Biblical Egyptian Names in Genesis

[Jim Stinehart]

Biblical Egyptian Names in Genesis

1. Most scholars agree that the Hebrew letter ע is a ghayin/ġ in the non-west Semitic Biblical name “Tidal” : תדעל at Genesis 14: 1, which at Ugarit is written tdġl, with a ghayin/ġ.

2. Accordingly, we should logically ask whether the Hebrew letter ע at the end of the non-west Semitic Biblical name “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע at Genesis 41: 45 is a ghayin/ġ, in which case this Biblical Egyptian name ends with resh-ghayin.

3. To the best of my knowledge, the scholarly view of this matter is as follows: (i) no scholar has ever asked in print whether the Hebrew letter ע at the end of the non-west Semitic Biblical name “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע at Genesis 41: 45 may be a ghayin/ġ; and (ii) contravening all common sense, it is insisted, on a seemingly unanimous scholarly basis, that the name “Potipherah”, a high-priest of Ra from On (Joseph’s Egyptian priestly father-in-law), is allegedly the s-a-m-e n-a-m-e as “Potiphar”, a military man who is Captain of the Guard in charge of Pharaoh’s personal security (Joseph’s Egyptian master).

4. In support of the legitimacy (and indeed necessity) of asking whether the Hebrew letter ע at the end of the non-west Semitic Biblical name “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע may be a ghayin/ġ, consider that one the three Egyptian heths may have had the same sound as Hebrew ghayin/ġ:

“ ḫ …Some Egyptologists think it [the Egyptian heth ḫ] may have been closer to the Arabic and Hebrew consonant called ‘ghayin’….” James P. Allen, “Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs”, Cambridge University Press (2010), p. 16.

5. The scholarly community has not come up with plausible analyses or meanings of any of the following four prominent Biblical Egyptian names in Genesis: “Potipherah”; “Potiphar”; Joseph’s Egyptian name; or “Asenath” (the name of Joseph’s Egyptian wife). On this thread, let’s see if we on the b-hebrew list can surpass the very low bar that has been set by the scholarly community as to analyzing these four Biblical Egyptian names. Surely “Potipherah” is not the same name as “Potiphar”!

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

As I noted in my prior post: (i) most scholars agree that the Hebrew letter ע is a ghayin/ġ in the non-west Semitic Biblical name “Tidal” : תדעל, and accordingly we should ask whether the Hebrew letter ע at the end of the non-west Semitic Biblical name “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע at Genesis 41: 45 may likewise be a ghayin/ġ; and (ii) some Egyptologists think that one of the three Egyptian heths, namely ḫ, may have had the same sound as Hebrew ghayin/ġ.

In one of the standard ways of transliterating Egyptian (called the Buurman method), lower-case x is used to render the Egyptian heth ḫ. If the Hebrew letter ע at the end of “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע is a ghayin/ġ, then the last two Hebrew letters in this Biblical Egyptian name would render the well-known Egyptian common word rx, which means “know”.

The Hebrew peh/פ/P which precedes those final two letters is the expected Hebrew rendering of pA, the Egyptian common word that means either “the” or “the one who”. (From a Hebrew perspective, Egyptian aleph/A was heard as being a vowel-type sound, so in Hebrew defective spelling, no Hebrew letter is used to render that Egyptian aleph/A.)

Thus if the last Hebrew letter in “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע is a ghayin/ġ, then the second half of this Biblical Egyptian name can be analyzed as follows (on a letter-for-letter basis):

פרע = P-Rġ = pA rx = “the one who knows”.

We are already more than half-way to showing that, contra the scholarly view, the name “Potipherah” (the name of an Egyptian priest) is a different name than “Potiphar” (the name of a military man who is Pharaoh’s Captain of the Guard). We are also well on our way to figuring out whether “Potipherah” is the Patriarchal equivalent of the historical name of a well-attested high-priest of Ra from On.

