“Pharaoh called Joseph by the name Tzafnat-Pa‘neach and gave him as his wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-Fera priest of On.“-Genesis 41:45
I want to point out something obvious about Joseph’s wife Asenath I think many of us have a tendency to skip over without giving it much thought.
Joseph’s wife is considered to be an Egyptian.
She is a Gentile.
And when I say she is a Gentile, I don’t mean she was a Gentile who switched her allegiance from Egypt’s gods to YHVH.
She retained her full Egyptian identity.
There is no evidence she ever converted.
In fact, she was the daughter of a priest who was of the Temple of On.
On was the city of the Sun God.
The purpose of the Temple of On was to pay homage to the highest Egyptian deity called Re (or later Atum-Re).
On would later be called Heliopolis, meaning the city of the sun.
Thus Joseph married the heathen daughter of the priest of the Sun God!
Why did God allow this?
In the story of Dinah and Shechem, we saw how God orchestrated circumstances to prevent intermarriage from occurring between Jacob’s family and the Hivites.
Back in Genesis 39, we also saw how God thwarted Judah’s intentions to carry on his family line through his Canaanite wife by having Judah unknowingly sleep with his Semitic daughter-in law Tamar who disguised herself as a prostitute.
So why was it acceptable in God’s sight for Joseph to marry an Egyptian who was of the line of Ham and didn’t pledge allegiance to YHVH?
In fact, given her status as the daughter of the Sun god’s priest, it would have been unimaginable for her to become a Hebrew.
Some Christians say this points to Jesus marrying His Gentile Bride which symbolizes the Christian church.
However, if this typology is to be correct, then Asenath would have to have converted and pledged allegiance to YHVH.
There is no evidence of her doing that.
It seems like the rabbis had a real problem with this and Jewish scholarship through the ages has largely denied the Egyptian racial origin of Joseph’s wife.
“The disturbing fact with regard to the wife of Joseph was her descent from Ham.“-Professor V. Aptowitzer of Hebrew Union College
Many Jewish legends actually say that Asenath was the offspring of Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, and resulted from Shechem’s seduction as told in Genesis chapter 34.
However, I believe the answer might lie in the findings of modern scholarship.
Do you remember how I mentioned earlier that Egypt at this time was under subjugation by Semitic conquerers known as the Hyskos or Shepherd kings?
Well, the Egyptian capital of the Shepherd Kings, Avaris, was in the region of Goshen where the Israelites dwelled and On the city of the sun god (or Heliopolis) where Potiphar and his daughter resided was located apparently just a stone’s throw away.
My point is could not Potiphera and his daughter, Joseph’s wife, also be members of the Semitic Shepherd Kings?
In fact, the Jewish historian Josephus believed that the Hyksos were “the children of Israel”.
So who knows, maybe Joseph married a Hebrew after all.
If this theory is true, it harmonizes with past Scripture and shows that again God orchestrated circumstances to keep His Semitic line pure as he did with the Shechem incident and the incident with Judah and Tamar.
I have to disagree with you on this, Judah’s daughter-in-law’s nationality is not mentioned, but because her father lived in the land of Canaan or near the land of Canaan then it could be inferred that she is is a Canaanite or at least a member of one of the Canaanite tribes, and the law stating that they shouldn’t marry outside of their tribes didn’t exist back then, in fact the tribes didn’t exist back then the men who the tribes were named after did exist though, but the tribes themselves no. And Joseph would have accepted the wife that the Pharaoh would have given him, because it would have have been an insult to the Pharaoh to say no.
Disagreement noted. Thanks for reading and sharing. I’m certainly not going to be dogmatic with the perspective I shared in this post, but if it is true that Joseph became one flesh with a Canaanite, I would think it would certainly go against the principle of YHVH wanting to keep his Godly Shemitic line pure.
They were pure because HE made them pure just like HE did to whoever believed on HIM. In Deuteronomy 21:10 GOD outlines the law for marrying a woman from an enemy territory. Obviously, GOD saw the heart of people was what made them pure and not their race remember this scripture in Romans 3
9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.
Remember that the only wife Solomon ever wrote a book about was his wife who described herself this way:
5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
6 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
Who knows maybe she was one of the Midianite (Ethiopian tribe) who were grafted into the Israelite family in Numbers 31: where Moses said the ones who have not known a man by lying with them keep for yourself (v18) and of which 32 were dedicated to GOD (v40). It could be because after this in Deuteronomy we find the law about marrying a woman who was from an enemy nation. Leave religion, the zionism, and false teachings and follow what GOD’s word says.
