josephhyksos2

Joseph being lifted from slavery to prime minister to Egypt has caused some critical eyebrows to rise, but we have some archaeological accounts of similar things happening in the land of the Nile. A Canaanite, Meri-Ra, became armor-bearer to Pharaoh: another Canaanite, Ben-Mat-Ana, was appointed to the high position of interpreter; and a Semite, Yanhamu or Jauhamu, became deputy to Amenhotep III, with charge over the granaries of the delta, a responsibility similar to that of Joseph before and during the famine. When Pharaoh appointed Joseph prime minister, he was given a ring and a gold chain or a collar which is normal procedure for Egyptian office promotions.

Of the Amorna period, one figure in the Rib-Adda correspondence constitutes an interesting link both with the princes of the cities in Palestine to the South and with the Bible. He is Yanhamu, whom Rib-Adda at one point describes as the musallil of the king. The term means, in all likelihood, the fanbearer to the king, an honorary title referring to one who is very close to the king, presumably sharing in councils on affairs of state. Yanhamu held, then, a very prominent position in Egyptian affairs. His name appears in correspondence from princes up and down Palestine-Syria. At the beginning of the Rib-Adda period, Yanhamu seems to have been in charge of the issuing of supplies from the Egyptian bread-basket called Yarimuta, and we have already seen that Rib-Adda was apparently constantly in need of his services. Yanhamu was a Semitic name. This suggests further parallel to the Joseph narrative in Genesis, beyond the fact that both are related to the supplies of food for foreigners. Yanhamu offers an excellent confirmation of the genuinely Egyptian background of the Joseph narrative, but these do not mean that these men were identical, or that they functioned at the same time. Indeed Joseph may better fit into the preceding period for a number of reasons, although the evidence as yet precludes anything approaching certainty. It is clear that Semites could rise to positions of great authority in Egypt: they may even have been preferred at a time when indigenous leadership got too powerful or too inbred.

With regard to Semites rising to power in Egyptian government, Asiatic slaves in Egypt, attached to the households of officials, are well-known in later Middle-Kingdom Egypt (1850-1700 BC) and Semites could rise to high position (even the throne, before the Hyksos period), as did the chancellor Hur. Joseph's career would fall easily enough into a period of the late 13th and early 15th dynasties. The role of dreams is, of course, well-known at all periods. From Egypt, we have a dream-reader's textbook in a copy of 1300 BC, originating some centuries earlier; such works are known in 1st-millennium Assyria also.

In the last verses of Genesis it is told how Joseph adjured his relatives to take his bones back to Canaan whenever God should restore them to their original home, and in Joshua 24:32 it is told how his body was indeed brought to Palestine and buried in Shechem . For centuries there was a tomb in Shechem reverenced as the tomb of Joseph. A few years ago the tomb was opened. It was found to contain a body mummified according to the Egyptian custom, and in the tomb, among other things, was a sword of the kind worn by Egyptian officials.

An inscription confirming the Bible's account of the "seven years of great plenty" followed by the "seven years of famine" (Genesis 41:29,30) was discovered during the 19th century in Southern Saudi Arabia. This inscription was found on a marble tablet in a ruined fortress on the seashore of Hadramaut in present-day Democratic Yemen. An examination of the writing suggests that it was written approximately 1,800 years before the birth of Jesus, a time that corresponds with the biblical narrative about Jacob and his 12 sons. This inscription was rendered in Arabic by Professor Schultens and was later translated into English by Reverend Charles Forster. This is his translation of the ancient inscription:

We dwelt at ease in this castle a long tract of time;
nor had we a desire but for the region-lord of the vineyard.
Hundreds of camels returned to us each day at evening,
their eye pleasant to behold in their resting-places.
And twice the number of our camels were our sheep,
in comeliness like white does, and also the slow moving kine.
We dwelt in this castle seven years of good life
---how difficult for memory its description!
Then came years barren and burnt up;
when one evil year had passed away,
Then came another to succeed it.
And we became as though we had never seen a glimpse of good.
They died and neither foot nor hoof remained.
Thus fares it with him who renders not thanks to God:
His footsteps fail not to be blotted out from his dwelling.

This ancient poem records the devastation of the years of famine and barrenness that followed the seven years of plenty. The language of the poem implies that the famine also lasted seven years. Moses recorded in the Bible the history of the Egyptian famine and the wise preparations that Joseph made to gather up the surplus grain during the 7 years of plenty to provide against the coming years of famine. The famine was so severe in Egypt that Joseph, as the chief administrator, had to be very careful in selling food from the precious grain reserves to satisfy the hunger of the inhabitants of the surrounding countries. Joseph could not sell the grain reserves of Egypt for gold and silver to everyone because of the danger that the grain would run out. When the famine was at its peak, grain was much more valuable than gold or money.

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