Asenath

Asenath (/ˈæsɪnæθ/, Hebrew: אָסְנַת, Modern: ʾŎsnát, Tiberian: ʾĀsnaṯ; Koine Greek: Ἀσενέθ, Asenéth) is a minor figure in the Book of Genesis. Asenath was a high-born, aristocratic Egyptian woman. She was the wife of Joseph and the mother of his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

There are two Rabbinic approaches to Asenath. One holds that she was an Egyptian woman that converted to marry Joseph. This view has her accepting God before marriage and then raising her two sons in the tenets of Judaism. This presents her as a positive example of conversion to Judaism and places her among the devout women converts. The other approach argues she was not Egyptian by descent, but was from the family of Jacob. Traditions that trace her to the family of Jacob relate that she was born as the daughter of Dinah. Dinah was raped by Shechem and gave birth to Asenath, whom Jacob left on the wall of Egypt, where she was later found by Potiphar. She was then raised by Potiphar's wife and eventually married Joseph. However, in Bereshit Rabbah 80:11 she is not stated to be Dinah's daughter but rather her rape resulted in giving birth to Shaul the son of Simeon.

Asenath's importance is related to the birth of her two sons, who later become forefathers of two of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.