Genesis 41:45

Pharaoh called his name Zaphnath-pianeah.

He was to receive yet. new elevation signified by. new name. It was an ancient custom that the name should be changed when one entered into new relations. The name of Abram was changed to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, and the Babylonians gave new names to Daniel and his companions (Daniel 1:7).. new name given to Joseph was. part of naturalization and would serve to remove Egyptian prejudices. The meaning of the name is not certainly known, but it is likely that it was. title of office, as the word Pharaoh is. Adam Clarke says: "I believe it to be an Egyptian epithet, designating the office to which be was now raised, similar to our compound terms, Prime-Minister, Lord Chancellor, High Treasurer, Chief Justice, etc."

Gave him to wife.. daughter of.. the priest of On.

The fact that Joseph was married to the daughter of. priest shows that he was made. member of the priestly caste. Herodotus says that no one was permitted to hold high office unless he became. member of their caste. "The people of Egypt were divided into castes like the people of India at this day, and as they formerly prevailed among many other Oriental nations. At the head of these castes stood that of priesthood. From this order the king was usually selected; if one of the warriors, the next class in rank, should attain to that eminence, he was always installed and enrolled in the priestly order. The priestly caste in rank and power, stood far above the rest of the people. In every district stood. temple and. sacerdotal college. In them one-third of the whole land of the country was inalienably vested.... The political powers of this hereditary aristocracy were unbounded; they apparently engrossed both the legislative and judicial functions; they were the framers, the conservators and the expounders of the law.-- Milman.

Potipherah.

The name of Joseph's father-in-law means "He who is of the sun." At On, called by the Greeks Heliopolis, "the city of the sun," there was. temple to that luminary, and of this Potipherah was doubtless. priest. "We visited the site about five miles from Cairo, on the east of the Nile, and found there only. single obelisk, covered with hieroglyphics, and over sixty feet in height, the most ancient of all obelisks known, erected about 2300 B. C."-- Jacobus. That Joseph married by the king's order the daughter of an Egyptian priest and was himself made. member of the priestly caste does not signify that he had aught to do with the Egyptian religion. It only implies that he had the privileges of this highest of all castes.