Zaphenath Paaneah

And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

Genesis 41:45

 

"The origin and meaning of the name Zaphenath Paaneah, given to Joseph during his rise from obscurity to national prominence, has proved to be problematical for translators and Bible historians alike. New research reveals the name’s unusual archaic Egyptian roots, giving the true meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name. Joseph’s three other titles mentioned in Genesis 45 also help to place him in the Early Middle Kingdom Period and consequently point to the likely pharaoh under whom he served.

A search of the literature reveals a bewildering number of solutions offered to the meaning of the Egyptian name of Joseph, Zaphenath Paaneah (Heb. צפנת פענח Tsophnath Pa`neach—pronounced

tsof·nath' pah·nā'·akh).

Moses spent four decades living as an Egyptian where “[he] was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words (Greek logos) and deeds” (Acts 7:22). This clearly implies that Moses was very accomplished in the use of words; and not just in speaking. The Egyptian system of teaching was very thorough and, after four decades of life in the royal household, Moses would have understood the complexities and applications of the Egyptian language and court etiquette. Therefore his choice of the Hebrew, Zaphenath Paaneah, is very likely to be a valid transliteration into Hebrew from the original Egyptian.

The first section of Joseph’s Egyptian name is not a proper name; rather it is a very important and, as far as I can discern, unique title. The Egyptian equivalent of Zaphenath is almost certainly ḏf3wn‘ty, which translates into modern English as ‘Overseer/Minister of the Storehouse of Abundance’. The title ḏf3wn‘ty   can be easily broken down into its composite elements of ḏf3w  ; n  ; and ‘ty  . Part one, ḏf3w, is a noun derived from the verb ḏf3—(to provide for/to abound in supplies), where ḏf is the etymological equivalent of the Hebrew tsof. Part two, n, is the masculine genitival adjective ‘of’. Finally, part three, ‘ty—is a noun expressing the official title ‘Storehouse Overseer/Minister’, which is drawn from the Archaic Egyptian root ‘t—storehouse  . The second section, p3nn’i3ḫ   is a proper name, and like the ending ‘ty of ḏf3n‘ty, exhibits Archaic traits. This name, p3nn’i3ḫ, is also composed of three elements—p3n  ; n’i  ; 3ḫ   The first part, p3n, ‘he of’ is written but there is no grammatical or historical evidence for it necessarily being vocalized. The second part, n’i, and the third, 3ḫ, combine to express Joseph’s new Egyptian name literally as [p3n]n’i3ḫ ‘[He of the] Excellent/Gracious Spirit’ where n’i translates as ‘excellent/gracious’ and 3ḫ translates as ‘spirit’.

Significantly, when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers (Genesis 45) he made no mention of his office of Overseer of the Storehouse of Abundance, but chose to refer to himself by three other titles:

“… a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler throughout the land of Egypt” (Genesis 45:8).

 These three titles are consistent with known Egyptian titles from the Middle Kingdom and generally were retained for life. לְאָב לְפַרְעֹה (‘Father to Pharaoh’) was equivalent (though subtly changed by Joseph to avoid any connection with the Egyptian priesthood) to the Egyptian it nṯr   and as a result became an honorary title denoting not only rank but degree of intimacy with the king; אָדֹון לְכָל־בֵּיתֹו (‘Lord of all his house’), was the equivalent to the Egyptian imy r pr nsw (pr nsw being of archaic root as with elements of Joseph’s name discussed above)  ; and מֹשֵׁל בְּכָל־אֶרֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם ‘… ruler throughout all the land of Egypt’ was equivalent to the Egyptian … sḥḳ3.n i n kmt ḫt t3 pn r ḏr.f (… caused me to rule throughout the entire land of Egypt.)  , where t3 pn r ḏr.f translates literally as ‘this entire land’.

During the period of chaos leading up to Mentuhotep II’s reign, the nomarchs or provincial rulers held important powers over Egypt. Selve noted:

“At the end of the Old Kingdom, central power, and in particular Pepy II [Pepi II], developed the regional particularisms whose rivalries had progressively excited a thirst for dynamic power, by the heredity of the nomarch responsibility: the rights and the advantages acquired in one period were passed on to the successor who supplemented them with new privileges. The state, weakened by the political situation, was unfit to manage the overflow of regional confrontation, which again weakened it more.” 

The nomarch office had become hereditary during the 6^th Dynasty of Egypt and the collapse of central power gave all nomarchs tremendous power over their domains.

When the famine predicted by Joseph arrived, his first political move, acting on Pharaoh’s behalf,

was to offer grain for ‘money’ (Genesis 47:14—Heb. כֶּסֶף keceph i.e. silver). All the monetary silver was placed in Pharaoh’s treasury. A year later the people exchanged their second-most-valuable commodities—their livestock—for grain. In the third year, all the people clamoured for more grain (Genesis 47:19) and offered their most valuable commodities—their bodies and land—in exchange for grain. In the space of just three years Joseph had achieved what decades of internal struggles had failed to do. In an amazing tour de force, he handed the land of Egypt, along with its people, back into Pharaoh’s power, as in the days of the Old Kingdom; only the temples, their estates, and the priesthood were exempted.


The actual cost in all of this to Pharaoh? Nothing? The gain for


Mentuhotep II

Pharaoh? Everything—absolute control of Upper and Lower Egypt.
It is not unreasonable to say that Joseph had, in the process, helped create a semi-feudal system not dissimilar to the later European feudal system of the Middle-Ages; and this almost 3,000 years before the Europeans.

Coupled with Joseph’s grain policies, Mentuhotep II was free to initiate a strong policy of centralization, reinforcing his royal authority by creating the posts of Governor of Upper Egypt imy r sm‛w  and Governor of Lower Egypt imy r t3 mḥw  , who had power over the broken nomarchs. Mentuhotep also, importantly, created a mobile group of royal court officials who further controlled the activities of the nomarchs. Eventually nomarchs who had supported the Herakleopolitan kings of Lower Egypt, such as the governor of Sawty (modern Asyut), lost their power to the benefit of the pharaoh.
Unfortunately, most of the tombs of 11^th Dynasty officials have been vandalized, which makes it impossible to identify a named official of the time as Joseph."
by Patrick Clarke/CMI