Joseph's Linage - Wife and Two Sons
Emails & Questions
Q: We know a lot about Joseph, the mistreated brother of Jacob's (Israel's) other 11 brothers. Having spent most of his adult life as visor to the Pharaoh of Egypt. Apparently his wife was an Egyptian. This would make his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, half Hebrew and half Egyptian, certainly not pure bloods. Still, they get a portion of the promised kingdom of Israel titled to them. What else can we know about them, if anything?
A: Good question, or question and info. It is interesting that Joseph, the brother sold into slavery by his own, jealous brother. I say jealous because Joseph dared to tell his older brothers about a dream that pictured him ruling over his brothers -- so, they sold him to a passing caravan heading for Egypt. Of course, we all know the story -- Joseph ended up being saved from prison and finding favor with Pharaoh, he was made second only to Pharaoh. The historical account for all of this is found in Genesis, chapter 41. We are not given much info concerning his blended family -- so to speak. Joseph does not wast any time. He forecast 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine, and before the famine, he had two sons. He was given a wife, the daughter of High Priest Potiphera.
Picture this: A child of the Kingdom of God, Joseph, is living among strangers and marries a non-related woman who is the daughter of a pagan Priest, representing many different gods of stone and sky. The stranger, Joseph is given a different name, a name very hard to pronounce, and becomes part of the Ebyptian system, and it is this system that ultimately saves Joseph's own people.
Many parallels could be drawn from what happened to Joseph and continued to happen all the way back to his two (gentile mix) children are take back to the Kingdom -- the promised land -- of the children of Israel (Jacob). Look at it for yourself. The people of God lose their way and are delivered from annihilation by famine, only to go into a type of captivity among the pagans, citizens of the kingdom, only without a kingdom. They are delivered by a savior from the famine by Joseph (a type of Chirst ), then they go into a long period of worldly captivity, unable to enter the Kingdom they where promised. Another Savior comes along, like Moses, one who lived for a time among the Gentile Kingdom of the world, and leaving that Kingdom for a time, he returns to deliver the people of the Living God back to their Kingdom. There are some parallels in there somewhere.
The following I found using AI and it is pretty good info and demonstrates that while something is known, not much outside of speculation, is given. Still, Jospeh portion is divided among his two sons, sons of mixed race, making for 13 tribes.
An AI search turned this up:
The biblical Joseph’s Egyptian wife was Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the high priest of the city of On (Heliopolis) . Arranged by Pharaoh, their marriage produced two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh , who became the forefathers of two major tribes of Israel . [1, 2]Beyond these brief mentions in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 41:45) , we learn much more about her from ancient historical and religious traditions: [1]
- Pagan Origins: As the daughter of a priest, she was deeply tied to the Egyptian religious and aristocratic establishment. Her name itself is often translated to mean "belonging to Neith," an ancient Egyptian goddess of war and weaving . [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
- Conversion to Judaism: Because she came from a pagan background, later Jewish midrashic and apocryphal texts detail her conversion to the worship of the God of Abraham. The ancient text Joseph and Aseneth recounts how she disavowed her former idols, wept in sackcloth and ashes for seven days, and was visited by an angel before marrying Joseph. [1, 2]
- Alternative Rabbinic Perspectives: Some Jewish commentaries suggest she wasn't a stranger to the family at all, but was actually the daughter of Dinah (Jacob’s only daughter) and the Egyptian prince Shechem, meaning Joseph married his own niece . Other commentators debate this, pointing out she was solely the daughter of an Egyptian aristocrat with no relation to Potiphar the prison warden