Zaphnath-Paaneah


Zaphnath-Paaneah is the name given by Pharaoh to Joseph in the Genesis narrative.
The name may be "Egyptian", but there is no straightforward etymology; some Egyptologists accept that the second element of the name may contain the word ankh "life."

Interpretations

gives the meaning of the name as "the man to whom mysteries are revealed"; Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, "one who reveals mysteries"; Josephus, "a finder of mysteries".
The Jewish interpretation is received in early Protestant translations: the Geneva Bible glosses "The expounder of secrets", while the Authorised Version of 1611 has in the margin: "Which in the Coptic signifies, 'A revealer of secrets', or 'The man to whom secrets are revealed.'
In his work on Genesis, Jerome gives as the Latin translation salvator mundi "saviour of the world". This Christian interpretation is influenced by the Greek form of the name, Ψονθομφανήχ Psonthom-phanêkh and Ψομθομφανήχ Psomthom-phanêkh in the Septuagint and the Hexaplaric version, respectively. This, at least, is the suggestion made by Wilhelm Gesenius in his Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon. Early Egyptologists have interpreted the name as equivalent to Coptic, psotm peneh meaning "salvation of the age"
After the decipherment of hieroglyphics, Egyptologists have interpreted the final element of the name as containing the Egyptian word ankh "life"; notably, Georg Steindorff in 1889 offered a full reconstruction of ḏd pꜣ nṯr iw.f ꜥnḫ "the god speaks he lives". This interpretation is philologically plausible and has since become somewhat popular.