Ephraim

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Ephraim

Ephraim (Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
: ?????????/?????????, Standard

Hebrew language

Tiberian vocalization

Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct but very well documented oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew language, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was given written form by Masoretes scholars in the Jewish community at Tiberias, in the early Middle Ages, beginning in the 8th century....
?Ep¯ráyim/?Ep¯rayim) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph

Joseph (Hebrew Bible)

Joseph or Yosef , is a major figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible . He was Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first. He is also mentioned favourably in the Qur'an....
and Asenath

Asenath

Asenath or Asenith is a figure in the Book of Genesis, an Ancient Egypt woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph son of Jacob to be his wife. The daughter of Potipherah, a priest of Heliopolis , she bore Joseph two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who became the patriarchs of the Israelite tribes of Tribe of Manasseh and Tribe of Ephraim, respe...
, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Ephraim

Tribe of Ephraim

The Tribe of Ephraim was one of the Israelites; together with the Tribe of Manasseh, Ephraim also formed the House of Joseph. At its height, the territory it occupied was at the center of Canaan, west of the Jordan, south of the territory of Manasseh, and north of the Tribe of Benjamin; the region which was later named Samaria mostly co...
; however some Biblical scholars

Biblical criticism

Biblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were at work in its production; what sources we...
view this as postdiction, an eponym

Eponym

An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
ous metaphor

Metaphor

Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation.

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Ephraim (Hebrew

Hebrew language

Tiberian vocalization

Joseph (Hebrew Bible)

Joseph or Yosef , is a major figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible . He was Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first. He is also mentioned favourably in the Qur'an....
and Asenath

Asenath

Tribe of Ephraim

Biblical criticism

Eponym

An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
ous metaphor

Metaphor

Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
argues that the name of Ephraim, which means double fruitfulness, refers to Joseph's ability to produce children, specifically while in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
(termed by the Torah as the land of his affliction).

In the Biblical account, Joseph's other son is Manasseh

Manasseh

Philip Manasseh may refer to:*Manasseh , a son of Joseph , according to the Torah*the Tribe of Manasseh, an Israelite tribe*Manasseh of Judah, a monarch of the kingdom of Judah....
, and Joseph himself is one of the two children of Rachel

Rachel

Rachel is the second and favorite wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, first mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible....
and Jacob

Jacob

According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob , also known as Israel , was the third Biblical patriarchs and the ancestor of the twelve Israelites....
, the other being Benjamin

Benjamin

Benjamin in the Book of Genesis, is a son of Jacob, the second son of Rachel, and the founder of the Israelites Tribe of Benjamin; in the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son - Joseph , the father of Ephraim and Manasseh - Benjamin was born after Jacob and Rachel arrived in Canaan....
. Biblical scholars regard it as obvious, from their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages, that originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe - that of Joseph; according to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of this single tribe, but the biblical account of Joseph as his father became lost. A number of biblical scholars suspect that the distinction of the Joseph tribes (including Benjamin) is that they were the only Israelites which went to Egypt

Egypt

The Exodus

The Exodus , is the term used for the escape, departure and emancipation of the enslaved Israelites freed from Ancient Egypt as described in the Hebrew Bible, mainly in the Book of Exodus....
, while the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaanite

Canaanite

Canaanite may refer to:* Canaan and Canaanite people, a historical/Biblical region and people in the area of the present-day Gaza Strip, Israel, West Bank, and Lebanon....
s and had remained in Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
throughout. According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit to Laban

Laban

Laban may refer to:* Laban , a character in the Book of Genesis.* Laban , a character in The Book of Mormon.* Laban , a 1980s Eurodance duo....
to obtain a wife originated as a metaphor

Metaphor

Metaphor is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things without using the words "like" or "as." More generally, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way....
for this migration, with the property and family which were gained from Laban representing the gains of the Joseph tribes by the time they returned from Egypt; according to textual scholars, the Jahwist

Jahwist

The Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the four major sources of the Torah postulated by the Documentary Hypothesis ....
version of the Laban narrative only mentions the Joseph tribes, and Rachel, and doesn't mention the other tribal matriarchs whatsoever.

In the Torah, the eventual precedence of the tribe of Ephraim is argued to derive from Joseph tricking Jacob, blind and on his deathbed, into blessing Ephraim before Manasseh. The text describing this blessing features a hapax legomenon

Hapax legomenon

A hapax legomenon is a Word which occurs only once in either the written record of a language; the works of an author; or in a single text. Sometimes abbreviated to hapaxes....
- the word ??? (sh-k-l) - which classical rabbinical literature has interpreted in esoteric manners; some rabbinical sources connect the term with sekel, meaning mind/wisdom, and view it as indicating that Jacob was entirely aware of who he was actually blessing; other rabbinical sources connect the term with shikkel, viewing it as signifying that Jacob was despoiling Manasseh in favour of Ephraim; yet other rabbinical sources argue that it refers to the power of Jacob to instruct and guide the holy spirit

Holy Spirit

In Christianity, the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is the spirit of God. The term Christ , is also used to refer to this presence. That is, the Spirit is considered to act in concert with and share an essential nature with God the Father and God the Son ....
. In classical rabbinical sources, Ephraim is described as being modest and not selfish. These rabbinical sources allege that it was on account of modesty and selflessness, and a prophetic

Prophecy

Prophecy, generally, describes the disclosing of information that is not known to the prophet by any ordinary means. In religion, this is thought to be a divinely inspired revelation or interpretation....
vision of Joshua

Joshua

Joshua, Jehoshuah or Yehoshua , born in Egypt, was a biblical Israelite leader who succeeded Moses. His story is told in the Hebrew Bible, chiefly in the books Book of Exodus, Book of Numbers and Book of Joshua....
, that Jacob gave Ephraim precedence over Manasseh, the elder of the two; in these sources Jacob is regarded as being sufficiently just that God upholds the blessing in his honour, and makes Ephraim the leading tribe.

Ephraim

See also

Citations