¹⁷ There the patriarch’s heavenly guests are portrayed with faces like shining sun and eyes like burning lamps.¹⁸ 3 Enoch 1:6-7 also describes the princes of the Presence, who play a crucial role in the seer’s initiation into his heavenly identity with similar symbolism:

Then I entered the seventh palace and he led me to the camp of the Shekinah and presented me before the throne of glory so that I might behold the chariot. But as soon as the princes of the chariot looked at me and fiery seraphim fixed their gaze on me, I shrank back trembling and fell down, stunned by the radiant appearance of their eyes and the bright vision of their faces….¹⁹

The fiery features of Aseneth’s guest also bring to memory the fiery transformation of the seventh patriarch into the supreme angel Metatron. Scholars previously reflected on the similarities between Aseneth’s celestial visitor and Metatron who, as we remember, often appears in Jewish lore as a celestial double of a human protagonist.²⁰ Thus, Kraemer observes that “a careful examination of the attributes of the angelic double of Joseph demonstrates his affinity with numerous ancient angelic figures, particularly, although by no means exclusively, that of Metatron, a complex figure known from orthodox rabbinic sources as well as from various Hekhalot texts.”²¹ Several scholars have also noticed resemblances between Joseph’s double and the archangel Michael²² who, as one recalls, was responsible for changing Enoch’s garments in 2 Enoch and who is envisioned in some early Jewish and Christian texts as the heavenly double of Melchizedek.

On Earth, Not in Heaven

One can notice that in Joseph and Aseneth, unlike in some previously explored pseudepigraphical accounts, the protagonist’s acquisition of her heavenly identity and her encounter with an angelic being assisting in this process occur not in heaven but on earth. It demonstrates similarity with the aforementioned Christian and Manichaean developments where seers are also initiated not in heaven, but on earth. As one remembers, Mani encounters his celestial Self in earthly realm, and in the heterodox Christian accounts the adepts meet their upper identities in the form of Christ or other otherworldly figures on earth as well. Several factors might be responsible for the diverse ways of encountering a Doppelgänger in different realms.

One of the possible reasons can be connected with the perpetuation of already mentioned ancient trajectories, one of which was associated with the Enochic tradition and another – with the Zadokite theological trend. As one remembers, scholars previously noticed the distinctive attitudes of these two movements towards the reception of divine revelations. In one of them most important disclosures of the deity are given in the earthly abode – on mountains, rivers, or in the desert, while in the lore of the other tradition, the utmost mysteries are conveyed in the upper heaven. Thus, while the adepts of the Zadokite trend were obliged stay on earth, awaiting for the descent of the revealer,²³ the visionaries of the Enochic tradition were forced to bridge the boundaries separating the lower and the upper realms.

In this respect it is intriguing that the most clear instances of the Doppelgänger’s acquisition in heaven occur only in some compositions stemming from the Enochic trend, namely, the Book of the Watchers, the Book of the Similitudes, 2 Enoch, and Sefer Hekhalot.²⁴ Yet, other pseudepigraphical accounts, which are drawing on the memory of the prominent “biblical” visionaries, including Moses and Jacob, appear to be more reluctant in depicting their protagonists openly crossing the realms in the search of their Doppelgängers.

Finally, another important factor for determining peculiar locales for the Doppelgänger’s acquisition in various early Jewish and Christian accounts may be their dissimilar literary forms. Thus, unlike early Enochic works, that belong to the genre of the apocalypse, Joseph and Aseneth falls into a different literary category. In this respect it is noteworthy that clear and unambiguous portrayals of the reception of the upper identity in heaven appears to occurr only in the apocalyptic compositions, like the Book of the Similitudes, 2 Enoch and the Sefer Hekhalot. Yet, in the works of other genres, such as, Exagoge, Jubilees, the Prayer of Joseph, or even the Ladder of Jacob, peculiar markers connecting the seer’s revelation with the earthly realm are not completely abandoned. Thus, for example, in the Mosaic accounts one can see a set of references to the Sinai encounter. In Jacob’s narratives the memories of the specific “earthly” locations, like Bethel, Penuel, or Jabbok, are also explicitly evoked. And although in some of these materials, like for example, Exagoge, Sinai became envisioned as the cosmic mountain, the text still contains a mixture of details pointing to both heavenly and earthly places.

Interaction between the Doppelgänger and the Seer

Some details in the peculiar interactions between the celestial visitor and Aseneth bring to memory the communication between angelic guides and humans in the previously explored heavenly counterpart traditions. The first important detail includes the angel’s actions during the adept’s change of garments.²⁵ Like in other Doppelgänger accounts, in Joseph and Aseneth the heavenly double also appears to be assisting in changing the garment of the initiate.²⁶ Thus, in Joseph and Aseneth 14:12-15 the celestial visitor orders the female adept to remove the defied garments of mourning and dress herself in a new linen robe:²⁷

And the man said to her, “Proceed unhindered into your second chamber and put off your black tunic of mourning, and the sackcloth put off your waist, and shake off those ashes from your head, and wash your face and your hands with living water, ‘and dress in a new linen robe (as yet) untouched’ and distinguished and gird your waist (with) the new twin girdle of your virginity. And come (back) to me, and I will tell you what I have to say.” And Aseneth hurried and went into her second chamber where the chests (containing) her ornaments were, and opened her coffer, and took a new linen robe, distinguished (and as yet) untouched, and undressed the black tunic of mourning and put off the sackcloth from her waist, and dressed in her distinguished (and as yet) untouched linen robe, and girded herself with the twin girdle of her virginity, one girdle around her waist, and another girdle upon her breast.” And she shook off the ashes from her head, and washed her hands and her face with living water. And she took an (as yet) untouched and distinguished linen veil and covered her head.²⁸

Joseph and Aseneth 15:10 further elaborates this portentous change of Aseneth’s wardrobe, hinting at the possibility that her new attire might represent the garments of prelapsarian humanity. The angel’s words imply such a possibility as he utters the following cryptic statement: “And now listen to me, Aseneth, chaste virgin, and dress in your wedding robe, the ancient and first robe which is laid up in your chamber since eternity.”²⁹ Commenting on these metamorphoses of the adept’s attire Ross Kraemer notes that

…as a result of her encounter with the angelic double of Joseph, Aseneth changes her clothing twice. In the first instance, at the angel’s command, she removes the filthy garments of mourning she has worn during her week of penance and replaces them with a “stolēn kainēn athikton” (a new, immaculate robe [14.13]). The remainder of her encounter with the angel takes place while she wears this garment. But in 15.10, the angel instructs her to change into a wedding garment, which she only does after the angel departs back up to the heavens. It is this garment that has associations strikingly similar to those of the bridal garment in Ephrem, for it is not just a bridal robe (stolēn gamou) but ancient and primordial (tēn archaian, tēn protēn).”³⁰

As one remembers, the change of attires in some accounts dealing with the heavenly counterpart traditions coincides with the seer’s anointing. Thus, for example, in 2 Enoch the archangel Michael anoints the seventh antediluvian patriarch with shining oil during the unification with his celestial identity. Although this scene of explicit anointing is absent in Joseph and Aseneth, it is possible that such an event is indeed taking place and that the angel plays some role in the adept’s anointing. It has been noticed that unlike 2 Enoch and some other apocalyptic accounts where the angelic guides literally strip the visionary’s garments and anoint him, in Joseph and Aseneth the heavenly visitor executes his actions verbally by ordering the seer to perform transformative actions.³¹ Kraemer notes that “although the angel never explicitly anoints Aseneth, he announces to her that from this day on, she will ‘eat the bread of life and drink the cup of immortality and be anointed with the ointment of incorruptibility.’”³² She further argues that the angel’s statement envisions “Aseneth’s transformation as involving anointing with a substance that presumably renders Aseneth’s body impervious to the corruption that mortal bodies suffer after death and that appears to confer on her body the same immunity to corruption that angelic bodies by their very nature have.”³³

Another significant detail in the interaction between the celestial visitor and Aseneth which is reminiscent of some other heavenly counterpart traditions is the theme of the angel’s right hand with which he embraces the seer during the initiation. Joseph and Aseneth 16:12-13 reads:

And the man smiled at Aseneth’s understanding, and called her to himself, and stretched out his right hand (τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ τὴν δεξιὰν), and grasped her head and shook her head with his right hand. And Aseneth was afraid of the man’s hand, because sparks shot forth from his hand as from bubbling (melted) iron. And Aseneth looked, gazing with her eyes at the man’s hand.³⁴