On this thread we will find that the names “Potipherah” and “Potiphar” make perfect sense on all levels: they fit the text perfectly, and they also prove the great antiquity of the Patriarchal narratives as a written text. That is to say, it’s a very big deal to be willing to a-s-k if the Hebrew letter ע at the end of “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע may be a ghayin/ġ.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

In my last post, we saw that if the Hebrew letter ע at the end of the name “Potipherah” is viewed as being a ghayin/ġ [thus rendering the one of three Egyptian heths that is ḫ/x], then the second half of the name “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע (beginning with the second peh/פ/P) can be analyzed as follows:

פ / pA רע / rx : the one who (pA) knows (rx)

Now let’s ask what the first half of this Biblical Egyptian name would then be.

1. peh/פ/P

Logically, the first peh/פ/P should be analyzed the same as the second peh/פ/P, namely as rendering the Egyptian common word pA. The first peh/פ/P has the most common meaning of this Egyptian word, namely “the”. (Note that, as per usual, the Hebrews heard Egyptian aleph/A here as being a vowel-type sound; so per Hebrew defective spelling, that Egyptian aleph/A is not rendered by any Hebrew letter.)

2. vav-teth/וט/W+

This is the Egyptian common word wAt. Hebrew vav/ו/W is a consonant, and as such renders Egyptian w. Hebrew teth/ט/+ teth renders Egyptian t (not Egyptian d, which rather would be rendered by Hebrew dalet/ד/D). (As with #1 above, the Hebrews heard Egyptian aleph/A as being a vowel-type sound, so per Hebrew defective spelling that Egyptian aleph/A is not rendered by any Hebrew letter.) wAt means “distant”.

The first half of the Biblical Egyptian name “Potipherah”, pA wAt, is identical in format to the Egyptian name pa-wu-ra in Amarna Letter EA 124: 44 (see also EA 132: 38 and EA 263: 21) and pí-wu-ri in Amarna Letter EA 129: 97 (see also EA 131: 22): (i) each name starts with pA [rendered in cuneiform as either pa or pí, that is, p plus a generic vowel indicator], meaning “the”; (ii) the second element is then an adjective beginning with Egyptian w (where wu-ri means “great”); and (iii) the pronoun “one” is necessarily implied as following that adjective. So the meanings are, respectively: “The Distant (one)” and “The Great (one)”, in each case being an indirect divine reference. Note that everything about this Biblical Egyptian name makes perfect sense, on a letter-for-letter basis, and that this name follows a well-attested Egyptian format.

3. yod/י/Y

This is the Hebrew orthographic device known as hireq compaginis. It effectively functions as a dash : --, thus graphically dividing two halves of a name. To give a well-known Hebrew example, Abraham’s birth name is a bit unusual in not having a hireq compaginis. It’s just: אברם : ’BRM. But many minor characters in later books of the Bible have this same name, though spelled in the ordinary way, that is, with a hireq compaginis: אבירם : ’B-Y-RM. Note that there is no difference in meaning, despite the two different spellings. That interior yod/י/Y merely functions as an optional dash/--, graphically dividing the two halves of this name, without changing the meaning.

* * *

So on a letter-for-letter basis, the name “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע (treating the final ע as a ghayin/ġ) can be analyzed as follows:

פ / pA וט / wAt י / -- פ / pA רע / rx :
the (pA) distant [one] (wAt) -- [י] the one who (pA) knows (rx)

In Akhenaten’s “Great Hymn”, the god Ra (or Aten) is frequently referred to as being “distant”, or as being “the distant one”. The intended meaning of this Biblical Egyptian name is:

“The One Who Knows The Distant [god Ra]”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

In my last post, I noted that the name “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע (treating the final ע as a ghayin/ġ) can be analyzed as follows:

פ / pA וט / wAt י / -- פ / pA רע / rx :
the (pA) distant [one] (wAt) -- [י] the one who (pA) knows (rx)

I also noted that in Akhenaten’s “Great Hymn”, the sun-god Ra (or Aten) is frequently referred to as being “distant”, or as being “the distant one”, so that the intended meaning of this Biblical Egyptian name of Joseph's priestly father-in-law is:

“The One Who Knows The Distant [god Ra]”.

