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  • From: "Isaac Fried" <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The Name "Joseph"
  • Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 12:16:42 +0200

Jim,

You may be deluding yourself in thinking that the name Joseph is a grammatically structured Hebrew word. It may well be that the initial YO in this name is the YA in his father’s name and the YI in his grandfather’s name, being all holly names.

The fact that the bible in Genesis 30:23-24 gives two accounts or justifications for the name is reason enough for caution.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

----- Original Message ----- From: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 5:14 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] The Name "Joseph"



The name “Joseph” has the following odd meaning: “gathered, added”. Why
did his mother Rachel give her firstborn son such an odd name? Rachel knew
that her sister Leah had given Leah’s fourth son the magnificent name “Judah”,
which as previously discussed means “praise YHWH”. Why didn’t Rachel try to
come up with an even more magnificent name for Rachel’s own son?

One of the key issues for us to keep in mind here is to try to figure out why
Rachel gives her son the odd name “Joseph”, which means “gathered, added”.

Here is the text where Rachel gives her son the name “Joseph”:

“And she conceived, and bore a son, and said: 'God hath taken away
[gathered/)SP] my reproach.' And she called his name Joseph [YWSP], saying: 'The LORD
[YHWH] add [YSP] to me another son.'” Genesis 30: 23-24

The three key words here, in order of their appearance above, are:

(1) aleph samekh peh/)SP = “gather” (or “collect” or “assemble”).
Occasionally, this word can mean “taken away” or “remove”, in the sense of “
gathered and taken away” or “gathered and removed”. Yet the fundamental meaning is
“gather”.

(2) yod vav samekh peh/YWSP = “Joseph”

(3) yod-samekh-peh/YSP = “add”

All three of these words feature samekh-peh/SP as their last two letters,
which are true consonants. Aleph, yod and vav can be vowel-type sounds, and as
such can be mixed and matched for punning purposes. Yet having said that, it
is clear that the last two words are a much closer linguistic match than the
first word. The words “Joseph”/YWSP and “add”/YSP are about as close as two
Hebrew words can be and still have different spellings, with a different number
of letters. This suggests that the primary meaning of the name “Joseph” is
likely “added”.

Once again, note that the name “Joseph” is an explicit pun on two words, not
just on one word. For each name we have looked at -- “Reuben”, “Simeon”, “
Levi”, “Judah” and now “Joseph” -- that has been the case. Each name is a
pun on at least two words, and is never a simple pun on a single word.

So the name “Joseph” means “gathered, added”. Why such a circumspect name?
What not a glorious name, like “Judah”/”praise YHWH”?

Is Rachel choosing a carefully designed name here, that is carefully crafted
to give her blood son Joseph the best shot at being named to be the leader of
the next generation of monotheists? Or is Rachel fumbling in the dark,
choosing an inauspicious name for no apparent reason?

As we will come to see, “Joseph” is the best name that Rachel could have
given to her son under the circumstances. First and foremost, this name was
cleverly designed by Rachel to give her beloved son a shot at being named the le
ader of the next generation of the new monotheists. Rachel well knew the story
of Ishmael’s sad fate. Rachel was trying her best to distinguish Rachel’s son
’s situation from Ishmael’s situation. Alas, that would not prove to be
possible.

In later posts, we will examine three levels of meaning of “Joseph”, based
on the two explicit puns on that name in the text. As always, the first level
relates to the immediate circumstances of this son’s birth. The second level
will then, as has usually been the case before, reflect the most important
action in this son’s life. But uniquely with the name “Joseph”, there will be a
critical third level of meaning: Rachel’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to
distinguish her son’s situation from that of exiled Ishmael.

If we can understand the name “Joseph”, we can thereby understand much of
the Patriarchal narratives.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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