Here, like in the accounts of Enoch’s unification with his heavenly double reflected in 2 and 3 Enoch or Moses’s acquisition of the heavenly identity portrayed in the Exagoge, Aseneth’s heavenly guide also embraces her with his right hand. It is not coincidental that immediately after this significant embrace the Anthropos conveys to the seer that she is now initiated in the utmost mysteries of the universe. Thus, from Jos. Asen. 15:13-14 we learn that when Aseneth looked, gazing with her eyes at the man’s hand he saw (it) and with a smile said, “Happy are you, Aseneth, because the ineffable mysteries of the Most High have been revealed to you….”³⁵

During Aseneth’s initiation the heavenly visitor also feeds the adept with the mysterious honeycomb that has been miraculously discovered in the maiden’s storehouse. It is noteworthy that the seer’s nourishment with this heavenly food that grants her transformation is also executed by the right hand of the heavenly visitor. Thus, Jos. Asen. 16:15 relates the following words about this interaction: “And the man stretched out his right hand³⁶ and broke a small portion off the comb, and he himself ate and what was left he put with his hand into Aseneth’s mouth, and said to her, ‘Eat.’ And she ate.”³⁷

Becoming a “Male”

Although it has been previously suggested that Aseneth might acquire her own celestial identity in the form of heavenly figure called “Metanoia” – it is clear that the acquisition of the upper Self in the case of a female adept is not entirely conventional and straightforward like in previous heavenly counterpart traditions. One might say that it represents a novel chapter in the history of the Doppelgänger lore.

One notable feature that can assist us in understanding Aseneth’s novel acquisition of the heavenly double is an arcane statement of her heavenly visitor recorded in chapter 15 of the text where he tells the Egyptian virgin that she can remove the veil from her head because her head is now as a young man (ἡ κεφαλή σού ἐστιν ὡς ἀνδρὸς νεανίσκου).³⁸ Jos. Asen. 15:1-2 reads:

And she went to the man into her first chamber and stood before him. And the man said to her, “Remove the veil from your head, and for what purpose did you do this? For you are a chaste virgin today, and your head is like that of a young man.” And Aseneth removed the veil from her head.³⁹

Before we proceed to a close analysis of this newly acquired “maleness” of Aseneth, several words must be said about the youth imagery found in the passage from chapter 15. There the heavenly visitor tells the female seer that he is not just a man but a young man.⁴⁰ It has been already demonstrated in our study that an endowment with the juvenile identity is not an entire novelty here, but rather a detail which represents a standard feature of many Jewish and Christian accounts in which humans are predestined to encounter their upper Self in the form of a celestial “Youth.”

But how the newly acquired “maleness” of Aseneth is related to the Doppelgänger lore? It is possible that the transition to the identity of a male person signifies here the seer’s acquisition of the heavenly identity. In this respect it is instructive that in some heterodox Christian materials, the heavenly Self or guardian angel of a human being was envisioned as a “male” while its earthly counterpart was understood as a “female.” Peter Brown points out that in these conceptual developments “the spirit of each individual was male to the random, female soul. But even the spirit was female to the dominant guardian angel that hovered, as yet undiscovered, close to it. Redemption took the form of a reunion with that guardian angel … [reestablishing] … the severed link between the conscious person and its angel, a being that stood for the latent, truest self.”⁴¹ One of the specimens of such understanding can be found in Clement of Alexandria’s Excerpta ex Theodoto 21:1, a passage which unveils the following Valentinian tradition:

The Valentinians say that the finest emanation of Wisdom is spoken of in “He created them in the image of God, male and female created he them.” Now the males from this emanation are the “election,” but the females are the “calling” and they call the male: beings angelic, and the females themselves, the superior seed. So also, in the case of Adam, the male remained in him but all the female seed was taken from him and became Eve, from whom the females are derived, as the males are from him. Therefore the males are drawn together with the Logos, but the females, becoming men, are united to the angels and pass into the Pleroma. Therefore the woman is said to be changed into a man, and the church here on earth into angels.⁴²

This understanding is reaffirmed by some heterodox Christian accounts, already mentioned in our study, where the heavenly counterparts of the female characters appeared as “males.”

Nonetheless, the concept of Aseneth’s Doppelgänger in our pseudepigraphon appears to be not as straightforward as in the aforementioned Christian traditions with their tendencies to envision the humans’ upper selves as male figures. As one remembers despite Aseneth’s paradoxal acquisition of a novel male identity, her heavenly alter ego in the form of Metanoia will be clearly envisioned in our pseudepigraphon as a female figure. Yet, it is significant, that unlike with some other heavenly counterpart accounts where embodied alter egos are present at the seers’ initiations, Metanoia herself is markedly absent at the scene of initiation and instead Aseneth receives knowledge about her female upper Self from the mouth of a male Doppelgänger.

The acquisition of paradoxal maleness⁴³ by the female seer also appears to have profound anthropological significance as it might hint at a peculiar concept, according to which the eschatological restoration of fallen humanity will inversely mirror its protological fall. Such understanding relies on some Jewish and Christian traditions in which the division of the primordial androgynous humankind into two genders was understood as the “fall.”⁴⁴ These theories also postulate that in the eschatological time this original androgynous humanity again will be restored and the human being will no longer be divided into a male and a female.⁴⁵ Early Jewish and Christian traditions often understand this process of restoration as inversely mirroring the fall of androgynous humankind. Namely, like in the protological act when Eve was literally taken from Adam, in the eschatological time she will be reversely incorporated into him,⁴⁶ again, thus, becoming the “male.”⁴⁷ Eschatology in such perspective, like in so many early Jewish accounts, is predestined to mirror protology. One of the specimens of such anthropological understanding can be found in logion 114 of the Gospel of Thomas, where Jesus tells Simon Peter that he will make Mary a male:

Simon Peter said to them, “Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.” Jesus said “I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”⁴⁸

Reflecting on this passage April DeConick notes that “Thomas seems to be referring to the Genesis story in Logion 114 where Jesus states that woman must become ‘male’ in order to enter the Kingdom. Since Eve was taken from Adam’s side, so she must reenter him and become ‘male’ in order to return to the prelapsarian state of Adam before the gender division.”⁴⁹ In view of such understanding the female adept’s incorporation into the Anthropos, represented here by Christ, brings her condition into the original protological mold thus reversing the gender separation of fallen humanity.⁵⁰

It appears that in Joseph and Aseneth one can also discern a very similar dynamic of the unification of the female adept with the heavenly Anthropos, who is portrayed in the text as the heavenly double of Joseph. Here the heavenly Joseph and his earthly bride, in the form of Aseneth, are predestined to become a new Adam and a new Eve who will restore humanity to their prelapsarian and possibly even pre-gendered unified state. Ross Kraemer rightly observes that “the divine couple of Joseph and Aseneth restore the damage done by Adam and Eve, affording human beings a means to return to their original angelic state and, indeed, acquiring precisely the immortality that God feared Adam and Eve might acquire had they remained in Eden (Gen 3:22-24).”⁵¹

It is also significant that the unification of the primordial couple here is executed through the process of nourishment overlaid with erotic overtones when Aseneth’s heavenly visitor feeds the seer with a mysterious honeycomb. New Adam thus nourishes the new Eve with the food of angels. I have argued elsewhere that such feeding with the heavenly food must be seen as a redeeming reversal of the nourishment with the forbidden food by which the primordial couple lost its heavenly state.⁵² Thus, Kraemer observes that

Genesis 3.1-5 and following may be read (and, indeed, has been so read) to imply that Eve learned of the forbidden fruit not from God directly but rather from Adam, and therefore, it is Eve’s disobedience to her husband that leads to their shared mortality. By contrast, it is Aseneth’s obedience to the angelic double of her husband, Joseph that obtains immortality for her. And although the masculine figure also eats, thus formally reversing the actions of Adam and Eve, he is already an angelic being, and it is hardly necessary for him to eat angelic food in order to receive immortality.⁵³

We should now explore the account of the seer’s nourishment more closely.

