On

Biblical Text

On appears three times in Genesis, all within the story of Joseph.

• Genesis 41:45: Pharaoh gives Joseph the name Zaphnath-paaneah and gives him Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On, as his wife.
• Genesis 41:50: Before the years of famine come, Asenath bears Joseph two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
• Genesis 46:20: In the list of Jacob's household going down into Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim are again recorded as the sons born to Joseph by Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On.

Background

On was an ancient Egyptian city known in Egyptian as Iunu. The Greeks called it Heliopolis, meaning "city of the sun." The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced from around the third century BC onward, likewise rendered the "On" of Genesis as Heliopolis.

On was a center for the worship of the sun god (Ra and Atum), and its priesthood is known to have wielded considerable influence in Egypt. Pharaoh's giving Joseph the daughter of one of the city's priests is generally interpreted as a sign that Joseph had been accepted into the Egyptian ruling class. The site lies in the Matariya area of northeastern Cairo, where a single ancient obelisk (a tall, tapering stone pillar) is reported to still stand.

Passages Using Other Names

Scholars often take the following passages to refer to On as well, though this cannot be stated with certainty.

• Ezekiel 30:17: Many identify "Aven," mentioned in a prophecy of judgment against Egypt, with On. Because the Hebrew aven has the same form as a word meaning "vanity" or "wickedness," some interpret it as a mocking name for a city of idols.
• Jeremiah 43:13: The prophecy states that the king of Babylon will break the images of "Beth-shemesh" in the land of Egypt. Since Beth-shemesh means "house of the sun," some identify it with Heliopolis. It is, however, distinct from the town of the same name in the land of Israel.
• Isaiah 19:18: Some manuscripts and translations read "the city of the sun" instead of "the city of destruction." On this reading, some interpreters connect the passage with Heliopolis. The manuscripts differ at this point.

Significance in the Bible as a Whole

In Genesis, On serves as a backdrop showing that Joseph had become established at the heart of Egyptian society. Manasseh and Ephraim, born of this marriage, later became the ancestors of two of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the prophetic books, by contrast, On appears as a representative center of Egyptian idolatry and is portrayed as an object of God's judgment. The name On does not appear in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Later Traditions

Joseph's marriage to the daughter of a pagan priest is a subject that Jewish and Christian interpreters have long discussed. The Genesis text says nothing about Asenath's faith. Later, however, an extrabiblical work known as Joseph and Aseneth appeared, telling how Asenath abandoned her idols and turned to the God of Israel. Some Jewish traditions also regard Asenath as the daughter of Dinah, Jacob's daughter. All of these stories are traditions outside the biblical text.

The Coptic Church of Egypt also preserves a tradition that Jesus' family stayed at Matariya, near Heliopolis, during the flight into Egypt. This, too, is not found in the biblical text.