Joseph and Asenath marry. Asenath means ‘belonging to (goddess) Neith.’ Potiphera was priest of On, one of the most influential offices in Egypt. Most appropriate again for Joseph, who became deified in antiquity as a god of medicine and healing. Joseph said God told him what the king’s dreams meant. And he gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. This name has been discovered in an inscription of the later, Bubastid period (9th century B.C. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. They therefore would be partially through the lineage of Cain. Ephraim and Manasseh’s descendants did not have to become idolaters. Are God's Commanded Holy Days still binding today? Jacob prophesied that Manasseh would become a great people, but that Ephraim would be “greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations” (v. 19). ( Log Out / Genesis… Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website. The Egyptian woman who had attempted to seduce the handsome young Joseph was the un-named (in Genesis) wife of one Potiphar, pharaoh’s captain of the guard, who had bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites (var. The Ryrie Study Bible comments: “In order to ‘Egyptianize’ Joseph, Pharaoh gave him an Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife. professor A. Yahuda tebah Ark Noah Flood Genesis, Follow Moses Egyptianised on WordPress.com. Isaac and Jacob had secured wives from their own cultural background. Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. Bethe was perfectly right when, despite all his antipathy to Semitizing Bellerophon, he nevertheless declared that [the story-motif] … of the shy youth slandered by the rejected woman … had an Asiatic origin. Pharoah honored him with a Gentile bride. Asenath means ‘ she belongs to Neith’ ( a goddess of the Egyptians). Part Three: An Egyptian variant tale, https://www.academia.edu/31015986/Potiphera_a_priest_of_On._Part_Three_An_Egyptian_variant_tale. Thus she accused him of rape. Then Pharaoh gave Joseph a new Egyptian name, Zaphenath-paneah. She is a Gentile. Jacob (Israel) favored Joseph over his other children. In addition, Soncino points out that the Hebrew word for “priest” in “priest of On,” i.e., “kohen,” can also be translated as “ruler,” as is the case in 2 Samuel 8:18. For the biblical Joseph was historically, as we have determined, the brilliant Third Dynasty architect and inventor, Imhotep: Giza Pyramids: The How, When and Why of Them. Before recounting that tale, however, the important fact needs to be noted that Astour has rigorously identified the supposedly Greek name Bellerophonas equivalent to the western Semitic Ba’al-rãph’ôn, “Lord Physician” (pp. Then murder Bellerophontes who tried to lie with me in love, though I was unwilling”. Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences! Joseph said the people in Egypt would have more food than they needed for seven years. 225-228). So Joseph took charge of the entire land of Egypt. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed low to him, with their faces to the ground. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. Chapter 1: 1 ¶ In the first of seven years of great pleanty Pharaoh sent forth Joseph to lay up corn, and gather food within the cities. by Damien F. Mackey “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt’. Pharaoh gave Joseph an Egyptian name which could, in some contexts, refer to an Egyptian god (compare the Nelson Study Bible). The Joseph story even appears to have its resonance in the most famous of all Mesopotamian myths, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary on the Whole Bible, states: “[Joseph’s] naturalization was completed by this alliance with a family of high distinction. The sons of Joseph were Ephraim and Manasseh, and Ephraim’s name is based on Mizraim’s name so this confirms Joseph’s wife was from Mizraim, not Cush. Religious feasts such as Christmas or Easter are being celebrated, which have nothing to do with true Christianity, but which are clearly derived from pagan worship. Later Homer would give his own colourful account of the famous story in his conflict between Bellerophon(tes) and Anteia, King Proitos’ wife. Ex. No food would grow for seven years. On is the city of Heliopolis, … “Pharaoh also said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.’ And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-Paaneah [the Margin of the New King James Bible states here: “Probably Egyptian for ‘God Speaks and He Lives.'”]. There are only two leading scholarly views of the name “Asenath”: the longstanding traditional view [well over 100 years old now], and a relatively new proposal by Kenneth Kitchen. These Genesis stories were written, not by Moses, but by the Patriarchs pre-dating Moses. Potiphera is pure Egyptian, meaning ‘he whom Re gave,’ and is essentially the same name as Potiphar. Some propose that Poti-Pherah and Asenath were not pagan worshippers. …. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt”. Asenath is mentioned in the Torah she-bi-khetav: Lit. Sign up to receive The Update, StandingWatch announcements, and occasional notices by email. One of ancient Israel's greatest heroes, Joseph, rose to power in Egypt. Pharaoh gave him Asenath to marry, daughter of the priest Potipherah. Was she Egyptian? She was the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. For a possible historical identification of Potiphar and his wife, see my: https://www.academia.edu/31014927/Potiphera_a_priest_of_On, Potiphera a priest of On. Kramer, “The death of Gilgamesh” in BASOR, Apr 1944, pp. On being founded by an Arab colony, Poti-pherah, like Jethro [father-in-law of Moses], priest of Midian, might be a worshipper of the true God; and thus Joseph, a pious man, will be freed from the charge of marrying an idolatress for worldly ends.”