Now let’s compare that to what the name and title was of the high-priest of Ra from On at Amarna in Year 13: Pawah [pA wAH], Greatest Seer.

pA wAH literally means: “the one that sets”. It references the sun, and hence the sun-god Ra. The title “Greatest Seer” references one who knows [the sun-god Ra]. So “Pawah, Greatest Seer” means:

“The One Who Knows the Sun[-god Ra]”.

We see that “Potipherah” is the exact Patriarchal equivalent of the name and title of the historical high-priest of Ra from On at Amarna in Year 13.

The p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives in the context of Year 13 in the Late Amarna time period is: S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G !

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

“Potiphar” : פוטיפר

1. In my last post, I noted that the name of the high-priest of Ra from On who is Joseph’s Egyptian priestly father-in-law, “Potipherah” : פוטיפרע (treating the final ע as a ghayin/ġ), can be analyzed as follows:

פ / pA וט / wAt י / -- פ / pA רע / rx :
the (pA) distant [one] (wAt) -- [י] the one who (pA) knows (rx)
“The One Who Knows The Distant [god Ra]”.

I also noted that that is the Patriarchal equivalent of the name and title of the historical high-priest of Ra from On at Amarna in Year 13: Pawah [pA wAH], Greatest Seer: “The One Who Knows the Sun[-god Ra]”.

2. Now let’s see if a similar analysis applies to “Potiphar” -- Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, in charge of Pharaoh’s personal security, who is Joseph’s Egyptian master.

“Potiphar” : פוטיפר : PW+YPR. Analyzed, using defective spelling, as:

פ / pA וט / wAt י / -- פ / pA ר / ra :
the (pA) distant [one] (wAt) -- [י] the (pA) Ra (ra)
“The Distant [one] -- The Ra”, being a colorful way of saying: “Devoted to Ra”.

Furthermore, since “Potipherah” is the Patriarchal version of the name and title of the historical high-priest of Ra from On in Year 13 at Amarna, we should rightly expect “Potiphar” to be Akhenaten’s Captain of the Guard, who was in charge of Akhenaten’s personal security in Year 13. Historically that was Ra-mose.

The name of the military man with the largest private home at Amarna, who was Akhenaten’s Captain of the Palace Guard (having the critically important job of providing personal security for this unpopular pharaoh, who challenged traditional Egyptian religion), was Ra-mose. Note that the historical Egyptian name, borne by Akhenaten’s Captain of the Palace Guard in Year 13, has exactly the same two key aspects as does the Biblical Egyptian name “Potiphar”. Like “Potiphar”, the divine name “Ra” is expressly rendered in the historical name Ra-mose. And although the literal meaning of Ra-mose is “Born to Ra”, the effective meaning is the same as above analysis of the Biblical name “Potiphar”, namely: “Devoted to Ra”.

Once again, the p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives in the context of Year 13 in the Late Amarna time period is: S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G !

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

As we have now seen on this thread: (i) “Potipherah”, as the name of Joseph’s Egyptian priestly father-in-law who was the high-priest of Ra from On, is the Patriarchal equivalent of the name and title of the historical high-priest of Ra from On at Amarna in Year 13; and (ii) “Potiphar”, as the name of Joseph’s Egyptian master who was the Captain of the Guard in charge of Pharaoh’s personal security, is the Patriarchal equivalent of the name of the military man who was in charge of pharaoh Akhenaten’s personal security in Year 13 at Amarna.

Now consider that such stunning historical accuracy in a Late Bronze Age context necessarily implies that the first written version of the Biblical text of the Patriarchal narratives was in cuneiform, long before alphabetical Hebrew writing came into being. That key insight will now allow us to be the first ones to make sense of the following two seemingly inexplicable Biblical Egyptian names: “Asenath” (Joseph’s Egyptian wife), and Joseph’s Egyptian name.

ASENATH

If the name “Asenath” was originally recorded in cuneiform, then the first two letters of this Biblical Egyptian name can be re-analyzed as follows.