Nourishment on the Heavenly Counterpart

In Joseph and Aseneth the protagonist’s unification with her Doppelgänger is executed in part through the act of nourishment portrayed as her consumption of the mysterious honeycomb offered by the heavenly Anthropos. This constellation of motifs where nourishment coincides with an acquisition of a celestial double appears to be hinted at in some Christian texts as well. Thus, in logion 108 of the Gospel of Thomas Jesus utters the following, saying: “He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he.”⁵⁴

This Thomasine passage is significant since it is reminiscent of a type of nourishment where the angelic food seems to be come from the mouth of the heavenly initiator. It is manifested in Joseph and Aseneth through Aseneth’s repeated affirmations about the provenance of the honeycomb from the mouth of the celestial visitor.⁵⁵ Jos. Asen. 16:8-10, for instance, reads:

And the comb was big and white as snow and full of honey. And that honey was like dew from heaven and its exhalation like breath of life. And Aseneth wondered and said in herself, Did then this comb come out of the man’s mouth, because its exhalation is like the breath of this man’s mouth?⁵⁶

Also, Jos. Asen. 16:11 provides a reference to a similar origin of the angelic food:

And Aseneth was afraid and said, “Lord, I did not have a honeycomb in my storeroom at any time, but you spoke and it came into being. Surely this came out of your mouth, because its exhalation is like breath of your mouth.”⁵⁷

Other scholars suggest that the provenance of the angelic food in Joseph and Aseneth, coming from the mouth of the celestial being, has roots in the biblical manna traditions. Andrea Lieber observes:

[T]he association of the honeycomb with mannah is explicit: it was like dew from heaven, white like snow, containing the breath of life. Indeed the honeycomb, like mannah, is identified with the ‘word’ of the angel—the anthropos spoke and the comb came from his angelic mouth.⁵⁸

In the Book of Deuteronomy, already, the manna tradition has been reformulated in terms of an aural paradigm when the symbolism of heavenly nourishment is juxtaposed with imagery of the word coming from the deity’s mouth. Thus, in Deuteronomy 8:3, we find the following tradition:

He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.⁵⁹

The unusual way of nourishment seems to be closely tied to the nature and the function of Aseneth’s heavenly guide who is portrayed in our text as the Angel of the Name. Thus, Kraemer argues that “it is particularly in the longer text that the angelic figure is more closely aligned with the figure developed in other sources as the Name-Bearing Angel – the virtual double of God.”⁶⁰

It appears that the metamorphosis of the Egyptian maiden is profoundly affected by these means of nourishment. In fact, the text demonstrates that the nature of the female seer was figuratively reconstituted by the ingestion of the divine Name. It is not coincidental, that such transformation is executed aurally, that is to say, from the mouth of the angel of the Name to the mouth of an earthly creature. As we remember the heavenly man, who bears some characteristics of the Angel of the Name, puts the angelic food that originated from his mouth into the mouth of the female seer.

If in Joseph and Aseneth the human seer is indeed transformed by means of her ingestion of the divine Name, such initiatory practice points to an important ancient trajectory. Other scholars have noted, for example, that Aseneth’s partaking of the celestial food is reminiscent of certain ritual practices, through which cultic images are given life by placing the divine Name in their mouths.⁶¹ These rituals are rooted in ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian⁶² animation ceremonies of cultic statues known as the rite of the “washing of the mouth” (mīs pî) and the “opening of the mouth” (pīt pî). ⁶³ Some scholars have argued that these trends exercised a formative influence on some later Hermetic⁶⁴ traditions and Kabbalistic stories about the creation of the artificial humanoid.⁶⁵

Returning to the pseudepigraphical account about Joseph and Aseneth, we see that the peculiar metamorphosis effected through the mouth of the celestial being is replete with protological symbolism. These transformational accounts appear to replicate, here, the paradigmatic event of the creation of humankind when the spirit of life was blown from the mouth of the deity into the mouth of the lifeless human body molded from the dust of the earth.⁶⁶ Such protological connections appear to be very strong in Joseph and Aseneth where the angelic food, the honeycomb, is compared with the spirit of life. Through the ingestion of the divine Name, then, the protagonist of Joseph and Aseneth becomes a “new Protoplast,” returning to the prelapsarian condition of humanity.⁶⁷ Such “vivifications” of the seers bring to mind later Jewish Golem legends in which the lifeless body of the artificial humanoid becomes alive when God’s name is inserted into his mouth.⁶⁸

The Hypostasized Name as the Heavenly Counterpart of the Visionary

The depiction of the heavenly counterpart of Joseph as the Angel of the Name might not be merely accidental but instead reveal a deliberate conceptual tendency inside the Doppelgänger lore. The Anthropos’ peculiar nourishing routines that evoke a memory of the heavenly manna, a motif which closely connected in various biblical passages with the Angel of the Lord imagery, offers an additional support for the likely association of the heavenly visitor with the divine Name in Joseph and Aseneth. In view of a possible connection between Joseph’s Doppelgänger and the Tetragrammaton we should explore if other heavenly counterpart’s trends, tied to other exalted patriarchs and prophets, likewise attempt to portray their seers’ upper identities as the possessors or even the embodiments of the divine Name.

Jacob’s Identification with the Divine Name

It is important for our study that in early Jewish materials the divine Name became envisioned as a hypostasis or even as a celestial figure. Scholars previously noted that already in some biblical accounts the divine Name became an instrument through which God was acting in the world and it appears as the independent subject of His action.⁶⁹ In this respect the figure of the Angel of the Lord, or the Angel of YHWH, became an important conceptual nexus of the onomalogical ideology that exercised its lasting influence on later pseudepigraphical materials. We already noticed the influence of the divine Name’s angelic manifestation and his peculiar offices in the depiction of Aseneth’s heavenly visitor. It also appears that Jacob’s pseudepigrapha might not escaped the influences of the Angel of the Lord traditions. The impact of these conceptual currents might be implicitly present in the Prayer of Joseph. There, as one remembers, Jacob-Israel, while arguing with the archangel Uriel about his superior heavenly status, utters the following cryptic statement:

I told him his name and what rank he held among the sons of God. “Are you not Uriel, the eighth after me? And I, Israel, the archangel of the power of the Lord and the chief captain among the sons of God? Am I not Israel, the first minister before the face of God? And I called upon my God by the inextinguishable name (καὶ ἐπεκαλεσάμην ἐν ὀνόματι ἀσβέστῳ τὸν θεόν μου).”⁷⁰

An important feature of this account is that Jacob-Israel is portrayed as the first minister before the deity’s face who calls upon God by his inextinguishable Name. This peculiar routine is reminiscent of the duties of another distinguished Sar ha-Panim – Metatron, who because of his unique role as the Lesser YHWH, is often portrayed as invoking the Tetragrammaton during the heavenly liturgy.⁷¹ In view of these connections, scholars entertained possibility that in the Prayer of Joseph Jacob-Israel might be envisioned not merely as a possessor of the divine Name, but even as its embodiment – the Angel of YHWH. Thus, reflecting on the text’s onomanological traditions, Fossum observes that in the Prayer of Joseph …

…we find a pre-existent angel called “Jacob” and “Israel,” who claims superiority over the angel Uriel on the basis of his victory in personal combat where he availed himself of the Divine Name. The angelic name “Israel,” explained as l) h)r #y), is among the names of the many-named intermediary in Philo’s works,⁷² and, in one of the passages where Philo presents this name as one of the designations of the intermediacy, he also says that the “Name of God” is among the appellations of this being.⁷³

Fossum further suggests that in some Jewish and Christian circles “Israel” apparently was one of names of the Angel of the Lord. He notes that Justin Martyr was possibly cognizant of such identification when he mentions the name “Israel” as one of the names of the Son as he appeared under the old dispensation.⁷⁴ Fossum also notes that another passage from Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho 75:2⁷⁵ identifies the Angel of the Lord in Exod 23:20 as Jesus, and mentions that he was also called “Israel” as he bestowed this name on Jacob.⁷⁶

Likewise, analyzing the divine Name traditions in the Prayer of Joseph, Alan Segal argues that “here it is an archangel of the power of the people of God who is called Israel and is also identified with the patriarch Jacob. He was created before all the works of creation and claims ascendancy over Uriel on the basis of his victory in personal combat by which he ostensibly possesses the divine name.”⁷⁷ In light of Fossum’s and Segal’s suggestions Charles Gieschen proposes that the evidence found in the Prayer “leads to the conclusion that this angel was understood to be the Angel of the Lord and more specifically the Divine Name Angel of Exod 23:20.”⁷⁸

