Zenephi (in Ze-Mormon 9:16)

My father once asked about the Book of Mormon name Zenephi. I was stumped. A little later it hit me. Following a common Egyptian name pattern, z3 (son) + Divine Name or Attribute or Quality, Ze + Nephi yields Son of Nephi. (Find fifteen packed pages of z3- and z3.t- names in Hermann Ranke's classic Die Aegyptischen Personennamen, I: 280-295; Zenephi appears on p. 282, no. 17.) 

The name might also designate a Nephite Prince, or any Nephite for that matter. The first Nephite kings all took the name of the first king and protector, and thus were known as the Second Nephi, the Third Nephi, and so on. Son of Nephi could thus designate the heir to the throne--the Son of Nephi, whether the son of Nephi III or Nephi V.

Ranke even gives us a Zenephi, Zenebi, or Zanibi (Son of My Lord), but the sole Zenephi attested in the Book of Mormon holds the stage of history in a single, startling verse, a verse that shouts Libya, Syria, and the Congo, a verse that whispers a portent to the whole world: Bataans everywhere.

And again, my son, there are many widows and their daughters who remain in Sherrizah; and that part of the provisions which the Lamanites did not carry away, behold, the army of Zenephi has carried away, and left them to wander whithersoever they can for food; and many old women do faint by the way and die (Mormon 9:16).

So don't be surprised when it happens here.


When I first encountered Brigham Young University's online Book of Mormon Onomasticon Project, I promptly turned to Zenephi:

"Possibly EGYPTIAN z3-nfy, “son of NEPHI/the chief,” from z3 (=sa) + nfy (q.v.) (RFS)."

When the chance finally came to ask Bob Smith (RFS) about the derivation, he had forgotten about it and, in fact, had lit on a different origin for the element ze-. Later, to my amusement, the following surfaced:

"Val Sederholm suggests EGYPTIAN Z3-Nfy 'Son of Nephi' (RFS)."

A wee correction is in order. Nephi, or Nep-Hi (or Nb.i-Hi), should reflect not Nfy (sea captain), but the common Egyptian pattern for a Neb.i name, my Lord is (this particular) god. Such a reading, along with other possibilities for Nephi that follow the name as spelled, rather than our fanciful pronunciation(s), all come from the writings of Hugh Nibley, a close student of Ranke's collection of Egyptian names. Ranke (I:282, no. 17), it bears repeating, yields the very name: z3-Nb or z3-Nb.(j?). (The feminine form z3.t-Nb also appears.)

The spelling of Nephi is the key. Derivations from roots such as nfy or nfr fail to convince: Nephi signifies neither good nor beautiful (nfr, *nafir, to be complete, finished, and thus beautiful, and, just maybe, good). The final /r/ in the word nfr/nafir often slips away--and that's the argument given for reading Nephi in light of nefer--but the Egyptian lexicon surely gives us many instances of its lingering power. One survival of nfr, with the final /r/ firmly in place, appears in the still current name Onofrio (Osiris Wennefer, Wnn-nefer, Osiris Everlastingly Integral and Beautiful), as in the tasty D'onofrio ice cream.

 
It is really Hugh Nibley who first derived Zenephi from Z3-Nb-H', even if he never bothered to jot down volume, page, and number--no. 17--which is hardly necessary to do, if you've memorized the entire volume. Brother Nibley had on hand many copies of the Book of Mormon, and in one of these (now in the Hugh Nibley Ancient Studies Library at Brigham Young University), he marked each Book of Mormon name, as listed in an appendix, with its appropriate letter: H for Hebrew, A for Arabic, E for Egyptian, and so on. (Don't forget the M for Mitanni names.) It's a small treasure.

Racing down to Zenephi, I found:

Zenephi E

How could it be otherwise? As Hugh Nibley well knew, there is no more common pattern in Egyptian naming than the aforementioned z3 or z3.t + Divine or Royal Name or Quality, Son or Daughter of So-and-So, or the One who Belongs to Such-and-Such a Divinity, or Who is in firm possession of Such-and-Such a Quality or Grace, e.g., Zat-Mafk3t, Daughter of Greenstone (i.e., as Precious as Malachite), Zat-Neferet, a Daughter of Outstanding Perfection, a true Beauty. The hero Sinuhe, as we usually transcribe the Egyptian Z3-Nht, is Son of the Sycamore, meaning Hathor as the goddess in the Sycamore tree, the nurturing mother, the ever-flowing waters of life. Sinuhe might as well be spelled Zenuhe or Zanuhe. 

Book of Mormon ze- for z3- is right on the money. While it doesn't necessarily follow that every name starting with ze- in the Book of Mormon fits the same pattern, Zenephi could hardly reflect anything else. Consider, too, the following patterned sequencing of names: "The Book of Nephi, the Son of Nephi, who was the Son of Helaman": Nephi ntj (or Heb. asher) Zenephi ntj Zehelaman."

While there are many such sons, and sons of sons. . . z z z. . . the narrative yields but two names of women: Sariah and Abish. (Isabel labels but does not name.) Mother Sariah may be understood as either princess or prince of Jehovah; Abish, my father is a man. Both names now appear in Ancient Near Eastern sources; Abisha, in hieroglyphs, names a Semitic chieftain, clothed in a magnificent particolored robe, bartering goods in Egypt (see the Book of Mormon Onomasticon for references). The Lehites cloaked all women in the aura of royalty, their gracious names not for display. (The women of Mulek and of Jared walk in the same mystique.) Could we know of others, I would be surprised if there were not a princess or two bearing the name of Zet- or Zatnephi (Daughter of Nephi: cf. z3.t-nb(j?), Ranke, I:290.1), Abinephi (Nephi is my father), or Abilehi. Ranke (I:286.7,8) not only gives us the Egyptian princess Zat-Omni (z3.t-imny), we even have Second Zat-Omni (z3.t-imny snw.t, I:286.9; cf. Second Nephi). Zatammon (Ranke I:286.6), Zatmanti (I:289.8), Zatjarom, Zatmoroni, Zatmormon. 

I know Zat Moroni girl.








Updated, February 2019, to add references and additional examples from Ranke, as a help to the young reader. The enhanced discussion of the name Nephi also serves, it is hoped, to dispel the quite impossible idea that the name derives from the Egyptian word nfr or that either the name Nephi or the Egyptian nefer, signify good, much less goodly. Think Nefertiti. She wasn't good and she wasn't nice--she was simply the perfection of beauty. 

Proud of Itself is the City: Ammonihah, Tenochtitlan, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City

A Nahuatl song, glorifying war as the very fulfillment of the American dream, captures the smugness of a great people in an impregnable city:

Proud of itself
is the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
Here no one fears to die in war.
This is our glory.
This is Your command,
oh giver of Life!
Have this in mind, oh princes,
do not forget it.
Who could conquer Tenochtitlan?
Who could shake the foundation of heaven?

