Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

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