how to stop drops of water at hose joint?

Installed Lowe Whirlpool 40 Gallon Gas water heater. Has small water drops at both input cold water and output hot water pipe connector joints at the top of water tank. The tank has two holes on top with 3/4" threaded female receptacles for cold water input hot water output.

Tried different stainless steel hose and plastic breaded hose, using male+male adapter then female fittings, or just male fitting hose;
with either/both Teflon tapes and Teflon pipe dope. Always has small drips of water coming out from the joint at top of tank.

Finally, the least of water comes out is the male fitting plastic breaded hose directly screwed into the tank receptacles.

How to stop this drip of water coming from these joints at the top of the tank? Thank you.

Those type of supply lines often have a gasket seal in them...using anything in them can cause a leak (especially the tape if it gets on the gasket). If you can look at the end of the female and it has a gasket, don't use anything. The pipe on the top going into the tank likely needs pipe dope or tape as it is probably a tapered pipe thread going into the tank. But, any water drops you see there, may actually be coming from the hose connection.

You also don't want to crank a hose connection down exceptionally tight especially if there may be a burr on the top of the fitting you are attaching it to - you may just slice the gasket.

can I insert the dielectric nipple (3/4" MPT x 3/4") into the top of the inlet and outlet of the tank using some kind of thermo resistant epoxy or glue of permanent potting to the threaded female receptacle?

Not if you want a reliable connection! Just paint on a good coat of pipe dope and tighten it down. Unless there's a defect in the tank (like maybe a distorted, out of round hole), the pipe dope should be all you need. If the threads aren't clean (i.e., sharp or poorly cut), the pipe dope works better than tape, but you can use both.