With our arrows,
with our shields,
the city exists,
Mexico-Tenochtitlan remains.
Cantares Mexicanos, fol. 19 v.-20 r, in Miguel Leon-Portilla, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico, 87.

"Songs proclaiming the glory and power of the Aztecs frequently reach an almost mystical exaltation," 86. It is a voice singing eerily from the dust--a voice of warning from the ancient peoples of America to the usurpers of their proud place.

Such boasting is a leitmotif in the Book of Mormon. This great city Jerusalem, or that great city Zarahemla, or this great city Ammonihah united stand as impregnable as heaven and earth to all contest human or divine. The theme of impregnability goes hand-in-hand with the book's insistence on destruction. As Hugh Nibley would tell his classes, that associated theme sounds its trumpet blast in the very first chapter of Nephi (verse 4): "The great city Jerusalem must be destroyed!" For a sense of how destruction goes on to weave its pattern throughout the entire book, he advised us to consult the concordance--and to be prepared for a shock. 

It is Civilization versus God and repentance. Civilization, the state of the great City, must fall in her unrepentant pride (see Revelation 18). The idea reaches a fever pitch in Helaman 13:12-14: "Yea, wo unto this great city of Zarahemla. . . yea, wo unto this great city. . . this great city. . .this great city. . . yea, wo be unto this great city." It is the Echo of History.

The elites of mighty Ammonihah slap Alma with their stolid refrain, "Who is God, that sendeth no more authority than one man [or one General Authority or one Church] among this people," and ream him out with their cant about their own particular little city and their own particularly novel, lovely, rational ideology being as lasting as earth itself:

Who art thou? And for that matter: Who is God?

"Who art thou? Suppose ye that we shall believe the testimony of one man, although he should preach unto us that the earth should pass away?

Now they understood not the words which they spake; for they knew not that the earth should pass away.

And they said also: We will not believe thy words if thou shouldst prophesy that this great city should be destroyed in one day.

Now they knew not that God could do such marvelous works."
(Alma 9:2-5).

That part about "one day" sums up the degree to which man will tempt God.

In due time--or ten chapters' space--"the people of Ammonihah were destroyed; yea, every living soul of the Ammonihahites was destroyed, and also their great city, which they said God could not destroy, because of its greatness.

But behold, in one day it was left desolate; and the carcasses were mangled by dogs and wild beasts of the wilderness" (Alma 19:9-10).

That last detail shows one everlasting irony: ever that great city stood, even at her peak, at the borders of man and beast--in reach of the wild.

"Nothing beside remains," though its infamy persists:

"And it was called Desolation of Nehors; for they were of the profession of Nehor, who were slain; and their lands remained desolate" (Alma 19: 11).


Perhaps the great lesson about civilization in the Book of Mormon is the utter unawareness of the inevitable fall--the great lesson of never learning the lesson at all, despite all the learned "profession."

For, but a few years later, we hear the Nephite boast sounded again:

Why do you suffer this man to revile against us?
For behold he doth condemn all this people, even unto destruction;
yea, and also that these our great cities shall be taken from us, that we shall have no place in them.

And now we know that this is impossible, for behold, we are powerful, and our cities great, therefore our enemies can have no power over us (Helaman 8:5-6).

One sentence, surcharged with irony, should haunt the memory of every reader of the Book of Mormon:

"And now we know that this is impossible."

It does not take the Lord long to respond.

The Lord acknowledges the great city, even while mocking her wearying pretense:

"Yea, wo unto this great city of Zarahemla. . . yea, wo unto this great city. . . this great city. . . this great city. . . yea, wo be unto this great city" (Helaman 13).

Behold, that great city Zarahemla have I burned with fire . . .

And behold, that great city Moroni have I caused to be sunk in the depths of the sea. . .

And behold, that great city Moronihah have I covered with earth.
(3 Nephi 9: 3-5)


Where is mercy? comes the plea. My question is Where is Moronihah? Have you never, in the quiet of a big-city library, contemplated the whereabouts of Alexandria's bookshelf?


There can be no greater irony in the modern history of the Americas than the refrain:

Who could conquer Tenochtitlan?
Who could shake the foundation of heaven?

Speaking of the Great Cities of world civilization, the living Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, concludes:

"In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security and a comfortable life; and they lost all--comfort and security and freedom."

"Must we learn such costly lessons over and over again? Times change, but truth persists. When we fail to profit from the experiences of the past, we are doomed to repeat them with all their heartache, suffering, and anguish. Haven't we the wisdom to obey Him who knows the beginning from the end?" ("The World Needs Pioneers Today," Ensign, July 2013). "Doomed?" Doomed.

We remember, too, how the people of that great city Ammonihah, the Nephite answer to Bunyan's Vanity Fair and the Revelator's Babylon, longed to undermine the freedoms of lesser, more complacent cities, cities of the ancient, Pre-Columbian American dream:

"They do study at this time that they may destroy the liberty of thy people" (Alma 8:17).

That line of study suddenly becomes the most popular major of every stripe of partisan in Syria, Russia, Egypt, Washington DC, or Venezuela today. But complacency undoes the studious proud and the lazy ignorant alike.

Caught up in their studious dream, lost in their agenda, assured of their power, "in one day," from blue sky to "in Mexico night is falling," the moment of repentance passed. When the sun set, it was not "Like a shield that descends"--"eagles" and "jaguars" to the contrary.

(See additional verses of the triumphant song, Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico, 86).

The site of the lost city, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, nearly the world's greatest city its its time, now also hosts earth's largest city. Together with all other great cities of the world, that Great City Mexico, or that Great City America, again attests, re-born, the struggle between God and Civilization, between the intricacies of ideology and agenda and the simplicities of repentance.



Notes

Elder L. Tom Perry, "Obedience through Our Faithfulness," April 2014, General Conference: "While some very intelligent and insightful people might believe our more complex time demands ever more complex solutions, I am far from convinced they are right. Rather, I am of the frame of mind that today's complexity demands greater simplicity."

The Egyptian Royal Name Onitah in Book of Abraham 1:11

The inspired Book of Abraham introduces a previously unknown scion of royal Egypt: Onitah.

Now, this priest had offered upon this altar three virgins at one time, who were the daughters of Onitah, one of the royal descent directly from the loins of Ham. These virgins were offered up because of their virtue; they would not bow down to worship gods of wood or of stone, therefore they were killed upon this altar, and it was done after the manner of the Egyptians (Abraham 1:11). 