. They could have continued to follow God. She had been praying for a child of her own to give to Jacob because she was not able to conceive. This verse suggests that a foreigner from Canaan becomes a vizier in Egypt so powerful that he effectively has control of the government. Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.”, We also read, in Genesis 46:20: “And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him.”. Change ), Deuteronomy 28 influenced Esarhaddon’s Vassal Treaty, genesis geography modern geology academia.edu, immaculate conception. Potiphar, the Egyptian official who bought Joseph as a slave, and whose wife lusted after Joseph Pharaoh, Egyptian ruler who recognized Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams Rachel, Joseph’s mother who died giving birth to her second son Benjamin, Joseph’s only full brother We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website. In Genesis 48, we read the stirring account of Jacob’s adoption of Joseph’s two sons (Genesis 48:5); his blessing of the two sons; his placing his name (that of “Israel”) on them (v. 16); and his “setting Ephraim before Manasseh,” Joseph’s firstborn son (v. 20). Then they would have food when the famine came. The normal punishment for adultery in ancient Egypt was death; the fact that Joseph did not suffer execution is interesting and perhaps indicates that Potiphar doubted the veracity of his wife, who had made the accusation. The question is, Will they? Whether Asenath was a pagan idolatress or not, it is clear that God never allowed His followers to marry unbelievers. The argument there is that a Hyksos king would more probably give Joseph the daughter of the priest of another god, such as Seth, who was a more important deity to the Hyksos than were the solar deities venerated by the native Egyptians. Could this deed possibly have met with God’s approval? The Egyptian woman who had attempted to seduce the handsome young Joseph was the un-named (in Genesis) wife of one Potiphar, pharaoh’s captain of the guard, who had bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites (var. Joseph is successful and, among other favours, Pharaoh arranges that Joseph marry a high-born Egyptian woman called Asenath. Joseph’s rewards included a new position, a new Egyptian name (“ Zaphenath-Paneah ”), and an Egyptian wife. ), to whom Joseph’s brothers had sold him for twenty pieces of silver (Genesis 37:28; 39:1). Joseph was later sold into Egypt by his brothers. Joseph, too, like Jesus, was favored above all others in H=his father’s affections. And when the king wanted to reward Joseph, he gave him the daughter of a priest of On, or Heliopolis, to be his wife. In order that Joseph’s ethnic past be erased as quickly as possible, Pharaoh gave Joseph an Egyptian name and married him into a prominent Egyptian family. The name is equivalent in meaning to that of the Sumerian god, Ninazu. Chapter 1 How Joseph and Asenath are introduced. my: https://www.academia.edu/8175774/Tracing_the_Hand_of_Moses_in_Genesis. The same can be said about the modern descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. Response: We read in Genesis 41:45 that Pharaoh gave Joseph Osnat daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. VI, where Ištar [Venus] fell in love with Gilgameš and, after having been rudely rejected by him, turned herself to the supreme god Anu with a request to punish the hero” (Hellenosemitica, pp. From the various midrashim, a wondrous story emerges: You see, when Shechem abducted Dinah, she became pregnant with his child. Copyright ©2021 EternalGod.org. ), to whom Joseph’s brothers had sold him for twenty pieces of silver (Genesis 37:28; 39:1). With this background, let us begin to answer why Joseph submitted to Pharaoh and accepted from him, in marriage, Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah, the priest of On. Others feel strongly that Joseph’s wife and father-in-law were pagan worshippers at the time of Joseph’s marriage. He shrank from killing him, since his heart was awed by such action, but sent him away to Lykia, and handed him murderous symbols, which he inscribed in a folding tablet, enough to destroy life, and told him to show it to his wife’s father, that he might perish. This Egyptian woman, the daughter of a heathen priest, became For more information, please read our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas.” You may also want to read the Editorial in Update #89, dated April 18, 2003, titled, “Why We Don’t Celebrate Easter.”. When Joseph is summoned to the royal court, he has to shave his head to look like a real Egyptian. PO Box 270519 For the second time, Joseph was betrayed. And when I say she is a Gentile, I don’t mean she was a Gentile who switched her allegiance from Egypt’s gods to YHVH. For example, according to Astour (pp. ASENATH, THE WIFE OF JOSEPH A HAGGADIC LITERARY-HISTORICAL STUDY Dr. V. APTOWITZER Israelitisch-theologische Lehranstalt, Vienna, Austria JOSEPH, an Egyptian contrary woman.2 to the How traditions did this of come his family,1 about? Here are some: First – Inscriptions. : Potiphar’s Wife and Joseph (1) When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, a certain Egyptain, Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. The Joseph story even appears to have its resonance in the most famous of all Mesopotamian myths, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Josephs story began in Genesis 30 when he was born to Jacob and Rachel. All Rights Reserved. When the dream was interpreted, the king honored Joseph with a high-ranking office in Egypt and placed him in charge of preparing for a future famine. The Bible doesn’t have much to say about Asenath, but in the three verses in which she is mentioned by name, we learn a few things. There happened to be an ancient Egyptian story called ‘The Tale of Two Brothers’. 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