Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore them to him.
Joseph's two sons are born at a marked moment: after his rise to power, in the years of plenty, before the famine. Commentators read that timing, and the mother — a foreign woman, daughter of a priest of On — as a picture of Christ, His people, and the trouble that comes on the world afterwards.
Two sons in the years of plenty
The verse dates the boys' arrival by what had not yet happened. One writer takes that clause as the key to the picture.
Michael HardtAsenath bore two sons during this time of plenty, and the text says plainly that this happened "before the year of famine came" (v. 50). The order of events fits perfectly to show that the church and the time of her fruitfulness belong to the "years of plenty" before the time of tribulation (Matt. 24:21; Rev. 3:10; Rev. 6-19).
A wife given during the separation
Joseph's wife comes from outside his own family and nation, and he receives her while he is cut off from his brothers. One writer sees the church here, and lists other Old Testament women who carry the same picture.
C. KnappPharaoh did not only give Joseph a full and glorious name. He gave him a wife as well: "Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest (or prince) of On." Joseph received this Gentile wife while he was separated from his brothers. She is a most beautiful and unmistakable picture of the Church, given to Christ to be His bride, during this time when He is lost to His brothers by natural birth — the Jewish nation. There are seven such pictures of the Church (if we include Rachel) in the Old Testament: Eve, Rebekah, Rachel, Asenath, Zipporah, Abigail, and Solomon's queen, the daughter of Pharaoh.
Her background sharpens the picture.
Michael HardtThis is in great contrast with Rebekah, where Abraham had insisted that only one of his own family would be suitable as a bride for Isaac… Asenath is the Gentile, the stranger to the promises of Israel. She gives a picture of the church as the bride that has come from among the Gentile nations and not from Israel exclusively.
The children as well as the mother
The sons carry a meaning of their own, and their names say what it is.
C. KnappI have mentioned Joseph's two sons in passing. They stand for the people who make up the Church of God today, just as Asenath their mother represents the Church as a whole. Their names carry striking meaning. Joseph calls the firstborn Manasseh, forgetting. "For God," he said, "has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house."… The second son he names Ephraim, fruitful. "For God," he says, "has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction." And though our Lord, according to the prophecies that had gone before, was as Messiah "cut off and had nothing," as far as the kingdom goes He is fruitful in the salvation of multitudes of "sinners of the Gentiles." These answer to the sons of Joseph. "Behold," says Christ, referring to these Ephraims, "I and the children God has given Me." He is, blessed be His name, bringing "many sons to glory," in this the day of His rejection.
Complete before the trouble
The family was complete before the hard years began. Commentators take that order as more than a household detail.
C. H. MackintoshThere was a time of trouble coming; but before it arrived, the fruit of his union appeared. The children God had given him came into being before this time of trial. So will it be with the Church. All its members will be called out, the whole body will be completed and gathered to the Head in heaven, before "the great tribulation" which shall come upon all the earth.
One writer turns that word "before" on his hearers, and refuses to rest the teaching on a picture alone.
C. KnappVerse 50 of our chapter says plainly that these sons were born to Joseph "before the year of famine came." Now this is solemn. If you want to be among the happy people pictured by Joseph's sons, you must be saved before the coming of the Lord… We do not base this truth on a picture, however; the picture only illustrates it. It is taught directly in the New Testament Scriptures.
The marriage itself
Marrying the daughter of a pagan priest raises an obvious question. One writer answers it by pointing to what such marriages were meant to picture.
Henri L. RossierMany have thought that Solomon's union with the daughter of the king of Egypt was an act of unfaithfulness to the requirements of the law. Forgetting the symbolic meaning of the Word may lead to such mistakes. Would we say that Joseph was unfaithful in marrying Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On (Gen. 41:50)? that Moses was unfaithful in marrying Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian (Ex. 2:21)?
Summary
- Before — the verse hangs on one word: the sons arrived while the grain was still piling up, not after the famine began.
- Exaltation first — the bride and the sons come only after Joseph is raised to power.
- A stranger chosen — Asenath has no share in Israel's promises. Commentators see in her a people drawn from the nations.
- Fruitful in rejection — Joseph gains this family in the land of his affliction, while his own brothers still know nothing of him.
- Finished, then famine — the household was complete before the hard years fell. Commentators press that as a reason not to delay.