Daughters of Onitah may refer either to a single nuclear family, a father and daughters, or it may refer to an ancestral patriarch or king from whom "daughters" trace a royal lineage. At any rate, Onitah marks an archaic and legitimate line, as "one of the royal descent directly from the loins of Ham." Was Onitah a royal claimant? Did later Pharaohs persecute descendants of the archaic line? We cannot tell. 

Hugh Nibley stresses the widespread and archaic theme of the sacrifice of the three virgins, being "august virgins of the royal line set apart as spouses of the god," or "ritual hierodules." In like manner, though after Abraham's day, "the line of virgin priestesses. . . who enjoyed a position which at Thebes was virtually royal" may be found in the institution of the "God's Wife of Amun" (Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Abraham, 397-403; the quotation beginning with "the line of virgin priestesses" appears on page 400 and is attributed to J.W.B. Barns, JEA 52 (1966), 191; see also Hugh Nibley and Michael Rhodes, One Eternal Round, 176-179).


The name Onitah suggests First Dynasty king, Anedj-jb: 'nDj-jb, the One who is Sound (or Hale) of Heart. Though ordinarily listed as the sixth king of that dynasty, the Saqqara tablet, a New Kingdom king-list, surprises by making this Anedjib or Enezib first of all Egyptian kings. Ramesses II, last in line, looks back to Anedjib (Amelie Kuhrt, The Ancient Near East, I 127-8). 

Two hieroglyphs make up the name Anedjib: Gardiner V26, "netting needle filled with twine" and F34, the heart sign. Students commonly transcribe the netting needle as 'D or, later, as 'd. Yet because of the known reading 'nD or 'nd, "in the case of m'ndt" (in the Pyramid Texts), that is, the mandet, or morning-bark of Re, students often transcribe 'nD or 'nd. The choice to render the royal name as Anedjib, rather than Adj- or Odjib, follows the reading in the Pyramid Texts, which is taken as, at least, an original value of the sign (see Gardiner Sign List V26; Gardiner references Sitz. Berl. Ak. 1912, 958 and Pyr. 335.336, sim. ib. 661).


Names like 'ndy.t, 'nDj, 'D.tj, 'd.tj, which may all belong to the same verbal root '(n)D, also enjoy wide currency for men and women alike in the Middle Kingdom. For attestations, see H. Ranke Die aegyptischen personennamen I 70, 11 (female, 'ndy.t: Sammlung Amherst 445); 70, 12 (male, 'nDj: Middle Kingdom Pap. Bulak 18, 38, 30 and 45. 2, 18); 72, 9 (male and female, Middle Kingdom, 'D.tj or 'd.tj [Hale! Be Well! du seiest wohlbehalten]--this last written with the biliteral sign of the netting needle). Transcribing 'nDj, 'ndj, or even 'd.tj, as either O-n-t-a or O-ni-t-a is sound. I like a Late Period name: 'D-p3-T3w, Hale or Wholesome, or Bracing, is the Breeze (I 72, 8).

The name Anedjib, and at least the last two Middle Kingdom names cited, both also written with the netting needle (Ranke I 72, 8 and 9), all derive from the verb 'D or 'd (orig. 'nD?): "to be in good condition" (Gardiner Sign List, V26; Wb I:208, 237-38: wohlbehalten sein, unversehrt; 'D wD3: wohlbehalten und heil. The first two examples from the Middle Kingdom, though written alphabetically, likely also have the same derivation.

There remain other Egyptian candidates for Onitah. Wentj (that is, Wenty), also given as Wenjtj or Wenta (Oni-ta), though attested only as a female name, comes to mind. Another Pharaoh also bears a name much recalling our Onitah: jnd = Ined. How was the name pronounced? Yant, Yanit, Ant, or Anit are all possibilities (see Darrell D. Baker, The Encyclopedia of the Egyptian Pharaohs, I: 135). Pharaoh Ined reigned in the later Middle Kingdom (Dynasty XIII), the dispensation of Abraham. Again: should Onitah reflect On, the Hebrew transcription of Egyptian jwn (Pillar, Heliopolis), we might consider the Middle Kingdom male names: jwnw.t, Ranke, Personnennamen I, 18.3; jwn mw.t.f (Pillar of his mother; Horus, the young king) I 17.13-14. But the vowels do not match up.

Whatever the derivation, Onitah reflects a Sound Name, an Integral Name. In light of names like Onitah that have a true Egyptian ring to them, the historicity of the Book of Abraham remains Hale and Hearty. The Book of Mormon rings with some sound Egyptian coinage of its own, e.g., Paanchi, Pahoran, Pacumeni, Zenephi (z3-Nephi, son of Nephi).

The wee, fourteen-page Book of Abraham, in fine balance, evinces names of both pure Egyptian and West Semitic vintage, among these: 

1) Onitah (E: 'nDj, Sound, Hale; or, E: wntj, wntt, wnj.tw, etc.) 

2) Olimlah (E in pattern: Great is Amun-Re, Wrj-jmn-r'; I magnify Ra, Wr-n(.j)-r', Hugh Nibley; or even, Great is Amun-Re, '3j-jmn-r') 

3) Shulem (WS, from Ebla: Reconciled, Hugh Nibley) 

4) Olishem (WS, perhaps from 'ly shm, the High Place of Heaven, Hugh Nibley; compare the attested place name that Professor Christopher Woods transcribes as Ulishim) 

5) Jershon (WS, Place of Inheritance, Stephen Ricks, Book of Mormon Onomasticon Project). 

6) Shagreel (WS, Shagre-el, the name of a star; a known star deity, perhaps Sirius, Hugh Nibley)



Also introducing. . . 

7) the princess Katumin (E in pattern: Qdw-jmn, Qdw-mn, Amun (or Min) created (me); less likely is complicated K3(.j)-dj(.w)-jmn, my ka is the one Amun has given. The Egyptian grapheme d would have been pronounced /t/.

To these, we can also add a new place name from the Abraham chapters of the New Translation of the Bible (JST Genesis 14:10):

8) Mount Hanabal (WS: Hanna-Ba'al, Ba'al is Gracious). Mount Hanabal apparently takes her place among the Mountains of Moab, the right setting for the cult of Ba'al.



Fourteen pages pack in a lot of authentic Egyptian and Canaanite names, themes, and scenarios.

Critics of the Book of Abraham's setting in Ancient Syria and Egypt have a lot of explaining to do. 



Notes

 
Olishem: Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Abraham, 415.
Additional comments in Val Sederholm, "The Plain of Olishem and the Field of Abram"
http://valsederholm.blogspot.com/2010/04/plain-of-olishem-and-field-of-abram.html

Ulishim: Christopher Woods, "The Practice of Egyptian Religion at 'Ur of the Chaldees'?" pages 89-91, in Robert K. Ritner, The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyrus: A Complete Edition (2013).

