Why does Joseph and Aseneth refer to Aseneth as an orphan?

What is it about?

In the work known as Joseph and Aseneth, the character named Aseneth refers to herself repeatedly as an orphan, even though she continues to maintain cordial relationships with her family. What is the reason for this tension between her statements and the narrative? I argue that the language plays an important rhetorical role in the work. It signals her total separation from her own family and, by extension, from the family of the devil. It also underscores her status as a marginalized person--and thus a person over whom God acts as a father. The emphasis through the orphanhood language on Aseneth's full inclusion into the family of God could have appealed to some Jewish or Christian communities.

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Why is it important?

I find that the work Joseph and Aseneth supports the full inclusion of non-Jews into Jewish and/or Christian communities in a rhetorically sophisticated way.

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