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Restored Cult Statue: the Patriarch Joseph?
Joseph and Khufu
Joseph in the Early Kingdom?
"It would appear that the architect for...[the Great Pyramid] was not even an Egyptian. His name spelled in Egyptian is Khufu. The Greeks called him Cheops. But according to the third-century Egyptian historian Manetho, Khufu was 'of a different race'.
"The famous fifth-century Greek historian Herodotus states that the builders of the Great Pyramid were shepherds.... Cheops was not a polytheist, for Herodotus records that he closed the temples and prohibited the Egyptians from offering sacrifices. The deity whom Cheops served was named 'Amen' in the ancient Egyptian spelling."
"Joseph, the wise...visionary and dream interpreter, who was sold into Egyptian captivity by his jealous brothers, rose to prominence under the Pharaoh of Upper Egypt, who was named Amenemhet III. Because 'Amen' appears to have been a common name among the Pharaohs in Joseph's day, [Herman L.] Hoeh maintains that the rulers must have been strongly influenced by the religion of Cheops."
"It is written in the ancient texts the Cheops/Khufu also wrote a major work of scriptural importance. Manetho, the Egyptian historian, wrote that Cheops was 'arrogant toward the gods, but repented and wrote the sacred Books...a work of great importance."
"Cheops/Khufu had yet another name, Saaru of Shaaru. Shaaru is another designation for the inhabitants of the region of Mt. Seir. Cheops' domain extended from Mt. Seir to Lower Egypt...Mt. Seir was famous in history as the 'Land of Uz'..."
- Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own
"Uz was a descendant of Seir the Horite (Genesis 36:28). The Arabs preserve a corruption of Cheops of Mt. Seir or the Land of Uz. They call him the 'Wizard of Oz'."
"Now what individual who dwelled in Uz was arrogant, repented of his sin, and wrote a Sacred Book? None other than Job! And the Sacred Book is the Book of Job!"
- Herman L. Hoeh (in a paper published by Ambassador College)
"...Pharaoh Amenemhet gave Joseph 'to wife Asanath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On' (Genesis 41-45). On is but another name for the god Amen, states Hoeh, and he goes on to point out that in Revelation 1:8, in the original, inspired text of this verse, the Greek word Christ used was 'On' - the 'existing one'."
- Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own
The story of Joseph and Potipher's daughter may have been based on the Egyptian "Tale of Two Brothers".
"Hoeh's research convinces him that Cheops was a contemporary of King Zoser of Egypt who built the 'step pyramid' a short time before Cheops constructed the Great Pyramid. Zoser ruled part of Lower Egypt while Joseph served as Prime Minister, under Amenemhet III, who was king of Upper Egypt and Pharaoh of all Egypt.
"Egypt at this time appears to have been a confederation of powerful city-states ruled by lesser kings serving one pharaoh. Cheops was a foreign king of an Egyptian city-state, whose domain reached into the Delta of Egypt." History recorded the man who assisted Cheops "as Souf, foreman of the works of Khufu, or as Saf-hotep, one of twelve brothers (Joseph had eleven brothers) who built the labyrinth of Ancient Egypt for Amenemhet III.
"Hoeh further cites a corrupted Egyptian story of the later life of Khufu in which he summons an aged sage to his palace. The sage was said to have lived to the age of 110. Genesis records the death of Joseph at 110 years of age."
- Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own
Hoeh dates the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt as 1726-1487 BC and Zoser as ruling from 1737-1718 BC, which is nearly a thousand years later than the generally accepted date for his reign, 2630-2611 BC. The biblical story of Joseph may have been inspired by the earlier Egyptian tradition.
Joseph in the Middle Kingdom
(1) Arrival of the Asiatics
"Under the 12th and 13th Dynasty kings, the Middle Kingdom, Egypt reached a cultural pinnacle and extended its influence southward into Nubia. Egypt hegemony in Asia, however, is suspect, though there is some evidence from early on of contact with Asiatic peoples.