Olimlah: Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 587-88 (Wr-jmn-r' = Hermann Ranke, Die Aegyptischen Personennamen, 1:80; Wr-n(.j)-rj = Konrad Hoffmann, "Die theophoren Personennamen des aelteren Aegyptens," Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Aegyptens, 7:51-51)

Shulem: Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, 451. Hugh Nibley calls Shulem a "good Syrian and Canaanite" name; Ebla PN's Database gives the reading Reconciled.

Hanabal: Val Sederholm, "Joseph Smith and Hannibal: Mount Hanabal in Joseph Smith Translation Genesis 14:10"
http://valsederholm.blogspot.com/2013/08/joseph-smith-and-hannibal-mount-hanabal.html

The god of Elkenah in Hieroglyphs and in the Book of Abraham

I

We are not coming to terms with the Pearl of Great Price as we might, unless by its study we also magnify our view of the ancients and, thereby, open "astonishing paths" of discovery (see Hugh Nibley and Michael Rhodes, One Eternal Round, 2). By reading the scriptures, we can come to see things as they once really were.

The Book of Abraham introduces the surprised reader to a hitherto unknown god, the "god of Elkenah," and to his priest, who meets Abraham at an altar of sacrifice.

Might the name Elkenah be found in Egyptian hieroglyphs? his image appear on a pharaonic stele? Yes and yes.

Is the name authentic? Hugh Nibley, writing in 1969, sorts through evidence for the name Elkenah (or, as variously spelled, Elkkener, Elkkeenah), and mulls over its several possible meanings in both Canaanite and Egyptian (Improvement Era, August 1969 = An Approach to the Book of Abraham, 313-319; cf. also John Gee, Stephen D. Ricks, "Historical Plausibility: The Historicity of the Book of Abraham as a Case Study," in Paul Y. Hoskisson, ed., Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, BYU, 2001).

More recently, Kevin Barney has drawn up a thorough brief for Elkenah. Among plausible solutions he reconsiders the well-known Canaanite god, El qny; he also discusses the Hittite-Hurrian spelling of El qny in the form Elkunirsha (qny 'rs, Creator of the earth). Even so, Kevin Barney cannot decide whether Elkenah should take the q or the k. Is Elkenah to be understood as El qenah (El the Possessor or Creator) or is he El kan'a (El of Canaan)? (Kevin L. Barney, "On Elkenah as Canaanite El," Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 19/1 (2010), 22-35.) Hugh Nibley saw in Elkkenner a spelling, however bizarre in Roman letters, indicative of Semitic /q/.

Elkenah is an authentic name; a touch of the genuine may well be found on a Syrian stele commemorating Ramesses the Great, the Bashan stele, first identified in 1884. Because locals saw in the stone a seat for ancient Job, students tag the stele the "Job stone." Soon it will be better known as a New Kingdom reflection of Abraham's milieu. 


II

The Bashan Stele of Ramesses II shows us how the Pearl of Great Price may help in puzzle-solving. 

(For bibliography see K.A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, II 223, 6;  for both bibliography and discussion, see also James Hoch, Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, 327; Izak Cornelius, The Iconography of the Canaanite Gods Reshef and Ba'al: Late Bronze and Iron Age I Periods (c 1500-1000 BCE, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 140 (1994), page 145.)

In the weathered depictions and engravings on the 2 meter basalt stele, we first note the name and image of Ramesses the Great. Ramesses, sporting the blue crown, lifts the image of the goddess Ma'at, sitting in a basket, to a divinity crowned with the Osirian Atef--but this is not Osiris. The Atef crown, "in this case, in relation to this subject" (to borrow a line from Joseph Smith), uncharacteristically sports a long, curved horn (a bull's horn?), maybe two horns. An accompanying label, in the special syllabic "group writing" used for Semitic words, gives the divinity's name.

The first signs spell the Canaanite name for their high god, El, or Ilu; then come the outstretched arms, which customarily write the syllable k3 and, presumably, in group writing, ku or ko; next comes n and signs likely expressing the vowel -ah. The following segment, also in group writing, yields Dapuna, which is Mount Zaphon, the Levantine Olympus. We thus have, at least graphemically, El k-n-a Zaphon.

The exact lexemic reading of the name has never been settled.

James Hoch suggests El Kolia, God the Restrainer, and--to be sure--the n-grapheme can sometimes be read as l. Yet no other attestation of El Kolia appears anywhere. Both Giveon and de Moor read: jr k3nj D3p3n, "Canaanite 'l kn tspn," which means Ilu, Creator of Zaphon, Ilu Founder of Zaphon, or Ilu, Possessor of Zaphon). As everyone notes, the k3 or k doesn't match the q sign. But what of the Hurrian-Hittite divine name, El Kunirsha (Ilu, Possessor or Creator of the earth)? El Kunirsha matches El qny, though written with a k--by way of the cuneiform sign ku. With this last name in mind, De Moor asserts: "The inscription runs i-r3-k3-n-i D3-p3-n and should be interpreted as 'il qny tsaphon El the Creator of the Zaphon" (Johannes C. de Moor, "Ugarit and Israelite Origins," 217-18, in Congress Volume Paris 1992, ed., J.A. Everton). Has Abraham trespassed upon the demesne of El Kunirsha?

We await more evidence before settling on El qny for the Ramesses stele. Still, given 1) the fact of discovery in Syria, 2) the egyptianizing crown of the Canaanite divinity, and 3) a name attesting El with attribute k-n-a (whatever that sequence of graphemes may signify); any reader of the Book of Abraham will exclaim: Abraham Chapter One, the god of Elkenah!

Again, it is not so much an aggregation of evidence for the Book of Abraham that concerns us here, as it is reading the book to elucidate the ancients: to resolve questions, puzzles, mysteries. Can Abraham's record contribute to our understanding of puzzles like the Bashan stele? That is the question.

While we may not yet opt for any particular reading, there is no difficulty in positing il k-n-a, or even the transcription Elkenah Zaphon (or Elkunah/Elkonah). The name, here, could either mean, as some have it, God (El), the Creator or Owner (qny, qnh) of Zaphon (the mountain shrine of the Canaanites), or as that particular Elkenah who is worshipped at Zaphon.

