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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ark of the Covenant
  • Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 17:08:24 -0500

Dear Marianne,

Because that description fits me, I am unable to believe that Moses wrote the Torah.
In Genesis, in the story of Joseph, two men are named "Potiphar"
(called Petepres in the Septuagint).

HH: I see only one man named Potiphar. The references I have are the
following:

Gen. 37:36 ¶ Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.
Gen. 39:1 ¶ Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
Gen. 39:4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
Gen. 39:5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.

As it happens, such a name was not used in Egypt until the latter
part of the Late Period of Egyptian history (1070-378 BCE).

HH: First, you are forming the name in Egyptian on the basis of the Hebrew. So there is some room for error there, isn't there? Second, it would be hard for me to say that a name had not been used in the United States for a two hundred year period. So to say that a name that appeared in Egypt at a late date could not have been used at any time prior to that, a period of thousands of years, seems a stretch.

HH: Perhaps you had in mind the priest Potiphera:

Gen. 41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.
Gen. 41:50 ¶ Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.
Gen. 46:20 In Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.

HH: The Hebrew saw a difference between the two names, so we have to assume that Potipher and Potiphera were two different names in Egypt, don't we? Perhaps you're saying that this sort of name does not appear, but that sounds sort of impossibly omniscient to me.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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