Metatron’s Identification with the Divine Name

We already learned in our study that Enoch’s celestial alter ego, the supreme angel Metatron, was often depicted in the Hekhalot and Shi^cur Qomah materials as a very distinguished operator or even as the embodiment of the divine Name, the office which is briefly and accurately summed up in his striking title N+qh hwhy, the Lesser YHWH. This designation occurs with abbreviations several times in Sefer Hekhalot, including passages found in 3 Enoch 12:2; 48C:7;⁷⁹ and 48D:1. Thus, 3 Enoch 12-13 offers the following revelation of the great angel:

R. Ishmael said: Metatron, Prince of the Divine Presence, said to me: Out of the love which he had for me, more than for all the denizens of the heights, the Holy One, blessed be he, fashioned for me a majestic robe, in which all kinds of luminaries were set, and he clothed me in it. He fashioned for me a glorious cloak in which brightness, brilliance, splendor, and luster of every kind were fixed, and he wrapped me in it. He fashioned for me a kingly crown in which refulgent stones were placed, each like the sun’s orb, and its brilliance shone into the four quarters of the heaven of ^c Arabot, into the seven heavens, and into the four quarters of the world. He set it upon my head and he called me, the lesser YHWH (N+qh ywy) in the presence of his whole household in the height as it is written, “My name is in him.” R. Ishmael said: The angel Metatron, Prince of the Divine Presence, the glory of highest heaven, said to me: Out of the abundant love and great compassion wherewith the Holy One, blessed be he, loved and cherished me more than all the denizens of the heights, he wrote with his finger, as with a pen of flame, upon the crown which was on my head, the letters by which heaven and earth were created; the letters by which seas and rivers were created; the letters by which mountains and hills were created; the letters by which stars and constellations, lightning hurricane and tempest were created; the letters by which all the necessities of the world and all the orders of creation were created. Each letter flashed time after time like lightnings, time after time like torches, time after time like flames, time after time like the rising of the sun, moon, and stars.⁸⁰

As some other Jewish accounts this passage attempts to connect Metatron’s duties as the bearer of the divine Name with the biblical figure of the Angel of the Lord through the invocation of the prominent phrase “My name is in him” applied to the Angel of YHWH in Exod 23:21.

In 3 Enoch 48D:1 Metatron’s name “lesser YHWH” is also mentioned, again with an allusion to Exod 23:21, this time however among the seventy names of Metatron.⁸¹ Jarl Fossum suggests that the references to the seventy names of Metatron might indirectly point to the function of the exalted angel as the bearer of the “ultimate” Name of God, since these seventy names might just represent various aspects of God’s “main” Name. Elucidating such connection Fossum points to 3 Enoch 3:2, where Metatron tells R. Ishmael that his seventy names “are based on the name of the King of kings of kings,” and to 3 Enoch 48D:5 which informs that “these seventy names are a reflection of the Explicit Name upon the Merkavah which is engraved upon the Throne of Glory.”⁸² Fossum suggests that these seventy names originally belonged to God himself and only later were transferred to Metatron.⁸³

It is also important for our study that in some Jewish mystical accounts the exalted agents endowed with the divine Name are often put in charge of the celestial alter egos. It has been already mentioned in our study that in rabbinic literature Metatron has been often envisioned as such an entity who is put in charge of “heavenly identities” of human beings.⁸⁴

Michael’s Identification with the Divine Name

Our study already demonstrated the important role which Michael plays in the Doppelgänger legends where he often serves as the celestial double of various protological characters, including Melchizedek and Isaac. For our ongoing investigation it is important that in some early Jewish materials this angelic figure is closely associated with divine Name.⁸⁵ For example, the Book of the Similitudes portrays the archangel Michael as the possessor of the divine Name. 1 Enoch 69:13-15 reads:

And this is the task of Kesbeel, the chief of the oath, who showed (the oath) to the holy ones when he dwelt on high in glory, and its name (is) Beqa. And this one told the holy Michael that he should show him the secret name, that they might mention it in the oath, so that those who showed the sons of men everything which is secret trembled before that name and oath. And this (is) the power of this oath, for it is powerful and strong; and he placed this oath Akae in the charge of the holy Michael.⁸⁶

Although the aforementioned passage does not directly designate the mysterious oath as the Tetragrammaton, the verses that follow it affirm the connections between the oath and the divine Name. From 1 Enoch 69:16-20 we learn the following about the powers of the oath:

And these are the secrets of this oath and they are strong through his oath, and heaven was suspended before the world was created and for ever. And through it the earth was founded upon the water, and from the hidden (recesses) of the mountains come beautiful waters from the creation of the world and for ever. And through that oath the sea was created, and as its foundation, for the time of anger, he placed for it the sand, and it does not go beyond (it) from the creation of the world and for ever. And through that oath the deeps were made firm, and they stand and do not move from their place from (the creation of) the world and forever. And through that oath the sun and the moon complete their course and do not transgress their command from (the creation of) the world and for ever.⁸⁷

Here the oath is described as an instrument of creation with which the deity once fashioned the heaven and earth.⁸⁸ It is noteworthy that in other parts of the Book of the Similitudes, namely, in 1 Enoch 41, this demiurgic oath⁸⁹ is used interchangeably with the divine Name.⁹⁰ Later rabbinic accounts deliberate extensively on the demiurgic functions of the Tetragrammaton⁹¹ and its letters,⁹² often interpreting them as the instruments through which the world came into existence.⁹³ These traditions often construe God’s command yhy at the creation of the world as an abbreviation of the divine Name.⁹⁴ In view of these traditions Darrell Hannah observes that “it seems safe to conclude that this passage indicates that Michael was viewed by the author of the Similitudes as the angel of the Name, for into the ‘hand of Michael’ the secret of the oath, that is the Divine Name, had been entrusted.”⁹⁵

Moses’ Investiture with the divine Name

Although the story of Moses’ reception of the divine Name⁹⁶ was attested already in the biblical accounts, the later Jewish and Samaritan traditions attempt to further elevate this portentous event by depicting it as the prophet’s investiture with the Name.⁹⁷

Since we already learned that, in some heavenly counterpart accounts, the reception of the garment is often envisioned as an acquisition of the upper identity, the motif of Moses’ investiture with the Name should be explored more closely. The theme of the prophet’s clothing with the divine Name received its most extensive elaboration in the Samaritan materials, including the compilation, known to us as Memar Marqah.⁹⁸ Thus, from very first chapter of this document one learns that the deity himself announced to the great prophet that he will be vested with the divine Name.⁹⁹ Several other passages of Memar Marqah further affirm this striking clothing metaphor.¹⁰⁰

It is significant that the investiture with the Tetragrammaton in the Samaritan materials, similar to the Metatron lore, entails a ritual of “crowning” with the divine Name.¹⁰¹ Thus, Memar Marqah 1:9 unveils the following actions of the deity:

On the first day I created heaven and earth; on the second day I spread out the firmament on high; on the third day I prepared a dish and gathered into it all kinds of good things; on the fourth day I established signs, fixing times, completing my greatness; on the fifth day I revealed many marvels from the waters; on the sixth day I caused to come up out of the ground various living creatures; on the seventh day I perfected holiness. I rested in it in my own glory. I made it my special portion. I was glorious in it. I established your name then also—my name and yours therein as one, for I established it and you are crowned with it.¹⁰²

From this passage we learn that the endowment of Moses with a crown, like the already mentioned crowning of Metatron, is surrounded with a peculiar set of creational imagery when the letters on both headdresses are depicted as demiurgic tools by means of which heaven and earth came into existence. As one remembers, 3 Enoch 13 tells that the deity wrote with his finger, as with a pen of flame, upon Metatron’s crown the letters by which heaven and earth were created. Such crowning with the demiurgic instruments, represented by the letters of the divine Name, gives its recipients power to understand the utmost mysteries of creation or even to control the entire creation.

In light of this imagery, it is possible that the motif of the investiture with the divine Name might be also present in another Mosaic account – the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian. As one remembers, there Moses receives the mysterious crown. Immediately after its reception, he is suddenly able to permeate the secrets of creation and even control the created order. As we recall Exagoge 75-80 relates the following: “Then he gave me a royal crown and got up from the throne. I beheld the whole earth all around and saw beneath the earth and above the heavens. A multitude of stars fell before my knees and I counted them all.”¹⁰³ Here, crowned, Moses suddenly has immediate access to all created realms, “beneath the earth and above the heaven,” and the stars are now kneeling before a newly initiated demiurgic agent. Although the divine Name is not mentioned in this Mosaic narrative, it is possible that in view of other peculiar features, the seer’s encounter with his Doppelgänger coincides here with this endowment of the divine Name.

