Stephen
Terry, Director
Joseph,
Prince of Egypt
Commentary
for the June 18, 2022, Sabbath School Lesson
"God sent me before you to
preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great
deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He
has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over
all the land of Egypt." Genesis 45:7-8, NIV
Last week, we discussed Joseph's
being sold as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian. This week, we will look at the timelines
involved with his enslavement, the captivity of the Israelites in Egypt, and
the Exodus. This will be only a shortened synopsis of much more detailed material
found at the website of the Associates for Biblical Research.[i]
While doing this, we must remember that the Bible is an Iron Age document
attempting to relate stories from the Middle Bronze Age that occurred
approximately half a millennium before the Bonze Age Collapse of the 12th
century BCE that destroyed several Bronze Age civilizations, leveling great cities
to dust and ashes. Many written archives maintained in conjunction with the
needs of powerful rulers were lost in the rubble during the dark ages following
this collapse, many not recovered until beginning in the 19th
century CE, over three thousand years later. The document that came to be known
as Genesis was an attempt to reconstruct what had been lost in the
conflagration. As a result, anachronisms occurred. For instance, several
references to camels are likely Iron Age embellishments since camels were
widely used for trade in the Iron Age but not in the Bronze Age.[ii]
The writer(s) of Genesis are not
the only ones who bring anachronisms to the biblical narrative, however. When trying
to fit Joseph's sojourn in Egypt into the chronological record of the pharaohs,
some, today, have jumped at the chance to patch him into the Hyksos period to
explain how a foreigner could rise to be second only to Pharaoh in Egypt. The
name "Hyksos" is Egyptian for "foreigners" referring to rulers in Egypt who
were probably Canaanite. But they did not rule over all of Egypt, ruling from Avaris
only over Northern Egypt. Competing Egyptian rulers reigned over the South,
also called the Upper Nile. The Hyksos ruled during the Second Intermediate Period
between the 12th and 13th Dynasties, 1782-1570 BCE. Also,
while some may have thought that the Hyksos were the Sea Peoples fought against
by the Egyptians during the time of the Bronze Age Collapse, the chronology is
off by over four hundred years.
If we take literally the Iron
Age chronology that dates the Exodus at 480 years before King Solomon's 4th
regnal year,[iii] widely accepted as 966
BCE, we end up with 1446 BCE. This places the Exodus after the Hyksos Intermediate
Kingdom which seems to fit with the idea that a pharaoh arose who didn't know
Joseph, except for one problem. In Exodus, we are told that Jacob came to live
in Egypt 430 years before the Exodus.[iv]
This puts the beginning of Israel in Egypt at 1876 BCE, a century before the Hyksos
came to power. Admittedly, this later date may be called into question because it
is reaching beyond the gap of the Bronze Age Collapse, but there is other
supporting evidence. For instance, Joseph was given as a wife Asenath, daughter
of Potipherah, the priest of On. This may simply be a literary twist of irony
involving the names Potiphar, who brought about Joseph's downfall at his wife's
insistence, and Potipherah, who blessed him with a wife, who bore him Ephraim
and Manasseh. The Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom considered On to be the chief
deity, whereas the Hyksos elevated Set, the Egyptian equivalent to Baal, a
Canaanite deity, to that position. It would seem then that to reward the second
ruler in the Kingdom, a Hyksos pharaoh would have been said to have given a
daughter of the high priest of Set, not On. An interesting side note is that
Asenath means "one who belongs to Neith." Neith was the Egyptian creator goddess
of everything.
Another evidentiary point. The
Hyksos, being from Canaan, would have been unconcerned about facial hair, but
when Joseph was brought to Pharaoh from prison, we are told he shaved.[v]
Egyptians would have been offended about a hirsute Joseph. The Hyksos? Probably
not.
Yet another point, slave trading
was common in the time of the Middle Kingdom as evidenced by the Hieratic
Papyrus, a picture of which accompanies this commentary. The document lists the
names of ninety-five slaves, a third of which are non-Egyptian and among those foreign
names are several names like names found in the Old Testament.
Not only do these various facts
argue for Joseph's arrival in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom and specifically
for the time of Pharaoh Sesostris III who overcame the power of the local
nobility and truly became Pharaoh over all Egypt, including Nubia which he
conquered during his tenure.
Apart from the chronological
issues, other parts of the Genesis account have details that appear accurate.
For instance, if we look at the Old Testament punishment for crimes, virtually
all crimes are capital crimes that result in either death or maiming in some
way. However, The Egyptian Middle Kingdom had a prison system. We don't know how
the sentences were set, but the prison had an overseer, and Joseph, with his experience
as Potiphar's steward had two things that made him valuable to the overseer.
The prison needed to keep accurate records, and Joseph was literate. Second, he
was well acquainted with the process of caring for the physical needs of
others. Thus, he was promoted to assist the overseer.[vi]
Eventually released from prison
by Pharaoh, He came to occupy the same position for Pharaoh he had for the
prison overseer, and for Potiphar, steward over all they had. Because of his
honesty and faithfulness, Jacob trusted him more than his brothers and he was
given responsibilities commensurate with that trust. Then he earned the same
trust of the Egyptian who had bought him to be a slave and was given responsibility
second only to Potiphar's over his household. Then, thrown in prison, he again
demonstrated honesty and faithfulness so that the prison overseer placed him in
charge of everything, second only to the overseer. Finally with Pharaoh, he displayed
the same traits as well as an understanding of how to prepare for the foretold drought
that could devastate Egypt. Therefore, he reached the culmination that his
entire life was preparing him for. He became responsible for all of Egypt,
second only to Pharaoh. A household steward in
that time was expected to not only manage the household, but also needed to
oversee field workers, so this would have given Joseph needed experience with
crop growing and storage, both valuable skills to assist Pharaoh.
Was this a true story or a
parable about faithfulness and duty? As we have seen, it has elements that fit
chronologically and seem to harmonize with how things were done in the Middle
Kingdom. It has a mythological basis when we consider the circular, ascending
path of responsibility that the hero takes, each time overcoming adversity and
receiving ever more important responsibilities. This is the more important moral
of this narrative, that honesty, faithfulness and trust will prevail in the
end. So much of what we are told by the world is that you get ahead by knocking
someone else down. In the story of Joseph that never happens. It presents us
with something we don't often experience. The faithful, honest, and trustworthy
employee does not get the promotion. Instead, it goes to the sycophant or the
relative. Does this mean the story makes a good children's story but nothing
more?
It may be problematic and appear
to be more of a fairy tale because it is another "happily-ever-after" story.
Like the book of Job, who despite great suffering ends up richer and better off
than before. But the prophet Habakkuk knew that was not the case.[vii]
He saw so much injustice, he asked God why he allowed it? Why is there no happy
ending for so many? The reality is that we live in a wicked world where things
do not end happily ever after. Isaiah, the prophet whom Jesus liked to quote,
was sawn in two by wicked King Manasseh. John the Baptist who faithfully heralded
Christ's ministry was beheaded by evil King Herod. Even Paul, who did more to
establish the Christian church than any other apostle was also beheaded at the
command of a dissolute emperor.
The moral here is not about
happy endings, but about the value of honesty and faithfulness to us as their
own rewards. When we fail to appreciate that, the results may load us with
guilt that stays with us for the rest of our lives, robbing us of sleep and
destroying our peace of mind. Joseph's brothers did not find that peace of
mind. They continued to be in fear that he would treat them as they had treated
him.[viii]
While expressed in the story in terms of material rewards, a clear conscience
and a decent night's sleep are beyond price, and that is the real lesson here.