Potiphar

An officer in the court of Pharaoh - - master to the patriarch Joseph. (Gen. 37. 36.) His name is derived, as it should seem to be, from Parah, which means to scatter.

Pot´iphar (contraction of Potipherah), an officer of Pharaoh, probably the chief of his bodyguard (Gen 39:1). Of the Midianitish merchants he purchased Joseph, whose treatment by him is described under that head. The keeper of the prison into which the son of Jacob was eventually cast treated him with kindness, and confided to him the management of the prison; and this confidence was afterwards sanctioned by the ’captain of the guard’ himself, as the officer responsible for the safe custody of prisoners of state. It is sometimes denied, but more usually maintained, that this ’captain of the guard’ was the same with the Potiphar who is before designated by the same title. We believe that this ’captain of the guard’ and Joseph’s master were the same person. It would be in accordance with Oriental usage that offenders against the court, and the officers of the court, should be in custody of the captain of the guard; and that Potiphar should have treated Joseph well after having cast him into prison, is not irreconcilable with the facts of the case. After having imprisoned Joseph in the first transport of his choler, he might possibly discover circumstances which led him to doubt his guilt, if not to be convinced of his innocence. The mantle left in the hands of his mistress, and so triumphantly produced against him, would, when calmly considered, seem a stronger proof of guilt against her than against him: yet still, to avoid bringing dishonor upon his wife, and exposing her to new temptation, he may have deemed it more prudent to bestow upon his slave the command of the state prison, than to restore him to his former employment.

A high officer of Pharaoh, who purchased Joseph of the Midianites, and made him master of his house, but afterwards imprisoned him on a false charge. He is supposed by some to have been the same "captain of the guard" who promoted Joseph in prison, Gen 37:36 ; 39:23.\par

Pot’iphar. An Egyptian name, also written Potipherah, signifies belonging to the sun. Potiphar. With whom the history of Joseph is connected, is described as an officer of Pharaoh; chief of the executioners, an Egyptian." Gen 39:1. Compare Gen 37:36. (B.C. 1728).

He appears to have been a wealthy man. Gen 39:4-6. The view we have of Potiphar’s household, is exactly in accordance with the representations on the monuments. When Joseph was accused, his master contented himself with casting him into prison. Gen 39:19-20. After this, we hear no more of Potiphar. See Joseph.

From Egyptian Pa-ti, "the given" or devoted to Par or Phar, the (royal) house or palace. "An officer (chamberlain) of Pharaoh, chief of the executioners," i.e. captain of the bodyguard (KJV), who executed the king’s sentences (Gen 37:36; Gen 39:1; 2Ki 25:8; Jer 39:9; Jer 52:12). The prison in which he confined Joseph was an apartment arched, vaulted, and rounded (ha-sohar) for strength (called a "dungeon," Gen 40:15), in the house of the chief of the executioners (Gen 40:3).

Joseph’s feet at first "they afflicted with fetters, the iron entered into has soul" (Psa 105:17-18); but Jehovah gave him favor in the sight of "the keeper of the prison," probably distinct from Potiphar. There seems little ground for thinking that Potiphar was succeeded by another "chief of the executioners," "the keeper of the prison" was entrusted by Potiphar with Joseph. Potiphar scarcely believed his lustful wife’s story, or he would have killed Joseph at once; but instead he put him in severe imprisonment at first, then with Potiphar’s connivance the prison keeper put the same confidence in Joseph as Potiphar himself had put in him when he was free. Egyptian monuments, in harmony with Scripture, represent rich men’s stewards, as Joseph, carefully registering all the produce of the garden and field, and storing it up. (See JOSEPH.)

Potiphar (pŏt’i-far). Potiphar, with whom the history of Joseph is connected, is described as "an officer of Pharaoh, chief of the executioners, an Egyptian." Gen 39:1: comp. 37:36. He appears to have been a wealthy man. Gen 39:4-6. The view we have of Potiphar’s household is exactly in accordance with the representations on the monuments. When Joseph was accused, his master contented himself with casting him into prison. Gen 39:19-20. After this we hear no more of Potiphar.

[Pot’iphar]

Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, to whom Joseph was sold. Gen 37:36; Gen 39:1.

() or POTI-PHERAH ():

By: Emil G. Hirsch, J. F. McLaughlin

Name of an Egyptian officer. The form "Potiphar" is probably an abbreviation of "Potiphera"; the two are treated as identical in the Septuagint, and are rendered Πετρεφῆς or Πετεφῆς. "Poti-phera" is the Hebrew rendering of the Egyptian "P'-di-p'-R'" = "He whom Ra [i.e., the sun-god] gave." This name has not been found in Egyptian inscriptions; but names of similar form occur as early as the twenty-second dynasty.

Potiphar was the Egyptian officer to whom Joseph was sold (Gen. xxxvii. 36, xxxix. 1). He is described as a "saris" of Pharaoh, and as "captain of the guard" (Hebr. ). The term "saris" is commonly used in the Old Testament of eunuchs; but occasionally it seems to stand in a more general sense for "court official," and sometimes it designates a military officer (II Kings xxv. 19; comp. ib. xviii. 17; Jer. xxxix. 3, 13). The second title, "captain of the guard," is literally "chief of the slaughterers," and is interpreted by some to mean "chief of the cooks" (comp. I Sam. ix. 23, 24, where = "cook"). The former is much the more probable meaning here, and is supported by the closely corresponding title ( ) of one of the high military officers of Nebuchadnezzar (II Kings xxv. 8, 10; comp. Dan. ii. 14). Nothing, however, of this office is definitely known from Egyptian sources.

Poti-pherah was a priest of On (Heliopolis), whose daughter Asenath became the wife of Joseph (Gen. xli. 45, 50; xlvi. 20). See also Joseph.

POTIPHAR.—Gen 39:1-23, a high Egyptian official in the story of Joseph. The name is perhaps a deformation of Potiphera (wh. see) or an unsuccessful attempt to form an Egyptian name on the same lines. Potiphar seems to be entitled ‘chief cook’ (EV [Note: English Version.] ‘captain of the guard’), and likewise saris, ‘eunuch’ of Pharaoh. But the former title ‘cook’ may be only a mark of high rank; persons described as royal tasters in the New Kingdom were leaders of expeditions, investigators of criminal cases, judges in the most important trials, etc.; as yet, too, there is little indication that eunuchs were employed in Egypt even at a later period: so this also was but an honorific official title; the Hebrew word saris is actually found attached to the names of Persian officers in Egypt. Joseph was sold to Potiphar, on whose wife’s accusation he was cast into the king’s prison (in Potiphar’s own house), to which Pharaoh afterwards committed his chief butler and chief baker. The office thus held by Potiphar cannot yet be precisely identified in Egyptian documents. In the passage Gen 41:45 and the repeated description of Joseph’s wife, the forms of the names and the title of the priest are much more precisely Egyptian.

F. Ll. Griffith.

pot´i-far (פּוטיפר, pōṭı̄phar; compare Egyptian Potiphera (Gen 39:1 f)): A high Egyptian official who became the master of Joseph. It is particularly mentioned that he was an Egyptian, i.e. one of the native Egyptian officials at the Hyksos court.