It is also important that in some Samaritan sources, Moses’ clothing with the Name is often put in parallel with Adam’s endowment with the image. Thus, Fossum suggests¹⁰⁴ that in Memar Marqah, Moses’ investiture with the Name appears to be also understood as vestment with the image.¹⁰⁵ Such a confluence of already familiar motifs once again points to the possibility that the hypostasized Name might be envisioned as the heavenly Self in ways similar to how the image is portrayed as Jacob’s Doppelgänger in the rabbinic lore.

Jesus’ Clothing with the Divine Name

In their analysis of Jewish onomanological traditions, Fossum and Quispel also draw attention to another important case of the investiture with the Name, present in early Christian heterodox materials, where Jesus’s clothing with the divine Name in his baptism was understood as an acquisition of his upper identity.¹⁰⁶ They suggest that the Gospel of Philip from the Nag Hammadi library postulates that the Son “vested” himself with the Name of the Father.¹⁰⁷ Gos. Phil. 54:5-13 (NHC II, 3, 54:5-13) reads:

One single name is not uttered in the world, the name which the father gave to the son; it is the name above all things: the name of the father. For the son would not become father unless he wore the name of the father. Those who have this name know it, but they do not speak it. But those who do not have it do not know it.¹⁰⁸

Analyzing this and similar Valentinian traditions Gilles Quispel proposed that Jesus’ investiture with the Name of God might have occurred at the time of his baptism in the Jordan, “for the Valentinians thought that at that moment the Name of God descended upon Jesus ….”¹⁰⁹ This association between the investiture with the Name and the baptism in the Jordan is significant since this event is often interpreted as pertaining to the revelation of Jesus’ upper Self.

It is also significant that in some Christian traditions baptism of the believers was often associated both with the acquisition of the guardian angel and reception of the divine Name. Thus, a passage from Clement of Alexandria’s Excerpta ex Theodoto 22.5¹¹⁰ details the following baptismal tradition:

And when the Apostle said, “Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead?” … For, he says, the angels of whom we are portions were baptized for us. But we are dead, who are deadened by this existence, but the males are alive who did not participate in this existence. “If the dead rise not why, then, are we baptized?” Therefore we are raised up “equal to angels,” and restored to unity with the males, member for member. Now they say “those who are baptized for us, the dead,” are the angels who are baptized for us, in order that when we, too, have the Name, we may not be hindered and kept back by the Limit and the Cross from entering the Pleroma. Wherefore, at the laying on of hands they say at the end, “for the angelic redemption” that is, for the one which the angels also have, in order that the person who has received the redemption may be baptized in the same Name in which his angel had been baptized before him. Now the angels were baptized in the beginning, in the redemption of the Name which descended upon Jesus in the dove and redeemed him. And redemption was necessary even for Jesus, in order that, approaching through Wisdom, he might not be detained by the Notion of the Deficiency in which he was inserted, as Theodotus says.¹¹¹

This passage tells that the Christians who imitate Jesus’ baptism at the Jordan by their own immersions are predestined to obtain both the divine Name and guardian angel. This striking constellation of the concepts of the heavenly double and the divine Name again reaffirms the possibility that in some Jewish and Christian circles the divine Name was closely associated with the adept’s heavenly identity.

The Ritual of the Bridal Chamber

After our excursus into the divine Name traditions we should now return to Joseph and Aseneth. The striking intimate routines, overlaid with erotic overtones, which occured during the initiation of the seer by her angelic visitor, bring us to another important symbolic dimension of Aseneth’s metamorphosis – the concept of the bridal chamber.¹¹² It is significant that Aseneth’s conversion and transformation unfold in the midst of her preparation to become Joseph’s bride.¹¹³ And yet, while the marriage between the Jewish patriarch and the Egyptian maiden is not yet consummated¹¹⁴ – the interaction between Aseneth and Joseph’s heavenly double is laden with the peculiar actions usually allowed to take place between married partners. Thus, the heavenly Anthropos orders the female seer to be undressed and redressed, grasps her head with his hand, speaks about her anointment,¹¹⁵ removes her veil, and later places the food from his mouth into the seer’s mouth. It is also significant that the celestial Anthropos, in his own words, is in love with Aseneth’s heavenly counterpart – Metanoia. All these actions of the angelic visitor suggest that although the physical consummation between Aseneth and Joseph has not yet taken place, the spiritual counterpart of such consummation might be already unfolding in the form of the heavenly union between the female seer and Joseph’s heavenly counterpart.¹¹⁶ It is therefore possible that here the earthly person and the heavenly being are forming a so-called “syzygia, the mysterium conjunctionis between a [human being] and his [or her] angel or transcendental Self.”¹¹⁷ Although the concept of the bridal chamber has been preserved in its most articulated form in early heterodox Christian materials, Joseph and Aseneth provides a possible proof that the origins of this concept might be rooted in early Jewish accounts.

It is important for our study that in early Christian testimonies dealing with the bridal chamber’s imagery one of the members of the syzygia is often envisioned as a heavenly double of a human being. Thus, analyzing the Valentinian notion of the syzygia or the mysterium conjunctionis between a human being and his angel, Gilles Quispel suggested that this angel was “conceived as image and counterpart (iqonin) both in Judaism and primitive Christianity.”¹¹⁸

The presence of the bridal chamber imagery in Joseph and Aseneth has been previously acknowledged by several scholars.¹¹⁹ Ross Kramer also notices some connections between Aseneth’s transformation into a “male” and the bridal chamber imagery found in the Acts of Thomas.¹²⁰ She observes that

…in this same vein, we might also consider a narrative in the Acts of Thomas concerning a newly married young royal couple. The night of their wedding, Jesus, in the form of his twin brother, the apostle Judas Thomas, appears in their bridal chamber before they can consummate the marriage and dissuades them from doing so, persuading them instead to adopt permanent chastity. The next morning, the bride is found sitting uncovered. Her mother, seeing her this way, asks why she sits with her husband, unashamed, as though long-married, an inquiry seconded by her father. The bride responds: “That I do not veil myself is because the mirror of shame has been taken away from me: I am no longer ashamed or abashed, since the work of shame and bashfulness has been removed from me.”¹²¹

Kraemer further argues that “here, as in Aseneth 15.1, where the angelic figure instructs Aseneth to remove her head covering, sexuality and covering are clearly linked; the unveiled woman is ‘asexual.’”¹²² It is also noteworthy that in both accounts the female seer’s anthropological metamorphosis coincides with the apparition of the Doppelgänger. This union between the heavenly and the earthly is laden therefore with profound changes in the nature and social behavior of the initiated.

Although our analysis of the bridal chamber traditions has been mainly executed through the spectacles of later heterodox Christian developments, it is significant that the authors or transmitters of the text themselves were applying this technical terminology to the conceptual developments found in the text. Thus, some manuscripts of the shorter version¹²³ specifically mention that Aseneth’s heavenly counterpart, Metanoia, has prepared a heavenly bridal chamber (νυμφῶνα οὐράνιον)¹²⁴ for those who love her.¹²⁵ It again demonstrates that in the minds of the authors (or handlers) of the text, the details of Aseneth’s transformation and the acquisition of her heavenly identity were closely associated with the imagery of the bridal chamber.

Heavenly Counterpart of Aseneth

Aseneth’s figure can be viewed as a very complex and enigmatic nexus of heavenly counterpart traditions. As has been already noticed, her attributes mimic both descriptions of the earthly Joseph and his heavenly double. So her heavenly identity is closely tied to the heavenly identity of Joseph with whom she forms the mysterium conjunctionis.

Yet, this complex web of conceptual developments in which the female seer is identified with the upper correlative of Joseph become even more complicated through the imagery of Aseneth’s own heavenly counterpart in the form of Metanoia.