Thanks for sharing.
Amen. God does not show partiality. There is no Jew or Gentile. We all came from one man, Adam. Noah’s sons all had the same parents and ancestry. Both twins were ‘goyim’ in Rebeka’s womb and they had the same parents and ancestry.
Your wrong. There is Jewish and gentile on earth. When your born again and expecially when Jews and gentiles are in our glorified bodies, then we are a new creation. There’s neither Jew or gentile. This comment is wrong. The Jewish people which is actually the ones that start the 1000 year reign of Christ. These are only 1/3 Jewish believers protected by God in the 7 year Great Tribulation. The body of Christ will be in our glorify bodies, but the Jewish people will still be in their sinful bodies and live like the days before Noah up to the 1000 years if they and their decedent’s all worship and serve God.
This all has to do with the COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST WITH ALL HIS SAINTS.
The typical teaching of the Scriptures demands that the Church be caught out “before” the Tribulation. Enoch, a type of the “Translation Saints, ” was caught out “before” the Flood, and the Flood is a type of the Tribulation. The word of God teaches not only good types of Pre-Tribulation Rapture but also the types of the Gentile Bride for God’s Son.
1. Joseph was a type of Christ and he was espoused to, and married Asenath,(Gen.41;45) a Gentile bride, during the time of his “rejection by his brethren, ” and “before the famine, ” which typified the Tribulation, because it was the time of “Judgment of his Brethren.” This is the time of Christ’s rejection by “His Brethren– the Jew, and to complete type He must get His Bride the church, “before” the Tribulation.
2. Moses, who is also a type of Christ, got his bride, and. she a Gentile, “after” his rejection by his brethren, and “before” they passed through the Tribulation under Pharoah. (Exo. 2:23-25)
.
3. ‘Boaz is the Lord of the Harvest Ruth is his Gentile bride’
There’s a HUGH difference between being a Gentile and a Canaanite, though all Canaanites are Gentiles. The difference is the Cananites carried the Nephilim seed. The land of Canaan was the land of the giants. That’s why God forbid the intermarrying with the people in the land of Canaan. Ishamael and Esau both married Canaanites and lost their birthright even though they were the firstborn. God was against mixing those seeds. The last chapter of Zechariah which talks about the Day of the Lord’s wrath and its result… The last verse of the chapter says . . .in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the houe of the Lord of host. There will be Gentiles but NO Canaanites.
God rules the world no matter who is king, if we agree with your idea that Joseph will could be Hebrew descends from diana’s children, that make God allowed him to marry the priest of On daughter ” can you also tell us what you have to say about pharaohs ring that he gave to Joseph?????
Here I want to say that God has power to make the unclean clean, and what God has made clean let know one call unclean. Thank you.
I consider that Joseph had to marry a Gentile as I have read that Ephraim and Manasseh became the nation’s of Great Britain and the Empire and the USA . What’s your take on this ?
Ephraim and Manass formed the Africa Community does why they have issues with pronounciation,
What about the Ethiopian woman Moses married, whom God turned Miriam leprous from her complain about it
Whether pure or not jews hebrews israelites are sinners like everybody else get over it .
I agree this guys even says GOD caused incest to occur to keep the bloodline pure. So what about Moses’ Ethiopian wife. It seems more to mee this write is supporting Jewish scholars views (based on their problem with Hamitic people’s and descendants) instead of YHVH and Jesus the Messiah.
Both of Moses’s sons descended from his Semitic wife, not his Ethiopian wife. Therefore his lineage would still be purely Semitic.
But Ruth was a moabite yet she married Boaz and had Oned
Ruth was a Moabite in that she temporarily lived in Moabite territory and was “of Moab”, not that she was a Moabite by blood. She was of Semitic blood and not a Canaanite.
I also disagree. If God wanted us to know Asenath was Semitic then He would have pointed that out for sure. Instead He clearly informs us that she was Egyptian. It is quite arrogant of anyone to ignore God’s highlighting of things so that they can continue denying Jesus. Today the Jewish authorities have declared that a person is only Jewish if the mother is Jewish. Well, if they don’t make up some story about Asenath then two tribes of Israel came from a gentile, blowing up their tradition of man.
