Potiphar ( ; Egyptian origin: ''pꜣ-dj-pꜣ-rꜥ'' "he whom Ra gave") is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Potiphar is possibly the same name as Potiphera () from Late Egyptian ''pꜣ-dj-pꜣ-rꜥ'' "he whom Ra has given." Potiphar is the captain of Pharaoh's guard who is said to have purchased Joseph as a slave and, impressed by his intelligence, makes him the master of his household.

Potiphar's wife Potiphar's wife is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. She was the wife of Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard in the time of Jacob and his twelve sons. According to the Book of Genesis, she falsely accused Joseph of attempted ra ...

, who was known for her infidelities, took a liking to Joseph, and attempted to seduce him. When Joseph refused her advances, and ran off, leaving his outer vestment in her hands, she retaliated by falsely accusing him of trying to rape her, and Potiphar had Joseph imprisoned. What happened to Potiphar after that is unclear; some sources identify him as

Potipherah According to the Hebrew Bible, Potipherah (, he, ''Pōṭī feraʿ'') was a priest of the ancient Egyptian town of On, mentioned in the and . He was the father of Asenath, who was given to Joseph as his wife by Pharaoh, () and who bore Josep ...

, an Egyptian priest whose daughter,

Asenath Asenath (, ; Koine Greek: Ἀσενέθ, ''Asenéth'') is a minor figure in the Book of Genesis. Asenath was a high-born, aristocratic Egyptian woman. She was the wife of Joseph and the mother of his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. There are two Ra ...

, marries Joseph. The false accusation by Potiphar's wife plays an important role in Joseph's narrative, because had he not been imprisoned, he would not have met the fellow prisoner who introduced him to Pharaoh. The medieval Sefer HaYashar, a commentary on the Torah, gives Potiphar's wife's name as Zuleikha, as do many Islamic traditions - thus the Persian poem called Yusuf and Zulaikha from Jami's '' Haft Awrang'' ("Seven thrones"). The story became a very common subject in Western art during the Renaissance and

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

periods, usually depicting the moment when Joseph tears himself away from the bed containing a more-or-less naked figure of Potiphar's wife. Persian miniatures often illustrate Yusuf and Zulaikha in Jami's '' Haft Awrang'' ("Seven thrones").

Religious references

It is difficult to tie Potiphar or Joseph accurately to a particular pharaoh or time period. According to the Jewish calendar, Joseph was purchased in the year 2216, which is 1544 BC, at the end of the Second Intermediate Period or very beginning of the

New Kingdom New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. The Torah in which the story appears (see also the Bible and the Quran), was the earliest written of the three: c. 600 BC during the Babylonian Exile. According to the

documentary hypothesis The documentary hypothesis (DH) is one of the models used by biblical scholars to explain the origins and composition of the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). A vers ...

, the story of Potiphar and his wife is credited to the Yahwist source, and stands in the same place that the stories of the butler and the baker and Pharaoh's dreams stand in the

Elohist According to the documentary hypothesis, the Elohist (or simply E) is one of four source documents underlying the Torah,McDermott, John J., ''Reading the Pentateuch: A Historical Introduction'' (Pauline Press, 2002) p. 21. Via Books.google.com.a ...

text.

Islam

The story is first related in Quran 12:21-35: An Egyptian purchases Joseph and proposes to adopt him. The Egyptian's wife endeavours to seduce Joseph but he was preserved from her enticements. She accuses Joseph of an attempt to dishonour her. The rent in his garment testifies Joseph's innocence. Azeez believes Joseph and condemns his wife. The sin of Azeez's wife becomes known in the city ( Q12:30). The wives of other noblemen, seeing Joseph's beauty, call him an angel. Azeez's wife declares her purpose to imprison Joseph unless he yield to her solicitations. Joseph seeks protection from God who hears his prayer and turns aside their snares but Joseph is imprisoned notwithstanding his innocence.

