Daughter of Potipherah, prince priest of On; Joseph's wife; mother of Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 41:50; Genesis 46:20). Her name is probably Egyptian, and means "she who is consecrated to Neith," the goddess of wisdom, a tutelary deity of On or Revelation Athom, the city of the sun god, the Athene of Greece. If it be the Hebrew name assumed on her conversion (as (See BITHIAH means "daughter of Jehovah") and union with Joseph, it may be from asan , "a storehouse," in allusion to Joseph's national service, and Ephraim's name meaning "fruitfulness".
Canon Cook makes it a compound of "Isis" and "Neith," two goddesses akin. The marriage into this idolatrous family seems to have borne evil fruit afterward in the idolatry of Joseph's descendants, Ephraim, and the calf worship. Foreigners had been raised to high rank by Pharaohs of the early empire; Joseph, as Abraham's descendant, would be regarded as of noble birth, and be admitted, especially at the command of an absolute king, into alliance with the haughty priest caste. His circumcision, if, as in after ages, it was then practiced in Egypt by the priests, would be a recommendation. However, as it is not represented in the monuments until the 19th dynasty, long after Joseph, he probably first introduced it.
From the co-author of the classic Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary, Fausset's Bible Dictionary stands as one of the best single-volume Bible encyclopedias ever written for general use. The author's writing style is always clear and concise, and he tackles issues important to the average student of the Bible, not just the Biblical scholars. This makes Fausset an excellent tool for both everyday Bible study and in-depth lesson or sermon preparation.Wikipedia
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