"And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured." — Genesis 41:49
Then, in Genesis 41:50–52, Joseph’s two sons are born to him in Egypt before the famine years begin:
“And unto Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came… And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
The names Joseph chose are not casual, but deeply symbolic. In them we see the spiritual pattern of manifestation: first forgetting, then abundance - the theme of Joseph's teaching.
Joseph’s Theme: Imagination Over Limitation
Throughout Joseph’s story, outer circumstances try to bind him, yet he consistently rises above them through inner vision:
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Sold by his brothers → he rises in Potiphar’s house.
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Tempted and falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife → he resists misuse of imagination and rises in prison.
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Forgotten by the butler → he continues to interpret dreams faithfully and rises to Pharaoh’s right hand.
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Famine in the land → Joseph’s foresight, rooted in abundance, sustains nations.
The pattern is clear: Joseph represents imagination refusing to be limited by appearances. Each apparent setback becomes the ground for a greater ascent.
Asenath: Belonging to Neith
The mother of Ephraim and Manasseh is Asenath (אָסְנַת, ʾĀsnath, Strong’s H621), whose name means “belonging to Neith,” the Egyptian goddess of wisdom and weaving/destiny.
She was the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On (Heliopolis, the city of the sun). On was Egypt’s religious centre, associated with Ra, the sun god, and therefore a symbol of illumination and consciousness.
Symbolically:
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Asenath represents the outer world’s wisdom, structure, and framework of destiny.
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Potiphera links Joseph’s line to the sun — the governing symbol of awareness and light.
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From this union, the children born represent imagination bearing fruit through the very framework of the world that once afflicted him.
Even though born of an Egyptian mother, Jacob later adopts Ephraim and Manasseh as his own (Genesis 48:5) — showing that the fruits of imagination, though appearing through “foreign” channels, are gathered into Israel, the inheritance of spiritual awakening.
Manasseh: Forgetting the Past
Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh, meaning “to forget.” He said, “God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.”
Manasseh symbolises the first step of manifestation: releasing the past. Neville Goddard taught that imagination cannot bring forth new experience if it is bound to memory. To create, you must die to the former state. Manasseh is this mental act of forgetting toil, sorrow, and limitation, clearing the ground for something new.
Ephraim: Fruitfulness in Affliction
The second son was called Ephraim, meaning “fruitful.” Joseph explained, “God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Ephraim symbolises the second step: fruitfulness, manifestation, and abundance. The paradox is that abundance springs forth in the very place of affliction. In Neville’s language, once the past state is forgotten (Manasseh), imagination naturally bears fruit (Ephraim).
This is Joseph’s principle of storing grain in plenty so that famine becomes abundance: thinking abundantly in times of lack.
The Two Sons Together
Taken together, Ephraim and Manasseh embody the whole pattern of manifestation:
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Manasseh → Forget the toil, sorrow, and past states.
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Ephraim → Bear fruit abundantly, even in the land of affliction.
Born of Asenath, they remind us that imagination does not bypass the framework of the world — it works through it, transforming affliction into abundance.