1. First Letter May Be Ayin

The cuneiform of the Amarna Letters could not distinguish between ayin and aleph. Accordingly, there is a 50/50 chance that the first letter of the name “Asenath” (at Genesis 41: 45) is not aleph, per the received alphabetical Hebrew text rendering of אסנת, but rather was originally intended to be ayin.

2. Second Letter May Be Shin

The cuneiform rendering of the phoneme shin often came out in alphabetical Hebrew as samekh. Thus there is a better than 50/50 chance that the second letter in the name “Asenath” was intended to be a shin.

Thus as opposed to the received text, there is a better than 50/50 chance that the Hebrew spelling of the name “Asenath” was originally intended to be: עשנת. It does not make sense to assume, without investigation, that the Jewish scribe in 7th century BCE Jerusalem (who transformed the original cuneiform text into alphabetical Hebrew writing) necessarily always interpreted correctly cuneiform signs that are, by their very nature, inherently ambiguous. So if the first written Biblical version of the name “Asenath” was in cuneiform, then instead of the received text spelling, אסנת, which does not make good substantive sense, we should consider the following as very possibly being the originally-intended spelling: עשנת.

3. “Asenath” Is Then: aSA-nTr

(a) The expected Biblical Hebrew spelling of the well-known Egyptian common word aSA is עש. The first syllable is Egyptian ayin (rendered in the standard Buurman transliteration of hieroglyphs as a lower-case a), which is rendered in Biblical Hebrew by Hebrew ayin. The second syllable would have been heard by the Hebrews as a consonant-vowel syllable, beginning with shin, and ending with a vowel sound similar to aleph. Upper-case S is shin in Egyptian, and upper-case A is Egyptian aleph. Pursuant to Hebrew defective spelling, the vowel in a CV syllable is not rendered by any Hebrew letter. So if the originally-intended spelling of “Asenath” was עשנת, then the first two Hebrew letters render the Egyptian common word aSA. This word includes the meanings of “many, manifold, fertile”.

(b) Based on the Amarna Letters, we know that nTr, sometimes rendered as netjer, was pronounced with no final R by the Amarna Age, and was rendered in cuneiform as na-te. That is confirmed by the following Egyptian name in the Amarna Letters: pa-xa-na-te. Per the analysis at p. 122 in Richard S. Hess’s “Amarna Personal Names” (1993), na-te = nTr/netjer = “God”. In the Amarna Age, the expected Biblical Hebrew spelling of nTr : na-te would be: נת.

In my next post, we will explore how עשנת : aSA-nTr [“Asenath”] is the perfect name for Joseph’s Egyptian wife.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

In my prior post, I showed that the Biblical Egyptian name of Joseph’s Egyptian wife, “Asenath” : אסנת, likely was intended to be ‘Š-NT : aSA nT[r]. [(i) In cuneiform, aleph and ayin are not distinguished, so the Hebrew aleph in the received text may have been intended to be Hebrew ayin, in which case the first letter was intended to be Egyptian ayin; and (ii) in cuneiform, samekh most often aligns with shin/sh/š (not sin/s).] In this post, we will now look at the intended pair of meanings for this name aSA nTr: first as a birth name, and secondly as the name of Joseph’s wife. We will see that this pair of meanings is i-d-e-a-l .

Part I: Meaning of “Asenath” as a Birth Name (i.e., prior to her marriage to Joseph): “The Many Wondrous Manifestations (as Honored at On) of the God Ra”

The meaning of aSA as an Egyptian common word is stated by E.A. Wallis Budge at p. 137 of his classic “An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Vol. I” (1920) to be: “to be much or many, to be abundant, to happen often or frequently”. As a birth name, the first, and most obvious, meaning of aSA is “many”.

