PUTIFARE. - The name of two Egyptian figures who occur in the history of the patriarch Giuseppe.
It corresponds to a double Hebrew name: Pōṭlphar and Pōṭl-phēra', Gr. Πετεφρῆς, Latin Putiphar. The original form of the Egyptian name is disputed: many maintain that it is equivalent to the theophoric P-dj-p-R' “given by Rā',” attested by a funerary stele of the XXI dynasty (Cairo Museum), dating from the ninth century B.C.; others propose different etymologies and suppose that the use of the name may be applied to the time of Giuseppe. P. (Pōṭlphar) was an official of Pharaoh’s court, to whom the Ishmaelites sold Giuseppe (Gen. 37, 36); Giuseppe subsequently succeeded in making himself so well liked that he soon received from his master the management of his entire very wealthy household (ibid. 39, 1-6). But P.’s wife, having become enamoured of the young man, wished to induce him
to sin; since Giuseppe had withdrawn from her advances, he was accused before her husband of attempted violence against the woman and placed in the state prison, where he remained for three years (ibid. 39, 7-20).
A second P. (Pōfī-phēra') is mentioned in Gen. 41, 45.50; 46, 20, as Giuseppe’s father-in-law. As priest of On (Heliopolis), he was dear to the sovereign; in order to reward the services rendered to the country by Giuseppe during the famine, Aseneth (v.) be given to him in marriage.
Aristide Calderini - Sergio Bosticco