Глава 41

Gen.41:2. “And behold, seven cows, beautiful in appearance and fat in flesh, came out of the river, and grazed in aehi.” In Genesis aehi is written twice. And this is not a Greek word and not a Latin one. And the Hebrew word itself is distorted here, because it should be pronounced ahu (אָ ֽ חוּ), that is, “in the swamp.” But since the Hebrew letters vau and iod are similar and differ only in height, the Seventy Interpreters translated achi instead of ahu. Moreover, as is their custom, they inserted the Greek letter χ to express the double aspiration characteristic of the Hebrew letter heth. Gen.41:16. “And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying: “Without God, no answer will be given to Pharaoh about the means of salvation.” The Hebrew text says otherwise: “Without me, God will provide an answer for Pharaoh’s world.” Finally, Symmachus, as usual, translated more clearly: “It is not I, but God, who will give the answer for Pharaoh’s peace.” Gen.41:29. “Behold, seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt.” It is amazing how the Seventy interpreters this time translated the word sabee ( שָׂבָ ֥ע ) absolutely correctly. Above, in the case of the last well that Isaac's servants dug, I translated this word as “abundance” or “excess.” Then the Seventy interpreters gave the translation “oath”, while one can understand both “oath”, and “seven”, and “excess”, and “abundance”, depending on the requirements of the place and context. But in the future, wherever we read “abundance”, the same word sabee ( שָׂבָ ֥ ע ) is written in the Hebrew text. Gen.41:43. “And the herald shouted before him; and [Pharaoh] made him over all the land of Egypt." Instead, Aquila translated: “And shouted: “Kneel before him!” Symmachus, reproducing the Hebrew word itself, says: “And he shouted before him: “Αβρεχ!”.” Therefore, it seems to me that this is rather not a “herald” or “kneeling” to greet and honor Joseph, but, as the Jews say on the basis of their tradition, “a tender father.” It seems to me that this is how it should be translated. Because ab ( אַבְ ) means “father”, and rech ( רֵ ֑ ךְ ) means “dear” or “most tender.” That is, Scripture shows by this that, on the one hand, in his wisdom, Joseph was a father to everyone, but, on the other hand, in his age, he was the most tender youth and even a boy. Gen.41:45. “And Pharaoh called Joseph by the name of Saphaneth-Phaneh, and gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, the priest of Heliopolis, to wife.” Although in Hebrew this name means "one who finds hidden things," yet, since it was given by an Egyptian, it must have a meaning in his own language. Translated from Egyptian Saphaneth Phanee (צָ ֽ פְנַ ֣ ת פַּעְנֵחַ ֒) or, according to the Seventy Interpreters, Ψονθομϕανηχ means “savior of the world.” After all, Joseph saved all of humanity from the threat of starvation. But it should be noted that he married the daughter of his former master, who once bought him. By this time he was already the high priest of the Iliopolis region. And since no one except eunuchs was allowed to become the high priest of her idol, the correctness of the Jewish assumption I previously mentioned is confirmed. Gen.41:50–52. “Before the years of famine came, Joseph had two sons, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, the priest of Heliopolis, bore to him. And Joseph called his firstborn by the name of Manasseh, because [he said] God made me forget all my troubles and all my father’s house. And he named his second son Ephraim, because [he said] God made it so that I would grow in the land of my humility.” In connection with the question that will be asked a little later about the sons of Joseph, it should be noted that before the time of famine, when Jacob entered Egypt, Joseph had only two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh is called this because Joseph forgot about his troubles, because in Hebrew “forgetfulness” sounds like “Manasseh.” And Ephraim - because God increased Joseph, and when translated into our language this name means “increase.”