III

Potiphar's Hill at the head of the plain of Olishem reflects lofty, even celestial, Zaphon. According to Hugh Nibley, 'ly shm, signifies "Height of Heaven." Is the Potiphar's Hill of Elkenah to be equated with El q-n-a's Zaphon? According to de Moor, the record does attest local versions of Zaphon, all reflections of that first and foremost Zaphon, which is itself but a palatial reflection of the heavenly height. Might Dapuna (cf. Abraham's Libnah or Zibnah) be, in fact, the "god" who is named the god of Elkenah at the local Potiphar's Hill? More to the point, is it not Ba'al Zaphon (the Owner or Master of Zaphon) who is the god of El Kenah Zaphon? Each rivals, twins, usurps the other: Gog and Magog. Is the priest of Elkenah, a stand-in for the priest of Pharaoh, says Abraham, also a stand-in for the priest-king who offers to El q-n-a at Dapuna? a Dapuna now transferred to the local hilltop at Bashan? Hilltops, mountains, Dapuna, Zibnah, Zaphon, Bashan, Olishem, Potiphar's Hill--all these congregate about Elkenah.

Professor de Moor further explains: "The Job-stele implies that according to the local mythology [shall we add, the local ceremonial?] El had dispossessed Baal of his mountain Zaphon [qny = to possess, own]. Where the stone was erected had apparently been re-named 'Zaphon.' Wandering of geographic names is a common phenomenon" (217-218). For instance, the name of Mount Moriah, where Abraham offers his son, Isaac, transfers onto Mount Zion, which itself comes to bear the name Zaphon (Psalm 48:3); "a promontory in the sea near Lake Serbonis" (the Egyptian Delta) also becomes Zaphon (218). 

Zaphon in Canaan--yes. But in Egypt? Canaanite El, wrought in bronze and wearing Osiris' Atef crown, ubiquitously appears in the Ancient Levant--and in smiting pose. As with the god, so with the priest: the priest of Elkenah, that is, the priest of Pharaoh, stretches forth his hand to smite Abraham on the altar. What Abraham Chapter One describes is a ritual combat, the combat at world's creation for the possession of the earth, the seas, the mountains, the netherworld, etc. Possession is an act of victory: The winner takes all. The left-hand panels on Book of Abraham Facsimile Two--the Egyptian hypocephalus--with full accord, also invoke the all-victorious cosmocrator that rules by right of possession (nb) in heaven, earth, Duat, Nun, and mountain. Potiphar's Hill, like Zaphon for Ba'al or Ilu, becomes the locus of Victory. If I read my Nibley and the Book of Abraham rightly, the combat being played out features Sirius and the Sun, rivals for cosmic rule that ultimately collapse into one divine power ("the god of Shagreel, who is the sun"). Elkenah, who, at essence, merges with the Egyptian Sun, is the victor, whether on cosmic mountain or at local hill. Yet it is ultimately Abraham's God who wins the battle and takes possession. And what of Mount Moriah? 

And what of Bashan? Here we meet "not the weak, old god who is on the verge of surrendering his position to Baal of Zaphon" but "an El who sought to oust Baal," even "a contender for the position of supreme god" (de Moor, 218). The upstart Aten contends against the same adversary, according to a letter sent to Pharaoh by the king of Tyre (218). And the Sun-qua-Aten brings us back to Heliopolis. "Egyptian ritual and literature," says Nibley, "often give us fleeting glimpses of the setup at On." Thus at On (Heliopolis) "the false pretender from the south is 'cast down from upon the hill on the east of On' to sink into the waters of death at its foot" (Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Abraham, 412). Joseph Smith, in his explanation of Facsimile One, notes these same waters below the sacrificial altar, and in which swims the hungry crocodile awaiting his prey--even "the idolatrous god of Pharaoh." A watery death lurks below; then--croc and hawk--"like a thunderbolt he falls!" from "on high," even from the "heavens"--as Joseph Smith's interprets the waters "in this case, in relation to this subject." Death from on high? from the waters? and like a crocodile in sudden splash and flash? In the likeness of Abraham Chapter One, where the priest of Elkenah "was smitten that he died," we find Hadrian in AD 129 sacrificing at Zaphon. And "when he sacrificed, a storm came up and lightning struck both victim and officiant" (John Pairman Brown, Israel and Hellas I). And Hadrian prevailed.

The priest of Elkenah, with glittering knife, thus comes to us in the likeness of the god with the thunderbolt: Baal, Zeus, Indra. Assuming that rescuing role of bringer of the regenerative rains, he both draws the lightning and, at once, stands apart from danger.

According to John Pairman Brown, the idea of Zaphon, as translated to its various appointed localities, is that of victory over the waters (and thus also victory over drought), a victory represented as being over the sea monster, monster waves, and, indeed, the crocodile. Thus the victory over Pharaoh at the crossing of the Red Sea also takes place in the vicinity of Baal-Zaphon, i.e., Mount Kasios (John Pairman Brown, Israel and Hellas I, "Excursus B: The god of Kasios and his adversary"). Note again how there is more than one Mount Kasios = Zaphon, each associated with Baal-Zaphon and the victory over the waters.



IV

Hugh Nibley often refers to Moses 1:25 and its theme of kingly victory over the cosmic waters: 

And he heard a voice saying: Blessed art thou, Moses, for I, the Almighty, have chosen thee, and thou shalt be made stronger than many waters; for they shall obey thy command as if thou wert God.

The manuscript copy of Moses 1:25 reads more precisely and more Hebraically: 

thou shall be made stronger than the many waters for they shall obey thy command even as if thou wert God

(Joseph Smith Papers, Documents I:55; cf. Doctrine and Covenants 21:4-6)

Joseph Smith Translation Old Testament Manuscript 2 clarifies what it means to speak for God:

for they shall obey thy command even as my commandments

(cited in Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, In God's Image and Likeness, 61 = S. H. Faulring, et al., Original Manuscripts, 593).

Both Abraham Chapter One and Moses Chapter One open with a common theme: the triumph of God over the forces of sky, earth, water, and the powers of men. And the same delegation of that same Divine authority heralds the present dispensation (6 April 1830):

"The church [shall] give heed unto all his words and commandments. . . For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth." As promise for obedience, in a cosmic, even cosmogonic victory (v. 6), "the gates of hell shall not prevail," "the powers of darkness" will be dispersed, and "the heavens" "shake" (Doctrine and Covenants 21:4-6).


V

The reader sees in the investiture of Moses a reference to the Red Sea crossing, and also to Mara made sweet and Meribah (see Hugh Nibley, "To Open the Last Dispensation: Moses Chapter 1," in Nibley on The Timely and The Timeless, 5, 12; ib., Enoch the Prophet, 157-8; 297 n. 300; Hugh Nibley, Michael Rhodes, One Eternal Round, 87-88; Hugh Nibley, "The Circle and the Square, in Temple and Cosmos, 157; ib., Teachings of the Pearl of Great Price, Lecture 18, 4-5; see now also Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, In God's Image and Likeness, 60-1; 96). "The king," says Hugh Nibley of the Year Rite, which reenacts both creation and coronation, "must emerge victorious at the moment of passing through the waters of life, death, rebirth, and purification, and the ancients always understood Moses' leading his people through the Red Sea as the type and similitude of a baptism, symbolizing at one and the same time death, birth, victory, and purification from sins" (Enoch the Prophet, 158).