"The Tale of Sinuhe" describes the adventures of an Egyptian royal tutor who fled to Syria and lived among the Asiatic tribes. Other evidence of contact with Asia include Egyptian execration texts, extensive gifts and statuary from Byblos and a few other sites. Most of this material, however, was uncovered in Syria and not Palestine."
- "Ancient Palestine Gallery with Biblical References"
"The stories of Joseph's adventures in Egypt are best set in the period 2000-1800 BC. when archeological evidence has shown that Asiatic people were entering Egypt...Wall paintings...from the tome of an Egyptian named Amenemhet at Beni Hasan...show a group of Asiatics, probably Canaanites being introduced to the Egyptian court."
- Bible Lands
"Beginning in the third millennium B.C. large numbers of western Semites had migrated to Egypt, usually drawn by the richness of the Nile Valley. They came seeking trade, work, or escape from hunger, and sometimes they came as slaves."
"As early as the latter part of the third millennium B.C., invasions from the east significantly disrupted Middle Eastern society. The people who moved from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean spoke western Semitic languages of which Hebrew is one."
- Army Area Handbooks, "Ancient Israel"
"Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number."
- Genesis 47:27
"Jacob and his brethren arrived in Egypt in the second year of the famine. They settled in the 'region of Goshen - also referred to as the 'region of Ramesses'."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 331
"And the sojourning of the children of Israel, that is which they sojourned in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years."
- Exodus 12:40 (Masoretic text)
"However, the Masoretic Hebrew text dates from the 4th century AD and the earliest surviving copy is from the 10th century. The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint or LXX) was made under Ptolemy I in the 3rd Century BC and the earliest copy is centuries older than the oldest full Masoretic text we possess. It records the full version of Exodus 12:40..."
- John Fulton, "A New Chronology - Synopsis of David Rohl's book 'A Test of Time'"
"And the sojourning of the children of Israel, that is which they sojourned in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years."
- Exodus 12:40 (Septuagent)
"The Samaritan version of the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch) is also considerably more ancient than the Masoretic scriptures and it too retains the longer rendition of the passage on the length of the Sojourn."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 331
"Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews' (XV:2), writing in the 1st century, also gives the length of time from Abraham entering Canaan to the Exodus as 430 years."
- John Fulton, "A New Chronology - Synopsis of David Rohl's book 'A Test of Time'"
"Various passages in the book of Genesis have led scholars to determine that the period from Abraham's descent to Jacob's arrival in the Land of Goshen was two hundred and fifteen years and so the Sojourn in Egypt (from Jacob's arrival to the Exodus) lasted around the same length of time - in other words circa two hundred and fifteen years.
"We find support for this duration with the genealogy of Joshua in I Chronicles 7:22-27. There ten generations are recorded from Joshua (a man of fighting age at the Exodus) back to Joseph's son, Ephraim (who would have been about five years old when Jacob arrive in Egypt). Using our twenty year generation, we arrive at an approximate duration of two hundred years for the ten generations - pretty close to the two hundred and fifteen years of Exodus 12:40."
"With the biblical date of Exodus set at circa 1447 BC we can now add the two hundred and fifteen years of the Sojourn period to arrive at the date of circa 1662 BC for the arrival of Jacob and the Israelites in Egypt."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 331
"Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt."
- Genesis 41:46
"...We have established that the Sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt began in circa 1662 BC - according to Genesis 45:6 during the second year of the great famine. Eight years earlier, in 1670, Joseph was appointed vizier of Egypt at the age of thirty [Genesis 41:46]. Thirteen years before his sudden elevation to the highest office in the Black Land, the seventeen-year old Hebrew had been brought into Egypt to be sold into slavery by Midianite caravaneers [Genesis 37:2]. Joseph's arrival in Egypt can then be dated to around 1683 BC."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 332
"So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed."
- Genesis 47:11
The later city of Pi-Ramesse was built over the ruins of ancient Avaris.