But the aSA element in the name aSA-nTr also provides a link to Ra, and possibly an implied link to On as well, as a birth name. That is important, because Asenath is the daughter of a high-priest of Ra from On. Christian Leitz lists many epithets of Ra that begin with aSA in “Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen” (2003). Four of such epithets show that Ra was often viewed as having “numerous/aSA manifestations”. Such phrase is always very positive regarding Ra, so the implied meaning is “many/aSA [wondrous manifestations]”. Moreover, one of such epithets, aSA-iwnw, may also recall the city of On, whose name is normally transliterated as iwnw. In the context of Ra, aSA could imply aSA[-iwnw], and as such aSA could be an indirect reference to On, as well as definitely being an epithet of Ra. Genesis 41: 45 explicitly mentions On in giving us the name “Asenath”, and the “Ase-” element in that name can in turn be viewed as implying On. Thus aSA can imply not only “[the] many [wondrous] manifestations [of Ra]”, but also aSA, by implying aSA-iwnw, can in addition function as an implied reference to On, which is the cult center of Ra and the original home of both Asenath and her father, who is a high-priest of Ra from On.

Although one literal meaning of aSA is simply “many”, nevertheless in the context of Ra, the implied meaning of aSA can be, per the foregoing attested epithets of Ra: “[the] many [wondrous manifestations (as honored at On) of Ra]”/aSA.

Somewhat similarly, although the Egyptian word nTr often means “the Divine”, or “god/God” in the most generic sense, nonetheless when paired with aSA, as an apt (if highly abbreviated) epithet for the god Ra (and perhaps also implying a reference to On), nTr could have the implied meaning of: “the Divine/god [Ra]”. Thus a high-priest of Ra from On could well give his daughter the name aSA-nTr [KJV: “Asenath”], with the implied meaning of such name at his daughter’s birth being:

“[the] many [wondrous manifestations (as honored at On)]”/aSA “[of the] Divine/god [Ra]”/nTr

Where aSA is viewed as being a shortened form of the phrase aSA-iwnw that was used to honor Ra at On, and interpreting nTr in that context as effectively implying the god Ra, the meaning of “Asenath” as a birth name can accordingly be viewed as being:

“The Many Wondrous Manifestations (as Honored at On) of the God Ra”

It is impossible to imagine a more appropriate birth name than that for a Biblical character who is portrayed in the Patriarchal narratives as being the daughter of a high-priest of Ra from On. Rather than honoring the goddess Neith, or an un-named goddess, or solely the daughter’s mother, none of which traditional meanings (which are the only meanings proposed to date by university scholars) make good sense at all in context, the foregoing birth name meaning of “Asenath” is the most appropriate birth name imaginable for the daughter of a high-priest of Ra from On.

Part II: Meaning of “Asenath” as the Name of Joseph’s Egyptian Wife: “Fruitful [Thanks to] God” [where ‘Fruitful’ is a deliberate play on the Hebrew meaning of the name of Joseph’s most important son, Ephraim]

Although it is important for “Asenath” to be a sensible birth name for a daughter of a high-priest of Ra from On, it is arguably even more important for the name “Asenath” to have a meaning that encapsulates her key role in the text as Joseph’s Egyptian wife.

After Asenath married Joseph and promptly began bearing him sons, the name aSA-nTr can be viewed as having the following primary meaning:

“Fertile/Fruitful/aSA [thanks to] God/nTr”

I noted earlier that the meaning of aSA as an Egyptian common word is stated by Budge to be: “to be much or many, to be abundant, to happen often or frequently”. But in Egyptian literature, the meaning may often be less literal. For example, in Akhenaten’s Great Hymn, aSA (gecko with three vertical lines) is translated as “numerous” in the phrase “How numerous [aSA] are your [divine] works, though hidden from sight.” But rather than focusing on being “numerous” per se, the intended focus there is likely somewhat less literal: “How abundant/bounteous/manifold/fruitful [aSA] are your [divine] works, though hidden from sight.” Similarly, in the Tale of Sinuhe from the Middle Kingdom, we see aSA (in all cases rendered by the hieroglyphs gecko-vulture-three vertical lines) in the phrases “Its honey was plentiful [aSA]”, and “I enjoyed wealth [aSA] in cattle”. The concept in both of those latter two phrases seems to be “bounteous abundance”, rather than a narrow focus on the literal meaning of “being numerous”. Thus in context, aSA is not solely limited to its literal meaning of “be numerous”, but rather often connotes “bounteous abundance”, or being “fruitful”.

aSA can mean “abundant, fertile, fruitful”, and nTr normally does not specify the god Ra, but rather is usually a generic reference to the Divine or God. Thus in the context of being Joseph’s Egyptian wife who bore sons to Joseph, the name “Asenath” can be viewed as meaning:

“Fruitful [thanks to] God”

This Biblical Egyptian name epitomizes one of Asenath’s critical functions in the Patriarchal narratives: bearing sons to Joseph.