We can now see why Joseph Smith so oddly adds the label Red Sea to the description of the Galilee in Isaiah 8-9. The powers of darkness afflict the land and the people walk in darkness. They then see a great light of deliverance (a thunderbolt?) and, with joy, herald the birth of the King of Kings. The "way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations" perforce symbolically reflects, another event, that of the Red Sea--and vice-versa (2 Nephi 19:1; JST Isaiah 9:1-2; cf. the Targum Jonathan). Jordan, Galilee, and the Red Sea, like the "wandering names" of Zaphon, are thus brought into one, each brightly reflecting the other (see my "2 Nephi 19:1 and the Red Sea," posted on 2 March 2010).

The subjugation of "the many waters" (ha-mayim rabbim) to the Divine command also clearly references the Divine cosmogony, including things only hinted at in the Bible. Yet Joseph Smith revealed Moses Chapter One decades prior to the decipherment of cuneiform, and a century and more prior to the discovery of the libraries at Ugarit and Ebla. And note how the words in the Book of Moses about the Divine subjugation of the many waters, described as coming from a voice of the Almighty Himself, precedes a detailed account of the Creation. It is the voice of God Himself, through his Prophet, Joseph Smith, not that of 19th century students, which announces to moderns the motif of the cosmogonic battle against the powers of the waters.

In Abraham's story, the Canaanite god, who is the Possessor, Controller, Creator, Producer confronts the God of Abraham, who is also the God of Melchizedek, even the Most High God, the Possessor (El qoneh) of Heaven and Earth (Genesis 12). Pharaoh, and all kings else, cede the day to Melchizedek and to Abraham. No wonder the Slaughter of the Kings in Genesis 12 portrays the in-gathering of rulers from every known clime. Is this combat? or Nowruz? All is one. According to Professor Brown: "Hebrews historicized the [Zaphon combat] myth at several points," viz., creation, flood, Red Sea crossing, return from exile (99). So why not Abraham at Potiphar's Hill at the Plain of Olishem? We do see Abraham at the Slaughter of the Kings at Shaveh and on Mount Moriah, but the terrifying encounter at Olishem finds a trace only in the Nimrod-Abraham legends (Hugh Nibley and Michael Rhodes, One Eternal Round). Something went missing from the Bible.

Why all these historical moments of cosmic import--even cosmic dispute? The mayim rabbim, surging matter, says Herbert G. May, are "the intransigent elements which had to be quelled by Yahweh before creation could begin, and which must ever be defeated by him as he continues his activity in history" (Herbert G. May, "Some Cosmic Connotations of Mayim Rabbim, 'Many Waters,'" JBL 74 (1955), 11). Accordingly, as the ordering of creation continues, God makes all His servants "stronger than the many waters," as they act in the stead of God, or "even as if thou were God." Abraham at Potiphar's Hill faced Elkenah, in a contest of priestly authority, and in the Name of God, came off conqueror. "I will take thee, to put upon thee my name, even the Priesthood of thy father, and my power shall be over thee" (Abraham 1:18). The reverberation of that moment of victory resounds for the seed of Abraham throughout all subsequent history.

Consider Fishing River and Zion's Camp. Armed men, numbering in the hundreds, planned the "utter destruction" of Joseph Smith and the Camp. A cannonade was begun. But "it seemed as if the mandate of vengeance had gone forth from the God of battles, to protect His servants from the destruction of their enemies." A momentous torrent of rain and hail swamped the mob, as "the water rose thirty feet in thirty minutes in the Little Fishing river." One man was felled by lightning, others drowned, horses fled. The Camp found shelter in an old, hilltop Baptist meeting-house. "As the Prophet Joseph came in shaking the water from his hat and clothing he said, 'Boys, there is some meaning to this, God is in this storm" ("As the Prophet": "Wilford Woodruff's note in Ms. History of the Church, Book A, p.332"; History of the Church II: 102-106).

God is also in this storm surrounding President Thomas S. Monson, our living Prophet.

On the Bashan stele we find traces of Ramesses. He wears the blue crown of coronation and of warrior-conqueror, and this clearly marks him as one who seeks possession of the whole earth. So arrayed, he pauses, like great Alexander, to pacify, or to contest, or to compare titles with, the foreign Elkenah Zapon, though far from Mount Zaphon proper, by offering the image of little Ma'at, gentle daughter of Amun-Re.

All else on the stele is obliterated. Of conquering Ramesses, "nothing beside remains."

The Book of Abraham remains. 

Earth remains--and Olishem and Potiphar's Hill, though unrecognized, still bear their solemn witness.












Notes

Worthy of a brief note is how all four Sons of Horus (or Geb) names in the Book of Abraham reflect business affairs:

Elkenah (possessing, acquiring)

Zibnah (to sell = if zbn; it also evokes Dapuna, Zpn)

Mahmackrah (Semitic: mmkr, to sell)

Koresh (according to the Prophet Muhammad's biography, the clan of Quraysh also conveys the notionality of business acquisition).

The Egyptian Name of Joseph: Zaphnath-paaneah and Facsimile 2 of the Book of Abraham

I

Joseph's Egyptian name, transcribed as Zaphnath-paaneah, presents a puzzle for which many have proposed a solution. I enjoy all such efforts and wish to put my own hand into the game.

The Book of Abraham likewise presents names purporting to be Egyptian: Onitah, Olimlah, Enish-go-on-dosh. For all of these, not having the hieroglyphic Vorlage, we enjoy broad scope for speculation. And a latter-day Joseph invites "the world" to give it a go: to "find out these numbers" (Explanation for Book of Abraham Facsimile 2). 

 
Genesis 41:41-45 reads:

41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.

42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.

44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.


As these verses show, accession to office requires 1) a new vesture (and a ring), 2) a special name, and 3) marriage into an official priestly inheritance. Clothing, naming, marriage, office, and priesthood here make up a single Heliopolitan constellation. And as every reader notes, accession also signals a reversal of fortunes. Potiphar, master and jailer, meets Joseph anew as the priest Poti-phera, a man from whom Joseph inherits all things. The name Zaphnath-paaneah must then, somehow, also speak to accession or reversal or both. 


II

"The meaning of the name Zaphnath-paaneah is a problem that has much preoccupied the commentators," says Josef Vergote (Joseph en Egypte (1959), 142; for the full discussion of Zaphnath-paaneah, Aseneth, Poti-phera, see 141-152; see also Jan Assmann, "Aseneth," in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 616-18).

