If the Hebrew letter vav/W in the following two Biblical Egyptian names is
a consonantal vav/W, which almost certainly is the case, then: (i) the
name PW+YPR/“Potiphar” is pA wA.ti -- pA ra, and honors Ra as being the “
distant”/wA.ti/W+ god; and (ii) the first two syllables of the name “
Potiphar” similarly are pA wA-, and sound quite a bit like the historical name
“
Pawah”. These two Biblical Egyptian names provide us with a treasure
trove of accurate historical information about Joseph’s Egypt, if we take what
the Biblical text says seriously. Consider:
We know from Genesis 39: 1 that Potiphar, being Joseph's initial Egyptian
master who apparently was in charge of Pharaoh's security, was very close
to Pharaoh, being “an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard”, and we
know from Genesis 39: 5 that he was very rich: “the Lord blessed the Egyptian’
s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that
he had in the house, and in the field.” Since Pharaoh later confirms
Joseph’s new status as administrator of all Egypt by having Joseph marry the
daughter of the high priest of Ra from On, that implies that Joseph’s
priestly father-in-law, Potipherah, likewise was very close to Pharaoh and was
very rich, while also showing that Pharaoh was devoted to Ra. What the name “
Potiphar” adds to this is that the Captain of the Guard in charge of Pharaoh
’s security, who per Egyptian tradition likely was a general or other
military man, likely changed his name to openly honor Ra, even having the
chutzpah to change his name to “Potiphar”, with that name sounding
suspiciously
similar to the name of the high priest of Ra from On who truly was devoted
to Ra: “Potipherah”. That in turn would indicate that Pharaoh was
unduly devoted to Ra, to the point that non-religious officials felt the need
to
change their names to profess their own devotion to Ra. Accordingly, the
period of time when Joseph was in Egypt must have been the Amarna Age,
when all of the foregoing specific facts are fully attested historically, as
follows.
The high priest of Ra from On in the Amarna Age was Pawah (whose name
sounds like the first half of the Biblical Egyptian name “Potipherah”: pA
wA-), and a general named Ramose (whose name openly honors Ra, like the name “
Potiphar”, which ends with pA ra) likely was in charge of security.
Moreover, the situations of these two particular high officials under pharaoh
Akhenaten are exactly what is implied by these two Biblical Egyptian names and
the accompanying Biblical text:
“[T]he South Suburb [of the city of Akhetaten/Amarna] was essentially a
residential quarter…. The occasionally higher social status of the South’s
inhabitants is apparent not only from the larger floor area of the villas
and the frequency of walled gardens but from the increased evidence of
stone jambs and lintels carrying the name and principal titles of the house
owners, many of whom are well known -- the priests Panehsy and Pawah,…and the
general Ramose.” Nicholas Reeves, “Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet”
(2001), p. 126.
“[T]he southern part of Akhetaten [was] a district occupied by the
mansions of high officials, such as…the residence of General Ramose,…who was
found to have changed his name from Ptahmose in deference to the prevailing
fervour for sun-worship at Amarna.” Cyril Aldred, “Akhenaten: King of Egypt
” (1988), p. 59.
What’s in a name? We see that the name “Potiphar”, as the name of
Pharaoh’s wealthy Captain of the Guard that overtly honors the god Ra as the “
distant”/wA.ti/W+ god (being the Egyptian god, alternatively called Aten, to
whom Pharaoh [Akhenaten] was unduly devoted, with every Egyptian word in
these two Biblical Egyptian names playing an important role in Akhenaten's
Great Hymn), tells us a lot. That name deftly lets us know that Joseph’s
Egypt must have been the Amarna Age, because the Biblical Egyptian names
Potiphar and Potipherah are redolent of the historical names of the security
chief and the high priest of Ra from On at Amarna, both as to the sounds of
both sets of names and as to what the underlying meanings of these two
Biblical Egyptian names imply.
The p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives is
truly breathtaking! We can even figure out the exact location of where
each of Biblical Potiphar and Biblical Potipherah historically lived, and we
can also deduce that Potiphar had changed his name to curry favor with
Pharaoh [Akhenaten]. It’s all right there, in the received Biblical text, if
(i) we are willing to ask if the Hebrew letter vav/W in these two Biblical
Egyptian names is a consonantal vav/W, being the key linguistic point here,
and (ii) we take what the Biblical text says seriously.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
