Person Old Testament
Potiphera
Also known as Potiphera =ESV, NIV; Poti-pherah =KJV
Potiphera, the priest of On (Heliopolis), whose daughter Asenath was given to Joseph as a wife by Pharaoh. Mentioned in 3 verses across 1 book, first at Genesis 41:45.
Why it matters. Egyptian priest, father-in-law of Joseph
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Potiphera
Potiphera was an Egyptian priest of On, also known as Heliopolis, a city known for its worship of the sun god Ra. He is mentioned in Gen.41.45 and 50, where he is identified as the father of Asenath, the woman given to Joseph as a wife by Pharaoh. This event occurred after Joseph had interpreted Pharaoh's dreams and was elevated to a high position in the Egyptian court. The marriage to Asenath, the daughter of a prominent priest, was a sign of Joseph's newfound status and power in Egypt. In Gen.46.20, it is mentioned that Asenath bore Joseph two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who would later become the ancestors of two of the twelve tribes of Israel. The fact that Joseph married the daughter of an Egyptian priest highlights the cultural and religious differences between the Israelites and the Egyptians, and it also foreshadows the future challenges the Israelites would face in maintaining their distinct identity in a foreign land.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
No reviewed connections yet.
Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
- Children
- Asenath
Appears in Scripture
Named in 3 verses across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.