🔼The name Asenath: Summary
- Meaning
- Harms, Evils
- Thorn Bush
- Etymology
- From the verb אסה ('asa), to suffer harm.
- From the noun אסנא ('asna'), thorn bush.
🔼The name Asenath in the Bible
Asenath is the daughter of Potiphera, wife of Joseph, and mother of Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:50-52).
🔼Etymology and meaning of the name Asenath
According to Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names the name Asenath comes from an Egyptian word, meaning Who Belongs To Neir (Neir was the Egyptian goddess of wisdom). NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Belonging To Neir. BDB Theological Dictionary reads Belonging to Neith; Favorite Of Neith.
However, a Hebrew word that very well may have been associated with this name is אסון ('ason), meaning mischief, evil, harm:
אסה
The unused verb אסה ('asa) correlates to a cognate verb meaning to heal. But an identical root correlates to a cognate verb that means to suffer harm or mischief. A noun that does occur in the Bible is אסון ('ason), mischief or harm. Perhaps they meet in the obvious fact that a doctor is a "man of sorrows."
This noun is used only five times in the Bible; just prior and directly after the Egypt years and the name Asenath may possibly have sounded like Evils or Harmful Things.
Another word that may have been associated with the name Asenath is the Aramaic noun אסנא, meaning thorn bush:
אסם
Verb אסם ('asam) means to gather or store. Noun אסם ('asam) means storehouse. A close cognate equivalent of the latter is אסנא ('asna'), which also means thorn bush (see next).
סנה
Possibly related to the previous, the noun סנה (seneh) describes a kind of thorn bush, particularly the one which famously burned.
Much of the Biblical narrative is devoted to the history of information technology, from the rise of nominal reason to the invention of script and the alphabet, and ultimately to the development of the literary tradition within which the Word of God could be received in human form.