Scholars previously noted that Joseph and Aseneth’s account offers a unique constellation of the heavenly counterpart motifs since not only is the initiating angel portrayed as the heavenly alter ego of Joseph, but further in the narration Aseneth herself, in the course of initiation, receives knowledge about her own Doppelgänger under the name of Repentance (Μετάνοια). In Jos. Asen. 15:7-8 the heavenly Anthropos relates to the seer the following disclosure:

And your name shall no longer be called Aseneth, but your name shall be City of Refuge, because in you many nations will take refuge with the Lord God, the Most High, and under your wings many peoples trusting in the Lord God will be sheltered, and behind your walls will be guarded those who attach themselves to the Most High God in the name of Repentance. For Repentance is in the heavens, an exceedingly beautiful and good daughter of the Most High. And she herself entreats the Most High God for you at all times and for all who repent in the name of the Most High God, because he is (the) father of Repentance. And she herself is guardian of all virgins, and loves you very much, and is beseeching the Most High for you at all times and for all who repent she prepared a place of rest in the heavens. And she will renew all who repent, and wait on them herself for ever (and) ever. And Repentance is exceedingly beautiful, a virgin pure and laughing always, and she is gentle and meek. And, therefore, the Most High Father loves her, and all the angels stand in awe of her. And I, too, love her exceedingly, because she is also my sister. And because she loves you virgins, I love you, too.¹²⁶

In respect to this conceptual development Ross Kraemer observes that as the angel is the celestial double of Joseph, so Aseneth also has a celestial alter ego named Metanoia. The uniqueness of this pseudepigraphical account in comparison with previously explored materials is that here one celestial double conveys to the seer the revelation about the second one. It is also intriguing that the Anthropos and Metanoia are envisioned as siblings, since the Heavenly Man tells Aseneth that Metanoia is his sister. Such relationships mirror a paradoxal bond between earthly Joseph and Aseneth who are repeatedly identified in the text as brother and sister.¹²⁷

Kraemer draws her attention to the differences in features and functions of Aseneth’s heavenly double in longer and shorter versions.¹²⁸ Thus, in her opinion, the longer version revises “the portrait of Metanoia to conform to Wisdom¹²⁹ traditions more closely.”¹³⁰ The identification of Aseneth’s Doppelgänger with the mediatorial figure of the hypostasized Sophia is not coincidental. Our study has already demonstrated that various mediatorial figures become envisioned as the divine mirrors, in whom human adepts are predestined to encounter their own upper identities. Such a function of the hypostasized Sophia as a mirror of the deity is already hinted in early descriptions of this important mediatorial figure. Thus, from Wis 7:25-26 one learns that “she [Wisdom] is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror (ἔσοπτρον ἀκηλίδωτον) of the working of God, and an image (εἰκὼν) of his goodness.” This striking passage can serve as a good illustration of the Doppelgänger’s proclivities of this distinguished sapiential mediator, since Wisdom here is portrayed not only as the mirror (ἔσοπτρον) of God, but also as His image (εἰκὼν) – the concept which, as we already witnessed, became so important in several heavenly counterpart accounts where the celestial image became synonymous with the adept’s upper Self.¹³¹

Kraemer notes that the figure of Aseneth’s heavenly double in fact is much more enigmatic than the persona of Joseph’s heavenly identity since ancient Jewish sources very rarely envision an explicitly female angel in the heavenly cosmology.¹³²

It is also intriguing that some functions of Aseneth’s celestial alter ego in the form of Metanoia appear to be reminiscent of the roles of another prominent heavenly counterpart, already explored in this study, namely, Metatron. Thus, Kraemer notes that both characters share certain attributes and features, namely, “both are intercessory figures, mediating between the human and the divine.¹³³ Both are described as exceedingly beautiful.”¹³⁴

Kraemer also draws attention to one of Metatron’s titles, “Beloved,”¹³⁵ which is closely connected with the title of the seventh antediluvian hero, who already in Mesopotamian lore became designated as “the beloved of gods.”¹³⁶ In respect to these traditions Kramer suggests that “just as Metanoia is beloved by God in heaven (and in the longer version, by the angel as well), so also Metatron is said in some texts to be much loved in heaven.”¹³⁷

It is also noteworthy that in the case of Aseneth-Metanoia the functions of the heavenly and earthly identity appear to be strictly delineated in such a way that might point to the simultaneous existence of Aseneth and her heavenly double in their respective realms – the condition that has been already noted in other mediatorial currents connected with the heavenly counterpart lore. Thus, Kraemer notes that “on earth, Aseneth will henceforth shelter those who devote themselves to God through repentance [metanoia], while in heaven, Metanoia herself continually petitions God on behalf of all those who repent.”¹³⁸

Celia Deutsch also reflects on these similar, but yet delineated, functions of the seer’s celestial and earthly counterparts. She observes that in her new identity, Aseneth becomes a heavenly/earthly being. She will assume a role correspondent to that of the angel Repentance or Metanoia, exercising a corresponding earthly role on behalf of all those who repent.¹³⁹

Deutsch also brings attention to Aseneth’s heavenly counterpart’s endowment with scribal duties, the office which we already encountered in various Doppelgänger accounts. Deutsch observes that Aseneth “is transformed in Lady Wisdom’s image…. The association with personified Wisdom indicates that her new role will also have a scribal element, something that will be confirmed by her association with Levi as the narrative progresses.”¹⁴⁰

Like in the case of Joseph’s heavenly correlative who emulates the features and attributes of the earthly Joseph, Aseneth’s heavenly counterpart bears some traits of the earthly protagonist. In this respect Kraemer notes that to the extent that Metanoia is Aseneth’s divine double, Metanoia’s traits are also those of Aseneth. She also notes that these common attributes are expanded and given more explicit expression in the longer text.¹⁴¹

Transformation in the Mirror

After Aseneth’s interaction with the celestial visitor, an encounter laden with profound anthropological and spiritual metamorphoses, the story unveils another striking account of transformation, this time involving changes of Aseneth’s face. Joseph and Aseneth 18:3-11 offers the following description:

And her foster-father saw her, and behold, her face had fallen from the affliction and the weeping and the fasting of the seven days, and he was distressed and wept, and he took her right hand and kissed it and said, “What have you, my child, because your face has fallen so (much)?” And Aseneth said to him, “My head is stricken with heavy pain, and the sleep kept away from my eyes and therefore my face has fallen.” And her foster-father went away and prepared the house and the dinner … And Aseneth remembered the words of her foster-father, because he had said to her, “Your face has fallen.” And she sighed and was much distressed and said, “Woe is me, the humble, because my face has fallen. Joseph will see me and despise me.” And she said to her foster-sister, “Bring me pure water from the spring, and I will wash my face.” And she brought her pure water from the spring and poured it into the basin. And Aseneth leaned (over) to wash her face and saw her face in the water. And it was like the sun and her eyes (were) like a rising morning star, and her cheeks like fields of the Most High and on her cheeks (there was) red (color) like a son of man’s blood and her lips (were) like a rose of life’ coming out of its foliage, and her teeth like fighting men lined up for a fight and the hair of her head (was) like a vine in the paradise of God prospering in its fruits and her neck like an all-variegated cypress, and her breasts (were) like the mountains of the Most High God. And when Aseneth saw herself in the water, she was amazed at the sight and rejoiced with great joy, and did not wash her face, for she said, “Perhaps I (will) wash off this great beauty.” And her foster-father came to say to her, “Everything is prepared as you have commanded.” And when he saw her he was alarmed and stood speechless for a long (time) and was filled with great fear and fell at her feet and said, “What is this, my mistress, and what is this great and wonderful beauty? At last the Lord God of heaven has chosen you as a bride for his firstborn son, Joseph?”¹⁴²

This portentous motif of the seer’s transformation in the watery mirror deserves our close attention since it brings to memory some familiar themes already encountered in our analysis of the heavenly counterpart traditions in the Enochic, Mosaic, and Jacobite lore.

The important feature of the narrative is the tropheus’ statements, manifested at the beginning and at the end of the account. These reactions attempt to draw attention to the pivotal theme of the passage, namely, the striking metamorphosis of Aseneth’s face.¹⁴³ We learn that in the beginning the tropheus unimpressed with Aseneth’s appearance and notices that Aseneth’s face “has fallen.” Yet, at the end of the narrative when he sees her again after she gazed into the mirror of the “pure water,”¹⁴⁴ he is speechless, filled with fear and fell at her feet.¹⁴⁵ Such a peculiar set of human reactions is reminiscent of the Jewish theophanic accounts in which human visionaries encounter angelic and divine manifestations, including the anthropomorphic Kavod, often labelled in these accounts as the “Face.” Moreover, as has been previously noted, the tropheus’ response mirrors Aseneth’s own earlier reaction to her celestial visitor.¹⁴⁶ It is clear that the vision of the “face” in the water dramatically altered the maiden’s countenance.¹⁴⁷ Reflecting on this dramatic change, Christoph Burchard suggested that “she comes close to being an angelic creature.”¹⁴⁸

Philonenko, Burchard, and some other scholars tried to link the motif of Aseneth’s vision in the water to the magical rites, which flourished in the Greco-Roman environment, seeing in this peculiar action of gazing into water a lecanomancy ritual.¹⁴⁹ While connections with Hellenistic magic were duly acknowledged in previous studies, possible ties to some Jewish mystical accounts of theophanic encounters through water have often been forgotten in these attempts to clarify the background of Aseneth’s metamorphosis. Yet, previously some scholars drew attention to the importance of the water rituals in Merkavah and Hekhalot mysticism.¹⁵⁰ In light of the aforementioned parallels between Joseph and Aseneth and the Merkavah tradition these motifs should be explored more closely.