In addition, Ruth and Boaz had Obed. According to the mentality of the authorities in Israel today, Obed was not Jewish. Now God doesn’t point out that Obed’s wife was Jewish, nor Jesse’s. We know that there was never anyone more Jewish than David. Well, David’s great-grandmother was a gentile. It’s all just a big show to make sure at least half the child has Jewish genes. When a mother is impregnated the fear is that she committed adultery. So if being Jewish is based on the mother, then they know the child is at least half Jewish. If the father is Jewish and the mother isn’t, then it’s possible that she committed adultery and the child may have no Jewish genes, if the man she slept with wasn’t Jewish.
I am with you on that one. And the fact that the mother of Boaz was probably Rachab of Jericho (gentile and harlot) makes things even worse for some.
If Asenath was not a gentile then Jacobs blessing of Ephraim makes no sense.
Gen 48:19 “And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations (melo hagoyim – fullness of the gentiles).”
Rom 11:25 “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
Also:
Gen 48:16 “The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow (dagah – become numerous as fish (the symbol of early christians – ichthys)) into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
Rachab the mother of Boaz was not Rahab the Harlot. Two different names, two different people, two different places. Rachab is never called “Rachab the Harlot” because she was not. Rachab was a pure-blooded Hebrew; there is no Canaanite blood in Jesus’s bloodline.
Well written!
God has always put men as the head. Children born of Jewish father r Jewish.
Yes, you are correct.
The law created by Jewish leaders is not from God that it’s the mother lineage. It’s not even in the Torah.
This law disqualifies all Jewish people of being a Jewish. Almost all patriarchs marry gentiles, so if this is true that it comes from the mother, then Jewish people wouldn’t exist.
The sinful nature comes from man. If your father is pure Jewish, then you are 100% Jewish. It doesn’t matter what your mother is.
Agree.
Interesting comments. My question is would it have been any less challenging for Joseph to marry someone from the lineage of Japheth with regards to maintaining the “Godly Shemitic line pure?”
Thanks for sharing this perspective. Very interesting.
Thanks for reading Mark! Be blessed! Shalom!
I’ve read a number of commentary on this part of Genesis but the one that you laid out here makes the most sense to me so far.
who says she was his only wife
was she his only wife
You people really know nothing about Asenath..find out the writing called Joseph and Asenath.Everything is there.
Joseph was a Master of Wisdom and just like all of the family of Jacob and Moses,he was learned in all manner of wisdom and in the Zodiacs and the planets.
Waow! Thanks for that view shared it is mind opening. But please what about Moses if we talk in the line of God not wanting any blood mixed? Whose by scripture is proven to be Ethiopian and the daughter of a priest too.
“Whose wife” Moses’s wife
I have no way of knowing if Asenath was a prodigy of Shepherd kings. I have a question because so many have written that Midianites are Ethiopians. Midian and jebel al Lawz is in N.W. Arabia. So how did a priest of Yah living in Midian become Ethiopian?
Exo 2:21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
Num 12:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Ethiopian is a translation of Hebrew kuwshiyth (Strongs’s #3571).
Some people don’t know the original word behind the translation and assume that Zipporah was Ethiopian. Some people know the original word but assume that Kush was only Ethiopia. In reality Kush was also a name for a big part of Arabia
“The Midyanites settled in the region of Mount Sinai and by the Gulf of Eylat, in Arabia. That land was already inhabited by non-Semitic peoples, namely, the Kûsh and Mušuri of the Assyrian records, and very likely Avraham’s children and successive generations married women from the local people, consequently it is correct to assume that the Midyanites were ethnically less Semitic than Hamitic. In fact, they followed the Kushite tradition of having many queens among their rulers: three successive Assyrian kings (Tiglat-Pileser III, Sargon II and Sennakherib) mention seven Midyanite queens: Zabibi, Shamsi, Te’elkhinu, Yati’ah, Tabu’wa, Yapa’a and Bashi. Such a characteristic is not found in any Semitic kingdom, in which the queen was just the king’s wife but very rarely the main ruler. In support of the Kushite character of Midyan, there are some ancient texts that link the land and people of Midyan with Kush, and also the Hebrew Scriptures suggest this connection: It is typical in Hebrew poetry to compose verses repeating the same concept twice but with different words, like the statement written in Havaqquq 3:7 “I saw the tents of Kushan under sorrow; the curtains of the land of Midyan trembled” – here the Prophet uses the names “Midyan” and “Kush” as synonymous. Such an identification of Northern Arabians with Kushites explains the controversy regarding the Kushite wife of Mosheh mentioned in Bemidbar 12:1; here the question emerges, whether she is to be identified with Tzipporah the Midyanite or not, and some interpreters like Rashi assert that this woman is indeed Tzipporah. If Midyan would have been so clearly distinguishable from Kush, such a controversy would not have arisen. The conclusion that she was not Tzipporah is understood by other elements and not by this ethnic definition. Furthermore, the Biblical land of Midyan is called Kûsh in Assyrian records.”