But more specifically, the Egyptian word aSA, which can have the implied meaning of “fruitful”, is effectively the equivalent of the Hebrew word פרה : PRH, which means “to be fruitful” (in Hebrew), that Joseph uses as the basis of his second son’s name, “Ephraim” (whom Joseph’s father Jacob/“Israel” later correctly discerns, at Genesis 48: 19-20, is to be Joseph’s leading son): “And the name of the second called he [Joseph] Ephraim [אפרים : ’PR-YM]: For God hath caused me to be fruitful [based on פרה : PRH] in the land of my affliction.” Genesis 41: 52. (Though there is no room to discuss the matter here, the otherwise largely inexplicable reason for the plural form of the Hebrew meaning of the name “Ephraim” [“doubly fruitful”] is so that the name “Ephraim” can also have an appropriate Egyptian meaning as aA pri m.)

The name “Asenath” thus deftly sums up the role of Joseph’s Egyptian wife in the narrative: she will be “fruitful”/aSA, thanks to “God”/nTr, in bearing Joseph sons, and in particular she will bear Joseph’s leading son (Ephraim), whose name in Hebrew means “fruitful”. The equivalent of aSA in Egyptian, in the name “Asenath”, is פרה : PRH regarding the name “Ephraim” in Hebrew, both essentially meaning “fruitful”.

Linguistically, we now see that it is implied that one of the reasons why Joseph chose the name “Ephraim” for his second son was precisely in honor of his “fertile, fruitful” wife Asenath, who had just borne Joseph a second son, where “Ephraim” in Hebrew has a similar meaning to aSA-nTr [“Asenath”] in Egyptian: “Fruitful [thanks to God]”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

Jim,

I am unable to refer to anything you say about "Egyptian" as I know nothing about it. Still, I say it is possible that the name אָסְנַת (ASNAT, not ASENAT) of Gen. 41:45 is of Semitic-theophoric origin with אסן-את = אָסְנַת and with אסן being a variant of אזן and אדן. Thus, אָסְנַת is possibly but a slight variation of אָדְנַת corresponding to the biblical names דן DAN and דינה DIYNAH, evoking both the exalted name אדוֹן.
I suspect that the Greek Athena is of the same origin.

The name אֶפְרָיִם EPRAYIM of Gen. 41:52 is possibly from אפר EPER, 'soot', for the color of his skin (he looked like his lovely mom), with the ending -YIM for 'very'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac:

1. You wrote: “t is possible that the name אָסְנַת (ASNAT, not ASENAT) of Gen. 41:45 is… but a slight variation of אָדְנַת corresponding to the biblical names דן DAN and דינה DIYNAH, evoking both the exalted name אדוֹן. I suspect that the Greek Athena is of the same origin.”

(a) That would not make sense as a birth name. “Asenath” as a birth name needs to reflect the cardinal fact that this Egyptian woman's father was, very importantly, the high-priest of Ra from On. A birth name that is a play on Adonai and/or Athena does not work in that regard.

(b) Such an interpretation also does not work as the name of the woman whose key role is to be Joseph’s wife and to bear him sons, especially his most important son, Ephraim. A play on Adonai and/or Athena does not work in that regard either.

(c) Rather, what is needed is the set of meanings for this name that I laid out in my prior two posts. The birth name of Joseph’s Egyptian wife needs to glorify Ra. It does. As a birth name, the Egyptian meaning of “Asenath” : aSA-nTr implies: “The Many Wondrous Manifestations (as Honored at On) of the God Ra”. And as the name of Joseph’s wife who bore him two sons, in particular Joseph’s most important son Ephraim, the name “Asenath” : aSA-nTr once again works perfectly. In that context, such name implies in Egyptian: “Fruitful [thanks to] God”. That name not only honors Joseph’s Egyptian wife for bearing two sons to Joseph, but also it deftly focuses on Joseph’s most important son Ephraim, because the Egyptian meaning of aSA-nTr is very similar to the Hebrew meaning of the name “Ephraim” (see #2 below).