Cultural references

*In art the subject is one of the most commonly shown in the Power of Women ''topos''. * There is a Persian poem called Yusuf and Zulaikha in Jami's '' Haft Awrang'' ("Seven thrones") *In '' The Divine Comedy'', Dante sees the shade of Potiphar's wife in the eighth circle of

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

. She does not speak, but Dante is told by another spirit that, along with other

perjurers Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...

, she is condemned to suffer a burning fever for all eternity. *In the John Sayles film '' Matewan'', Will Oldham plays a young minister boy who preaches the story of Potiphar to his small town. *In

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

and Tim Rice's musical ''

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' (often colloquially known as ''Joseph'') is a sung-through musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. Thi ...

'', Potiphar is a tycoon of ancient Egypt who made his wealth through buying shares in pyramids, ("Potiphar had made a huge pile, owned a large percentage of the Nile"). His wife is a seductive man-eater. Both feature in the song "Potiphar". *In

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

' poem, "On Fame", Keats calls Fame "Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar". *In the animated film '' Joseph: King of Dreams'', prior to having him jailed for allegedly assaulting his wife, Potiphar takes notice of Joseph's intelligence and makes him a chief slave in his household. He orders Joseph to be executed for the attempted rape of his wife, but when she asks him to stop, Potiphar realizes Joseph was telling the truth of his innocence and instead has him jailed to save face, though he shows great disgust at his wife. Potiphar later brings Joseph to Pharaoh, who is plagued by inexplicable dreams, and expresses deep regret for having Joseph put in prison, but Joseph understands and forgives Potiphar. After Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dreams, Pharaoh asks Potiphar if he trusts Joseph, to which he responds that he trusts Joseph "with islife." Potiphar also is present when Joseph reunites with his brothers. *In '' Joseph and his Brothers'', Thomas Mann suggests that Potiphar's wife is sexually frustrated partly because Potiphar is a eunuch. * In Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, the sequel to ''The Handmaid's Tale,'' Potiphor's wife is referred to in Chapter 46 of the Ardua Hall Holograph storyline as narrated by Aunt Lydia. She mentions that Dr. Grove defended himself against attempted rape charges through the Potiphar vignette. * Czechoslovak author Valdemar Vinař wrote ''La skandalo pro Jozefo,'' an original work of fiction in

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

, relating the story from the viewpoints of five different witnesses.

Gallery

File:Nuremberg chronicles f 27r 2.png, from the 1493 ''

Nuremberg Chronicle The ''Nuremberg Chronicle'' is an illustrated encyclopedia consisting of world historical accounts, as well as accounts told through biblical paraphrase. Subjects include human history in relation to the Bible, illustrated mythological creatures, ...

'' File:Giuseppe e la moglie di Putifarre, Ludovico Cigoli, Roma, Galleria Borghese (1610), olio su tela.jpg, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife by Ludovico Cigoli File:Joseph and Potiphar's Wife - Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino, 1649 - NG Wash DC.jpg, Guercino, ''Joseph and Potiphar's Wife'', 1649 File:Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo - Joseph and Potiphar's Wife - WGA16386.jpg, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife by

Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo Bartolomé may refer to: Places * Bartolomé Island (Spanish: Isla Bartolomé), a volcanic islet in the Galápagos Islands Group * Isla Bartolomé, Diego Ramirez Islands, Chile People * Bartolomé Bermejo (c.1440–c.1501), Spanish painter * Barto ...

File:Jean-Baptiste Nattier - Joseph and Potiphar's Wife - WGA16449.jpg, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife by

Jean-Baptiste Nattier Jean-Baptiste Nattier (27 September 1678, Paris - 23 May 1726, Paris) was a French history painter. Life & work His father was the portrait painter, and his mother was the miniaturist, Marie Courtois. His brother, Jean-Marc Nattier, also became ...

Image:Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.jpg, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, by

Guido Reni Guido Reni (; 4 November 1575 – 18 August 1642) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious ...

1631 File:Rembrandt - Joseph and Potiphar's wife.jpg, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife by

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

, 1634

References

Bibliography