Martti Nissinen argued that “in the Hekhalot literature, water not only appears as a ritual precondition for divine revelation, but also as the site where revelation takes place, and, most notably, as a medium for inducing the altered state of consciousness.”¹⁵¹ Moreover, in the Hekhalot accounts the vision of water or its “likeness” often serves as a test for a visionary when the adept enters the sixth celestial palace.¹⁵²

The possibility of theophanic vision in the water might be already present in the earliest formative account of the Merkavah lore – the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel. Thus, some Jewish mystical accounts attempt to interpret Ezekiel’s revelation as a vision received in the mirror of waters, namely, the waters of the river Chebar.¹⁵³ In one such mystical interpretation, reflected in the text known to us as the Visions of Ezekiel the following striking explanation can be found:

While Ezekiel was watching, God opened to him seven firmaments, and he saw the Power. They coined a parable. To what may the matter be likened? To a man who went to a barber shop, got a haircut, and was given a mirror to look into. While he was looking into the mirror, the king passed by. He saw the king and his forces through the doorway. The barber turned and said to him, “Turn around and see the king.” He said, “I have already seen the mirror.” So Ezekiel stood by the river Chebar and looked into the water, and the seven firmaments were opened to him and he saw God’s glory, and the hayyot, angels, troops, seraphim, and sparkling-winged ones joined to the merkavah. They passed by in the heavens and Ezekiel saw them in the water. So it is written: At the river Chebar (Ezek 1:1).¹⁵⁴

Reflecting on this passage David Halperin observes that “looking into the river Chebar, Ezekiel sees the primordial waters, and the Hayyot and other merkavah beings in them (understood to mean, reflected in them).”¹⁵⁵ Some scholars argue that such a practice of seeing the Kavod in bodies of water possibly became a mystical ritual, known to Jewish apocalypticists and mystics. Thus, Halperin argues that the passage from the Visions of Ezekiel is

…a reflection of the actual practice of early Jewish visionaries, who used natural bodies of water as mirrors in which they could see supernatural beings appear in the sky. Water-divination of this sort, using a vessel filled with water (often with oil added) as a mirror in which the medium can see divine images, seems to have been common enough in the ancient world.¹⁵⁶

Halperin argued that such a ritual allowed a mystic to bridge realms since “when the merkavah appears in the waters, the upper realms are merged into the lower.”¹⁵⁷

It is noteworthy that Leviticus Rabbah 1:14¹⁵⁸ and Zohar II.82b¹⁵⁹ make a connection between the revelation on the river Chebar and Moses’ vision of the Kavod reflected in a mirror. In this study we encountered a very similar development in the Mosaic currents with their extensive application of the mirror’s imagery in relation to the heavenly identities of human seers. It is not coincidental that this theme also appears in Joseph and Aseneth where the heavenly counterpart traditions come to their conceptual apex.

Let us look more closely at some peculiar details of Aseneth’s vision in water. One intriguing feature of Jos. Asen. 18 is that the seer’s visage is first depicted as “fallen”¹⁶⁰ and then as luminous.¹⁶¹ It appears that such a transition might entail an anthropological significance. It brings to memory two conditions of the Protoplast – the radiant one before the transgression in the Garden of Eden and the dimmed one – afterwards. Here Aseneth appears to undergo a reverse metamorphosis which restores the human condition to the prelapsarian state by regaining the full manifestation of the divine image. In this respect it is intriguing that Aseneth’s reflection in the water is portrayed not merely as her “face” but rather as her “bust”¹⁶² (with her neck and breasts) which brings to memory a peculiar symbolism found in the Ladder of Jacob where such “bust” signifies Jacob’s iqonin.

In light of the aforementioned Enochic, Mosaic, and Jacob’s accounts, where the panim and the tselem imagery is often closely interrelated and even interchangeable, it is possible that in Joseph and Aseneth the portrayal of Aseneth’s “face” / “bust” is connected with the concept of the divine image.¹⁶³ If it is indeed so, the praxis of the eschatological restoration of the divine image through gazing into water evokes a memory of Jewish and Christian protological accounts where the mediators of the divine image are portrayed as gazing into the water. Thus, for example, in Corp. Herm. 1:14 the primordial Anthropos, who is understood in this text as the embodiment of the divine image¹⁶⁴ (τὴν τοῡ πατρὸς εἰκόνα ἔχων),¹⁶⁵ is portrayed as staring into the water, giving existence to its lower material counterpart:

Having all authority over the cosmos of mortals and unreasoning animals, the man broke through the vault and stooped to look through the cosmic framework, thus displaying to lower nature the fair form of god. Nature smiled for love when she saw him whose fairness brings no surfeit (and) who holds in himself all the energy of the governors and the form of god, for in the water she saw the shape of the man’s fairest form and upon the earth its shadow. When the man saw in the water the form like himself as it was in nature, he loved it and wished to inhabit it; wish and action came in the same moment, and he inhabited the unreasoning form. Nature took hold of her beloved, hugged him all about and embraced him, for they were lovers.¹⁶⁶

It is intriguing that the very next verse of the Corpus Hermeticum (1:15) appears to postulate the existence of the human being’s Doppelgänger based on this pivotal primordial act of looking into the water: “Because of this, unlike any other living thing on earth, mankind is twofold – in the body mortal but immortal in the essential man.”¹⁶⁷ This tradition, in which the divine image is reflected in the water, appears to be widespread in early Christian literature. Analyzing this motif in the heterodox Christian materials, Gedaliahu Stroumsa notes that

…as in the Poimandres, also in some of the other texts the image of God is said to appear in the water. Thus, in the Apocryphon of John, the Son of Man reveals upon the water the appearance in human (ἀνδρέος) form (τύπος) of Anthropos, the invisible Father of the All. In the Hypostasis of the Archons, the image of Incorruptibility revealed upon the water is explicitly called the image of God. In the Origin of the World, it is Pistis who reveals the likeness of her greatness upon the water.¹⁶⁸

It is also noteworthy that in some already mentioned Manichaean texts where the Doppelgänger traditions arguably came to their conceptual pinnacle, one can also encounter some references to a peculiar ritual of encountering a heavenly double as the divine form or image in water. Thus, in the section of the Cologne Mani Codex (11-12) where Mani speaks about his early encounters with his heavenly twin or syzygos , a cryptic statement can be found in which the Mesopotamian mystic says that “. . . from the spring of the waters (ἐκ τῆς πηγῆς τῶν ὑδάτων) there appeared to me a human form (εἶδος ἀνθρώπου) which showed me by hand the ‘rest’ so that I might not sin and bring distress on him.”¹⁶⁹ Although the CMC 11-12 does not openly connect this apparition in the water with Mani’s syzygos , in his recent study Charles Stang entertains a possibility that this vision is related to the heavenly counterpart traditions.¹⁷⁰ Stang also brings attention to another episode of gazing into water found in CMC 94-96 where the leader of the baptismal sect, Alchasai, similarly encounters “an image of man” in the waters. CMC 94-96 reads:

For Elkhasai, the founder of your law, indicates (this): for when he was going to wash in the waters, an image of a man (εἰκὼν ἀνδρὸς) appeared to him from the spring of water …. And again, after a long time, he wished to wash in the waters and he ordered his disciples to [look out] for a place that did not [have much] water so that he might wash. [His] disciples [found] the place for him. But when he [was about to] wash, again for a second time, an image of a man (εἰκὼν ἀνδρὸς) appeared to him out of that spring ….¹⁷¹

Stang suggests that in this episode the image in the water “is not of Alchasai himself, and thus raises the question of whether this image too is the syzygos , the divine companion to the Apostle of Light, who is here visiting not one of the apostles proper (e.g., Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus), but instead visiting and guiding the figure, Alchasai, who will establish the law of the baptists in whose midst Mani will be raised.”¹⁷²

These traditions in which the divine image is described as reflected in the water might constitute the conceptual background of eschatological restoration of Aseneth’s panim, which in the Doppelgänger lore is often associated with the divine image.