2. You wrote: “The name אֶפְרָיִם EPRAYIM of Gen. 41:52 is possibly from אפר EPER, 'soot', for the color of his skin (he looked like his lovely mom), with the ending -YIM for 'very'.”

As will be noted in a later post on this thread, I agree with the traditional view that the primary Hebrew meaning of “Ephraim” is: “Doubly Fruitful [thanks to God]”. I will discuss the Hebrew etymology of “Ephraim” in some detail in a later post.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

Before analyzing additional Biblical Egyptian names, let’s first stop and take a moment here in this post to review what we have seen regarding the difficult, but critically important, issue of which Hebrew letters render which Egyptian letters.

1. Egyptian aleph/A is not rendered by any Hebrew letter at all (because the Hebrews heard Egyptian aleph as a vowel-type sound, and so ignored it in defective spelling).

To the best of my knowledge, Egyptian aleph/A is never rendered by a Hebrew letter in any Biblical Egyptian name, whether that be Hebrew aleph/א or otherwise. Therefore, Hebrew aleph/א was available to be used to render a different Egyptian letter (namely Egyptian ayin/a, per Rule #3 below).

2. In rendering foreign non-west Semitic proper names (Egyptian, Hurrian, Hittite), the Hebrew letter ע was most often used to render a ghayin/ġ in such foreign language, in particular rendering whichever one of the multiple heths in such foreign language was closest in sound to ghayin/ġ. (In Egyptian, that is the Egyptian heth that is rendered in the Buurman transliteration system as x.) Accordingly, in a majority of cases (though not in all cases):

Hebrew ayin/ע [functioning as a ghayin/ġ] = Egyptian heth/x (that is, the one of the three Egyptian heths that had a sound similar to Hebrew ghayin/ġ). [Hebrew heth/ח was used to render a different one of the three Egyptian heths, namely an Egyptian heth that did not have a sound at all similar to ghayin/ġ.]

Only in a minority of cases was Hebrew ayin/ע used to render Egyptian ayin/a.

3. Hebrew aleph/א = Egyptian ayin/a.

That is to say, the normal way to render Egyptian ayin/a was with Hebrew aleph/א. Only in a minority of cases was Egyptian ayin/a rendered by Hebrew ayin/ע.

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Rule #1 applies to each of the two times that the pA element appears in both “Potiphar” and “Potipherah” (and, as we will soon see, also to the first syllable in “Ephraim”). Both “Potiphar” and “Potipherah” begin with the Egyptian word pA (as universally agreed). But per Rule #1 (contra the scholarly view), the Egyptian word pA is spelled simply as פ in Biblical Hebrew: no Hebrew letter at all is used to represent Egyptian aleph/A, which was heard by the Hebrews as a vowel-type sound and hence was ignored in Hebrew defective spelling.

Rule #2 applies to the last letter in “Potipherah”. That is to say, the Hebrew letters רע at the end of “Potipherah” render rx in Egyptian. (Hebrew ayin/ע [functioning as a ghayin/ġ] = Egyptian heth/x.) [The semi-exception to Rule #2 is that in Joseph’s Egyptian name, Hebrew ayin/ע was used to render Egyptian ayin/a. But that is the exception, not the rule.]

Rule #3 applies to the first letter in “Asenath” (and, as we will soon see, the first letter in “Ephraim”). That is to say, Hebrew aleph/א = Egyptian ayin/a.

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The key to seeing the utter brilliance of the Biblical Egyptian names in the Patriarchal narratives, and to casting away forever the untenable scholarly interpretations (misinterpretations) of these names (which make little or no substantive sense and also contravene linguistics), is to recognize the above three Rules.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois