Mr. Stewart Felker:
1. Could you please let us know how to obtain a copy of your article “
Joseph, Preserver of Life: Revisiting Ancient Near Eastern Mythologies in
the Joseph Narrative”? I for one have a great interest in that particular
scholarly topic.
2. In your academic analysis of Joseph as a “Preserver of Life”, I
presume (without knowing, since I have not yet been able to obtain your
article)
that you may have made a close analysis of Joseph’s Egyptian name, and of
the name of Joseph’s Egyptian wife. Even if that perhaps is not a focus
of your article, I presume that such topic is in any event of interest to
you.
(a) Asenath
I see the name of Joseph’s Egyptian wife as being directly related to
Joseph’s role as “Preserver of Life”. Although often overlooked by most
analysts (but perhaps not overlooked by your article, which I have not yet
seen), it is in fact clear per Genesis 48: 6 that in addition to bearing
Manasseh and Ephraim to Joseph before Joseph’s father Jacob moved all the
Hebrews
to Egypt, Asenath was “abundant”/“fertile”, which is the Egyptian word
aSA, thanks to “God”, which is the Egyptian word nTr, and bore Joseph many
more sons after Jacob came to Egypt. After taking into account the “
confusion of gutturals” that I mentioned on an earlier thread, I myself view
the
intended first letter of this name as being ayin, not aleph. I see “Asenath
”, which in the received text is )SNT, as originally having been intended
to be ($NT, which is the expected Biblical Hebrew rendering of the Egyptian
words aSA and nTr from lines 48 and 49 of Akhenaten’s Great Hymn to the
Aten. On my view, “Asenath” means: “Abundant (Fertile) [thanks to] God”.
That ties in closely with the theme of “Joseph, Preserver of Life”.
What is your academic analysis of the name of Joseph’s Egyptian wife? Do
you see that name as inherently embodying the theme of “Joseph, Preserver
of Life”? If the text is coherent (which I for one certainly think is
indeed the case), then isn’t it clear that, despite the current academic
consensus to the contrary, the name of Joseph’s Egyptian wife s-h-o-u-l-d
embody
the theme of “Joseph, Preserver of Life”?
(b) Zaphnathpaaneah
As you are doubtless aware, Professor Donald Redford states at p. 424 of
his book “Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times” (1992) that it is “
unanimously agreed” by the scholarly community that the single Hebrew letter
ssade/C at the beginning of Joseph’s Egyptian name represents the Egyptian
word djed, a word that has two distinct Egyptian consonants, with two
distinct Egyptian consonantal pronunciations, and with both of such consonants
being pronounced at all times during the time period of the Hebrew Bible
(per the analysis of the preeminent Egyptian linguist, Antonio Loprieno, whose
fine linguistic work your article perhaps cites). When you assert that I
am “anti-academic”, by that I presume you mean that, contrary to what is “
unanimously agreed” by the scholarly community, I myself find it absolutely
i-m-p-o-s-s-i-b-l-e that a single Hebrew ssade/C could, under any
circumstances, render the Egyptian word djed in Biblical times.
What is your analysis of Joseph’s Egyptian name? In particular, how do you
view the Hebrew ssade/C as the first letter of that name? Does that
Hebrew ssade/C on your view embody, as it should, the theme of “Joseph,
Preserver of Life”?
We would all like to learn from you as to your academic perspective on the
important question of whether, and how, the Biblical Hebrew renderings of
the Egyptian names of Joseph and his wife embody the key theme of “Joseph,
Preserver of Life”. After all, isn’t that the best, and most productive,
way to counter any “anti-academic” aspects you seem to have discerned in
my analysis on the b-hebrew list of those two Biblical Egyptian names?
Dr. James R. Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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