Asenath

Who is Asenath?

Asenath or Asenith is a figure in the Book of Genesis, an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph son of Jacob to be his wife. The daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On, she bore Joseph two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who became the patriarchs of the Israelite tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim.

Modern scholarship says her name derives from the Egyptian "she who belongs to Neith", and that her name may be phonetically transliterated from the New Kingdom Egyptian hieroglyphs as Ns-Nt.Template:IDB, vol1 247-248 Janssen, JEOL 14 68; Schulman, SAK 2 238-239.; cf. James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egyt 85, 101 n 79