" The biblical editor was quite correct, therefore, in stating that the location of the first Israelite settlement was at Ramesses - but he was referring to the name of the place in his own day rather than its more ancient designation of Rowarty ('Mouth of the Two Ways', i.e. the place where the Pelusiac branch of the Nile divides into two channels - the earliest name of the site) and Avaris ('Estate' or House of the Department') by which it became known in the second Intermediate Period."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 354
"Pharaoh asked the brothers, 'What is your occupation?'
'Your servants are shepherds,' they replied to Pharaoh, 'just as our fathers were.' They also said to him, 'We have come to live here awhile, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants' flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.'"
- Genesis 47:3-4
"Analysis of the skeletal remains of the livestock found in the compound area of Rowarty shows that the Asiatic settlers introduced the long-haired sheep into the delta at this time."
"The excavations on the main mound at Tell ed-Daba have revealed a small village in stratum G/4 (the earliest permanent settlement on the main tell). Slightly earlier, and built on top of the original workers' town to the west of the main tell, there was a community of houses surrounding a large Syrian villa."
"The Syrian villa has been dated by; Bietak to the late 12th Dynasty - in other words to the time of Jacob's arrival in Egypt according to the New Chronology."
"An analysis by Winkler and Wolfing of the human remains discovered at Tell ed-Daba has resulted in two very important findings: (a) that the male population derived from outside Egypt, most likely from Syria/Palestine, and that (b) the females formed a distinct anthropological group from the males, probably from the Egyptian delta. The sexual dimorphism revealed in the population of Rowarty is consistent with the idea of an influx of foreign males into the eastern delta who are then partly assimilated, or we might say 'Egyptianized', through marriages to local Egyptian females."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 354
(2) Under Sesostris III?
"...If the Exodus took place in the 15th century BC, Joseph's career would be shifted back to the 19th century BC, during the days of the 12th Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom."
"Supporters of a 12th Dynasty date for the Joseph Story begin their arguments with a strict literal acceptance of the Biblical chronology of the Exodus and Sojourn. 1 Kings 6:1 is seen as dating the Exodus to ca. 1446 BC, and Exodus 12:40 is seen as placing the entrance of Jacob and his family into an Egypt where Joseph holds high office under the reign of Sesostris III, ca. 1876 BC. Joseph's career as an Egyptian governmental official would thus begin under Sesostris II and would continue into the reign of Sesostris III."
"Potiphar, the official who first bought Joseph, is called an Egyptian and commander of the king's guard in Genesis 39:1. It is argued that if the king were a Hyksos ruler, it would not make sense for a native Egyptian to have been commander of the royal bodyguard. Further, Joseph is described several times (Gn 41, 42, and 45) as ruler over all the land of Egypt. The Hyksos controlled only the northern part of Egypt, but the 12th Dynasty ruled the entire nation. And when the king wanted to reward Joseph, he gave him the daughter of a priest of On, or Heliopolis, to be his wife. The argument there is that a Hyksos king would more probably give Joseph the daughter of the priest of another god, such as Seth, who was a more important deity to the Hyksos than were the solar deities venerated by the native Egyptians."
- "The Historicity of the Joseph Story"
Like Joseph, the Egyptian Khnumhotep, who served under Sesostris III, held both the titles Vizier and Chief Steward of the King
"He is, to my knowledge, the only person in the Middle Kingdom to have done so. Nor was this done in other periods of Egyptian history. As stated above, I do not argue that this personage was Joseph; but it seems possible that the idea of one person holding both these posts could be patterned after Joseph."
- "The Historicity of the Joseph Story"
In the Genesis account of the story of Joseph, "references to camels as beasts of burden and the use of coins are both historically impossible, as neither existed until many hundreds of years after the latest possible dating of Joseph."
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus
(3) Under Amenemhat II?
"Around the time of Amenemhat III, the power of the pharaohs was severely compromised by a number of baronies or local chieftains who controlled large parts of Egypt. Being quite rich, they could afford quite elaborate tombs to be buried in. Near the village of Beni Hasan, 39 of these tombs were found cut into a cliff face; the last dated to a period approximately 20 years before Amenemhat III. In this tomb, that of a chieftain called Khnumhotep III, was found a scene depicting a trading party of Asiatics arriving in Egypt. This party is very similar to the Midianite caravaneers to whom Joseph's brothers sold him when he was brought to Egypt (Genesis 37). The inscription below one of these reliefs reads, The chief of the hill country, Abishai' - a good biblical name! These caravaneers are wearing very colourful garments, again showing that it was the custom in the Levant at this time to wear such colourful clothes, cf. Joseph's coat of many colours, presented to him by his father Jacob!