Furthermore, Aseneth’s final metamorphosis in the watery mirror might also be informed by some conceptual currents, similar to the one found in 2 Cor 3:15, where the transformation into the image is tied to the vision of the divine glory reflected in a mirror. In light of these testimonies it is possible that Aseneth’s vision represents the final stage of the process of acquisition of her heavenly identity when the seer’s face becomes a mirror of the divine Kavod also known as God’s Panim.

The transformation of the seer’s face also brings to memory another theophanic account, namely, the metamorphosis of Enoch’s face in 2 Enoch which, as we remember, occurred immediately after his acquisition of his heavenly identity, a procurement that has just occurred in Aseneth’s story as well. As one remembers, in both stories their transformed protagonists also undergo the transition from the “heavenly” transformed identities to their “normal” earthly selves. In this respect it is intriguing that in both accounts these portentous transitions are marked by the metamorphosis of the adepts’ visages. The transformations of the protagonists in 2 Enoch and Joseph and Aseneth, however, are strikingly different: while Enoch’s face prior to his trip to the earth was subdued by the “frigid” angel, Aseneth’s countenance on the contrary, was accentuated. It is almost like some sort of veil was removed from her face by the means of the mysterious watery mirror, finally revealing her novel transformed visage.

Although both stories are informed by the Mosaic conceptual currents, the motif of Aseneth’s transformed face appears to be closer to the traditional biblical rendering of Exodus where the great prophet veils his transformed countenance. Reflecting on Aseneth’s transformation attested in Jos. Asen. 20:6,¹⁷³ Ross Kraemer draws attention to the Mosaic background of her transformation by arguing that

it may also allude to the transformation of Moses in Exodus 34:29-34, which says that when Moses came down from Sinai, he did not know that his face shone because he had been talking to God. After this experience, Moses veils his face before the Israelites except when he goes to speak with God. This lends the veiling of Aseneth an interpretation alternative to the view that it reflects her status as a respectable woman. In subsequent Jewish mystical traditions, Moses’ face was believed to shine with the reflection of God’s glory. Aseneth’s veiling may be analogous to that of Moses: just as Moses spoke with God face to face and beheld an aspect of God, so Aseneth has conversed with God, or at least God’s manifestation in the form of the angel. Therefore, like Moses, her face shines and requires a veil to protect others from the brilliance of her face.¹⁷⁴

The episode of Aseneth’s transformation also invokes some memories of extra-biblical Mosaic traditions, especially those found in the Exagoge, where Moses’ father-in-law calls him “stranger” (ξένος) – an epithet, which as we previously suggested, might point to the possibility of Moses’ transformation. It is also noteworthy that in both accounts (the Exagoge and Joseph and Aseneth) it is the members of the seers’ household who bring readers and protagonists attention to their facial metamorphoses. In this respect the reaction of Aseneth’s tropheus and later Joseph himself¹⁷⁵ can be compared to the reaction of Moses’ father-in-law – Jethro.

In concluding this section of our study we must acknowledge that the seer’s vision in the watery mirror serves as a climax of the heavenly counterpart ideology, the conceptual trend so essential for the theological universe of Joseph and Aseneth. In this perspective all major protagonists of the story: the Anthropos, Joseph, and Aseneth appear to be envisioned as “mirrors” of each other as they are portrayed again and again with similar theophanic attributes and features which provoke similar reactions from their beholders. Such imagery of embodied “mirrors” plays a paramount role in the conceptual framework of the text where all major characters are predestined to emulate, in their own paradoxal way, the mirror of the divine Kavod.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion to our study of the heavenly counterpart imagery found in the Jewish pseudepigrapha it is time to return to the question about the conceptual roots of these striking developments. Our study of the Doppelgänger traditions found in the Jewish pseudepigrapha demonstrated that these theological currents are closely connected with theophanic imagery manifested in the biblical accounts. Thus, almost all major accounts of divine apparitions found in the Hebrew Bible became crucial conceptual nexuses for unfolding the heavenly counterpart speculations in the Jewish pseudepigraphical accounts.

Thus, already in the Book of the Watchers and the Book of the Similitudes two formative theophanic loci of the Hebrew Bible – the vision of the divine Kavod found in Ezekiel 1 and the appearance of the Son of Man in Daniel 7 became the main conceptual playgrounds for unfolding speculations about Enoch’s heavenly identity. This reliance on biblical visions of the deity and the memory of their distinguished seers will continue to exercise its influence on the later speculations about the patriarch’s heavenly Self reflected in 2 Enoch and Sefer Hekhalot where the encounter with the divine Face by another prominent visionary of the Hebrew Bible, Moses, will become a locus of intense theological deliberations. This appropriation of the Mosaic biblical theophanic traditions by the Enochic lore will become eventually reflected in the symbolism of the radiant faces of Enoch and Metatron, whose visages come to be strikingly reminiscent of the luminosity of the son of Amram’s countenance.

In the Mosaic pseudepigrapha once again we find traces of the distinctive memories of the biblical encounters with the deity and the angels which occurred in the peculiar locations, represented among others by Mount Sinai, which has now become envisioned as the heavenly abode. The account found in the Exagoge waives a panoply of these familiar biblical Sinai motifs into the distinctive settings of the Doppelgänger lore. Furthermore, the symbolism of the divine Panim and its retinue, outlined already in Exodus and developed further in Enochic pseudepigrapha, will continue to exercise its prominent influence during Moses’s acquisition of his heavenly identity in the form of the angelic servant of the divine Face in the Book of Jubilees. Moreover, in later Jewish and Christian accounts the divine Face will become portrayed as the mirror which is intended to reflect the seer’s heavenly alter ego.

In the pseudepigraphical accounts devoted to the patriarch Jacob his biblical encounters with the divine and angelic beings at Bethel and Jabbok again will come to be the crucial narrative vehicles for unfolding the speculations about the patriarch’s heavenly identity. Both the Prayer of Joseph and the Ladder of Jacob are taking the patriarch’s ordeals at Bethel and Penuel as the starting points of their Doppelgänger speculations. In the heavenly counterpart speculations about Jacob’s heavenly image, one can also detect the formative influence of another biblical theophanic trend pertaining to the protoplast’s figure, who according to Genesis 1:27 was created in the likeness of God’s image.

The distinctive markers of the protoplast story will continue to exercise their formative influences also in Joseph and Aseneth, another Jewish pseudepigraphical account, deeply affected by the various molds of biblical theophanic imagery. There, the female seer through her transformation, which has culminated in the consumption of the mysterious honeycomb, will be predestined to reverse the fall of the first protological couple in the Garden of Eden who there once consumed the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

All these memories of the biblical theophanic accounts, so formative in shaping the pseudepigraphical Doppelgänger speculations, provide us with a new evidence for the possible conceptual origins of the heavenly counterpart imagery in early Jewish and Christian lore. They point to the possibility that the complex symbolism of the heavenly double, found in the early Jewish pseudepigraphical materials, takes its inspiration not from the Greco-Roman or the “Iranian” mythologies, as has been previously suggested by Gilles Quispel and Henry Corbin, but instead represent an authentic Jewish phenomenon deeply rooted in the theophanic traditions of the Hebrew Bible.

Moreover, the heavenly counterpart traditions attested in the Jewish pseudepigrapha can be seen as an important stage in the developments of these biblical theophanic currents. They lead the symbolism of the divine and angelic encounters found in the Hebrew Bible into its new theophanic dimension. This novel mold, in which the ancient epiphanies become enriched with the Doppelgänger symbolism, will play a formative role in shaping the later rabbinic and Hekhalot speculations about the heavenly identities of the exalted patriarchs and prophets. These will include the traditions about the celestial Self of Enoch in the form of the supreme angel Metatron and the rabbinic stories about the upper identity of Jacob in the form of his engraved or enthroned image — developments which will become crucial theophanic loci in later Jewish mysticism.

Furthermore, the heavenly counterpart traditions with their keen attention to the details of the protagonists’ transformations, the metamorphoses which are turning human adepts into the celestial citizens, provide a unique insight into the murky and mysterious transition from Jewish apocalypticism, where the visionaries’ heavenly identities are often envisioned as angelic manifestations, to early Jewish mysticism, where the seers’ heavenly alter egos become paradoxically divinized.