Here is another possible linguistic connection between historical
Akhenaten and Biblical Joseph.
The Canaanite/pre-Hebrew/Hebrew word for “arm” is used in describing both
(i) Akhenaten in the Amarna Letters, and (ii) Joseph in the Patriarchal
narratives.
We see the west Semitic gloss zu-ru-ux at Amarna Letter EA 287: 27 from
Hurrian princeling IR-Heba of Jerusalem, where that word is used to describe
Akhenaten. Note that we see the s-a-m-e word (though in plural) at
Genesis 49: 24, where the singular form in Hebrew is ZRW(, with that word
there
being used to describe Joseph.
It is important to note in this connection that cuneiform cannot
distinguish one guttural from another. Accordingly, the heth/X at the end of
the
Amarna Letter gloss may be an attempt to denote Canaanite ayin/(.
[Likewise, the last letter in the name of the high priest of Ra from On who is
Joseph
’s Egyptian father-in-law is ayin/( in the received alphabetical text.
But if the Patriarchal narratives are an ancient text that was originally
recorded in cuneiform, then that final letter was Akkadian cuneiform heth/X,
which can be any guttural, and it may likely have been actually intended to
be Hebrew heth/X here, rather than Hebrew ayin/(. So that Biblical name
actually ends with RX [though the received alphabetical text has R(], which is
rx in Egyptian, meaning “to know” in Egyptian. As such, contra the
scholarly view, the name “Potipherah” is a completely different name from “
Potiphar”, with both such names exemplifying words and concepts from Akhenaten’
s Great Hymn. Similarly, the last letter in “Pharaoh”, which in the
received alphabetical text is he/H, may actually have been intended in the
cuneiform original to be heth/X, since cuneiform cannot distinguish those two
gutturals. If so, then “Pharaoh” is PR (X, which would represent the
Egyptian words pA ra ax. That would be directly comparable, once again, to
the
name “Akhenaten”, which is ax-n-itn, where itn = pA ra, that is, Aton =
the Ra, in Akhenaten’s way of thinking. PR (X : pA ra ax : “Spirit of God” :
RWX )LHYM : ax-n-itn : “Akhenaten”. They’re all slightly different ways
of saying basically the same thing: “Spirit of God”. Thus the
Egyptian-based Hebrew word “Pharaoh” may intentionally be a play on the name “
Akhenaten”, further supporting the view that the Pharaoh being portrayed at the
end of Genesis is Akhenaten.]
Returning now to the Canaanite/Hebrew word for “arm”, both in the above
Amarna Letter and at Genesis 49: 24, the Canaanite word for “arm” is used
in connection with describing the strength of a powerful monotheistic person
in Egypt [Akhenaten/Joseph]. Please note that the s-a-m-e exact west
Semitic word, ZRW(, is used in both sources to describe Joseph and Akhenaten.
And as previously noted, the name “Akhenaten” can be viewed as meaning “
Spirit of God”, which is exactly how Joseph is described by Pharaoh at
Genesis 41: 38. Note that in all of these various cases, the s-a-m-e
nomenclature is used to describe Akhenaten and Joseph, who are the two most
famous
early monotheists in Egypt.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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