- John Fulton, "A New Chronology - Synopsis of David Rohl's book 'A Test of Time'"
"Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented [the meaning of the Hebrew for 'richly ornamented' is uncertain] robe for him."
- Genesis 37:3
"We found a considerable number of inscriptions from the Twelfth and Thirteenth Manethonic Dynasties...Many of them were intended to indicate the highest rising of the Nile during a series of years, especially in the reigns of the Kings Amenemhet II and Sebekhotep I, and by comparing them, we obtained the remarkable result, that about 4000 years ago the Nile used to rise at that point, on an average, twenty-two feet higher than it does at present."
- Lepsius, Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia and the Peninsula of Sinai
"For about sixty years, starting in the reign of Amenemhat III and lasting down into the early 13th Dynasty, the highest point to which the Nile flood reached in a given year was marked by a short hieroglyphic inscription on the rock face [of a gorge on the Second Cataract of the Nile in southern Nubia]." The gorge lay between the southernmost Egyptian citadels - Seman on the west and Kumma on the east. "Each text gave the name of the king and the regnal year of the high Nile."
"At the end of the second decade in Amenemhat's reign [circa 1663 BC in the New Chronology] the annual floods suddenly rose to twenty-one meters at Semna and the inundation of the Nile valley continued to drown the land for weeks beyond its due time of recession (assuming the period of rising of the waters to have followed the usual pattern.) Seed could not be planted and so the harvest was badly affected. A severe famine would have rapidly ensued if Joseph had not previously persuaded the king to store vast quantities of grain harvested during the period of plenty. The local chieftain of the nomes, having failed to take Josephs' warning seriously, soon found their own grain silo exhausted. As Genesis 47:20 informs us, these local bigwigs were then forced to sell their land holdings to Pharaoh. The power of the nomarchs was broken and the palace administration became the sole authority in the Black Land."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 334-335, 342
"So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh's..."
- Genesis 47:20
"Some time in the reign of Senuseret III the grand tombs of the nomarchs ceased to be built in Middle Egypt. Egyptologists have, in the past, generally recognized this as signaling the diminution of the authority of a semi-independent nobility and the return of political control to the kingship...By monopolizing the Egyptian grain supply, the Asiatic vizier had brought the nobility cap in hand to the palace and had provided the 12th Dynasty co-regents, Senuseret III and Amenemhat III, with the means to control the powerful baronies."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 342
"Amenemhat's pyramid in which he was buried at Hawara stands beside the ruins of one of the most impressive buildings of the ancient world - the Egyptian Labyrinth - built during his reign."
- John Fulton, "A New Chronology - Synopsis of David Rohl's book 'A Test of Time'"
"I have seen it and indeed no words can describe its wonders. Though the pyramids were greater than words can tell and each one of them a match for many great monuments built by the Greeks, this maze surpasses even the pyramids."
- Herodotus, Histories Book II, 148
"This has thousands of storerooms and the reason for its building can be determined under David Rohl's new chronology. This was Joseph's administration centre, set up to organise the distribution of grain during the famine. It was only fitting that Pharaoh should wish to be buried beside the very means by which he had obtained absolute power in Egypt. Also nearby is an impressive water work undertaken during the time of Amenemhat III."
- John Fulton, "A New Chronology - Synopsis of David Rohl's book 'A Test of Time'"
During the late 12th Dynasty major administrative and agricultural reforms were introduced, including the dredging of Lake Moeris and construction of a nine kilometer canal to feed excess run-off water from the Nile into it The traditional name of this channel is Bhar Yussef ('waterway of Joseph').
"Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah..."
