as´ē̇ -nath ( Ἀσενέθ , Asenéth ): The wife of Joseph, daughter of Potiphera, mother of Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:45 , Genesis 41:50; Genesis 46:20 ). She was evidently an Egyptian woman and bore an Egyptian name. אסנת , pointed by the Massoretes as אסנת , 'āṣenath , appears in the Septuagint as āseneth or asenneth ̌ . The last two consonants appear to represent the name of the Egyptian goddess Neith. The first part of the name will then represent either ns = "belonging to" (so Brugsch and generally), or 'ws -n (note the doubled "n" in the Septuagint transcription) = "she belongs to" (so Spiegelberg). It is possible that these four letters represent the Egyptian name Sn -t (so Lieblein and others), though the א must then be explained as 'ālēph prostheticum and the taw ( ת ) would be less regular than a he (ה ) to stand for the Egyptian feminine t .
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) was edited by James Orr, John Nuelsen, Edgar Mullins, Morris Evans, and Melvin Grove Kyle and was published complete in 1939. This web site includes the complete text.
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