Iam here to tell you god is yet in control he has never lost it what ever going on in the word the all mighty god knows about it .Trust him and belive his word and it shall come to pass he is a healer
If only the semites were Israel. Only they’re not. As you’re about to find out soon.
I saw somewhere Ásenath, Joseph’s “former spouse” Did Joseph divorce her?
This a general reply not specific to Tony:
As I read some of the comments my mind was taken to I Timothy 1:4 about not getting to caught up in “endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.” (ESV) I think some about this like I do about Covid-19. NOTHING takes God by surprise!
The Egyptians believed in an Afterlife. The Jews living in Egypt learned of circumcision from the Egyptians. The Jewish Pharisees adopted the belief of an afterlife. Israel, a contraction of Isis-Ra-El, was just a stagecoach stop between Civilizations. The Old Testament was gathered together at Jamnia, a city given to Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai and his Priests as a gift by Roman General Vespasian. Johanan along with Josephus (Joseph Ben Matthias) prophecied Vespasian’s rise as Emporer, about 67 CE.
Since God has set eternity in their hearts, (eccl) it would reasonably be thought that most people, including ancient ones believe in some kind of life after death. Tho not foremost in Scriptures, many do point to life after death.
However we shouldn’t stray too far from the revealed Scriptures (unless you don’t believe them) and remember that circumcision was commanded by Yehovah to Avraham.
Shalom
I agree Sandy.
We should be careful not to quickly assume things which contradict the Bible.. For example, according to the holy scriptures (Genesis 32), Israel was the name that Yehova assigned to Jacob long before Jacob and his family ever went to live in Egypt. So the Israelites did not just conflate two Egyptian names on their own to come up with the name Israel. Many language experts believe the name Israel traces back to a meaning of “he struggles with God but perseveres”..
This is a more reasonable theory for anyone who believes the Bible.
The Egyptians believed in an Afterlife. The Jews living in Egypt learned of circumcision from the Egyptians. The Jewish Pharisees adopted the belief of an afterlife. Israel, a contraction of Isis-Ra-El, was just a stagecoach stop between Civilizations. The Old Testament was compiled at Jamnia, a city given to Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai and his Priests as a gift by Roman General Vespasian. Johanan along with Josephus (Joseph Ben Matthias) prophecied Vespasian’s rise as Emporer, about 67 CE. Josephus lived in Alexandria Egypt, home of the famous Library of Alexandria containing the histories and myths of the then known world. Married to an Egyptian-Jewish woman whom he divorced later, Josephus and the Rabbis of Jamnia wrote themselves into the O.T.
SEE: works of Josephus, Loeb Library, Harvard Press, 20 Volumns
works of Philo of Alexandria, 10 Volumns
Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud; Jewish Encyclopedia
To understand the Bible, Philo of Alexandria tells us that it is not the names of the individuals, but the meaning of their names that count:
Potiphar: meaning “Given by Sun God Ra”
Asenath: meaning “Gift of the Sun God”
Are you forgetting that the tribes of Israel were all scattered? Plus the Messiah did not come from
Joseph?
Didn’t the blood line come from Judah?
Not even from the Levites
Your perspective please. Thank you, Jay
What about Boaz he married a Moabite
Ruth converted in Ruth 1:16 after her first husband died, and she went to live in Israel as one of their people. True, not everyone accepted her, including the man who, by custom, would have been her first husband’s next-in-line to marry her, but Boaz did, and since Jesus came through a descendant of theirs, it is to be taken by faith that God did accept her. The first five books of the Old Testament contain some laws on who is, and who is not, allowed to become a naturalized Israelite after a certain number of generations.
Egyptians were not gentiles, but descendants of Ham. Gentiles are descendants of Japheth. Shemites and Hamites were mixed before Abraham. Eber married into Cush’s family. Abraham Father of nations: those he fathered with Hagar and Keturah. Joseph already carried Ham,’d DND because of Eber. No such thing as an Israelite with only Shem’s DNA.
God has divided the world into two people groups: Hebrews and Gentiles.
So if you’re not a Hebrew, you’re a Gentile.
And that’s all there is to it.
The Egyptians daughter was an Egyptian princess and she denounced all Egyptian gods and pledged her allegiance to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob before she was married to Joseph. Read the book of Joseph and Asenath in the Ethiopian Bible.