Which interpretation is the best? (Who gets the golden chain?)

Kenneth Kitchen, who tags earlier attempts "weird and wonderful," opts for metathesis: Zatnap for Zapnat. (Kitchen borrows the idea from Rex Engelbach.) "Zatnap corresponds precisely to Egyptian djad(u)-naf, 'who is called...,' introducing a second name after the first--for example, 'Ankhu djad(u)-naf Hedjeri' means 'Ankhu called Hedjeri'" (Kenneth Kitchen, "The Joseph Narrative (Genesis 37, 39-50)," Bible and Spade, Winter 2003; Reginald Engelbach, "The Egyptian Name of Joseph," JEA 10, October 1924, 205). Here, Hedjeri is clearly the nickname, what the Egyptians call the Little Name (rn nDs--or later, and perhaps euphemistically, the Beautiful Name, rn nfr)--while Ankhu (Lives) is the Great Name (rn a3). Such formulations go back to the Old Kingdom: "His great name is Neferherenptah; his little name is Fifi" (see Pascal Vernus, "Name," in Lexikon der Aegyptologie IV, 320-26). The change from Hebrew Joseph to courtly Zaphnath-paaneah, or even Pa-Aneah, partakes of something more significant than the contrast between the Great Name and the Little Name. 

The reading most widely accepted, and thus most carefully critiqued, is that of Georg Steindorff (via J. Krall): "God speaks (or has spoken) and he lives" (Dd-nTr-jw.f-'nx). Understood, though unstated, is also the possibility, "the goddess speaks" (Dd-nTr.t). For many, such a reading is too generic: the record does attest the name formula, which marks a safe birth, but only with mention of a specifically named god or gods. Donald Redford resolves the matter by positing "Ipet and Neith speak and he lives" (Dd-Ipt-Nt-jw.f-'nx: A Study of the Biblical Story of Joseph, 230-231). Here the p fits the goddess Ipet; Neith (nat? neit?) easily replaces neter (the god). 

The (Krall)-Steindorff-(Redford) reading yields a name that denotes a safe birth; it perhaps also answers to the idea of restoration or renewal--a rebirth. Yet already in 1901, the Jewish Encyclopedia names the weakness: "This has become popular, and is philologically possible; however, it does not convey the allusion to Joseph's office or merits which we should expect." For Redford, the author of the Joseph story, who cares nothing about context or meaning or even translating the name, merely picks an Egyptian name out of the air, "for an air of authenticity" (Donald Redford, Joseph, 231). 

That's no fun. Neither does it match the evidence. Poti-phera, "Given of the Sun," date the name how you may, does fit the priestly Heliopolis, City of the Sun. Asenath, as Neith, divine mother of Egypt, also hits the mark. Consider the famous Joseph and Aseneth novella: "Then there is the roman a clef; the author has realized that the Egyptian name Aseneth means 'belonging to Neith.' Many almost inperceptible details of the story can only be explained as referring to the goddess of Sais" (Marc Philonenko, Encyclopaedia Judaica 11:419). Besides, the idea of Joseph and his wife both bearing Neith names hardly sustains the argument for no authorial intent. The author of Genesis 41, however unlikely it may seem, assumes an audience capable of both cultural and linguistic code-switching.

Back to the "weird and wonderful."

Josephus heads the list of those proposing an explanation; the following students have continued the game (Vergote, 151-52):


Df3 nD p3 anx "nourishment, savior of life" (A. Harkavy, 1870)

p3 snts n p3 anx "the founder of life" (A. Wiedemann). 

Weidemann's solution, which derives from the Greek Septuagint version of the name, meets with W. F. Albright's approval: p3-snT-n-p3-anx, 'the sustainer of life' (JBL 37 [1918], 132, cited in Redford, ibid., 230 n. 2)

D(d) Mnts.w iw.f anx  "Montu speaks and he lives" (J. Krall, 1888)

T-s-n-t, i.e., Ts.(t) n.t p(r) anx  "the head of the school of learning, of the sacred college," (E. Naville, 1903)

it n.t pr anx  "(member of?) college of the House of Life" (A. Erman, 1883)

D(d) p3 nT(r) iw.f anx  "the god has spoken and he lives" (G. Steindorff, 1889, as cited in Vergote, 143; Steindorff follows Krall)

Df3 n t3 pdi anx "Nourisher of the Lands, Lebensspender" (E. Mahler, 1907)

Dd.w n.f p3 anx And Pharaoh (to him) "qu'on appelle (aussi) Le Vivant": "He whom men (also) call the Living One" (R. Engelbach, 1924)

di.t xpr nt3 X.t n p3 anx  "And Pharaoh nominated Joseph 'to procure the way of life'" (H.F. Lutz, 1945)

K. Miketta (1904) critiques all--and rejects all.



If we don't take ourselves too seriously (and how could we, after looking over the notes of Naville and Erman?), we can still try our hand at the puzzle. Yet since we face the stern eye of Miketta, it bodes well to prefer originality over success. I accordingly play a verb which does not appear in the scholarly tally: Db3 (clothe, adorn, put on insignia, provide with, equip with, restore, replace, give retribution, recompense, pay back).


III

If Zaphnath derives from Db3 nTr or Db3 p3 nTr, the name signifies "(the One whom) the god (or goddess) shall so clothe" (that is, with office, honor, endowment, dignities). Or as Professor Redford suggests, the element nath may signal the goddess Neith: Db3 nt, Db3 Neith: "May Neith (the goddess of weaving) clothe him"; "May Neith give him recompense and restore him to his rightful honors." As previously mentioned, the name of Joseph's bride, Asenath, likely derives from ns-nt, "belonging to Neith." Does her name belong to a era postdating the Patriarchal? The name pattern, "belonging to such-and-such a divinity," is well attested in the Old Kingdom, though wildly popular in the Late Period. 

That Joseph should be clothed by Neith need come as no surprise: as Genesis closes, we read of Joseph's mummification. And what goddess prepares and winds the mummy bands? Neith. Whether Zaphnath refers to Neith or not, it is yet that same divine mother of Egypt who weaves the insignia of his office--and who also (symbolically) weds him (see Jan Assmann, "Neith"). Asenath, here, officiates as Neith by endowing the king or priest with authority of office. Neith might even appear in one of the Book of Abraham's puzzling names: Onitah (perhaps from '3 Nit, "Great is Neith"). Onitah "one of the royal descent," is known for his three daughters, who are, by default, daughters of Neith, as is every princess of Egypt (Abraham 1:11). Onitah also calls to mind First Dynasty ruler, Anedj-ib; '(n)Dj, the Sound of heart; Sound or Hale is also an attested Middle Kingdom name.

