POTIPHAR

(Potʹi·phar) [from Egyptian, a shortened form of Potiphera].

An Egyptian court official and chief of Pharaoh’s bodyguard. He was Joseph’s master for a time and, it appears, was a man of wealth. (Ge 37:36; 39:4) Potiphar purchased Joseph from the traveling Midianite merchants and, observing what a good servant Joseph was, eventually put him in charge of his whole house and field, which establishment Jehovah blessed on Joseph’s account.​—Ge 37:36; 39:1-6.

Potiphar’s title “court official” translates the Hebrew word sa·risʹ, “eunuch,” which in its broader usage meant a chamberlain, courtier, or trusted officer of the throne. The “court official [sa·risʹ] that had a command over the men of war” when Jerusalem fell in 607 B.C.E. was no doubt a high government official, not a castrated person lacking masculinity. (2Ki 25:19) So, also, Potiphar was a military man, chief of the bodyguard, as well as a married man, facts that indicate that he was not a eunuch in the more common sense.