POTI-PHERAH,

POTI-PHE'RAH, a priest or prince of On, and father-in-law of Joseph, Gen 41:45. The marriage of Joseph to Asenath and her conversion to faith in the one God form the subject of an old romance which exists in a Latin, Greek, and Syriac version. It is chiefly made up of Jewish legends, but belongs, nevertheless, to the Christian era. The title is The Life and Confession of Asenath, Daughter of Pentephres [Potipherah] of Heliopolis, a narrative [of what happened] when the beautiful Joseph took her to wife. The story is thus summarized (Schaff, Through Bible Lands, pp. 57, 58): Asenath was a proud beauty, living in great splendor with seven attendants, and disdaining all lovers except Pharaoh's oldest son, who loved her, but was forbidden by his father to marry her. When she saw Joseph from her window as he entered Heliopolis to collect corn in the first year of plenty, she was captivated by his beauty, ran down, hailed him as "My lord, blessed of the most high God," and at her father's bidding went forward to kiss him. Joseph refused to kiss an idolatrous woman, but, seeing her tears, he laid his hand upon her head and prayed God to convert her to the true faith, and then departed. She threw her idols out of the window, repented seven days, saw an angel of comfort, and was married to Joseph by Pharaoh with great pomp.

POTI-PHE'RAH, a priest or prince of On, and father-in-law of Joseph, Gen 41:45. The marriage of Joseph to Asenath and her conversion to faith in the one God form the subject of an old romance which exists in a Latin, Greek, and Syriac version. It is chiefly made up of Jewish legends, but belongs, nevertheless, to the Christian era. The title is The Life and Confession of Asenath, Daughter of Pentephres [Potipherah] of Heliopolis, a narrative [of what happened] when the beautiful Joseph took her to wife. The story is thus summarized (Schaff, Through Bible Lands, pp. 57, 58): Asenath was a proud beauty, living in great splendor with seven attendants, and disdaining all lovers except Pharaoh's oldest son, who loved her, but was forbidden by his father to marry her. When

she saw Joseph from her window as he entered Heliopolis to collect corn in the first year of plenty, she was captivated by his beauty, ran down, hailed him as "My lord, blessed of the most high God," and at her father's bidding went forward to kiss him. Joseph refused to kiss an idolatrous woman, but, seeing her tears, he laid his hand upon her head and prayed God to convert her to the true faith, and then departed. She threw her idols out of the window, repented seven days, saw an angel of comfort, and was married to Joseph by Pharaoh with great pomp.