The ancient Greek novel introduced to the history of literature a new topos: the “complex of emotions.” This became a staple of storytelling and remains widely in use across a variety of genres to the present day. The Hellenistic Jewish text Joseph and Aseneth employs this topos in at least three passages, where it draws attention to the cognitive-emotional aspect of the heroine’s conversion. This is interesting for what it contributes to our understanding of the genre of Aseneth, but it also has social-historical implications. In particular, it supports the idea that Aseneth reflects concerns about Gentile partners in Jewish-Gentile marriages, that Gentile partners might convert out of expedience or that they might be less than fully committed to abandoning “idolatrous” attachments. The representations of deep, grievous, and complex emotions in Aseneth’s transformational turn from idolatry to monolatry, then, might play a psychagogic role for the Gentile reader interested in marrying a Jewish person.

古希腊的小说介绍给文学史上一个新的TOPOS了：“复杂的情绪。” 这成为讲故事的主要内容，并且直到今天仍然广泛用于各种类型。在希腊犹太人文本约瑟夫和Aseneth采用这种TOPOS中至少有三个通道，它提请注意女主角的转换的认知和情感方面。这很有趣，因为它有助于我们理解Aseneth的体裁，但它也具有社会历史意义。特别是，它支持Aseneth的想法反映了对犹太-外邦婚姻中的外邦伴侣的担忧，外邦伴侣可能出于权宜而皈依，或者他们可能没有完全致力于放弃“拜偶像”的依恋。Aseneth 从偶像崇拜到单一崇拜的转变中深刻、悲伤和复杂的情绪表现，可能会对有兴趣与犹太人结婚的外邦读者起到心理作用。