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Meaning, origin and etymology of the name Ephraim


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Ephraim Ephraim

The name Ephraim originally denotes Joseph's younger son, brother of Manasseh. Later it became the name of the half-tribe Ephraim (Josh 16:5), the hill country in Palestine (1 Sam 1:1), a forest where Absalom was killed (2 Sam 18:6), one of the gates of Jerusalem (2 Ki 14:13) and a town to where Jesus withdrew (John 11:54).

The meaning of the name Ephraim is somewhat debated:

Jones and NOBSE go after Genesis 41:52, "...For [] God has made me fruitful..."; from para (para 1809) bear fruit, be fruitful, branch off. Derivative peri peri (1809a) means fruit, hence the name. The im-part comes from the dual mem. This explanation does not account for the prefixed aleph.
Jones reads Two-fold Increase. NOBSE reads Doubly Fruitful.

TWOTOT links the name to root pr (apr 151), which renders derivations pr (aper 151a), covering, bandage, and appiryon (appiryon 151b) denoting the material from which the throne of Solomon was made (Song 3:9). The root pr (apr 151) is identical to the root pr (apr 150) from which the word pr (eper 150a), ashes, is derived.

It's true that the aleph is quite a weak letter which is applied often without essentially changing the meaning of a word. But it's perfectly conceivable, and perhaps even preferred, that father Joseph casts a wry word play in the naming of his sons. He names his first born Manasseh (Making To Forget), because, "God has made me forget all my toil and all of my father's house." When his father's house finally shows up, it becomes clear that Joseph had a hard time forgetting them and was in fact happy to see them. His second son he names Ephraim, a name with a strong connection to the word fruitfulness but equally so to the word for ashes, the symbol of worthlessness and grief (i.e. sackcloth and ashes).

Perhaps Joseph was not at all happy for having been made to forget his father's house, and deemed 'fruitfulness in the land of affliction,' the golden bars of a still dismal cage. Perhaps the duality of the name Ephraim does not denote a double portion of the same, but rather as a reminder that the coin of his wealth and status had two sides.



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