Joseph is, after all, one whom God clothes, or endows, with honor of office. The expression "arrayed him in vestures" answers to the Egyptian expression Db3 mnx. Clothing in robes connotes the endowments and honors of office. First in order comes the ring or seal, Db'.t, which again recalls Db3. The Hebrew consonantal sequence tz-p-n-t matches Db3 + p3 nTr, Db', Db, Tb, etc. Db'.t, a nominal form, suggests reading Zaphnath-paaneah as "the seal of God, the Living One," or, as a verb (Db'), "the god (or goddess, or Neith) will seal (place his seal on, claim ownership of) the Living One." Joseph, with his seal, evokes Solomon.

The first hurdle for any interpretation of Zaphnath-paaneah is whether that interpretation can be readily rendered back into Egyptian. The second, poses the question of whether any such name or naming formula in fact occurs in the Egyptian record--so far as we can ascertain such things. Again, does the name somehow match the themes and imagery of the narrative, or correspond to the other Egyptian names found in the narrative? 

The Egyptian record indeed attests the personal name Db3, Djeba, which frequently occurs as a male name in the Middle Kingdom (H. Ranke, Die Aegyptischen Personennamen I, 406, 5). We also find the names Db3-nfr and Db3-snb (Good successor, Healthy successor), which both suggest the idea of the replacement of the father with a goodly son. The names suggest payback, that is, repayment for some good deed. 

Db3 carries the sense of something restored, repayment; Db3 nfr thus bespeaks beautiful repayment, beautiful replacement, perfect replacement (he succeeds to his father's honor and office, as a sound replacement). Compare the jdn principle by which the sun god finds manifestation and visibility, substitution and replacement, through the agency of the solar disk. The jtn, or disk, becomes the jdn, or replacement, for the hidden, transcendent Amun-Re (see David Klotz, Five Hymns to Amen-Re from Hibis Temple). Db3 (Djeba) "repayer" signifies "he will repay his parents" by attaining to honor. The feminine name, Db3tysj, likewise suggests "she who will pay back": she will be a good daughter that will repay through her worth, and so graces the parents who took pains to raise her well. Db3 snb is the "healthy repayer," but also he "who repays health"; he is the one who gives back health and soundness to the parents who raised him; he repays them with perfect things: beauty and goodness (nfr).

We discover a pattern:

Who repays in health and soundness.

Who repays in goodness and perfections.

She who is to repay.

He whom the god repays or replaces or restores to honor, that is, Joseph restored to honor and to dignity--and from death to life.

The one who has been given back, re-placed in his fit standing; re-stored to his rightly position; and, therefore, fit as a re-placement for the king. He is re-clothed, or re-dressed--and re-dressed.

One whom the god has restored to grace; recalled into grace; put back into honor.


Joseph had lost everything and descended below all; now he is restored, given retribution many times over, provided and equipped with power and authority. He stands the worthy replacement, substitute, likeness of the king himself, clothed and endowed with power. Restored to his dream-destiny, chosen Joseph thereby qualifies to marry the princess, the daughter of the "One given of Re," the high priest of Heliopolis. She now "belongs to you" (to evoke Kitchen's analysis of the name Asenath).

To read Zaphnath-paaneah in light of the rich Egyptian verb Db3 does indeed "convey the allusion to Joseph's office or merits which we should expect."

I do not believe anyone has suggested--perhaps tossed out?--such an interpretation of the name, but it works. Here are three tries--though, alas! no charm:


And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah, which is, being interpreted, the god shall clothe the Living One with honor of office (or restore the Living One).

The sentence Db3-p3-nTr [or nTr.t]-p3-anxy signifies the action of naming--the pronouncement of the name--it is also the name itself, for naming and name make up a whole, with Paanchi being what might be called the name within the name, the quintessence of being: And Pharaoh pronounced [vayyiqra' = spoke out, pronounced, called] Joseph's name, as follows: May the god clothe with honor of office--the Living One.

And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah, which, being interpreted, is, May Neith, the Living One, clothe (or Neith shall clothe the Living One) with honor of office.  

And Pharaoh called Joseph's Name Zaphnath-paaneah, which, being interpreted, is, May the god so seal the Living One [P3 Ankh or Pi-Anki, Ranke, 103, 1 and 2: p3 anx and p3 anx.i; cf. Book of Mormon Onomasticon, "Paanchi," q.v.]


Reading -paaneah as the Living One, puts both Naville and Erman back into the game; for, as any student familiar with Professor Derchain's edition of papyrus Salt 825 knows, the mysterious character standing at the center of the House of Life (the pr anx) is the "Living One" (p3 anxy). The Living One of the House of Life, the resurrected Re-Osiris, not only personifies the House of Life as a building, he thus also personifies its fourfold ceremonies--the inner temple--that give Life its continuance. Joseph has also been restored to life, symbolically raised from the dead. And it is Hugh Nibley who notes how the Living One, in the Ritual of the House of Life, standing in the midst of the four houses that make up that great library-temple, also evokes four-faced Kolob at center of the Egyptian hypocephalus (Improvement Era, August 1969 = An Approach to the Book of Abraham).



Facsimile 2 of the Book of Abraham, a hypocephalus, links the word Db3 with Heliopolis (Heb. On): "I am the Djebabty in the House of the ben-ben in Heliopolis." The sentence describes the Kolob figure, or the Transcendent Amun, at the center of all things. By marrying the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis, Joseph becomes the lieutenant of Poti-phera's priestly honor just as surely as he is the king's own lieutenant. He has a priesthood. He may not exactly be an Egyptian priest, but he does stand as a beneficiary of that priesthood and acts under that authority, while retaining his own divine office. Joseph in Heliopolis now becomes what we might call the Db3.ty (the One belonging to or pertaining to the Db3) in the temple of Heliopolis.

Joseph marries the priesthood, meaning its rites and privileges, its honors and dignities. Note how the text does not link any of this to idolatry. After all, "She belongs to you": all that Aseneth inherits now, "and without compulsory means," belongs to Joseph. Great Egypt yields to the true priestly authority of God. The Egyptian priesthood, its rites and privileges, are but the shadow of the true: in the persons of Abraham and Joseph, Egypt is swallowed up in the true kingship.

Clothing, marriage, priesthood, Heliopolis: Is it Abraham Facsimile 2 or Genesis 41 we have to do with here? The Book of Joseph merges with the Book of Abraham.



NOTES


For more on Josephus, Lepsius, and Steindorff, see

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15167-zaphnath-paaneah

Edouard Naville, "The Egyptian Name of Joseph," JEA 12 1/2 
(1926), 16-18.

For more on Joseph and Aseneth see Marc Philonenko, Joseph et Aseneth and Hugh Nibley and Michael Rhodes, One Eternal Round, 413-420.