Joseph Of Egypt ~ A Question For The Historians On The Board

[mercyngrace]

Conventional wisdom in Biblical/Egyptian chronology has Joseph arriving in Egypt, then bringing his family a few years later, during the 15th dynasty under the rule of the Hyksos pharaohs. It also has the Exodus of the children of Israel occurring essentially under Ramses II in the 19th dynasty some 400 years later.

At least two other theories seem to have some traction. One, advanced by Ahmed Osman, a Muslim Egyptian, has Joseph as a contemporary of Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III and Ahkenaton during the 18th dynasty and advances the theory that Amenhotep's Vizier Yuya is in fact the historical Joseph (Yuya perhaps being a contracted form of Yusef and Yahweh). He supports his assertion with linguistic, textual, and other archaeological findings.

In contrast, an independent theory is advanced by David Rohl who has Joseph arriving in Egypt earlier during the 12th dynasty under Senusaret/Amenemhet III and then the children of Israel leaving Egypt just prior to the Hyksos invasion. These assertions and the chronological assumptions that support it are also based upon linguistic, textual, and a large number of archaeological findings which Rohl presents in support of his theory.

Obviously all three can't be correct. Anyone have any input, support, or further light and knowledge?

PS I'll be out most of the day but I look forward to reading everyone's insightful comments tonight when I get home.

Edited December 15, 2011 by mercyngrace

[Cobalt-70]

Conventional wisdom in Biblical/Egyptian chronology has Joseph arriving in Egypt, then bringing his family a few years later, during the 15th dynasty under the rule of the Hyksos pharaohs. It also has the Exodus of the children of Israel occurring essentially under Ramses II in the 19th dynasty some 400 years later.

At least two other theories seem to have some traction. One, advanced by Ahmed Osman, a Muslim Egyptian, has Joseph as a contemporary of Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III and Ahkenaton during the 18th dynasty and advances the theory that Amenhotep's Vizier Yuya is in fact the historical Joseph (Yuya perhaps being a contracted form of Yusef and Yahweh). He supports his assertion with linguistic, textual, and other archaeological findings.

In contrast, an independent theory is advanced by David Rohl who has Joseph arriving in Egypt earlier during the 12th dynasty under Senusaret/Amenemhet III and then the children of Israel leaving Egypt just prior to the Hyksos invasion. These assertions and the chronological assumptions that support it are also based upon linguistic, textual, and a large number of archaeological findings which Rohl presents in support of his theory.

Obviously all three can't be correct. Anyone have any input, support, or further light and knowledge?

I think the current academic majority dates the Joseph story to the Jewish Persian era, in the 400s BC, and characterizes the story as "wisdom literature" (i.e., holy fiction, like the Book of Job). It would have been inserted into Genesis as a bridge between the much older Abraham-Isaac-Jacob oral traditions and the Moses story.

[mercyngrace]

Cobalt - any sources you could point me to?

[Nevo]

I think the current academic majority dates the Joseph story to the Jewish Persian era, in the 400s BC, and characterizes the story as "wisdom literature" (i.e., holy fiction, like the Book of Job). It would have been inserted into Genesis as a bridge between the much older Abraham-Isaac-Jacob oral traditions and the Moses story.

I don't know if this represents the current consensus (if there is one), but John J. Collins, in his Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (2004), writes: "The Joseph story is unlikely to have been composed as early as the reign of Solomon, as earlier scholars had supposed. The theme of the wise courtier, of which Joseph is the prototype, is especially popular in late Hebrew literature (in the books of Esther and Daniel). It is noteworthy that the heroes of all these stories are Israelites or Jews in the service of foreign kings. Many Jews in fact rose to prominence in the service of foreign kings in the period after the Babylonian exile" (108).

I should note that other (older) sources I consulted—Joseph Blenkinsopp's The Pentateuch, the Anchor Bible Dictionary, and Herschel Shanks, ed., Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple (rev. ed.)—still seem to favor a 10th-century provenance.

[Cobalt-70]

Cobalt - any sources you could point me to?

I'm just relying on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_(son_of_Jacob)#Academic_analysis, which lists several sources.

[katherine the great]

Without the Joseph story in Genesis, I wonder how the original stories would have explained the Israelite presence in Egypt before Moses.

[Robert F. Smith]

Conventional wisdom in Biblical/Egyptian chronology has Joseph arriving in Egypt, then bringing his family a few years later, during the 15th dynasty under the rule of the Hyksos pharaohs. It also has the Exodus of the children of Israel occurring essentially under Ramses II in the 19th dynasty some 400 years later.

At least two other theories seem to have some traction. One, advanced by Ahmed Osman, a Muslim Egyptian, has Joseph as a contemporary of Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III and Ahkenaton during the 18th dynasty and advances the theory that Amenhotep's Vizier Yuya is in fact the historical Joseph (Yuya perhaps being a contracted form of Yusef and Yahweh). He supports his assertion with linguistic, textual, and other archaeological findings.

In contrast, an independent theory is advanced by David Rohl who has Joseph arriving in Egypt earlier during the 12th dynasty under Senusaret/Amenemhet III and then the children of Israel leaving Egypt just prior to the Hyksos invasion. These assertions and the chronological assumptions that support it are also based upon linguistic, textual, and a large number of archaeological findings which Rohl presents in support of his theory.

Obviously all three can't be correct. Anyone have any input, support, or further light and knowledge?

Let me approach this a bit differently, in line with my study at http://www.scribd.com/doc/51104640/Moses-Our-Teacher-Moshe-Rabbenu ;

The Bible claims a period of 300 years from Joshua to Jephthah (Judges 11:25-26), 480 years from the beginning of the Exodus till Solomon’s 4th year (I Kings 6:1), and about 450 years years of judges until Samuel the Prophet (Acts 13:20; cf. I Sam25:1). Since we know that Solomon died after 40 years reign in 924 B.C. (I Kings 11:42), and that King Shishak I of Egypt invaded Israel in 920 B.C. (I Kings 14:25), we can work backward chronologically from these relatively secure dates: Solomon’s 4th year was around 966 B.C., while David began his reign in about 1004B.C. (II Samuel 2:4), shortly after Samuel died. That the earlier dates can only be approximated by this means should be abundantly clear:

966 + 480 = 1446 B.C. for the Exodus (- 340 years - Jephthah in1100 B.C.)

1004 + 450 + 80 = 1534+ B.C. for the Exodus (- 340 years - Jephthah in 1194 B.C.)

This makes it likely that the actual Exodus occurred at the only time in which we know a very large group of Canaanites left Egypt under pressure -- the exit of the Hyksos of the 15th Dynasty in ca. 1540 B.C. I describe the circumstances and cite sources in my paper.