- Genesis 41:45a
"The Hebrew scribe must have slipped into the use of the common Semitic root 'zaphan' when writing 'zaphenat' for the unfamiliar vocalization of Joseph's Egyptian name. [Kenneth] Kitchen concludes that the original was probably 'zat-en-aph', that is Djed(u)-en-ef (in Egypto-speak) meaning 'he who is called' - a phrase familiar to all Egyptologists. The expression was probably vocalized as 'zatenaf'."
The first sentence would then read "Pharaoh named Joseph 'He who is called Pa'aneah'.".
"It has long been recognized that 'aneah' represents the Egyptian word ankh (meaning 'life') or ankhu (meaning 'is alive'). Kitchen proposes that the initial 'Pa' or 'Pi' element stands for Egyptian lipi or lipu. Thus we discover that the Asiatic vizier of Egypt was given the name 'Joseph who is called Ipiankh(u)."
"The name Ipiankhu (and its variants) is common in the Middle Kingdom but, as Kitchen emphasizes, 'not any later' - a further augment to suggest that the historical Joseph should be sought in this era....It is interesting to note that the hypocoristicon Ankhu is very common at this time..."
"Unfortunately, as yet, we have no names which we can directly associate with the vizierate in the reigns of Amenemhat III, Amenemhat IV, Neferusobek, Amenemhat-Sobekhotep and Amenemhat-senbuef....The headquarters of the vizier (who is always unfortunately un-named) is regularly mentioned in the Kahun Papyri - a valuable collection of administrative documents dated to the late 12th Dynasty. There was a renowned vizier called Ankhu in the early 13th Dynasty, but scholars presently find it very difficult to reconstruct his career or pinpoint him in time. It is also intriguing to note the mention of 'a storehouse of Ankhu' in a document of the period (Papyrus Bulak 18, lesser fragment) - perhaps one of the old grain-stores constructed by the vizier in preparation for an impending seven year famine?"
Immediately atop an earlier Syrian Villa at Tell ed-Daba was "a large Egyptian-style palace, to which was attached a beautiful garden. The pottery and stratigraphy indicated that the palace has been built during the early 13th Dynasty."
"The elegant palace...was originally erected as the residence for the vizier Joseph in the regional capital of Avaris - the headquarters of the delta administration known as the Department of the North."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), pp. 350-351, 355
"Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father's family. He lived a hundred and ten years and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph's knees [that is, were counted as his].
Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, 'God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.'
So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt."
- Genesis 50:22-26
"In the garden, a tomb was uncovered of typical Egyptian style. It was found to be almost empty, having been broken into long ago."
"However, Bietak did discover the desecrated remains of a twice life-size colossus or statue of the occupant of the tomb and palace. Over his right shoulder is a throw stick', representing a holder of office and authority. The figure is Asiatic. The face has been mostly cleaved off and there are marks on the head where someone has tried to split the stone."
- John Fulton, "A New Chronology - Synopsis of David Rohl's book 'A Test of Time'"
"The pyramid tomb, discovered by Manfred Beitak and his team in Area F at Tell ed-Daba, was the original burial place of the patriarch/vizier Joseph (before his body was removed by Moses for reburial in the Promised Land). The shattered limestone head and shoulders found in the tomb originally formed the upper part of a cult statue of Joseph, awarded to him by Amenemhat III for the Hebrew vizier's outstanding services to the Egyptian nation during a time of great trials and tribulations."
- David M. Rohl, A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History (1995), p. 355, 358
(4) Joseph in the Second Intermediate Period?
"Some scholars place Joseph's life during the reign of the Hyksos, when Semitic kings had conquered Egypt and governed the country from their Delta capital at Avaris (1650-1550 BC). More controversial is the view that the story took place as late as the seventh century, closer in time to the compilation of the Biblical account."
- Great Events of Bible Times
After the Hyksos were driven from power, many remaining in Egypt were enslaved. "This would place Joseph's rise to power under the Hyksos and make Amosis the Pharaoh who 'know not Joseph'."
- David Daiches, Moses - Man in the Wilderness
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