Potipherah
Priest of the ancient Egyptian town of On
title: "Potipherah" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ancient-egyptian-priests", "book-of-genesis-people", "joseph-(genesis)", "asenath"] description: "Priest of the ancient Egyptian town of On" topic_path: "geography/egypt" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potipherah" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Priest of the ancient Egyptian town of On ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Meister_der_Josephsfolge_002.jpg" caption="Joseph and Asenath together on this image in [[Berlin]]. Man depicted close to them may be Potiphera."] ::
According to the Hebrew Bible, Potiphera (, ) was a priest of the ancient Egyptian town of On, mentioned in the and . He was the father of Asenath, who was given to Joseph as his wife by the Pharaoh, () and who bore Joseph two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim.
His name means "he whom Ra has given".
Biblical source
::quote[attribution="{{Bibleref2|Genesis|41:45}}"] Pharaoh then gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him for a wife Asenath daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On. Thus Joseph emerged in charge of the land of Egypt. ::
Theories
It has been noted that Potipherah served as a priest in Ra's most important cult center. A Jewish legend makes him the same person as Potiphar, whose wife was in love with Joseph and whose false accusation got him thrown in prison.
References
References
- The Open court, Volume 27. Harry Houdini Collection (Library of Congress).
- {{bibleverse-nb. Genesis. 41:50. HE
- Hoffmeier, James K.. (1999). "Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition". Oxford University Press.
- Legends of Old Testament characters from the Talmud and other sources by Sabine Baring-Gould
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